The Tower that Touched the Sky

The Tower that Touched the Sky

Illustrations by Graham Kennedy, Š Foundation Matters Story by Allison Hall Published by allisonhall.net FOUNDATION MATTERS IS A CHRISTIAN CHARITY The illustrations contained within book are for personal use only.

You should not copy, distribute, sell, resell, or exploit for any commercial purposes, any portion of the graphics in this power point.

The Tower that Touched the Sky

Long, long, ago in the land of Shinar there lived a mighty warrior named Nimrod.

Nimrod was very evil and loved it when people praised him. The people in the world, at that time all spoke the same language, and so could understand each other easily. However, they were very wicked and did not worship God. Instead, they worshipped many other gods.

One day the people said to themselves, “Let us build a great tower that all the world and God will see.”

“Yes, yes,” said Nimrod excitedly.

“We will use bricks and mortar and make a great tower,” someone said.

“Our tower will be so high that it touches the heaven and we can see one another no matter how far in the world we go,” said another.

Nimrod was very happy that the people were going to build the tower.

“Now all the nations will fear and respect me,” he thought

Soon the best builders in the land started to build the tower. They worked from dusk to dawn. As the tower grew higher and higher, the more excited Nimrod and the people got. The tower was so tall that it seemed to touch the ceiling of the sky.

High up in the heavens, God watched the people as they build the tower. God was very angry with the people for doing such and evil thing, so he decided to punish them.

"If these people who are speaking the same language people have begun to do this, then nothing they plan will be impossible,” said God. “Let us confuse their speech, so that they will not understand each other,” he said.

Then one day a builder said to another, “Give me a bucket of mor tar.”

“Qu'as-tu dit?” said the other.

When he repeated what he had said the same words came from his mouth. He was so frightened when he realized what had happened that he covered his mouth and ran away.

Another builder who saw what happened gave out, “Qué has dicho.” He too was frightened and dropped the bucket of mortar in someone’s head killing him.

The builders stopped working on the tower and started to quarrel in strange languages.

When Nimrod heard what was happening he rushed to the tower, but when he opened his mouth and spoke no one understood him.

The builders stared at him, then went back to their homes disappointed, frightened and confused. Many left with their families for other countries with people who spoke the same language as they did.

No one worked on the tower again.

People later named it Babel as this was the place where God caused people to speak different languages.

AUTHOR’S NOTES

The Tower that touched the Sky is a retelling of the Bible story, The Tower of Babel. The Tower of Babel is a like a pourquois (pork-wa) or Why tale. Porquois stories tell how and why things happen. The Bible has many stories which tell us why things happen.

In this story we learn why people speak different languages such as French, Spanish and English.

This occurred because they disobeyed Jehovah.

We must always listen and obey God’s rules so that we are not punished.