WWTK: Babel

The Story of Babel

Apparently, between the ark and the dispersion at the end of the Babel story everyone spoke the same language. ". . .the whole world had one language and a common speech." (Gen 11: 1) "The whole world" sounds so much bigger than just the thought that maybe they all spoke the same language because they were still all from the same family.

The people did what they did. God did what He did - God intervened in the affairs of men. The language thing, family, city, making a name, reaching the heavens, oneness of purpose, cooperation, determination ...There's a lot to ponder in this very short story.

Imagine being a child and watching all this and asking, "Why can't we finish building the tall tower?" (Maybe they didn't even know what a tall tower was!)

"Why do we have to move?"

"Why can't I understand my cousin anymore?" (The beginning of linguistics!)

And there's the line about the bricks. It probably would have been easier to use stones and mortar unless of course there weren't any stones or there weren't enough stones. Ever see a child build with stones? Do you think that later when the Israelites were in Egypt they remembered that line about the bricks and the story of Babel?

"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.'" (Gen 11:6-7 NIV)

But what if God hadn't intervened when He did? Would that mean that nothing we plan to do would be impossible for us? We'd never be frustrasted? We'd always succeed? Every parent, every teacher, every child's dream! God didn't want that? Is He opposed to cooperation, determination, and ambitious achievement of the impossible? Was that the only moment in time when God could have affected the outcome? A little food for Science Fiction and Fantasy writers: What if God hadn't stopped them from building that tower? What if everyone in the world still spoke the same language and we could accomplish anything we decided to do and we could build a building that reached to the heavens anytime we wanted and make a name for ourselves?

Another angle - have you ever been part of a very close extended family who gathered for holidays and lived close but people you loved started moving away and you hardly ever saw them anymore? Have you ever been part of the generation that moved away - off in different directions so your children grew up not knowing extended family the way you did? Do you know children who hear stories of extended family but live too far away to experience that with family or perhaps they experience that with friends, instead?

Have you ever asked unchurched kids to tell you about a story from scripture and make observations? Kids who have never learned what that Bible story is "supposed" to mean? The story of Babel would be an interesting one to try.