Babbling Voices

Genesis 11

Being a lover of languages, the story of the Tower of Babel facinates me. According to verses 6 &7, God created various languages instantly...as a judgement. Man had become proud and strong and united. (sounds familiar?) They had devised their own plan of reaching heaven and God. Hadn't they listened to the stories of Adam and Cain and Noah?

Going back to the thought of languages, I wonder if the original language survived at all. What were the languages that he created? It must have been chaos when it happened. There must have been anger (thinking their subordinates were not obeying)and confusion and fear. Were families separated? (I think God in his wisdom would have kept husband, wives, and children together.)

Languages are a characterization of man. We create words. We take from one language and mix it with another and form new thoughts. Words change from nouns to verbs, change sound, change spellings. Languages are always shifting and moving. Every age has its own patterns. The world is a babble of voices.

In Acts 2:6, on the Day of Pentecost, it says "...every man heard them speak in his own language." I don't know how God did it, but I think Peter and the disciples spoke in their own speech and the people from the different lands understood the words as their various languages. It was a built-in interpreter.

What will we speak in heaven? Maybe we won't have words and speech as we know it now? We will be able to sing and praise God somehow, but how? I am so in AWE of God's multi-faceted ways and powers.