Children’s Bible Program – Level 1: Lesson 20 “God Confuses the Language”

By Janth English and LivingEd Staff

Read Together: God came down to see what the people were doing at Babel. When He saw the city and the tower He was not pleased with what the people were doing. God saw how mankind was working together to rebel against Him, and decided to confuse their language so that the people could not communicate with each other. The word “Babel” means confusion, and there was plenty of confusion when suddenly the people working together could no longer understand one another. The work on the tower and the city soon stopped. God separated the people’s languages by families. People naturally came together with those they could understand, and began to move into the lands that God had given them. The tower no longer exists, but to this day, Babel remains a symbol of mankind’s rebellion against God.

Read Together: Genesis 11:5–9; Zephaniah 3:9

Discuss:

• Discuss the meaning of Genesis 11:6 with your child. God has given mankind brilliant minds. We are to use our knowledge and abilities to serve and worship God.
• Ask your child Imagine you are playing with your friend when suddenly they start saying things that don’t make any sense! You try to ask them to tell you what they mean, but you realize they can’t understand what you are saying either!”  This is what happened to everyone when God confused the languages at the tower of Babel.
• Point out to your child that being able to communicate with others is an important part of life. God wants people to understand one another.  This is why He will restore a pure language to mankind in the Millennium (Zephaniah 3:9). This would be a good opportunity to talk about what it might be like in the Kingdom when everyone in the world can communicate with and understand everyone else.

Review Memorization:

Genesis 11:7 “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.”