The great flood was over now; Noah’s three sons and their wives had the responsibility that was given to Adam and Eve. In Genesis 9:1 the Lord “…blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘be fruitful and increase in numbers and fill the earth.” God had promised Noah in Genesis 9:11 that “…never again will all the life be cut off by water of a flood, never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” By Genesis 10, we are able to see the sons of Noah (Japheth, Ham and Shem) being recognized with their respective genealogies. However, something terrible happened. The flood was the direct result of the earth being filled with great violence and sexual immorality; this time, men were taking things a little further. In Genesis 11:1-9 the Bible tells us:

“1 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As men moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there. 3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 6 The LORD said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” 8 So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel–because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”

The Tower of Babel did not have the endorsement of God because it was focused on self as they wanted to make a “name” for themselves and it was also an open rebellion to God’s command. God specifically told men to multiply; it was God’s will from the beginning for the whole earth to be filled.  Prior to this awful and tragic event we can see clearly in Genesis 11:1 that the whole known world at the time spoke one common language. When Adam and Eve ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, God gave Adam and Eve some very dramatic consequences; these consequences included Adam and Eve being kicked out of the garden. When Cain killed his brother Abel, God cursed Cain. Later we see Sodom and Gomorrah in the thick of sexual immorality and He burned both cities. These are examples where God came down to earth Himself and dealt face-to-face with the sin of men.

As God also came down to earth to deal with Men as they were building the Tower of Babel, God does something that has affected us to this day; God confused the languages. Not as dramatic as the flood or the burning and eternal destruction of two of the most popular cities of the time, but enough for this evil project to be stopped. From that day on, Men has followed the curse of not being able to understand one another. We are a world divided by languages!

TO BE CONTINUED…