When Mankind Spoke One Language
Let us momentarily consider a time, more than 4,300 years ago, when God intervened in human affairs to postpone what we see threatening the world today.
Did human beings speak one language?
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. – Genesis 11:1
What did they decide to do? Was this for the purpose of keeping themselves united?
Then they said,” Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be scattered over the face of the whole earth.” – Genesis 11:4
Seems this attitude was perhaps the first effort at creating a new world order where man was attempting to become like God.
What did God do to frustrate their plans? Why?
But the LORD came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. 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. That is why it was called Babel — because there the LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth. – Genesis 11:5-9
God confused the language and scattered the people at Babel in order to restrain the misguided inventive genius of man. By confusing the language and scattering the people at Babel, God prevented man from accomplishing long ago what he has done today. It was not yet within God’s plan to allow man to advance that far that soon.