Listening to the voice of God is a spiritual discipline. Without the guidance of God, all the effort we might put out is just pushing a rope.
The two traditional passages on Pentecost are Acts 2 and this passage about the Tower of Babel, as the coming of the Holy Spirit heals the divisions described in Genesis 11.
This chapter comes after the creation story, then the flood. These first few chapters of Genesis are a high level view of God’s love for creation and humanity, his image-bearers. We see the both freedom and boundaries that He creates. We read the Creation Mandate given to humanity, to explore, prosper, flourish and multiply. This is not only a mandate but a blessing for humanity. God says “Come, let us make man in our own image.” He wants the earth to be full of people who bear his image, perhaps because only through the wide diversity of humanity can God’s true image be displayed.
Then, several chapters later, the people on the plains of Shinar echo that – “Come, let us make bricks” – and to do so in order to build a center of power, a locus of control and a monument to their own greatness. Scripture and history tell us what happens when humanity begins to consolidate power.
But God’s command was not to consolidate and gather, but rather to disperse and explore. So it may be that the “curse of Babel” is not a curse at all, but rather a blessing, the creation of cultures and nations and languages.
If it was a curse that was reversed at Pentecost, then the unity would have been brought about by a return to a single language. But that is not what happens – instead, the wonders of God are declared in a vast diversity of languages, and unity is built out of that diversity originally created by God.
When under stress and pressed by the world, our inclinations are the same as those in the plain of Shinar, to consolidate and flock together with birds of our feather. But if we allow the Holy Spirit to move, He may well scatter us in order to further His ultimate goals, His glorious plan for us and the world around us.
– Sermon Notes, Dave Sim, Renew Church, Lynnwood WA, June 12, 2022