In the story of the Tower of Babel, we encounter a couple of interesting Hebrew words.
First, in Genesis 11:4 when it says they were building a tower so “they could make a name for themselves”, the original Hebrew says, they were building a tower so that “they could make a shem for themselves”.
“Shem” is the Hebrew word for name and unlike in our culture, a person’s name wasn’t just a means of identification.
A person’s name referred to their reputation.
It was what they stood for.
This building up of the tower was a form of idol worship.
It was to stand as a testament to the people’s supreme fleshly confidence in their feats of technology.
Incidentally, the fear the people had of being scattered is understandable.
History has shown that when any given group of people has been dispersed from their homeland, within two or three generations, that group of people has literally become extinct.
So the building of that tower was a fleshly attempt to maintain their legacy and preserve their posterity for generations apart from God.
Now in the original Hebrew, the reason given as to why God was displeased is because the “people were echad”.
“Echad” is the Hebrew word for “one” and it is the same word used in the verse, “The Lord our God, the Lord is one“.
So while one would normally consider oneness to be a positive quality, in this case, God was against it.
Why?
The answer is very simple.
It was not God-approved oneness.
Peace without God is no peace at all.
Do you remember when I talked about the Principle of Opposites?
This is a scientific principle woven into the fabric of our universe and in simple terms it means that basically everything in our universe has to have its perfect opposite.
If there is an up there has to be a down.
If there is male, there has to be female etcetera.
So here’s an interesting question
If everything in our universe has its perfect opposite, what would be the perfect opposite to what occurred at the Tower of Babel?
The answer would be the Day of Pentecost.
Do you see the contrast with the Tower of Babel?
At the Tower of Babel, the “human spirit” was the driving force behind the construction of the Tower.
However, on the day of Pentecost, it was the “Holy Spirit” that was the driving force.
One spirit resulted in disarray.
The other spirit resulted in unity.
Interestingly, in both cases, God used language to achieve his purposes.
In the first instance, he used different languages to foil the plans of men.
In the second instance, he used different languages to bring men together.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“The festival of Pentecost had arrived, and the believers all gathered together in one place. Suddenly there came a sound from the sky like the roar of a violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then they saw what looked like tongues of fire, which separated and came to rest on each one of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to talk in different languages, as the Spirit enabled them to speak.”-ACTS 2:1-4
Veronica Buxton says
This is so interesting. I was thinking about the oneness of flow . Flowing in the Holy
Spirit. The ones or unity of people dwelling together in love. As oil flowing down the beard of Aaron. Yeshua saying be one as I and my father are one. Our church seems to be centred round meals. When we eat together people start to talk as we can look at other people across a table we can look into their eyes and there you can see the pain. Holding onto someone’s hand across the table and saying I understand. go through this time of trial and think how going through this pain can help others who are going through pain in a different way. Pride separates. Sin separates. Speaking the same language of love brings unity and unity in Christ.
richoka says
Amen Veronica. Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Be blessed and Shalom!
Augustine Kastherody says
Yes it is true that ,people at Tower of Babel were proud and did what their fleshly hearts desired or inclining to their fleshly needs.People who are proud of their own efforts thinking that they owe to their success make mistake.We hear people saying I follow my heart desires forgetting that there is none who achieve in the life anything without God.
On Pentecost day the outpouring of HOLY SPIRIT was a sign of God grace and blessings.It is God love as He promised through His only Begotten Son to send us the HOLY SPIRIT.Speaking through tongues was a sign praising the Lord and oneness.
Sam says
It is some how confusing, looking at current increase in number of christian religious denominations with different church doctrines, I believe the same weapon of separation that was by language is being used as separation by doctrine, remember “Universal Church” or the Catholic Church if you get back to dark ages you will realize the pride of man in Nimrod repeated itself, Jesus came when Pharisees and Sadducee had different doctrines yet they were all Hebrews, early Christians were rebuked by Paul when they would say I follow so and so. 1 Corinth 1:12, and its the same conflict that happened in Rome when Christians under Peter’s Pastorate had which later exploded into Protestantism by power of the holly spirit, here if you ask yourself how long it took for people at barbel tower to completely leave construction site and part to their destination it could be after years like Abram from Ur to Canaan and his heir to Egypt and back to Canaan just like most Migration across the world, the day of Pentecost was the day of the attack with permanent impact through generations, attempt to bring us together will be termed pride of man whether through International Religious Organization or New World Order and it is the final battle of the Apocalypse at the valley of decision Armageddon. Revelation 16:16, don’t forget that Nimrod and his team thought they were perfectly worshiping God, just like us this days but let us not pretend that we don’t see pride in our churches reaching the highest level when we talk of prosperity, material blessings, relying on prayer from proud church leaders, (allow me to mention “blasphemy”), others saying they went to heaven, met Jesus, visited hell, saw angel Gabriel, brought message from heaven, brother and sisters lets humbly and meditatively read the Bible and consult each other so that we may survive through grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. AMEN
I greatly appreciate your insight into the two scriptures. My heart is made glad that the comparison and I can see it plainly. Thank you for sharing with us. says
I greatly appreciate your insight into the two scriptures. My heart is made glad that the comparison and I can see it plainly. Thank you for sharing with us.
richoka says
Thanks for reading Susan. Be blessed.
Sara says
I appear to be the only poster since the china virus was unleashed.
I think we have to think this plague is being allow by God as He is in control.
He wants us to stop the world from moving toward one world govt.
He did this at Babel in the Old Testament.
It took maybe 1,000 years until the first Pentecost came.
How many generations might we have we are freed of this china virus ?
Emmanuel says
I want to appreciate you for the insightful analysis of the Babel and penticostal experiences. The Spirit of God drop the topic in my heart and I had written some things down until I decided to check the net for more information and I am glad that I got some additional insights from your teaching.
At Babel, the people were united against God. They moved by pride to ascend unto heaven and make a name for themselves just like Lucifer in Isa 14v12-15. Just like Satan failed in his morbid ambition to be like the most high, the people of Babel also failed and their project was abandoned.. This show that any ambition, desire or aspiration notinspired by God will end up in total confusion and failure.
Thanks once again