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.