Babel’s Curse Reversed!

Acts 2:1-21

Coming of the Holy Spirit

1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

The Crowd's Response

5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, "Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 Cretans and Arabs—we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God." 12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "Whatever could this mean?"

13 Others mocking said, "They are full of new wine."

Peter's Sermon

14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day. 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

17 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,
That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;
Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Your old men shall dream dreams.

18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants
I will pour out My Spirit in those days;
And they shall prophesy.

19 I will show wonders in heaven above
And signs in the earth beneath:
Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

20 The sun shall be turned into darkness,
And the moon into blood,
Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the LORD.

21 And it shall come to pass
That whoever calls on the name of the LORD
Shall be saved.'

As in Joel 2:28–32, we see Babel’s curse reversed so that the scattering of the nations with confusion of their languages (Genesis 11:6-7, 9) is turned back to understanding all known spoken tongues by God’s Spirit of understanding in this one time instance to prove He is uniting people from all tongues, tribes, and nations (Romans 16:25-26, Galatians 3:8, Revelation 5:9, 14:6-7) in Christ.  The tongues were diverse languages of divided peoples from the time when people tried to rise to the heavens in their own corrupt natures as one and were divided by God to not understand each other until this day at Pentecost when God would draw them back to once again comprehend each other’s languages.  He gave them His Spirit to be able to speak each other’s languages (tongues) about the glories of God in working to unite us in Christ by His work and not by reaching to the heavens in towers of our own good works.  These gathered there were a first fruit of a single people in Christ who were given this display of divided tongues of God’s Spirit to enable this bringing together of divided peoples of divided languages with understanding once again, but this time in God’s work and not man’s attempts to reach Him on their own.  When these people who had gathered while waiting for the promise of God were filled with the Spirit of the living God they were able to supernaturally speak each other’s languages to all be understood as they glorified their Creator just as He had foretold in Joel 2:28-29, 32 to make this possible for salvation.  It was not about ecstatic displays of uttering random gibberish but about known tongues unknown to the speakers of other languages who demonstrated God’s power to bring the hearers of these other languages together to hear the gospel of salvation as prophesied through Joel.  They were thought to be drunk until the hearers realized the impossibility of so many people suddenly knowing and speaking so many other languages all at once.  It was then told them that it was God’s work enabling them to speak the gospel to all gathered there from around the world and be understood as they heard.  They listened and heard the call to call on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved from God’s wrath on their sin which they both inherited from birth from their progenitor Adam and themselves committed in their hearts and deeds daily.  Because this reversed Babel’s curse of divided society by unintelligible speech of many languages, people were able to attribute the work to God alone and not to their own efforts from years of studying other languages.  They were given the ability to speak intelligibly to each other as a sign of God’s presence in them to bring unity in Christ and His atoning work on the cross.  He tore down the tower of man’s efforts to reach God by coming down to man to do the work and give spiritual understanding to reach Him by His work in Christ alone by faith alone.  Babel’s Curse of our own works has been reversed through the events of Pentecost.  Glory to God in the highest for this peace with Him (Romans 5:1) among us!