Babble

Have you ever tried to learn a language?

Languages have, I suppose, been my thing ever since childhood. This is despite the fact that I can easily become tongue-tied, even in speaking English!

I am still picking up new ones. Currently I am having a go at Welsh, and discovering how a language which is on my doorstep can be so very different from my own.

When learning a language I see myself as trying to pick up some of the pieces that were left behind after Babel. The story of Babel is found in Genesis Chapter 11. Some scholars think that this story reflects the rise of cities in ancient civilisations. They believe that our original ancestors lived in very small and scattered communities, with their backs to the wall in the constant battle against Nature. Babel reflects a time when the emerging groups deliberately banded together to form great cities with imposing structures, thus attempting to stamp their authority on both Nature and the people who lived in their neighbourhood.

Those who planned to build the city of Babel wanted to include a massive tower with its top in heaven. While uniting for their own protection, they were overreaching themselves and looking away from God as the true provider of their safety and security.

God is recorded as coming down to look at their city and the tower which they had built. He said,

“Behold, they are one people, and they all have one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech” (Genesis 12:7 ESV).

It may not be a mere coincidence that “Babel” and “babble” look similar. Some in ancient times called those who spoke outlandish tongues “barbarians”, which meant they uttered babbling, incomprehensible sounds.

Going back to the Babel story, we read that God dispersed the would-be tower-builders from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. I reckon He made a good job of confusing the language at Babel. There is now virtually nothing which all the world’s languages can be said to have in common. Yet at one glorious point in time God openly reversed what He had done at Babel as a sign to all of us about what He will achieve. That moment was the sending of the Holy Spirit on Jesus’s followers at Jerusalem after the Saviour’s resurrection.

“When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language” (Acts 2:1-6).

Whether in jumbling up languages or bringing them together again in mighty power, God leaves us all speechless. He seeks to reunite us ... but not for any displays of human pride. It is His choice to scatter us in confusion or to unite us in Christ.