The Devotional Journey: Bible Reading 7

Yahweh judges mankind at the tower of Babel

Read Genesis 11:1–9.

This is the account of the Tower of Babel and it tells us where all the languages of the world came from. It also tells us why humans are found scattered all over the world.

After the Flood, Yahweh told Noah and his family to fill the earth once more. But sadly, the generations after them chose not to trust God. Just as it was before the Flood, mankind collectively chose to ignore Yahweh. Mankind wanted to be their own ultimate authority. They wanted to exclude Yahweh from their lives. This is an important reminder that we must be diligent in passing on God’s truth to the next generation. Otherwise, they will turn their backs on Him.

In this great building project that the people were undertaking together, they wanted to build a tower and a city so they could stay in one place. Besides rejecting Yahweh’s command to fill the earth, the people wanted to make something that would proclaim their own greatness. They wanted to be famous.

When Yahweh created mankind, He made mankind in His image, to be His representatives. As people lived all over the earth, God’s presence would be there through His representatives. Now the post-Flood generations were rejecting God’s plan and purpose for them.

But Yahweh demonstrated how intimately involved He is with His creation. He came down to closely examine what mankind was doing. As the all-knowing God, He already knew what they were thinking and doing. But by coming down, He was demonstrating that He was deeply interested in mankind and that He was a careful judge. Yahweh saw that mankind was building a life that excluded their Creator. This was actually disastrous for mankind.

In His love, Yahweh created in an instant, many intelligent languages. Imagine, suddenly, people started speaking in multiple newly created languages, all with proper grammar and vocabulary! Who could created so many languages in an instant? Only Yahweh could do that.

He did that to stop their collective rebellion against Him. Now, not understanding each other, they abandoned the building project. They scattered all over the world by splitting into their language groups and leaving together. This was how God divided up the people into nations. You can read where the different families went to in Genesis 10.

This is known as the fourth divine institution of tribal diversity. Yahweh separated the people to create nations independent of each other. This would prevent the people of the world from collectively rebelling against Him.

We see that Yahweh is powerful, but also loving. He stopped mankind from collectively plotting against Him because He wants all people in the world to have the opportunity to know Him. We see that God continues to be at work in the world He made. He is accomplishing His purposes in spite of the plans and projects of sinful people.

The people of Babel were not very different from the people of today. Fallen mankind doesn’t like the idea that there is a sovereign, righteous Creator-Owner-God of the universe. People don’t like to hear they are accountable to a God who is in authority. People don’t want to be answerable to a God who has standards. People would rather pretend there is no god, much less the God of the Bible.

Let’s examine our own hearts today. Are we interested to know the God of the Bible more deeply and do we want to know His good plans for us? Or would we prefer He didn’t interfere in our everyday lives?

Let’s remember that He loves us and is constantly calling us into deeper fellowship with Him each day. He wants us to live in ways that honour Him and bring us joy.

Let’s be thankful that He is really interested in mankind and interested particularly in each of us.

Also, let’s thank Him for the gift of language, that we can understand and also communicate our thoughts and feelings to our loved ones and they can do likewise with us.