WHAT IF GOD HAD NOT INTERVENED DURING THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE TOWER OF BABEL

After the flood, “The whole earth had one language and one speech” (Genesis 11:1). Humans journeyed to the land of Shinar where they found a plain and dwelt there. There they built a very high tower so as not to be scattered over the face of the earth (Genesis 11: 4).

The Lord came down and saw the tower humans had built and became concerned. This was just the beginning of a long line of great human achievements and, from that point on, they would have achieved any project they would have aimed at: “…nothing they propose to do will be withheld from them”(V. 6). To counteract this trend, God’s verdict was to confuse their language, and to scatter them all over the earth.

But what if God had allowed humans to continue undisturbed? What if He had not confused their language and had not scattered them all over the earth?

The human mind’s potential is immense. Scientists estimate that when it comes to storage of information alone, humans can probably store between 1000 to one billion times more than we do at present.18 Our potential is becoming more and more evident, as humans from different countries pool their intellectual resources and achieve ever -more stunning feats.

Humans, unfortunately, don’t just conceive and create helpful technologies and innovations. Right along with the helpful ones come the destructive ones as well. Since early times, humans had the innate capacity to create the kind of technology that could destroy the earth over a short period of time. The atomic age, most probably, would have been reached millennia ago. Weapons of mass destruction would have abounded then and would have been used with disastrous consequences long ago.

God’s plan for humanity involved a set period of time. Thousands of years were to elapse before Christ would come to earth to die for humanity, and thousands more would have passed before humans would need the return of Christ to save it from total destruction (Matthew 24:22).

God was compelled to confound the languages of mankind, to spread humans all over the globe, to keep their contact to a minimum, and to frustrate their communication by creating different languages. Had He not done so, humans would have wiped out themselves and all hope of salvation intrinsic to God’s plan of salvation for humans.

God could not afford to allow His great plan to be interfered with by the ingenuity and cooperation of humans. As always, He intervened wisely and, thus, His plan for humanity continues to evolve as planned.