The Lord Confuses the Language of the People into Babble

Genesis 11: 1- 9

The first eleven books of Genesis show the brokenness in the relationship between God and the people of his creation.

This story follows the stories of Adam and Noah and is the last in the series of the broken links. After this story come the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, and Aaron, where God's promises are revealed and the healing begins.

The sin of brokenness is the sin of false pride, thinking that we can become equal with God or that we can control God with our own behavior.

Only when the people of God recognize that God is God and that we are his subjects can the brokenness be healed.

The kingdom of Babylonia is modern-day Iraq. The Akkadian word for Babel sounded like the Hebrew word for confused. Our English word babble is probably not related to either word.

1. Where had the people settled?

[The people had settled in Babylonia.]

2. What language did the people speak?

[All the people spoke the same language.]

3. What did the people want to do?

[The people wanted to build a tower that would reach all the way to the sky.]

4. What did the Lord do to the people?

[The Lord confused their language and scattered them all over the earth.]