The End of Division

I’ve been sharing, the last couple of weeks, about how I see the story of the Bible as the story of God repairing everything that was broken in the Garden of Eden. And I’ve talked some about how I see Jesus fitting into that story, but I want to mention one other, essential character in God’s plans: the Holy Spirit.

Like with Jesus, there are so many ways you could describe the Spirit’s role in God’s work to heal the world from the wounds of Eden. But I want to focus on one other story from Genesis that you’ve probably heard before, the Tower of Babel.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words… And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and fire them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves.” (11:1, 3-4)

Babel, though it’s a little later in the narrative, is another example of the brokenness brought on by the first couple in the garden. After all, the serpent first tricked Eve with the promise “you will be like God” (3:5), and now we have men and women trying to move in to heaven, making their home in the very dwelling of God.

The consequence, famously, is that “the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” (11:9) Now, all the people were divided, by language and by geography.

Fast forward to the book of Acts in the New Testament. Jesus has ascended back to heaven, and the believers are waiting in Jerusalem for the arrival of the Holy Spirit. Then, in a roar of wind and the glow of “tongues of fire,” the Spirit arrives—and the disciples begin to speak.

At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!” They stood there amazed and perplexed. “What can this mean?” they asked each other. (2:5-12)

What does this mean?

It means that the Holy Spirit is undoing the consequences of Babel. God’s repairing the devastation of Eden.

A scattered people are gathered together. Languages once confused by God are now made clear by the Spirit of the same God. The barriers of geography and communication that sin necessitated no longer need divide us, because God is making humanity like new again, freed from Sin’s power over our lives. We may still succumb to its siren song at times, but we are no longer Sin’s slaves—the Spirit has set us free. (Rom 8:2)

Seeing the effects of Babel rolled back reminds me that everything broken will be repaired. There’s no hurt or loss from sin you can point to that Jesus and his Spirit are not working to heal and restore. Every last trace of Sin’s dominion over us and over this world will be wiped away. Everything, Revelation promises, will be made new. (21:5)

Even our broken relationships and divisions.

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