the tower that touched the sky
DESCRIPTION
A retelling of the Bible story The Tower of BabelTRANSCRIPT
The Tower that Touched the Sky
Illustrations by Graham Kennedy, © 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.