Story of Language
Wording of this Handout:
Have you ever wondered where all the different languages in the world come from?
The Bible tells us where all the languages in the world came from.
Open a Bible and read the first few chapters. . . You will come to the story of a great world-wide flood, which God sent to destroy the world. (Read chapter 6 verse 5, and chapter 7 verse 11 and 12 to see why God did this.)
After the huge flood, the only people who didn't drown were the ones who stayed in a huge boat which they had made. When these people came out of the boat, they started to raise families, and soon there were many people in the world again. But sadly, these people were no better than the people who had died because of the flood.
God told these people to spread out and settle all over the world, but they said "No! We want to stay right here!" Just like the people before the flood, they were stubborn, and they did not want to do what God told them.
These disobedient people were so determined to do what they wanted, rather than what God wanted, that they decided to build a huge city for themselves. They also planned to build a massive tower in the middle of the city.
As the people made the bricks, and stacked them higher and higher, God watched. He had already promised that He would never destroy the world with a flood again, but He knew He had to do something about what these bad people were doing.
So God gave the people different languages.
Can you imagine what it was like? One moment everyone was speaking the same language, and then, SUDDENLY, one person was speaking Russian, and another Chinese, or Spanish, or German!!!
Everyone was confused! The workers didn't understand the boss any more, the planners didn't understand the brick-layers! Work on the tower had to stop!
After a while, the people who all spoke the same languages got together, and decided to move away together.
The city was abandoned and the people moved out into the world and started to settle in different countries.
So that is why we have so many different languages in the world today.