The Tower of Babel Genesis 11:1-9
When you or I see a four-footed animal that gives milk and says” moo,” we call it a cow. But your grandmother is Dutch and calls it something else. The German people up the street call it something else that you can’t understand, and a French person calls it something even stranger.
And that’s not all! There are thousands of other ways to say the same things. There are so many different languages in the world today.
Maybe you ask,” Where did all these languages come from? Why don’t we all speak the same language, so that everyone could understand each other?”
That is a good question. The answer is found in the Bible again, in Genesis. When God created the earth, everyone did speak the same language. They all lived near each other, and Noah probably tried to tell them,” Move away from each other. God has given the whole earth to us, and it is His will that we spread out.”
But Noah’s sons and grandchildren didn’t like this idea.” No, we want to stay together,” they told him.” We want to live right where we are.” So they were disobedient to God.
Then they had a sinful idea!
“Let’s make a huge tower,” they cried.” We’ll make it so tall that it reaches to heaven!”
Someone else agreed.” Yes, if we make a big tower, everyone will remember us! They’ll see our grand, beautiful tower and will always think of us.”
“That’s true,” said another man.” The tower will point out exactly where our city is, too, so that we can stay living together.”
So they excitedly began building their tower. They looked all over for stones to make it with, but they couldn’t find any. But that didn’t stop them. They worked to make bricks. And instead of mortar or cement they used mud to hold the bricks together.
As a punishment, God mixed up all their words.
Finally the tower was almost built. The people stood back and looked at it happily. They felt so proud of themselves. Look at the great tower they were building!
But God looked at the tower, too. And God also saw their hearts. God saw all the bad reasons they had for building it. He saw the pride and the rebellion. He saw all the selfish reasons. And God was very angry.
As a punishment, God mixed up all their words. He put different words in each man’s mouth so that no one could understand anyone else.
The people became very angry with each other. They couldn’t understand what the man next to them was saying, which made them argue. Then they began to fight. One man stomped off angrily in one direction with his family, and another man went off in another direction with his family. Soon everyone had gone in all different directions and had become scattered over all the earth, just as God wanted.
The place where this happened became known as” Babel,” which is a word that means” confused” or” mixed up.” You may have heard the tower called” The Tower of Babel.”
So that is why we all speak different languages now. It is because of sin. God sees our hearts and knows exactly what we are thinking, too, just like the people who built the Tower of Babel. He knows our selfish reasons for doing things. The Bible says that we must pray to God to take away proud thoughts from our hearts. We cannot get rid of these sinful thoughts without God’s help. We like ourselves too much. Pray that God will make you humble and unselfish. Ask for a new, clean heart.
A Lesson
I am not what I might be,
I am not what I ought to be,
I am not what I wish to be,
I am not what I hope to be,
but I thank God
I am not what I once was,
And I can say with the great Apostle,
“ By the Grace of God I am what I am.”
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Bekijk de hele uitgave van zondag 1 april 1990
The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's
Bekijk de hele uitgave van zondag 1 april 1990
The Banner of Truth | 28 Pagina's