Brief: God confused people’s language because of
their pride, but will lift the curse in Heaven.
Needed: nothing
Scripture: Genesis
11:1-9, Proverbs 16:18; Acts 2:1-12
Where did we get all the different languages?
Where did we get all the different races of people?
Read Genesis
11:1
How many languages were there? (One.)
How did everyone have the same language? We have thousands of
different languages today.
Everyone was descended from Adam and Eve and, then, everyone was descended
from Noah. It makes sense that everyone spoke the same language. It was the
language that Adam and Eve originally used.
Read Genesis
11:2-4
Why did the people want to build a city and a tower?
They wanted to make a name for themselves. They wanted to be
famous. They wanted other people who would live after them to think how great
they were for building this awesome city. They were prideful.
Read Genesis
11:5-7
What did God do to stop the people from building their city?
He made it so that people started speaking different
languages from one another.
Read Genesis
11:8-9
When the people started speaking other languages, what
happened?
They stopped building the city because they couldn't
communicate with each other. They couldn't work together.
"Babel" is Hebrew for "confusion."
Then, they were scattered. Since they couldn't talk to each
other, they all moved away from each other. This is how we got the different languages
and races. All of a sudden, some people started speaking what would become Chinese,
others started speaking what would become Hebrew, others started speaking what
would become Greek, others started speaking in early African languages, some
people started speaking in proto-Native American languages.
The people who could understand each other moved off
together, away from everyone else that they couldn't understand. Eventually,
everyone who spoke a certain language ended up in China. Everyone who spoke another
language ended up in North and South America. Everyone moved to where they now
live.
Because the environments and the climates where all of these
different groups of people moved were different, and because they intermarried
so much with each other, the various groups began to take on very
distinguishing features.
People who moved to China began to look Chinese because of
their environment and because of the constant intermarriage between them.
People who spoke African languages and moved to Africa began to look African.
The environment and the climate were much hotter, and the sunlight was much
more direct, so, over the years and
through intermarrying within that one group of people, they began to look
darker than everyone else.
So, again, why did God do this to the people who were
building the city? (Because of their pride.)
Read Proverbs
16:18
Changing their language was a curse that God put on the
people because of their pride. God has also, on occasion, taken away this
curse.
Read Acts
2:1-12
God allowed people who spoke
different languages to understand each other. This is a widespread
manifestation of the gift of tongues.
Why do you think God allowed the
people to hear the Christians in different languages?
God wanted it to be a sign of the
truth of Christianity.
We have to remember that God wants
people to work together, but not if they’re going to do it simply to lift
themselves up in pride. He wants people to work together under His direction
and for His glory.
This miracle in Acts shows us what
God will do for us one day. In Heaven and on the New Earth, everyone will be
able to understand each other again.
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