Honey From The Rock

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Honey From The Rock
Psalm 81:16

"Sweet Stuff From God's Word"

A daily Bible study with Victor Knowles
Copyright 2007

BABEL ON

This entry was posted on 02-01-2010 and is filed under STUDIES IN GENESIS.

"Now the whole earth had one language and one speech" (Gen. 9:1 NKJV). At first glance this looks very good. In our Western way of thinking that is. I have traveled to a number of countries and have always been frustrated by the language barrier. How often I have thought, "How nice it would be if we all spoke the same language." There would be no need for translators or interpreters. There would be no confusion because of mistranslation or misunderstandings. Or would there?

I like what the Ryrie Study Bible says about this verse. "The unbridgeable gap between animal sounds and human language, as well as the statement of this verse that originally all men spoke the same language, are inexplicable by the theory of evolution." Notice, too, that as the survivors of the flood spread out they settled down on the plains of Shinar and determined to build a city and a tower that reached to heaven "lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth" (v. 4). This was a direct defiance of God's command in 9:1 to be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth. Their vanity is also seen in the statement "let us make a name for ourselves" (v. 4). Pride and rebellion still are here, even after the hard lesson of the flood! Their actions resulted in God going down to take drastic action. "Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another's speech" (v. 7). Notice the plural here, Us (see 1:26). The Godhead revisits earth. The RSB continues: "By confusing language, God established the parent languages of the earth from which other languages and dialects developed (today, a total of 3,000). The result of this confusion was the scattering of mankind." That is what God desired in 9:1. "Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of the earth; and from there the LORD scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth" (11:9). "Babel" is a play on Hebrew words and means "to confuse." It sounds like "Babylon" (and is translated such in the NIV) or, as I have titled this study, "Babel on." The Leadership Bible notes, "God put an end to this autonomous project, and the people were scattered. Imagine the potential for human attainment and arrogance if we had always spoken a universal language!"

Prayer: Our Father in Heaven, we want to please You in all we say, think, and do. Prevent us from every lifting up our hearts or knowledge against You or the teachings of Your Holy Word. Through Christ we pray.