God's Big Plan, by Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Theodore Hiebert, illustrated by Katie Yamasaki

Like many people, I have always thought of the Genesis 11 story about the Tower of Babel to be an account of God's punishment for man's pride.  The people said, "Let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens, so that we may make a name for ourselves. . . ."  God notices the tower and notes that if they can accomplish this, all speaking the same language, "then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them."  So he "confused their language" and "scattered them from there all over the earth."

Elizabeth F. Caldwell and Theodore Herbert take exception to that interpretation.  In their children's story book, God's Big Plan, they write, "The people who were building Babel had a little plan to stay together.  But God had a bigger plan.  God wanted to fill the world with different languages, different people, and different ways of living."  The story, with illustrations by Katie Yamasaki, has a good message, but is out of synch with the scriptural account.

When they write (in the notes for parents and educators) that "interpreters throughout history have read this story in a way that presents difference as a problem" they set themselves above the consensus of Bible scholars.  That is problematic.  They go further, saying that this interpretation leads to a view that "the world's diversity is God's penalty for sin."

I don't think one necessitates the other.  I think you can affirm diversity as a gift from God and celebrate the many ways we are different, while not butchering and jettisoning a traditional interpretation of a Bible story.  God's Big Plan has a good message marred by faulty biblical scholarship.


Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for the complimentary electronic review copy!