Isaiah 28:7-14
These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink;
the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,
they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink,
they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment.
8 For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left.
9 “To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast?
10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”
11 For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people, 12 to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”;
yet they would not hear. 13 And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little,
that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem!
Drunk priests and prophets were clearly not doing their job in Israel! Isaiah refers to them as
“you scoffers” when they mocked his instruction. They said he was treating them like children - using baby-talk. See verses 9-10. God’s response was: “by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people … yet they would not hear. ” (v.11-12).
In verse 12 God reminded them that he wanted to give them “rest” from all their troubles, all their
enemies, “yet they would not hear.” (Compare Hebrews 3-4, especially 4:9-11, and Matthew 11:28-30). Receiving God’s rest – at whatever point in history we are speaking of, but especially the eternal heavenly rest - is based upon hearing his word and obeying it! Revelation 14:9-13.
When the apostle Paul quotes this verse to Christians in Corinth some 750 years later, he includes the later bit from Isaiah 28:12, “and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord”. Then he adds: “Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers.” (1 Corinthians 14:21-22).
The foreign tongue of the Assyrians was a sign to an unbelieving Israel. True believers would have listened to God through the prophet, but unbelieving Israel didn’t, and would soon find the Lord speaking to them “by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue” when He sent Assyria to take them captive – never to return. It would be a sign to an unbelieving people – a sign that would mock them and prove their undoing, rather than benefit them.
Some 700 years later, when the Spirit is poured out and the Galilean apostles speak in foreign tongues, as recorded in Acts 2, we see the response from a Jewish audience drawn from every nation under heaven: some sheer bewilderment; some mockery, just as drunken priests had mocked Isaiah because of how he appeared to speak to them in baby-talk. But these tongues were designed as a positive sign for these unbelieving Jews, to get them to repent and become believers in Jesus and thus be saved from their captivity to sin.
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. 2 And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. 3 And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested[a] on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance.
5 Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every nation under heaven. 6 And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language. 7 And they were amazed and astonished, saying, “Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? 9 Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, 11 both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians—we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God.” 12 And all were amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, “What does this mean?” 13 But others mocking said, “They are filled with new wine.” Acts 2:1-13
After hearing the gospel from Peter, 3000 Jews heeded the sign of tongue-speaking that had confirmed the gospel:
“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know— 23 this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. 24 God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it … 36 Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified.”
37 Now when they heard this they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” 38 And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.” 40 And with many other words he bore witness and continued to exhort them, saying, “Save yourselves from this crooked generation.” 41 So those who received his word were baptized, and there were added that day about three thousand souls. Acts 2:22-24,36-41
In 720 BC, the invading Assyrians would speak a language that Israel would not understand, but this sign for these unbelievers would not benefit them. It was all too late for Israel.
On the other hand, in the 1st century AD, foreign tongues were meant to have the opposite result: they would confirm that the gospel was God’s revelation, and were, in a beneficial way, “a sign for unbelievers.” Mark 16:15-20; 1 Corinthians 14:20-22. “The testimony concerning Christ was confirmed in” the Corinthians who were abundantly blessed with spiritual gifts. 1 Corinthians 1:4-7. As recorded in Acts 10, tongues convinced unbelieving Jewish Christians that God would accept Gentiles. Again, they were a “sign for unbelievers,” confirming that the Christian gospel was for all people.
Tongues ceased when the apostles died, 1 Corinthians 13:8-10; 2 Corinthians 12:12, by which time the gospel had been abundantly confirmed, Mark 16:15-20, before God used the Romans to finally end the Jewish economy by destroying Jerusalem and the temple in AD70. Daniel 9:24.
As God used Assyrian tongues as a sign for unbelieving Israel in 720 BC, so God essentially used
tongues as a sign for unbelieving Jews in the first century AD.
As the northern kingdom of Israel was ended by a foreign power -Assyria - in 720 BC, so the Jewish economy was ended by a foreign power – Rome - in AD 70.
Those who think they speak in tongues today, when they speak non-sensical baby talk (claiming to have been baptized in the Holy Spirit!!), only dishonour the way God had used true tongue-speaking thousands of years ago. They, too, mock God’s true prophets. 1 Corinthians 14:36-40.
David Carr
