Their Punishment

A little boy, aged nine, named Asham, came running through the camp where he lived. “Abel! Abel! Guess what!” he exclaimed.

“Don’t ask me to guess, you know I can’t,” Abel replied, laughing.

“Oh, ok, I guess so, but really, my father is going to a meeting - a big council meeting!” Asham said excitedly. “We should go listen.”

“I already know that,” Abel said, “My father told me that they might be building a big tower that reaches up to the sky so that if any more floods come we won’t die. If so, I hope I can live at the very top!”

“Why would they,” Asham asked, squatting near his friend. “I thought God promised that He wouldn’t send any more floods.”

“I don’t know,” Abel said. “Anyway, let’s go ask my mother.” The boys ran off and were soon standing in front of Abel’s mom.

“Well, boys, what’s so exciting today?” she asked.

“You know Papa said that we might be building a tower, right?” Abel asked. “Well, we want to know why they would.”

“You can never be sure when a flood might come,” their mother said, looking around cautiously. “Yes, some old people say that God promised with a rainbow that there wouldn’t be any more floods, but still, who knows if they’re making that up for security, or so that we don’t feel scared.”

“Oh,” Asham said thoughtfully. “Well, come on, Abel, let’s make a model tower like we want them to build.

While they built their tower, the men in the counsel meeting decided to make a tower for safety measures, but what they did not realize was that God was looking unpleased from Heaven. He had promised with a rainbow, not too many years before, that He would never send another big flood like the one that had cleansed the world of the wicked. And now, these remnants were showing, in a sense, that they did not trust Him.

However, the work on the tower began. Asham and Noah helped carry bricks to  the builders and hand up tools. Their fathers did the big job of laying the bricks down, and their mothers worked on decorating and making accessories for the inside. The progress continued fast. Then, something dreadful happened. “Pásame más ladrillos, por favor (hand me the more bricks, please),” a man said to Asham. But Asham did not understand him, for this man was speaking in a foreign language to what he understood.

“What?” Asham asked, in his language.

The man shrugged, unable to comprehend what Asham was trying to communicate. “No comprendo (I do not understand).”

From all over the tower, excited voices were yelling, and shouting out, many in foreign languages. Finally he caught Abel. What a delight it was that he could, thankfully, understand his friend. “What is going on?” Abel shouted, to be above the chaos.

“I don’t know,” Asham replied. “Let’s get away!”

They ran quickly to Abel’s house, where his mother was making bread. “Something terrible’s happened at the tower,” Asham exclaimed. “Nobody can understand eachother!”

“What!” Abel’s mother said. “I must go and see.” She ran out of the house, followed by other mothers and children. Abel and Asham followed, too. When everyone reached the tower, they watched in amazement as the workers walked away in disgust, talking in languages unknown to them. Abel and Asham’s families found eachother and headed back to their houses. The next morning, people separated into groups of people who could speak the same language. And they left. Asher, Abel, their families, and a few other families that also spoke their language, started packing the next morning. As they were leaving, they solemnly watched lightning hit and destroy the tower.

An old man walking with them said, “This is God. He sent a rainbow as a promise, and we disobeyed. He said to fill the earth and separate, and we stayed together. And now, He has changed the language so that we separate, and has destroyed the tower of our disobedience.”

The families looked at eachother and nodded silently, realizing that God was unhappy with their choices. God had said, “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” (Genesis 9.1, KJV). They had disobeyed, and He had punished them.

~Alice

Workes cited:

"Genesis 9 (KJV) - And God blessed Noah and." Blue Letter Bible. Web. 14 Feb, 2023. <https://www.blueletterbible.org/kjv/gen/9/1/s_9001>.