Ancient creation stories told of gods at war with each other—trampling, binding, and scattering their rivals to build new worlds. Babel follows a similar story of conquest. Humanity builds its own tower, a ziggurat of self-made glory. They longed to “make a name” for themselves and to unify heaven and earth on their own terms. In the ancient world, the enthroned king was to be the one who joined heaven and earth. At Babel, humanity tried to crown itself.

So, God confused their language (a word play on Babel), breaking the illusion of a single, powerful empire. The tower of human engineering crumbled into fragments of speech, and the great city scattered across the earth. Yet their scattering was not the end of the story. Out of the nations, God called one man, Abraham, through whom He would bless all the families of the earth. Babel’s rebellion would one day be answered by divine restoration.

That restoration comes into focus at Sukkot, the Feast of Tabernacles, the Feast of Ingathering, also called the Festival of the Nations. During Sukkot, Israel offered seventy bulls, symbolically interceding for the seventy nations of Genesis 10, the very nations scattered at Babel. What pride had divided, worship would gather. Zechariah foresaw the day when all nations would go up to Jerusalem to celebrate Tabernacles, when every tongue would once again speak one language—the language of praise to Yahweh. The harvest of the nations, the reunion of languages, the restoration of communion with God all converge in this feast.

Babel built a tower of pride; Sukkot builds a booth of humility.

Babel reached upward to grasp heaven; Sukkot welcomes heaven coming down to dwell with us.

Babel divided the nations; Sukkot gathers them in worship under one King.

This Sukkot, we celebrate the great reversal of Babel in Yeshua, the true dwelling of God among humanity. “The Word became flesh and tabernacled among us” (John 1:14). In Him, heaven and earth are joined again, and the scattered are coming home.