Just a little Babel

What power do words really hold. I have figured out recently that words have more impact than I ever thought when growing up in a home of 3 boys. In my family words bounced off as though meaningless. But now I'm married for less than a year and realizing that words have impact... sometimes even when I don't mean to put anything behind them.
Recently through some conversations I've had and through blogs that I have read it is very clear that the dialogue of words and their meaning are constantly being challenged. I do not mean the words themselves and definition is being challenged as much as the impact.
The next couple blogs I post will be on words and the impact. I hope to learn through this. Please post opinions if you have any.

In the old testament we see many instances where God does some pretty human life altering things. I wont place this as #1 but very high on the list is the separation of language at the tower of babel. Its very tough to imagine a world where people all had one single dialect and people group. When I first read this it made me think about how cool that would be, mostly because I naturally think positively about it. However then I began to think about the story and what human nature did with it. Sure it might be cool if everyone agreed on wholesome things but I look at the tower and the acts that went on surrounding Genesis 11:1-9 and I realize that once it starts going in a direction it doesn't stop. There are no barriers.

God dispersed these people all over the world into different people groups which actually made the humans do what we were told to do in Genesis 1:28 and fill the earth. He made it so they could not work together for evil. If we look all over the nations today it seems that the closer we get to being unified in dialect the further we seem to be going from the morals of God (not that I think we were ever collectively very close). Even more than that, we seem to have a task on our hands when it comes to the gospel... or do we. The task at hand may seem like a bad thing, but God has a plan. I don't believe there are accidents with God. God will be glorified when all tongues praise God in unison Revelation 5:9-10 and Revelation 7:9-10.

Dialogue is very important, it can destroy a nation when its lost. Think of what it will be like when it is restored. I know I feel a certain distance from people who don't speak english but the second I find a english speaker in a foreign country that I visit then that person is my new best friend. How beautiful is it to hear others praising God in their native tongue. Its the sound of the gospel being bigger than all words.

Has the spreading of the gospel been hindered or spurred on by the dispersing of language?