Someone pointed out a link between two things in the Bible which, once I’d heard it, seemed so blindingly obvious I felt a bit silly. If this is a thing that is super obvious to everyone else then I apologise for talking about something so self-evident. But if, like me, the connection was never clear before, then let’s have a look…..
At the beginning of Genesis 11, after the whole flood debacle, “the whole world had one language and a common speech”. The people decided to build themselves a tower “that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth” (Gen. 11:4). God was not best pleased and “The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.” So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.” (Gen. 11:6-8).
Directly after this in Genesis 11 onwards, is the story of Abram’s call and the covenant with God, which is ultimately aimed at leading his people to the promised land.
Let’s skoot forward a couple of thousand years to Pentecost. Pentecost is so-called because it is the 50th day after (for Christians) the crucifixion of Jesus. The day also had significance for the Jewish people as Shavuot and celebrated the giving of the Law to Moses at Mount Sinai (so a double significance it turns out with Jesus himself fulfilling the Law).
On that day, as the Christians were gathered, “a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house” (Acts 2:2) which is a common Biblical sign of a theophany or manifestation of God. The disciples “saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues” (Acts 2:3-4). The number of differing nations and languages represented there was huge, including “Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2:9-11).
So, while Babel scattered the people and confused the language to keep the people separated from God, Pentecost was the reverse – in-gathering the people with a Spirit-enabled single language specifically so that the people could know God.
It shows another connection between Old Testament journey to God’s planned fulfillment that is too specific to fake. The multiple threads of fulfillment of prophecy build, piece upon piece, the body of knowledge and confidence we have in what God was intending to do from the start. It shows the long game – the loooooong game – that God played in his infinite patience and mercy. He wanted to bring his people from darkness and sin, on a journey of discovery and repentance, to faith in his son. To being in him. Abiding in Christ. Saved. And not by our efforts but by his.
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9)