Autumn leaves, Pentecost and the dexterity of the human mouth for speech

Early in the Bible’s narrative, the people of the Earth decide to build a tower to the heavens; a monument to human prowess and superiority. This was an act of pride, and God frustrated it by causing the many people to then speak in altogether different languages, so that the communication and teamwork necessary to build their monument were no longer possible.

Not only is this a great reminder of the majesty and power of God, but it shows us something rather wonderful about human language. The variety of human language, being the punishment for the Babel building project, is a result of sin and the curse. Consider that. Until that moment, ‘the whole Earth had one language and the same words’ (Gen 11:1). So, should we think of languages as a dirty and profane thing, since their existence is directly the result of sin? Should we prioritise one language above all, and try to erase the differences and cause all the world to speak one language? Now, apart from the fact that it would be English, (let the reader hear us smirk), it seems that autumn leaves and Pentecost both have something to teach us here.

This author does not pretend to know how cell decay/renewal and ecosystems worked in the garden pre-fall, but we hope that it is a fair suggestion to say that the cycles of death and life that are essential to our world (such as the seasons, and the way that decay is part of the process of growing) are a result of the fall, if the premise is sound that death of that kind was not around pre-fall.

So, if we can grant that seasons are downstream from sin, at yet we glorify God by studying the intricacy and beauty of the seasons, from the first buds of spring to the fall of the autumn leaves, we must conclude that God wields history and providence in such a way that our mistakes only give him more opportunities to show his genius and reflect his beauty. It’s almost like he planned it that way.

Back to languages. This author is deeply fascinated by grammar and syntax, by the way that the words we have available to us shape our ability to think. If you don’t believe us, ask Yeonmi Park or Winston Smith. Praise God for the earthy oddities of the Hebrew language, its poetry that is beautiful in any translation. Praise God for Spanish, for its faithfulness to its letters, its pleasing cadence and rhyme which follow from its grammatical gender system. Praise God for Polish—give us a second while we pretend to be unbiased—for its insistence upon oral gymnastics. (Here, just look at this tongue twister: W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie) , and its cheeky attempts to get away without vowels (wszyscy). Consider the phrase ‘Jesus is Lord’ in various languages: المسيح هو الرب, 耶穌是主, 예수는 주이다, यीशु प्रभु है, ישו הוא אדון.

You don’t need to be able to read that to appreciate the beautiful variety of human language. What’s more; the mouth, tongue, throat and lungs can be trained in such a way to produce all of those sounds, and to do so consistently to the point that other people can understand. It’s incredible. Just listen to music in another language for a few minutes, or watch two people flirt in another tongue. Listen to an argument or try to pronounce a few words in your friend’s language. God made all of them, he brought all of that beauty from sinful actions. This is a key theme in Scripture, the idea of the Felix Culpa, the fortunate fall. The Final State will be immeasurably better than Eden, and so whilst we never encourage sin, we worship a God whose grace is bigger and stronger than our sin, and whose grace always has the final word.

There’s an interesting parallel to Babel in the New Testament: Pentecost. It is this glorious and exciting moment where the Spirit gives the church the ability to speak other languages known to man, and He does so for the sake of Evangelising and saving them. God scattered the people across the Earth and confused their language at Babel, and at Pentecost he began the process of uniting us. However, did you notice, Pentecost didn’t just make everyone speak Aramaic or some local Semitic dialect? As the Spirit empowers his people to bring the gospel to the world, he doesn’t turn everything into one big average bowl of grey mush. He keeps languages distinct. He doesn’t dissolve cultural and ethnic variation, he redeems it. So clear is this, that in the Apocalypse to John we see “a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” (Revelation 7:9a, emphasis mine).

So trust God. When you mess up, as you know you have, and as you know you will, trust that he is not only mighty to save, but that he’s also redeeming the messes you make. The same God who turned sin into seasons, who brought forth vernacular from vanity, is the same God who will save you to the uttermost if you throw yourself today at his feet, and trust only in his finished work for your redemption. Then with this author, look forward to the day that you will be counted among the number of his elect standing before his throne, joining in the heavenly chorus of “Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come!”