In our study of Acts on Wednesday evenings, we were going over the details of the day of Pentecost when the disciples were speaking in tongues. One of the participants posed the question, “How was the Day of Pentecost like the Tower of Babel incident reported in Genesis?”
We had a discussion regarding that question and two thoughts prevailed. One said the Tower of Babel was a judgement on man’s evil deeds. To prevent further evil God brought confusion to the participants in the building of the city and the tower “up to the heavens.” God caused them to suddenly begin speaking different languages. This of course caused the project to fail because they could no longer communicate with each other.
In my research I am reading commentaries on the subjects at hand and one commentary on the Book of Acts suggested that it was God’s purpose to introduce diversity into the human race. He wanted the people to disperse from where the ark landed and replenish the earth, Genesis 9:1, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” God’s plan was to spread out and refill the earth, to become their own people with their own diverse cultures.
Nimrod’s plan was to create one unified group of people so “we do not get scattered abroad.” God’s plan was just the opposite so He brought confusion to Nimrod’s plan.
So did God bring judgement on the people of Babel? In my opinion, He did bring judgement on the people. What was their evil that demanded judgement? The Bible is vague in that regard, but I believe the evil was disobeying God’s command to multiply and refill the earth rather than avoiding “being scattered abroad.” But the judgement was not just to bring judgement on the people but to accomplish His plan as well.
Fast forward now to the book of Acts and the day of Pentecost.
Now in Acts 2:1-13, the disciples were speaking in different languages as the Spirit gave them utterance, but this caused a drawing of curious by-standers who heard the “wonderful works of God in their own language.”
There was some confusion because the people did not understand what was happening. But they did understand there was something miraculous happening but they each heard in their own language. There were fifteen different languages mentioned by Luke but many believe there were many more being spoken and understood. The fifteen languages represent the majority of the countries present. Luke tells us that Jewish people and proselytes (Gentiles who converted to Judaism) from every country under heaven were in Jerusalem to celebrate the day of Pentecost.
In both cases God’s will was being accomplished. In the first case (Babel) dispersion and diversification happened because of the confusion of the different languages that occurred. In the second case (Pentecost), the diversity and dispersion had happened and different languages being heard served as a draw of the people to hear the message of the Christ as presented by Peter in the following verses.
In both cases tongues or different languages served the purpose of God, first to spread the people out giving them their own language and culture. Secondly, language was used to draw people together to hear the good news about Jesus and the Jewish Messiah.