Ep. 6 - The Tower of Babel

After the Flood, when Noah and his family had just come out of the ark, God had told them to “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (9:1).  So, God wanted them to have lots of children, and to spread out over the whole Earth, and fill it with people.  And they did just that.  Noah’s sons (Shem, Ham, and Japheth) had children.  And their children had children, and those children had children, until there were quite a few people on the earth.  And they were spreading out and filling the earth like God had told them to do.

Now something that is important to understand about this time is that everyone spoke the same language. Now in our family, you kidzos know that we speak two languages - English and French.  And you kidzos also know that we have friends who speak Spanish and Portuguese.  Did you know that your great grandfather spoke Ukrainian?  And that your great grandmother spoke Polish?  You kidzos know that Papa works with people all over the world who speak all kinds of languages – like Khmer, Kinyarwandan, Burmese, Filipino, Chichewa, Laotian, and many other languages.  There are about 6,500 languages in the world today.  But in the time of our story (just after the flood), there was no such thing as languages.  There was just one language.  You could run into anyone from any part of the world and speak the same language as them.

The Plain in the land of Shinar

Now there was a particular group of people journeying westward through the land of Shinar that came across a plain.  Do you kidzos know what a plain is?  Well, it’s a flat piece of land.  No hills, no mountains, no valleys, just flat land.  Flat land, especially when you are a traveller or a settler, can be nice.  It’s easy to travel on.  No big hills or mountains to go up and down.  It’s easy to grow things on flat land.  It’s easy to build things on flat land.

And as they were travelling across this plain, some of the people looked at each other and said, “You know what?  This plain is pretty nice.  Why don’t we all stay here?  And you know what else?  We know how to make bricks and mortar, so why don’t we build a city?  And, you know, since we are really good at building things, why don’t we let everyone know just how good we are at building things by building a huge tower for everyone to see?  That way everyone will think we are awesome.  And other people who are journeying by will look at our tower, think we are awesome, and want to live here with us.” 

Well, maybe that sounded like a good idea.  Maybe that plain was super nice.  Maybe it had lots of nice fields and trees and rivers.  And maybe they were really good at building things.  But something wasn’t right.  There was a problem, a big problem.  Do you kidzos know what the problem was?  Do you remember what God had told them to do?  Had God told them to all stay in one place and build a city?  Nope, God had told them to, “be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.”  So, they were supposed to spreading out over the whole earth, not all staying in one place.

What was God going to do?

God Confuses Their Speech

Well, the Bible says that, “the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, ‘Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; …Come let Us go down there and confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.’” (11:5-7)

So, God goes down to the tower, and poof…all of a sudden people are talking in all kinds different languages.

In my imagination, think that went something like this.  Some guy is working on building at the top of the tower, yelling down to someone on the ground, “Hey! Hey you down there.  Yah you.  Yah, I need some more mortar.  Can you please send up some mortar?”  And then the guy on the ground says, “Yah no problem!”, and sends up some mortar.  And the guy at the tope of the tower yells down again, “Hey! Hey you down there.  Yah you. Yah, I need some more water.  Can you please send up some water?”  And the guy on the ground says, “Yah no problem!”, and sends up some water.  And right then, changes people’s languages.  And the guy at the top of the the tower, not knowing that anything has happened, yells down again, “Hey! Hey you down there.  Yah you.  Yah, I need some more bricks.  Can you please send up some brick?”  And the guy on the ground says, “C'est quoi tu dis?”  “What, do I want to ski?  Ski?  Now?  No no…I said brick, can you get me some more brick?”  Then some other guy says, “Chto ty govorish'?” (Russian – what are you saying?) “What, fish?  Fish?  No no, I’m not hungry.  I need brick.  Can you please get me some more brick?”  Then another guy says, “Estas loco?”  “Cocoa?  No I don’t need any cocoa!  Brick!  I need brick!  Does ANYONE have any brick?!?!?”

It’s hard enough to build something when everyone speaks the same language, never mind when, out of nowhere, everyone starts speaking all kinds of different languages.  All kinds of plans, and decisions about materials and design, would have been all of a sudden lost.  What were they going to do?

The People are Scattered

Well, they couldn’t continue like this.  There would have been so much confusion, and so much miscommunication, and so much frustration, that they would have just given up.  And so, they did just that.  They gave up and they started to go their separate ways. 

They packed up their stuff and started on their journey.  And as they were walking away, they looked back at the half-constructed tower, they called it Babel, which means confusion. 

Life was going to be harder for them now.  For each person, the number of people that they could talk to, work with, and team up became much smaller.  People who had been friends all their lives, all of a sudden couldn’t be friends anymore.  People who depending on knowing lots of people for their work, all of a sudden could only talk to a few people.  Things got much more difficult.  It didn’t have to be like this.  If they had just done what God wanted them to do and spread out, God wouldn’t have had to confuse their language. 

This is what I want you to learn from this story kidzos.  It’s usually easier to just do what God wants you to do.  And it’s even easier to do it the first time.  Because sometimes, if we don’t do what God asks us to do, He can make life a little harder for us so we go in the direction that He wants us to go, just like the people who were building the Tower of Babel.  And you know, that might sound a little bit not nice, but you know what kidzos, God knows the future, and He knows what is best for us.  And if God wants us to do something, it’s because it’s the best thing for us.