In Genesis 11:1-9 we read the story of the Tower of Babel where people armed with a common language and speech were building a tower that was eventually to reach heaven. God noticed that, “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.” (Genesis 11:6) So what did God do? He confused their language and scattered them all over the earth, which is why the tower is called Babel. Alternatively, during Pentecost God sent the Holy Spirit and the gift of tongues. In this instance, people were empowered to speak different languages, “they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak different languages as the Spirit gave them power to express themselves.” (Acts 2:4) Therefore, as God disapproved of the power of people unified in one language; God favours the diversity of languages and being truly unified by God through the Holy Spirit. People unified by human ego leads to disobedience, thinking they can be more powerful than God, the same thinking that duped the angel Lucifer. The true human unifier is the Holy Spirit that blesses the variety of races, nations and languages. There is unity in diversity because the unifier is not humanity but God.
Pentecost over Babel
