Today’s devotion is based off of week 4 of Unlikely Heroes: A Translator (WATCH HERE)
Why do we need Bible translations?
Perhaps the easy answer to this question is this: people speak different languages.
True.
But if I said that languages were evidence of the self-centered nature of mankind and the judgment of God on the disobedience of humanity, would you believe me?
Up until the time of the world-wide flood (Genesis 6-9), the world had one language. The language that Noah and his family spoke on the ark then became the language of the world when they came off of the ark.
The nations of the world had been destroyed by the flood and the people that survived and their descendents had one direction from God: Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth (Genesis 9:1)
But that’s where things go bad.
People realized that sticking together was better and together they could accomplish anything they wanted. The name of the Lord would become secondary to the name of the people.
So they decided to build a tower to be a marker of their honor rather than honoring the Lord and spreading over the earth.
Here’s what happened:
11 Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. 2 As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
3 They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. 4 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.”
5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. 6 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.7 Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
8 So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. 9 That is why it was called Babel—because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
From that scattering came 7500 different languages spoken on this earth today.
But…
… in some ways the different languages are a blessing to provide a checkpoint to curtail the selfish hearts of mankind from seeking their own selfish ways more than they already do.
The inability to understand each other was the cause of the people groups forming around the world, however God still wanted people of all languages to understand him and his Word so they might hear of Jesus and be saved.
The fact that God’s Word is in any language is a gift of his grace. He had every right to make a judgment that not only would prevent people from understanding each other, but also prevent them from hearing his Word.
But he didn’t.
He has given us his Word in English and many other languages so we might hear and believe. But the gift we have, others do not yet. And that’s why the heart of a translator is such an important mission today.
Apply: Take time to listen to this week’s message. Go to https://lbt.org/missionary/dr-chris-and-janine-pluger/ to read more about the Pfulgers and give a gift as the Lord moves you to do so.
Prayer: Lord, forgive us when we use language to accomplish our own self-centered purposes. Lead us to use the gift of language to clearly communicate your heart of grace and your message of salvation for the world. AMEN