Gates and Houses

In my Bible Study, we’ve been in Genesis 28, talking about Jacob and the meaning of “Bethel”. What it means to Jacob, what it really is, etc, etc, etc. . . What does it mean that Jacob saw a stairway to Heaven? What does it mean that he named the place Bethel, or House of God. All quite lovely, possibly meaningful questions.

But some things intrigue me even more than these previous questions. My mind went down the rabbit hole and I started thinking about the phrase ‘el’ meaning God. And so I wondered, what in the world does Babel mean? Since it clearly had some meaning beyond the now common “nonsense”.

So then, this handy thing called an online dictionary ;) tells me that the word Babel means the “Gate of God”. We conclude from this what then?

I’m not actually a theologian, and I have absolutely no idea. Zilch. None. Nada. Zip. As in literally, I got nothing.

But I did have a few thoughts ;)

Beginning with this one. Isn’t it intriguing that God’s blessing was given at Bethel, the House of God, where God revealed himself to a human? While, at the same time, the biggest failure in history was when at Babel, the Gate of God, man attempted to open the gates of Heaven themselves? Yup, it’s intriguing.

And I actually just had that one thought, so have a nice night everybody.