Now the time of the deluge had
passed. Noah had lived to be
eight hundred years old, and had
many sons, probably thousands of
them! The book says that Noah
and his children cultivated the
land and grew grapes on it. His
children had many children, who
in turn had many more children.
There were generations upon
generations. Before long, there
were too many people, and many
families had to move somewhere
else. If they didn't, there
would not be enough grass for
the livestock. Because all of
them spoke a very simple
language, they understood each
other very well, so it was easy
for them to cooperate on any
project or task.
Some of them moved to a place
called Babylon, where they
invented a way to make bricks.
They learned to fire the bricks
making them hard and strong.
They also learned how to adhere
the bricks together with an
ancient material very much like
the cement we have today. This
way they were able to build
houses. One day, one of them
said, "We should build ourselves
a very large city and in that
city a sacred tower, as big and
tall as never before, so we can
make a name for ourselves."
Nonsense! (Audience laughs) They
wanted to build it to become
famous. Then everyone in Babylon
agreed, thinking it was a very
good idea. From then on,
everyone worked very hard to
build the Tower of Babel.
God
began to observe their work
from heaven. Seeing the walls
getting taller and that human
beings were having more opinions
and becoming busier in their
minds, God knew there would be
trouble. Human beings started to
think too much, and their egos
and mundane notions were
expanding. At that time, human
beings began to believe they
were deities and were capable of
everything. Therefore, before
they finished the tower, God
came up with an idea. Hes
thought that if human beings
spoke different languages, they
would not understand each other
and therefore wouldn't work so
aggressively.
Then
God began to confound their
languages and sent people to
different corners of the world
-- to the north, south, east and
west. Some settled on the coast
and some on the islands. Some
moved to places very far away.
Some went to Egypt, some to
Africa and others to Arabia.
Noah's
descendants multiplied
and became more and more. Each
lineage generated many more men
and women. Each of the families
grew larger and larger. Finally
they became nations. In each
nation, people spoke a different
language. From then on, they
were unable to work together or
communicate with each other.
So
far, every time people think
of the Tower of Babel they are
reminded why people speak so
much babel, which means they
"blah, blah, blah" a lot. The
word babel means speaking like
children babbling, so the tower
was named the Tower of Babel.
Like what babel implies, we
always speak too much.
This
is a story about God and
Noah's descendants. There is a
moral to this story and we can
learn from it. What is it? The
more comfortable human beings
become, the less they think of
God. Back when their parents
were still alive, everything was
very simple. Everyone lived in
the ark and remembered God all
the same. Not too long after,
God gave them comfortable lives.
There were no floods, no
punishments and no reminders; so
they began to feel they were
great.
Sometimes
when we live a more
comfortable life, we become more
fanciful, just like Eve the
Idiot (Sounds similar in
Chinese) and Adam the Bold
(Sounds similar in Chinese.)
When they were still in heaven,
they were carried away by their
illusion, thinking that they did
not have enough and that they
should be like God. But what's
the point of being like God? It
was just an apple that they
didn't have, and they were
tricked into doing a foolish
thing. They already had the
whole world and the whole of
heaven to themselves. They were
happy every day and had whatever
they wanted; but they still
wanted to be like God. How
foolish they were! No wonder God
punished them by sending them
down to Earth. Only in this way
could they learn their lessons.
Then they would know: "The life
before was good; it's painful
now," and they would begin to
cherish it. They had already had
everything except one apple, but
they still coveted it to be like
God. What egos they had!
Hopeless!
Therefore, we have to reflect on
ourselves once in a while. When
we live a good life, we should
not fantasize too much; or else
we would regret it later when it
would be too late to come back.
Usually in a comfortable life,
people are likely to forget, and
do unpleasant things or things
they shouldn't do. Therefore,
even in a relaxed and happy
situation, 
we should not forget,
indulge or pamper ourselves and
end up getting weak and unable
to survive in more difficult
situations. Instead, we should
keep our courage and maintain a
balanced heart.
