Genesis 11:1-32

The Tower of Babel.  It's rather ironic, isn't it?  The very purpose for building that city was to keep themselves from being dispersed across the face of the earth.  And what happened?  The Lord dispersed them across the face of the earth.  The Lord had commanded man after the flood to "teem on the earth and multiply in it".  The word teem means to abound or swarm.  He had commanded them to fill it.  They could in fact have teemed and multiplied in one place, but they couldn't have filled the earth from there.  The rebellion at Babel, however, was not just one of disobedience, but pride.  They said, "Let us make a name for ourselves."  "Let us build a city whose towers reach to the heavens."  It seems that in their arrogance they sought to equate themselves with God.

But that's not really what I was thinking about when I was reading this passage.  Notice that God didn't decide to confuse their languages because of disobedience and pride directly.  The reason He states is that because of their unity in language and thought, they were able to mount this massive project.  It was not only that they were prideful and disobedient, but that they could band together to do it.  Because of their unity, they could have pulled off what was likely an engineering feat!  And they committed one massive, communal sin.  So, the Lord confused their languages; suddenly one neighbor could not understand the next, and they left off.  Language group pulled to language group and they dispersed across the earth.

Now, the Lord tells us throughout the New Testament to be "of one mind". (Philippians 2:2, 1 Corinthians 1:10, for example).  As believers, we are called to unity.  In this day, it does seem difficult because many who call themselves Christians cannot or do not agree on matters of doctrine and theology, which puts barriers between us.  But what if we all "spoke the same language"?  What if we all agreed?  What if we really were united, as Christ intended, standing firmly on His Word and on the foundation of faith He intended?  What could we accomplish?  That was the very thing the Lord proposed at Babel: Nothing we could do would be impossible for us, especially as we can "do all things through Christ who strengthens" us (Phil. 4:3).  I wonder what the Lord would say to us on this matter.  And do we really have to wait until Heaven to hear it?

Tomorrow's reading: Job 1:1-2:13