Get Real November 23 Devotional
November 23, 2024
GENESIS 11:1, 7, 9 |Now the whole earth had one language and the same words.
Come, let us go down, and confuse their language there, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.
Therefore, it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth,
JAMES 3:6-12 |And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is placed among our members as a world of iniquity; it stains the whole body, sets on fire the cycle of nature, and is itself set on fire by hell. For every species of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by the human species, but no one can tame the tongue—a restless evil, full of deadly poison. With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse those who are made in the likeness of God. From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this ought not to be so. Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and brackish water? Can a fig tree, my brothers and sisters, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.
This story makes a profound point about language and its influence on culture. Languages unite us and divide us. God “confuses the language” of the city and tower builders and brings an end to the project. Words are tools to grasp the world and description is where reason often gets its purchase. But words hide meaning as well as exposing it and “spin” is an example of how language can be used to manipulate.
We must choose our words carefully and modestly, acknowledging their power and incompleteness. One of the great good news insights in the Bible is that God communicates with us, using our language. Jesus is the word made flesh and he employed ordinary words to express profound truths, showing us the potential for language to reveal when grasped by God.
Have you ever studied another language?
Pray for everyone who teaches Scripture and translates its meaning into another language.
