The Lord Scatters the People

God Destroys and Recreates

God Is Always Working

Genesis 11:1-9 The Message

“God Turned Their Language into ‘Babble’”

11 1-2 At one time, the whole Earth spoke the same language. It so happened that as they moved out of the east, they came upon a plain in the land of Shinar and settled down.
3 They said to one another, “Come, let’s make bricks and fire them well.” They used brick for stone and tar for mortar.
4 Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower that reaches Heaven. Let’s make ourselves famous so we won’t be scattered here and there across the Earth.”
5 God came down to look over the city and the tower those people had built.
6-9 God took one look and said, “One people, one language; why, this is only a first step. No telling what they’ll come up with next—they’ll stop at nothing! Come, we’ll go down and garble their speech so they won’t understand each other.” Then God scattered them from there all over the world. And they had to quit building the city. That’s how it came to be called Babel, because there God turned their language into “babble.” From there God scattered them all over the world.

For Reflection

Many of the offspring of Noah forgot their history. Because they had free choice, many reverted to the status before the flood.  They aspired to be God in substance and create a gateway to that end.
God, having promised never to destroy the world with water again increased the difficulty of cooperation by separating the people by distance and different languages.

Pray
Pray so that you never forget that you are a child of God.  Pray so that you remember that the Bible is our story and our name is Christ.

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