IN THE LAW IT IS WRITTEN...

“In the law it is written…”

What was the purpose from the outset of the gift of tongues? Is there a text of scripture that tells us that its purpose was as a private prayer language? Is there a text of scripture that tells us that its purpose was a tool to evangelize the good news? What does the scripture say about what the original purpose was? In the outline I give you below I think you will see that the clear text from the apostle Paul was that tongues were a sign. A sign for what? Well it was a covenantal sign to show that those who stayed under the old covenant had judgment to look forward to and a warning for them to come out from that old covenant and embrace the grace and mercy offered by Christ Jesus in the New Covenant.

If you take a survey of the book of acts you will find three recorded uses of the sign gift of tongues. Interesting note: you will only find three recorded instances of the actual use of tongues in all of the New Testament. If this gift is limited to only these three occurrences we should be careful to note the particulars of the instances. The first is obviously on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2: Pay attention to verses 4-12). The second happened when Peter received a vision to take the gospel to Cornelius, a gentile (Acts 10: Pay attention to verses 44-47). The last one was the disciples of John the Baptist, when Paul asked them if they had received the Spirit since they believed (Acts 19: Pay attention to verses 1-8). In all of these instances it will be noted by a careful look at the passages that Jews were present at all three. Even with Cornelius Peter had taken an entourage with him to go proclaim the grace and mercy of God to this first gentile. It should also be noted that the reaction of the Jews is recorded for us. The various words used is that the Jews who saw this sign of the tongue were “Amazed” “Astounded” “Marveled”. What is it that these Jews recognized from this sign gift that caused them to marvel and to be amazed astounded.

It is noted by Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:22 that “…the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom”.

In Matthew 12:38, “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee.”

Matthew 16:1, “The Pharisees also with the Sadducees came, and tempting desired him that he would shew them a sign from heaven.”

Matthew 24:3 “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?”

It is clear that the Jews had a propensity to be moved by signs. They wanted outward and if possible miraculous proof of the message that was being given them. When they heard Christ preaching the new covenant; in stark contrast to the old covenant that they knew so well, they demanded a sign to prove his authenticity. So when the “Sign gift” of tongues occurred in the presence of Jews it had great significance.

OT & Tongues

Paul firmly anchored tongues in the OT law; therefore, we need to do the same. Tongues, a warning to unbelieving Jews, 14: 21, 22: were a sign. Here, as in all places, our final authority for all that is believed, said and practiced must be the word of God (2 Tim 3:16); Christ Himself commanded us to search the Scriptures (Jn 5:39, 46, 47). Both Paul and Christ were referring to searching the OT Scriptures to confirm any and every doctrine because there were no NT Scriptures when Christ spoke and Paul wrote. The OT, as we presently have it, was safely kept in the synagogues. The Bereans were commended as being more noble than those in Thessalonica because they searched the OT Scriptures daily to confirm what they were being taught by Paul (Acts 17:11); might we do the same, therefore, we must reach back to the OT, as Paul does here, to find the true purpose of tongues.

Isaiah says that if anyone speaks not according to the law and to the testimony (of the prophets), there is no light in them (Isa 8:20. See also Lk 24:44-48); Therefore, we have no choice but, as Paul does, to go back into the OT to find the reason for the tongues of Acts 2, 10, 19; I Cor 12, 13 and 14. Paul rebukes the Corinthians for not understanding the OT Scriptures in their use of "the gift of tongues" by quoting Isaiah 28:11-12, 1 Cor 14:20-22.

Isaiah & Tongues

Isa 28 takes place in the latter years of Hezekiah, king of Judah, 705-701 B.C. Before his rule (722 B.C.), Assyria invaded Palestine and the Northern kingdom; Ephraim was destroyed. Now, many years later, Isaiah warns the people of the Southern kingdom, Judah, that the same thing will happen to them (cf. Jer 3:7-10). But instead of trusting in the Lord for their deliverance from Assyria, Judah makes a deal with Egypt. Their unity with pagan Egypt brings an influx of heathen practices into the congregation of the Lord, and their hearts turn from Him. In vs. 7, 8, the prophet Isaiah points to the leaders of Judah and tells the world that they are involved in wicked evil practices: a drunken party. The leaders mock Isaiah and his warning concerning their spiritual condition. Not liking to be addressed as irresponsible children, even though they are childish, they call his teaching childishly simple. As far as they are concerned, Isaiah, a fundamental legalist preacher, speaks down to them as one would to a minor, and, considering themselves "free adults," they resent Isaiah . . . they sneer at his warning.

Isaiah, vs. 11-13, deals with them in the very point of their sarcasm (he continues to speak to them as children, using their scorn for God's word against them) as he makes his prophetic announcement of coming judgment, v. 14ff. Since the people will not listen to God as He speaks to them in the plain and simple language which they understand and use daily, He will now speak to them in a language they cannot understand, Assyrian. Now they will need an interpreter to understand the other "tongues," languages, 10:5-6. When they hear the stammering lips and another tongue on the streets of Jerusalem, as well as all through the land (the Assyrian language which they understood not), they will know that God's judgment is upon them according to Isaiah's warning. The “another tongue” will be a sure sign pointing them directly back to Isaiah's warning of the coming judgment which they had mocked and sneered at.

Moses & Tongues

The warning goes back even farther than Isaiah. We find the basic law which was the foundation for Isaiah's (and Paul's) warning in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 (36, 49). There Moses points out to the congregation of the Lord (the seed of Israel) that one of the results of God's people rejecting the Lord as their King will be servitude to a people whose tongue (language) they will not understand. If God's people refuse to serve God as their King, they will serve the heathen, 47-48. Therefore, let us not suppose for a moment that the rebellious Jews that Isaiah and Paul spoke to didn't make this connection of Deut 28:45-68; there is no way they could have missed it, but knowing human nature as we do (we have it), they ignored the facts. "Other tongues" was the result of rejecting God's rule (Authority) over them. This is established in the law of God and will not change. The rejection of the new covenant by the first century Jew was met with the warning sign of the tongue.

Deut 28:15-68 was fulfilled at least twice: it was fulfilled when Assyria moved against the Jewish nation in fulfillment of Isaiah's warning. (Note that even though God exalted Assyria as the rod of His anger, an instrument of chastising His people, when Assyria in its pagan pride exalted itself, God destroyed Assyria completely. God's people are still here; Assyria is nothing but dust today. Furthermore, one of the symbols of Assyria was a winged lion. See Deut 28:49.) Moses' prophecy was fulfilled again in 70 A.D. as Rome, under Titus, came against Jerusalem. Both Rome's and Hitler's ensign was an eagle. Deut 28:15-68 has been completely fulfilled (See our extensive study on Mat 21-24). The stammering lips and another tongue was God's judicial sign of judgment upon the Jews because they hardened their hearts against the simple truths which Moses and the prophet Isaiah spoke.

In Isaiah's day, the judgment came in the form of Assyria, and the speaking of the Assyrian language on the streets of Judah pointed to Isaiah's prophecy being fulfilled; they could not understand the language without an interpreter. In Paul's day, the Jews had again degenerated into an apostate nation and had rejected the true prophet, Christ the Messiah, and His warnings. No doubt if He had come as a worldly king or as an elite man of some kind, they might have listened to Him, but He didn't. He came as a humble servant of God; He came with a simple and plain message which the common man could readily understand, identify with and accept, and the elite rejected and killed Him. Christ warned of the horrible judgment which would come as the result of their rejection of the Son, Matthew 21-24. In fact, He said that the former judgments would be nothing compared to the one which was coming, 24:21, 22; Assyria, as terrible as it was, would pale compared to the punishment in store for Christ's crucifixion.

Signs & Tongues

After the crucifixion of the Son of God and before the final destruction of the Jewish nation, the sign of tongues re-appears. To the Jews who knew the law (Deut 28) and the prophets (Isa 28), this meant only one thing, JUDGMENT. Other tongues were not new to them; it happened in the past. (Remember, if it is new, it's not true; if it is true, it's not new.) In the middle of Paul's significant warning concerning the proper use of tongues (chap. 14), we have his reference to Isaiah, 14:21. Paul clearly identifies tongues in the same context as did Isaiah: a sure sign of judgment for rejecting the warning of God and the Roman language would be spoken on the streets of Jerusalem; they could not understand the language without an interpreter.
Observe the similarities of circumstances.

Something which is quite amazing here is the context in which Paul quotes Isaiah's warning and the resistance (even anger) put forward by the Jewish leaders against Isaiah, accusing him of treating them like children (let me strongly urge you to read Isaiah 28 because it is basic, or Paul would not have used it here). Both Isaiah and Paul are dealing with immature people who claimed to be the God's people; they were children whose pride and rebellion caused them to harden against being treated and spoken to as children.

Children

Our Lord said, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. (Mk 10:15). It is not hard at all to follow this thought as the gospel of the kingdom goes out from the very first day that Christ taught it to the last days of Paul as he taught it (Mat 3:2; Acts 28:31). The idea of becoming as a child would have struck at the very heart of the rebellious nation as once again these religious leaders get hostile at the thought of being treated like children. In fact, having to put on the spirit of a child is enough to make any "natural man" hostile. But not only is this required in order to enter into the kingdom, but it is required to advance in His kingdom. Stephen told the religious leaders (as did every other preacher of the gospel, including Christ) that they were the same pious, rebellious, stiff-necked, proud, hardhearted, hypocritical men as were their fathers who mocked and sneered at Isaiah's instruction. This did not win friends and influence people for Stephen any more than it did for Christ (Acts 7:51-60).

Let's move to the middle of Paul's instruction in cp. 14, v. 20, where he warns them against childishness. Paul's warning fits in with the situation in which Isaiah spoke (1 Cor 14:21-Isa 28:11). Isaiah was rejected by the Jewish leaders because he was treating them like children; Paul here tells the folks at Corinth, "Don't continue in your childish attitudes as your fathers did in Isaiah's time. Grow up! Remember, the reason for other tongues is to speak to a rebellious, stubborn, stiff-necked people who will not hear me, saith the Lord. When your fathers rejected the clear plain message of repentance toward God, then they had to listen to other tongues: an ethnic and unintelligible language of a foreign invader. Your fathers needed an interpreter to understand what was being said." Paul's thought continues, "The another tongues” had nothing to do with salvation or with being spiritual; rather, it is a sign of judgment which is either already here or is coming."

Also, notice Paul's indictment against this church for being childish, 1 Cor 13:11; 14:20. The Supernatural ability to speak an unknown (to the speaker) foreign language was being used with pride as a child would be lifted up with pride over abilities which he had and considered superior to another's abilities. Paul points out that childishness is only commendable in the matter of malice, not in understanding, and tells them to grow up. Again, the connection is significant as he moves from this exhortation into the quote from Isaiah. The context of both Paul and Isaiah has to do with childishness and maturity. (Note that the Romans, as they moved in judgment against this rebellious nation, camped at the place which was called, "The Camp of Assyrians." Furthermore, neither the Jews nor the Romans could understand each other; therefore, both needed an interpreter to understand the other.

In my explanation of how I see the scripture in regards to tongues, do not read in that any idea that I support running the people who cling to this gift out of our churches. Far from it. Since this is a difficult subject and widely disputed I feel that grace should be the overriding characteristic of our approach. I do not feel that this should disqualify any sincere prepared and otherwise qualified person from serving as a missionary from our churches. I do however think that a careful and honest dealing with the scripture will show that tongues ceased after their stated purpose was completed. After God had finished in judging the nation of Israel for their rejection of messiah and after the total destruction of the city, temple, priesthood, sacrificial system; i.e. the end of the old covenant, then the sign had no further purpose and it ceased in and of itself. I feel the scripture teaches this clearly but my fellowship will not be determined on your agreement with me on this topic.

Your comments are welcomed and appreciated.



“In the law it is written…”