Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other. – Genesis 11:7

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 29, 2012): Genesis 11

A number of years ago I came to into contact with someone who had just moved to Edmonton (In Western Canada) from Newfoundland. I had known quite a few people from the Eastern Canadian Island, and I thought that I was familiar with the strong accent that the people that came from there spoke with. But what I had experienced was people that had been away from Newfoundland for a period of time. And as I stood talking to my new friend, I knew that I was in trouble.

I think my most often used phrases for the next little while alternated between “What do you mean?” and “Could you say that a little slower?” I knew that we were both speaking English, but at times I wondered if maybe I was wrong. It was the English language as I had never heard it spoken before in my entire life.

It is not a big surprise that we, at one time, probably shared a language. It just seems to make a kind of sense. Although some scientists seem to want to argue that the various languages developed spontaneously in several different regions, that doesn’t really seem to make any sense. Language would have been a huge advantage to anyone that possessed it. And they would have had a choice to either learn it, or be overcome by those that did possess it.

And while it makes sense that we all originated from a single language, now lost in antiquity, it also makes sense that at some point that language started to change. Language became specialized, and it became regionalized. It started to change – and it kept changing. Until finally we just couldn’t understand each other anymore. Our interests and separation changed the way that we communicated. And my Newfoundland friend proves it.

Genesis says that God confused the languages. He allowed our divergent interests to change the way that we spoke. They had taken their eyes off of the unifying presence of God and allowed their different interests to mold their language.

And it still does. Our interests change the way that we speak. But we can also be unified by our belief in God and each other. It is what the people of Babel had forgotten. But when we are unified in God, absolutely nothing can stop us.

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Genesis 12