Welcome to Wisdom-Trek with Gramps!   I am Guthrie Chamberlain, and we are on Day 2741 of our Trek.   The Purpose of Wisdom-Trek is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, and to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before.

Our current series of Theology Thursday lessons is written by theologian and teacher John Daniels. I have found that his lessons are short, easy to understand, doctrinally sound, and applicable to all who desire to learn more of God’s Word. John’s lessons can be found on his website   theologyinfive.com.   Today’s lesson is titled Pentecost and the Reversal of Babel: Reclaiming the Nations for Yahweh  

The biblical narrative does not unfold randomly—it is a carefully structured drama of rebellion, judgment, and redemption. One of the clearest examples of this pattern occurs between two seemingly distant events: the judgment at the Tower of Babel in Genesis Eleven and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts two. While Babel marked the disinheritance and scattering of the nations due to collective rebellion, Pentecost served as a supernatural reversal of that judgment and the formal beginning of Yahweh’s mission to reclaim the nations under the rule of His Son, Jesus the Messiah.

In Genesis Eleven, mankind, still united by one language and culture, gathered in defiance of God’s command to spread out and fill the earth (Genesis Nine verse 1).   Instead, they sought to build a tower—a ziggurat—that would “reach to the heavens” and make a name for themselves. This act was more than urban planning or architectural ambition; it was a spiritual rebellion. In the Ancient Near East, ziggurats symbolized sacred space, portals between heaven and earth, where humans could manipulate the gods. The Tower of Babel, therefore, represented a counterfeit mountain of assembly—an attempt to storm heaven and force divine presence on human terms.

God responded not by destroying them physically but by confusing their language. This act severed their ability to conspire as one. More significantly, according to Deuteronomy thirty-two verses eight and nine (Dead Sea Scrolls versions), God responded by disinheriting the nations:

When the Most High assigned lands to the nations,

when he divided up the human race,

he established the boundaries of the peoples

according to the number in his heavenly court.

“For the people of Israel belong to the Lord;

Jacob is his special possession.

This passage reveals a profound truth: Yahweh handed over the rebellious nations to lesser divine beings—members of the heavenly host often referred to as the bene elohim. These beings were expected to rule justly, but Psalm 82 shows that they instead oppressed and corrupted the nations under their charge, leading Yahweh to declare their doom. From Babel onward, Yahweh would focus on a single nation—Israel—through whom He would eventually bless all the nations (Genesis twelve verse three).

Fast forward to Acts two. The Jewish feast of Shavuot (Pentecost) had brought devout Jews and proselytes from across the known world to Jerusalem. This was the perfect stage for the next act in Yahweh’s redemptive plan. As the disciples gathered, the Holy Spirit descended like a mighty rushing wind, and tongues of fire appeared over them. They began speaking in other languages—not gibberish, but the real, known languages of the dispersed Jewish and Gentile populations present.

This was not a coincidence. Luke, the author of Acts, intentionally records the nations represented: Parthians, Medes, Elamites, residents of Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, and many more (Acts two verses nine through eleven). These regions directly correspond to the Table of Nations in Genesis ten—a traditional list of the seventy (or seventy-two) nations descended from Noah. The message is clear: the judgment of Babel is being reversed. Instead of humanity ascending to God in pride and being scattered, God descends to humanity in humility and begins the process of regathering.

Pentecost was not just about communication—it was about cosmic authority. Jesus had told His disciples in Matthew twenty-eight verses eighteen and nineteen, Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.   This was a direct claim that the authority once exercised by the gods over the nations (delegated in Deuteronomy thirty-two verse eight and nine) had been stripped from them. Jesus, through His death, resurrection, and ascension, had reclaimed what they had corrupted. Ephesians one verses twenty through twenty-two echoes this, stating that Christ was raised and seated “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion,” referring not to human rulers but to spiritual ones.

At Pentecost, empowered by the Spirit, the apostles proclaimed Jesus as Lord, and 3,000 were added to their number. Many of these were likely pilgrims who would return to their nations, bringing with them the seeds of the gospel. This was the beginning of the reclamation—not just of individuals, but of entire people groups that had long been under the sway of rebellious elohim.

Luke, writing Acts, carefully constructs the narrative to reflect this theological truth. When Jesus sends out seventy (some manuscripts say seventy-two) disciples in Luke ten, the number is symbolic. In Jewish tradition, seventy nations were believed to represent the totality of humanity after Babel. The commissioning of the seventy is a symbolic prophetic act—just as the gospel is for all, so is the mission.

This symbolism continues in Acts. The tongues spoken at Pentecost are not random—they are a sign that Yahweh’s Spirit is now moving to undo the divine divorce enacted at Babel. He is gathering a people from every tongue, tribe, and nation to become one in Christ, just as Paul describes in Ephesians two verse fourteen:

To fully appreciate Pentecost’s significance, we must understand it within the Divine Council worldview. Yahweh was not just reclaiming people—He was invading the territory of rival gods. Every conversion was a blow to the authority of the principalities and powers who had ruled those nations since Babel. Paul affirms this in Colossians two verse fifteen, declaring that Christ In this way, he disarmed[a] the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross.

In this context, Pentecost was a declaration of war. Not a war of swords, but of Spirit. The kingdom of God was breaking into enemy territory, and the principalities of the air would fight back. But the victory was already assured. The presence of the Holy Spirit was not only a comforter—it was a sign of the age to come, the beginning of the regathering of Yahweh’s lost inheritance.

Pentecost was not an isolated event; it was the reversal of a cosmic fracture. At Babel, the nations were scattered and handed over to lesser gods in response to their rebellion. At Pentecost, through the power of the risen Messiah, Yahweh began calling those nations back—not through domination, but through the Spirit and the proclamation of the gospel.

The Church is the instrument through which this mission continues. Every time the gospel is proclaimed, every language it is translated into, every heart it reaches is another piece of Babel being undone. The nations that were once disinherited are now being invited back into the family of the Most High.

This is not merely history. It is our task. The reversal of Babel began at Pentecost—and it will be completed at the return of Christ, when every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.

Join us next time on Theology Thursday, where our lesson will cover Satan Was Not Allotted a Nation

If you found this podcast insightful, please subscribe and leave us a review, then encourage your friends and family to join us and come along tomorrow for another day of ‘Wisdom-Trek,     Creating a Legacy.’  

Thank you so much for allowing me to be your guide, mentor, and, most importantly,   I am your friend as I serve you through this Wisdom-Trek podcast and journal.

As we take this Trek of life together, let us always:   

I am Guthrie Chamberlain   reminding you to     ’ Keep Moving Forward,’      ‘Enjoy your Journey,’       and ‘Create a Great Day, Everyday!    Join me next time for more daily wisdom!