Reflections On Babel

THURS., SEPT. 23, 1993, 3:28 PM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

You were not as prepared as you could have been for the discussion of that “transition story” in the really Old Testament last Wednesday… yesterday. Without hearing from Me you discerned that it was, and is, a story that connects, somehow, the Noah story and the one starring Abraham. If you would take it literally, Noah and his family have reproduced, and now a rather large group of people inhabit the earth, expressed here as the city of Babel. They all speak the same language and seem to be leaning more to cooperation and working together than toward competition.

This “spirit” is portrayed as pushing them to work together and build a tower that extends up to heaven. If you would take this seriously that would imply that they want to get to heaven because of their own good cooperative good deeds… whether I want them there or not. It is another example of humans “playing God”, and I have to be upset and angered by such action. In a sense this is like sneaking back into the Garden, to enjoy peace and harmony that humans just shouldn’t experience.

So I, as Almighty God… not so much God the Father… come down and smite them in a unique way – changing the languages so that they no longer understand one another and can do no more building together. They then are dispersed, to develop diverse cultures based in their diverse languages. And I am more satisfied with the chaos than with the cooperative effort. Then comes the Abraham saga, in which I am acting differently.

It is an out-and-out myth, another good example of My sense of fun. Oh, it is as likely as the flood, but you know what I’ve said about that. I somehow had to be responsible for the diverse cultures and languages that are evident in the earth. They had to be doing something wrong that brought forth My wrath, manifested in action against this example of humans going against My will for them.

It started with Adam and Eve, acting against My one prohibition. I banished them from the Garden, declaring the man must now work, and women shall bear and birth children in pain. But you know that this is what I really wanted. Next Cain slew his brother Abel, now a sin, even though no such prohibition had been declared. I provoked Cain, and then both punished and protected him. And it was established that death was to be an expected part of earth life.

Next there is a great human population, sinning freely, often, and boldly. There is no story as to how that developed or whether Cain was responsible for this. I was dissatisfied with My total creation, and I decided to destroy it… well, almost. So another great myth came forth, with a flood that destroyed all humans except the righteous Noah and his family… but not two of each animal. So humankind begins again, after the flood. But righteous Noah screws up in a way that is rather contemporary. He gets drunk and passes out. The strange result is that Ham, one of the three sons, is cursed… and all of his descendants. So now I have allowed, or perhaps caused?, one third of humankind to be slaves to the rest.

But then comes Babel, and humans are working together, reaching toward Me. But am I pleased with this dedication and cooperation? Not a bit of it! I flambuoyantly and magically confuse the tongues so that communication and cooperation are stifled. I wanted diversity more than unity. Yet it is offered as a punishment.