Link Genesis 11:8 to Matthew 28:19-20.
How does Genesis 11:8 connect to the Great Commission in Matthew 28:19-20?

Genesis 11:8—The Scattering at Babel

“So the LORD scattered them from there over the face of all the earth, and they stopped building the city.” (Genesis 11:8)

• Humanity united around a godless agenda—“Come, let us make a name for ourselves” (v. 4).

• God intervened, confounding their language and forcing them outward.

• The scattering was both judgment and mercy: judgment on pride, mercy in pushing people toward the divine mandate to “fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28).


Matthew 28:19-20—The Gathering by the Gospel

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them… teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you…”

• Christ reverses Babel’s confusion by sending Spirit-empowered witnesses (Acts 2:4-11).

• The command reaches “all nations,” the same peoples once dispersed at Babel.

• Instead of scattering in rebellion, believers now scatter in obedience—carrying one saving message in many tongues.


Key Parallels and Contrasts

• Motive

– Babel: human glory.

– Great Commission: God’s glory in Christ (2 Corinthians 4:6).

• Movement

– Forced dispersion through judgment.

– Voluntary dispersion through mission.

• Language

– Confusion that divides.

– Gospel that unites (Ephesians 2:13-18).

• Result

– Abandoned city and halted work.

– Living Church and ongoing work until “the end of the age.”


God’s Consistent Heart for the Nations

Genesis 12:3—Abram blessed “in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.”

Isaiah 49:6—“I will make You a light for the nations.”

Revelation 7:9—A redeemed multitude “from every nation and tribe and people and tongue.”


What the Connection Teaches Us Today

• God’s purposes will advance—either through judgment or joyful obedience.

• The languages that once divided are now strategic gateways for the gospel.

• Every believer participates: some go, some send, all pray and witness (Romans 10:14-15).

• Our collective mission anticipates the final gathering when the scattering is fully healed in Christ’s eternal kingdom.

What lessons can we learn from God scattering people 'over the face' of earth?
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