Languages Confused at Babel
“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”
In order to stop the growth and development of this attempt to unify all people under one system at Babel, God performed a miracle that forced the city’s inhabitants to fulfill His will for mankind to “fill the earth” (Genesis 9:1). God miraculously divided the language of the people. Instead of being unified by one language, they were divided into separate nations with distinct languages. God has the power to modify the human brain and install an entirely new linguistic system.
This confusion of speech brought two main results. First, God caused the people of the earth to be “scattered … abroad from there over the face of all the earth” (Genesis 11:9). Second, the chaos that came from not understanding each other stopped the building of this great city as a center for all human activities and endeavors (verse 8). The civilizations of the world would now progress according to God’s purpose—living independently and developing distinct cultures and languages (Acts 17:26).
This great city was now called “Babel” (Genesis 11:9)—meaning confusion.
This confusion of languages and scattering of mankind throughout the earth will be reversed in the future. God has a plan to reunite the nations under one world government.
The first step of this plan involves calling select individuals from various ethnic backgrounds into an international institution called the Church of God (Galatians 3:28). Interestingly, the Church of God was started by the great miracle of uniting a group of people by allowing them to hear and understand the words of God’s servants in their own language (Acts 2:4).
The next step of this plan takes place when Jesus Christ establishes the Kingdom of God on earth. The only way a world government will work is under the direct leadership of God. When God rules the world, the Kingdom will be composed of “all peoples, nations, and languages” (Daniel 7:14). The world capital will be Jerusalem, not Babel (Isaiah 2:3). Eventually, there will be one language that will unify the people of the earth: “For then I will restore to the peoples a pure language, that they all may call on the name of the Lord, to serve Him with one accord” (Zephaniah 3:9; compare Isaiah 19:18).
The confusion and division God brought on humanity at Babel will be reversed—when the whole world comes under God’s righteous government!
To learn more about this incredible reversal to come, read “The Promise of One Pure Language.”
Tomorrow on the Daily Bible Verse Blog: “Children Are a Heritage.”
