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Genesis 11:5–9 — The LORD Confuses Their Language | Bible Commentary · A Tithe of Time Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to a tithe of time, verse by verse.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Today we begin reading from the ESV, Genesis 11, 5-9.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord confuses their language.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: And the Lord said, Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do, and nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth, and from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now let's look closer.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: The first line carries a bit of irony.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord came down to see the city and the tower.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: The people wanted a tower with its top in the heavens, but from the story's point of view, God still has to come down to see it.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Their project may look enormous from the ground, but Genesis does not present it as something that threatens God.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Then God says, They are one people, and they have all one language.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: Their unity is real, but the passage shows that unity by itself is not automatically good.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_00: What matters is what that unity is being used for.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: They had already said, Let us make a name for ourselves, and lest we be dispersed.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now God responds directly to that goal.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: He confuses their language so that they may not understand one another's speech.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: The result is exactly what they were trying to prevent.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: The Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: That is the turning point.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Humanity tries to hold itself together in one place, but God scatters them.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Then the passage explains the name Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: There is also another important line here.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: Come, let us go down.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Just like the plural language we saw earlier in Genesis, let us make man, and the man has become like one of us.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: The text uses us, but it does not stop here to explain exactly who God is addressing.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: So we should notice the wording without claiming more than the passage itself tells us.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the picture Genesis 11, 5-9 leaves us with.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: The people unite around a project meant to make a name for themselves and keep themselves from being scattered.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: God confuses their language, the building stops, and they are dispersed over the earth anyway.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: What humanity tried to prevent is exactly what happens.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_00: This concludes Genesis 11 5 9.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: Next, we'll move to the recap of the nations and the Tower of Babel, covering Genesis 10 1 11 9.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, tithe your time.