MHCC 5: Confusion of Tongues

Many students of language have had occasion to lament the confusion of tongues upon the destruction of the Tower of Babel (Gen. 11.7, 9) or to envy the speaking and understanding of tongues given at Pentecost (Acts 2.4-11). Yet, as understandable as the aspiration to recover the one universal language lost at Babel may be, there is something in such vain-striving that ought to be guarded against.

Matthew Henry writes (Gen. 11.5-9):

(3.) We all suffer by it, to this day. In all the inconveniences we sustain by the diversity of languages, and all the pains and trouble we are at to learn the languages we have occasion for, we smart for the rebellion of our ancestors at Babel. Nay, and those unhappy controversies which are strifes of words, and arise from our misunderstanding one another's language, for aught I know are owing to this confusion of tongues. (4.) The project of some to frame a universal character, in order to a universal language, how desirable soever it may seem, is yet, I think, but a vain thing to attempt; for it is to strive against a divine sentence, by which the languages of the nations will be divided while the world stands.

Among the twelve principles set forth by the Bahá'í Faith are the necessity of world peace achieved through world government (such as the United Nations) and an international auxiliary language, to provide "unity in diversity" among the languages of the earth, specifically though unofficially, through the use of Esperanto. As a former Bahá'í myself, I cannot help but note the parallels between their aims and those of the builders of the Tower of Babel.

Henry writes against one-world government too (Gen. 11.1-4):

That they might unite in one glorious empire, they resolve to build this city and tower, to be the metropolis of their kingdom and the centre of their unity. It is probable that the band of ambitious Nimrod was in all this. He could not content himself with the command of a particular colony, but aimed at universal monarchy, in order to which, under pretence of uniting for their common safety, he contrives to keep them in one body, that, having them all under his eye, he might not fail to have them under his power. See the daring presumption of these sinners. Here is, [1.] A bold opposition to God: "You shall be scattered," says God. "But we will not," say they. Woe unto him that thus strives with his Maker. [2.] A bold competition with God. It is God's prerogative to be universal monarch, Lord of all, and King of kings; the man that aims at it offers to step into the throne of God, who will not give his glory to another.

As it is the prerogative of God alone to take away man's universal tongue, and then, later, to break down those barriers that multiple languages present for the sake of the gospel and his own glory, so it is that all of man's efforts to achieve world peace through one world government, vain as they are, are doomed to failure, as those of men who conspire "against the Lord, and against his anointed" (Ps. 2.2) and will be forced to "kiss the Son" (Ps. 2.12) and to submit to the one world government of Jesus Christ, who alone is "King of kings, and Lord of Lords" (Rev. 19.16) and will consummate his kingship over all "in the day of [his] power" (Ps. 110.3) but will not suffer any to accomplish the exercise of that universal authority and power which belongs to him alone.

Oh, how wonderful it will be when all the Lord's people shall one day praise our God in one united tongue and all men confess that one name by which all men shall be saved and ruled, Jesus Christ, which shall come to pass indeed not by "Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts" (Zech. 4.6).