Kiev,
Ukraine
“Now
the whole world had one language and a common speech.
As people moved eastward,
they
found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
They
said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them
thoroughly.� They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar.
Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower
that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for
ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole
earth.�
But
the LORD came down to see the city and the tower the people were
building. The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same
language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do
will be impossible for them.
Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not
understand each other.�
So
the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they
stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel” because
there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there
the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.�
Genesis
11:1-9
Before
I dive into the main point I want to share, let me explain a few
things:
These
people trying to build the tower (the builders, we will call them),
were striving to be self-sufficient apart from God. In actuality,
they saw no need for God at all. They thought they could do anything
and everything on their own.
The
builders wanted to construct a tower that reached to the heavens, so
that they could make a name for themselves. This shows that they
desired, and actually thought they could, rely on their own
technology. It also shows that they valued social unity in such a way
as to build themselves up, to be confident in themselves instead of
God.
The
whole motive behind this extravagant plan, was to not “be scattered
over the face of the whole earth.� They wanted to be the “end
all, be all� in one central location, which is virtually the
opposite of what God intended for His creation. Gen. 1:28 says, “…
be fruitful and multiply and fill
the earth…â€�
So,
we see that God “confused their language… and scattered them over
the face of the whole earth.� God saw the dangers of having a
self-confident society; a society in which only sought to glorify
themselves. A main theme throughout the Word is that the Lord be
glorified; building this tower would not be doing that.
I
have always found this passage of scripture interesting due to my
fascination with the different cultures, traveling, and the world in
general. Over the course of the year, this fascination has grown
tremendously. Even though trying to communicate with people of
different languages can be quite challenging and frustrating at
times, it doesn’t compare to how awesome it is when we all come
together to worship.
Over
the course of the year, I have been blessed to worship with people of
many different languages.
Tagolog (Philippines)
Khmer
(Cambodia)
Thai
(Thailand)
Swahili
(Kenya)
Luganda
(Uganda)
Romanian
(Romania)
Hungarian
(Romania and Hungary)
Slovak
(Slovakia)
Czech
(Czech Republic)
Ukrainian
(Ukraine)
Russian
(Ukraine)
It truly
is incredible to be able to worship my Father with people of
different languages… I mean, there is just so much POWER
in it. No matter where we are or what language we speak, we can still
give the Lord all the glory. Which, that is the whole point, right?
And let
me just throw this one out there for fun:
So, the
Lord confused the one language they had and created a ton more, as
well as dispersed them all over the face of the earth, right? Well at
the time of the Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit fell, everyone broke
out in tongues. Tongues- one unifying language that is ONLY
used for communing with the Father…. hmm interesting
