The Stranglers: "Here and There" - Bruce Atchison

I'm always amazed at what I find in deleted record bins. One of my "treasures" I found was a combination magazine and LP from 1983. One band featured was The Stranglers. I braced myself for something nasty when their track started playing. To my surprise and delight, their "Here and There" song was delightful. Here's the link:

Though we mere mortals can't speak things into existence like God did, our words can harm or help. Job's friends were in the first category. Eliphaz the Temanite accused him in Job 15:6 (Bible in Basic English), saying, "It is by your mouth, even yours, that you are judged to be in the wrong, and not by me; and your lips give witness against you." But Job was blameless for the tragedies which befell him.

We also know what a dangerous part of our bodies our tongues are. With that small muscle, we can build up or destroy people. James 3:5 and 6 (BBE) reads, "Even so the tongue is a small part of the body, but it takes credit for great things. How much wood may be lighted by a very little fire! And the tongue is a fire; it is the power of evil placed in our bodies, making all the body unclean, putting the wheel of life on fire, and getting its fire from hell."

It was this destructive power of the tongue which God sought to limit in Genesis 11:6 and 7 (BBE) the Lord scattered humanity after people wanted to stay in one place. "And the Lord said, 'See, they are all one people and have all one language; and this is only the start of what they may do: and now it will not be possible to keep them from any purpose of theirs. Come, let us go down and take away the sense of their language, so that they will not be able to make themselves clear to one another."

And as God confused the languages, he gave humanity a foretaste of when we'll be able to understand one another again. Acts 2:5-8 (BBE)  tells us how foreigners in Jerusalem heard the gospel in their mother tongue. "Now there were living at Jerusalem, Jews, God-fearing men, from every nation under heaven. And when this sound came to their ears, they all came together, and were greatly surprised because every man was hearing the words of the disciples in his special language. And they were full of wonder and said, 'Are not all these men Galilaeans? And how is it that every one of us is hearing their words in the language which was ours from our birth?'"

We, whom God has chosen, will be able to understand each other in heaven. No interpreters will be needed then.