The human race had three significant rebellions against God in the book of Genesis. First, they rebelled in the Garden of Eden when they ate the forbidden fruit. That sin severed their direct relationship with God, forced them out of a paradise, and gave them a powerful bent toward evil. By Genesis 6, their thoughts were only evil all the time, so God sent a flood, destroying all of rebellious humanity except for righteous Noah and his family (Genesis 6:5-8:20). God then used Noah’s family to start over, but it wasn’t long before sinful mankind was defying God a third time. In Genesis 11, mankind had a single language and everyone understood everyone else (Genesis 11:1-9). This linguistic unity enabled them to attempt construction of a tower to heaven at a place called Babel. Interestingly, a very good biblical case has even been made that they were attempting to build a tower to commune with other “gods.” In any case, their level of arrogance was evil, and God was displeased. He ended their project by carving up their singular language so that they could no longer understand one another. Suddenly, they all spoke different languages and were dispersed into nations and groups. Mankind was no longer unified. In those separate groups they worshiped different Gods, developed different cultures, and were consumed by different sins. Man as a race was now thoroughly separated from God. They retained a general knowledge of his existence and an awareness of his power, but they were not animated by his Spirit.
God would not leave them that way. He used imperfect but faithful Abraham and his family line to bring about a savior who would rescue man from his sin and restore him to a relationship with God. Jesus’s death and resurrection achieved that Goal. But then God poured his Holy Spirit out on to the people who believed in Christ as his son. What happened next was remarkable! His Spirit began a reversal of what happened at Babel. People had been divided into nations by language at Babel. In Acts 2, they were united into a new people. At Pentecost, the believers were all gathered in one place. Suddenly, what sounded like a mighty rushing wind moved through their midst, and what looked like tongues of fire descended upon them. They were filled with God’s spirit and began proclaiming the mighty works of God in earthly languages that were not their own! Devout Jews from every people group in the world lived in the area. When they heard the commotion they immediately came to investigate. But what they witnessed was unlike the confusion that happened at Babel. Instead of being confused by new and different languages, everyone who witnessed the event was able to hear everyone else in their own native tongue! God was reuniting humans who believed in his son under the banner and goal of a new creation, a new people, and a new and holy nation (Acts 2:1-13, 1 Peter 2:9, 2 Corinthians 5:17)!
At Pentecost, people were placed back into a relationship with God and each other. God began to shape them toward good in preparation for a new paradise. Instead of a desire to consume forbidden fruit, they now had a powerful bent toward producing fruits like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and self control (Galatians 5:16-24), and it was evident in their lives even during the most difficult times.
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