“So the LORD scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city.… The LORD confused the language of the whole world. From there the LORD scattered them over the face of the whole earth.”

Genesis 11:8-9
Time began to move along in the history of the world, and people wanted to build a gateway to heaven and make a name for themselves. They schemed to take the reins of history in their hands. So God came down, confounding their plans. Like parents telling a child, “You can go to the edge of the lawn but not into the street,” God says, “You can come this far but no farther.”

He is in charge. “He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success” (Job 5:12). “The LORD foils the plans of the nations; he thwarts the purposes of the peoples” (Psalm 33:10). “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21).

God would again prove His sovereignty generations later at Pentecost by using different languages when people spoke in other tongues (see Acts 2:4). Pointing to the true gateway to God, Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ” (Acts 2:38). Some 3,000 were added that day! God is in charge, and history is in His hands.



Scripture Focus

Genesis 11:1-9

Insight

“This is my Father’s world:/ O, let me ne’er forget/ That though the wrong seems oft so strong,/ God is the ruler yet.” (Maltbie D. Babcock, 1901)

Bible In A Year

  • Ezekiel 45-46
  • Proverbs 3
  • Hebrews 1-2

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