Genesis 11:9

Genesis 11:9

I. God is not the Author of confusion, but of peace. Yet once, in His wise compassion, He made confusion in order to prevent it; He destroyed peace, that in the end he might restore it.

The history of Babel is far more than a record of the defeated attempt of wicked men to accomplish an impossible folly. The building of that tower was the first great act of presumptuous rebellion against God subsequent to the flood, and therefore it was meet that a measure of vengeance should fall upon it such as, while the world stood, should never perish from the memory of mankind. And, as God so often orders, the crime of these men became their punishment. "Let us make a name," they cried, "lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the earth." And this very thing it was which caused them to be scattered.

II. God, who hath made of one blood all nations of men, did, by that exercise of His power, the best thing that could be done to check and retard the rapid growth of evil, and to prepare the means by which man might be brought back to obedience. While there was but one tongue, men easily corrupted each other; when there were many, evil communications were greatly hindered. God marred the Babel-builders' work, but it was in order to mar their wickedness; and meanwhile He had His own gracious designs for a remedy. It was on the day of Pentecost that that remedy was first applied. Those cloven tongues of fire which, on that day, rested on the heads of the apostles, undid, to as great an extent as will be permitted in this world, the confusion of Babel.

F. E. Paget, Village Sermons (Advent to Whit-Sunday),p. 223.

References: Genesis 11:9. D. J. Vaughan, The Days of the Son of Man,p. 280; G. Huntington, Sermons for the Church's Seasons (Advent to Trinity),p. 276. Genesis 11:27. R. S. Candlish, Book of Genesis,vol. i., p. 181.Genesis 11:27. Expositor,2nd series, vol. i., p. 281. 11:27-25:10. J. Monro Gibson, The Ages before Moses,p. 159. Genesis 11:32. H. Grey, A Parting Memorial,p. 232.