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).

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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.

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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.”

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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.”

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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.