The Psalmist sings, “You are near, O Lord, and all Your commandments are true” (119:151). The nearness of God is part of the comfort and assurance God’s people experience. He is not only a God of the heavenly realms, cloaked in glory and splendor. No, He is a God who comes down, down into the muck and mire of His creation, down to bring both judgment and hope, to proclaim death and life. Today is Pentecost Sunday, a day we recall the great outpouring of the Spirit as God comes down upon His disciples in a dramatic fashion, but we will begin this story back in the book of Genesis with the infamous tower of Babel.

The story of Babel starts with a powerful description of the desires of man. “Come,” they say, “let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” The desire is not to be forgotten, not to be scattered over the earth, but to make a name for themselves. Who does not want to be remembered as having a life of impact and importance? They do not need a great and powerful God, they have their own ingenuity, their own strength, their own wisdom. They will build a great city, a testimony to the strength of man, and make a stand against the unpredictable powers of creation itself.

And what does God do? He comes down. Our text says, “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built.” Now, I find a lot of humor in this. Man builds their great tower reaching up into the heavens, and God still has to stoop down to get a look at the thing. A united people with a united purpose make a way without their Creator; a way to endure and, as a result, turn the hope of mankind away from God to their own ingenuity. But God will not be relegated to the sidelines. He is not so easily pushed aside. So, God says, “Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” God comes down and confuses their ability to communicate, thus breaking their unity and strength. He punishes humanity so they might not trust in themselves but in the One who created them in the first place.

Now, indeed, we can see how the events of Pentecost work as a sort of reversal of the tower of Babel. For in that miraculous working of the Spirit, the confusion of the languages of man dissolves as each hears the Word proclaimed in their own tongue. But there is more going on here than Babel’s undoing. For the festival of Pentecost was not just a time to give thanks to God for a successful harvest, it was also the time appointed to recall and give thanks for the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai. In Exodus 19, we read in detail the events at Sinai, how Moses gathered all the people of Israel at the foot of the mountain, and they beheld the glory and power of the Lord as the whole top of the mountain was engulfed in smoke; for God had come down in fire and the mountain trembled with thunder.

Up goes Moses at the command of God, and there he receives the stone tablets, which gave His people a name, a permanence, and purpose in the land. “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me…” He goes on to promise them He will go with them. He will be their God and lead them to victory in the Promised Land. They are His people, His chosen ones, and He establishes their worship and the very rhythm of their days. God comes down to establish His Church.

But as you may well know, this was not such a smooth transition. For when Moses finally came down the mountain, what he found was idolatry. The spirit of Babel was still there. The people turned again to their own strength and wisdom and sought to make a god for themselves. This time it was a golden calf to worship and celebrate, and God’s wrath burned against His people. Moses enacts righteous and brutal judgment. He destroys the calf, and the sons of Levi gather with him, and he commands them to turn their swords against their own. We are told three thousand Israelites died that day. God comes down against the wickedness of mankind, judgment and promise, death and life, seeking to turn His people back to His Word and back to His gifts.

This story continues to unfold through judges and kings and earthly kingdoms which rise and fall. Prophets, great and small, proclaim the Word and turn hearts of stone back to the Word of the Creator. And in the fullness of time, God chooses not just to come down to see the wickedness of man or to reveal His Word on a mountain top. No, He comes all the way down, down into the very flesh and blood of His creation. He comes born under the Law, born of the virgin Mary, born to save His people from their sins, and to do what they could never do. The fulfillment of all the Law and prophets pointed towards is made manifest in the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

So, on that Pentecost Day, the day of the remembrance of Sinai, God comes down again… all the way down. With the sound of a mighty rushing wind and tongues of fire, the Spirit of God fills His disciples. The preaching of the Word of God turns back the spirit of Babel. This, too, is the fulfillment of the prophecy of God. God came down in the Word made flesh, and now He comes down so we might believe that Word, might trust and find hope and assurance in what He has done. Peter goes on to preach Christ crucified, declaring that all of the history of God’s people has led to this moment, to this call of the faithful. And while Babel was the confusion of language, there was unity in the Good News of Jesus Christ. While the idolatry at Sinai resulted in three thousand deaths, here we are told that “those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41).

And this work continues to go forth. God continues to come down. He comes down in the preaching of the Word and the giving of His Sacraments. He comes down for your salvation, for assurance, and hope. Soon we will gather around our Lord’s Table, and God comes to you. The presence of the Son fulfilling the love of the Father is received by faith, created and sustained by the Spirit. He comes so you might know you are forgiven all of your sins, and the promise of Paradise eternal is open wide to you. All glory be to God, amen.