Division and Restoration
Remember, in the Bible where there’s Wind (Ruach), God is present!
Acts 2: 1-12
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs—we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, “What does this mean?”
Enabled by tongues of Fire
At Pentecost, a violent wind fills the whole house, and tongues of fire are separated and come to rest on each of the disciples. You could also say that the tongues of fire were distributed among the disciples as God commissioned them as apostles to preach the gospel. This preaching of the Gospel was initially to the throngs who were staying in Jerusalem that day, but then after, to all the world.
In this initial act, Jews from the diaspora (spread throughout the world) who had travelled to Jerusalem to celebrate the religious festival heard the gospel proclaimed in their native languages. Those who accepted the good news of Jesus' resurrection, in turn, carried the gospel back to their home countries, and so the gospel rapidly spread throughout the world, first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles.
God divided the Nations.
We read in Deut 32: 8
When the Most High gave the nations their inheritance, when he divided all mankind, he set up boundaries for the peoples, according to the number of the sons of Israel.
God divides humanity's language.
Genesis 11: 1-9
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise, we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language, they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So, the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel[c]—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
Humanity who had originally spoken only one language had their language confused at the building of the tower of Babel (Genesis11) as God scattered and dispersed the peoples., But on the Day of Pentecost, the nations are invited to come back into a right relationship with the Almighty as the gospel of Jesus is preached to them in their native tongues.
Have a great week, and God bless,
Trev.