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.” (Genesis 11:6, 7)
Some might think that God comes off as a bit of a spoilsport when reading these verses.
People are united together for a project. They have innovated together, they are on the brink of something mega and God sees this and brings a halt to proceedings. What’s up with that?
This is why I love the importance of context. The motives of the people in their tower project is to retain the sense of being together as expressed in not wanting to be scattered. Then there is the issue of looking to make a name for themselves. That’s a bid for glory. That’s a bid to say to the world how great they are.
It’s interesting that the tower effort back then didn’t work out, but the 20th and 21st Century are marked in certain countries with monuments that reach to the sky in a bid to show off their brilliance. The difference between the skyscrapers of today and the tower effort is that God Himself noticed the key to success in the project was a people who remained united.
To fulfil God’s plan rather than seek their own, God knows the key is to confuse men’s language. Despite subsequent efforts to bring about unity for man’s glory that language barrier has continued to stymie plans. Now not only is there the breakdown in communication, there is the languages within languages. There are barriers that culture put up. There are ways in which despite their best efforts, man just simply isn’t able to relate properly with each other.
It makes the subsequent work of the Holy Spirit in the work of the early church all the more remarkable in making a people that were not one truly united. Now folks from different cultures and languages can celebrate unity under the banner of not reaching for the heavens, but looking to see heaven’s rule spread around the earth. Now we don’t need God to scatter us by confusing our language. Now God calls His church to spread to all nations and people groups and unite them in the language of love shown in Jesus Christ.
It’s all about the motive that can determine whether we suffer from more communication breakdown.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
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