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I am using readings from the 49 Week Bible Challenge as the basis for these devotions. I encourage you to join me in this discipline. Today’s readings are Acts 17; 2 Kings 16; Psalm 50; 96; Daniel 5.
Acts 17:16-21
Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols. 17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there. 18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, “What does this babbler wish to say?” Others said, “He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities”—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection. 19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? 20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean.” 21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.
Sometimes the various readings in this 49 Week Bible Challenge don’t connect with each other in any obvious manner. But today they certainly do. The Epicurean and Stoic philosophers call Paul a “babbler,” that is one who simply talks to hear himself talk. Many words. Little substance.
As I listened today, I see other places in these readings that relate to the idea of babbling.
“But King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and saw the altar that was at Damascus. And King Ahaz sent to Uriah the priest a model of the altar…” (2 Kings 16:10)
Ahaz imitates pagan worship practices, replacing God’s altar with a copy of a foreign one. His actions are like religious babbling — empty imitations of real worship.
“But to the wicked God says: ‘What right have you to recite my statutes or take my covenant on your lips?’” (Psalm 50:16)
God rebukes those who say the right words but do not live by them. Their religious talk is just noise — babble without obedience.
“For all the gods of the peoples are worthless idols, but the Lord made the heavens.” (Psalm 96:5)
The babble of the nations — their endless praises to false gods — is contrasted with the truth of God’s glorious majesty.
“Immediately the fingers of a human hand appeared and wrote on the plaster of the wall… Then the king’s color changed, and his thoughts alarmed him; his limbs gave way, and his knees knocked together.” (Daniel 5:5–6)
Belshazzar’s feast is full of boastful talk — the ultimate “babble” of pride. God interrupts the noise with His own unmistakable Word of judgment.
The world around us thinks of God talk as babble – senseless and mindless words about nothing. But we see and hear with the eyes and ears of faith. We look beyond the world’s glitz and listen to the truth of God – the maker of heaven and earth. We also believe in Jesus Christ who died for the sins of babblers everywhere, and rose from the dead and believe that one day every mouth will be silenced, and the whole world will be held accountable to God (cf Romans 3:19).
In every age, the world is full of noise — religious chatter, political slogans, self-assured words. But God’s Word cuts through the babble with truth, grace, and power. What the world calls foolishness or babbling is, in fact, the wisdom of God revealed in Christ.”
David Bahn - Reflections 
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