Tongues Are for A Sign

Continued from previous page. . .

 

But, really, what does it all mean, I can hear some of you say­ing.  When was it fulfilled, if ever?  When did the Lord speak to them in for­eign lips and strange tongues?

We have a clue in something Paul wrote in his first epistle to the Corinthians where he discusses the gift of tongues.  To support his contention that it is far better to communicate five words in the com­monly understood language than ten thousand in an unknown tongue, he cites Isaiah 28:11-12 and draws the conclusion that tongues are a sign, not to the believer, but to the unbeliever.  Prophecy, on the other hand, is for the believer, not the unbeliever (1 Cor. 1-22).

Before making use of this clue, however, I would like to follow up something else Isaiah mentioned: the Lord’s invitation to rest.  The con­cept of rest was very precious to Israel.  They knew what hard labor was, having been Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt.  Even after they escaped Egyptian bondage, they were forced to make a weary trek through a terrible burn­ing wilderness for forty years before they reached the land of promise—and rest.  So im­portant was this concept that one of their ten commandments instructed them to com­memorate the seventh day as a day of rest even as God had rested on the seventh day from his labor.

Eventually, Joshua led the Israelites into Canaan; after a period of conquest, the day came when God gave them rest round about from all their enemies (2 Sam. 7:1).  King David was then king over all twelve tribes, from Dan to Beer-sheba.  Alas, it was not a permanent peace.

Only a few years later, at the end of the reign of David’s son Solomon, the northern tribes revolted and formed their own kingdom.  From that day on, the land of Israel was beset with trouble and unrest.  First, the northern tribes, called Ephraim, returned to idola­try.  It was to these people that Isaiah addressed his or­acle which we are studying.

Israel, that is, Ephraim, was invaded by As­syria who killed many and deported the rest to Nineveh where they became slaves.  Later, heedless of Israel’s, that is, Ephraim’s, plight, Judah plunged even deeper into idolatry with the result that she was invaded by Babylon.  The few who were not killed were taken captive as slaves to Babylon.  Thus the twelve tribes ended up back where they had started—in slavery among the Gentiles.  Ever since the Egyptian bondage, Israel had sought for rest in the promised land.  Because of disobedience, she never really found what she so de­sired, but rather trouble, toil, and weariness in the lands of the hea­then to which she had been driven.  It was a direct fulfill­ment of Moses’ warn­ing: “And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, nei­ther shall the sole of thy foot have rest . . . .” (Deut.28:65).  Truly it was written, “Judah is gone into cap­tivity because of affliction, and because of great servi­tude:  she dwelleth among the heathen, she findeth no rest” (Lam. 1:3).

Thus it was that they forfeited the “rest and the refreshing” offered them by the Lord.  The Lord then began speaking harshly to them with the “stammering lip and another tongue” of the Babylonians.

Though both the Assyrian and the Babylonian captivities fulfilled Isa­iah’s prophecy, it was only a partial fulfillment.  The whole cycle was to be repeated several centuries later with far more tragic consequences.  This is typical of the Old Testament prophecies:  there was an immediate fulfillment that was in response to some crisis of the day.  It was this that motivated the prophet to speak.  However, problems of the human race have a way of re­peating themselves.  God, looking ahead, inspired the ancient prophets to word their or­acles in such a way that it would be relevant to future generations.⁴

Eventually, the captive Jews were released, and some of them re­turned to Is­rael.  They rebuilt Jerusalem and the temple and settled the land again.  Though they purged them­selves from overt forms of idola­try, such as the worship of graven images, human sacrifice, and ritual­istic sexual impurity, they did not give up covetousness (which Paul defi­nitely equates with idolatry).  Hence, the Babylonian exile was only partially effective in eliminat­ing idolatry from their midst.  It should be remembered that a large number of Jews, per­haps the major­ity, did not return to Israel, but remained in Babylon and other Gentile countries even until the time of Christ.

Skip a few centuries.  That fateful day of Pentecost,  AD 30, dawned bright and clear to find many thousands of the dispersed Jews (the Di­aspora) gathered in Je­rusalem to wor­ship.⁵ And then, an incredible thing happened.  A certain small group of ignorant Gali­laeans were re­portedly speaking supernaturally in several heathen tongues.  As these devout Jews “out of every nation under heaven” gath­ered around to hear, each recognized the speech of the land of his birth!

Though three thousand then and a few more thousand later were con­victed of their sins, repented and were baptized in Jesus’ name to be­come Christ’s disciples, most of the Jews ignored, ridiculed or perse­cuted the movement.  For forty more years, they “chose their own ways,” as Isaiah phrased it.  They refused to hear this, the final invi­tation of the Lord to “come unto me all ye who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest” (Matt.11:28-30).

They had been wanderers among the heathen for 600 years, finding no ease, neither had the sole of their foot found rest.  God had spoken harshly to them through men of other lips and tongues.  Here was a sign unto them, if they would but hearken, that their days of weary wanderings were ended—“this is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing....”—as Isaiah had said.

Yet, they would not hear.

At last, the wrath of God fell on them as the Roman armies trod Jerusalem into the dust, killing millions and leading the thousands of survivors once more into captivity among men of stammer­ing lips and other tongues, where the major por­tion of them remain to the present day.

Therefore, the miraculous phenomenon of other tongues that day at Pentecost was a sign—not to the believer but to the unbelieving Jew—that the greatest Jew­ish tragedy of all time was not far away.  This may appear as a contradiction.  Once again, it is similar to what we have said about the sealed book—closed to the unbeliever, open to the be­liever.  To the Jews who listened to Peter at Pentecost and obeyed, tongues was a sign of rest.  To those who ignored the word of the apostle, it was a sign that their wanderings and weari­ness were only just beginning.

We are told by the author of Hebrews that Joshua (and David) did not give Is­rael the true rest, that is, they did not find rest in Canaan.  Why could he say this?  Because, based on Psalm 95:11, there yet re­mains a rest for the people of God (Heb. 4:4-9).  Christian theology maintains that what Joshua and the judges ac­complished for ancient Is­rael was only temporal, and was but a “type” of the true rest which all believers shall enter one day.

That true rest can only be found by believing on Jesus Christ.  One of Isaiah’s most be­loved prophecies concerns this very thing:

And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land (Isa. 32:2).

Here he poetically terms the wilderness of Judea a “weary land.”  A man shall arise who will be a shelter from raging desert storms; he will sat­isfy their thirst with rivers of water; and one can find rest in him, as under the cool shade of a great rock in the burning desert heat.

The Christian will have no difficulty in seeing here a prophecy of Je­sus Christ.  He is the “shadow of a great Rock.”  The Rock of Israel is a term for the Father whose bright glory dwelt within his Son, casting a shadow of himself out onto the wilderness landscape of Judea.

Jesus offered his people rest:

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light (Matt. 11:28-30).

Here is one of those little coincidences that I find exhilarating.  This passage of Matthew comes directly after Jesus had prayed, thanking the Father because he had hidden the spiritual things from the wise and prudent but had revealed them unto babes (11:25).  Note how the oracle in Isaiah 28 also brings together the offer of rest and the notion of mere babes understanding the word of God which had utterly confused the proud and scornful rulers.  Surely, Jesus had this text of Isaiah and the related prophecy in the next chapter (29:14) well in mind that day.

But for all of that, the Jews would not hear.  Jesus, and his offer of the true rest, was rejected by a covetous people.  They had their hopes pinned on a literal king­dom free from Gentile domination of any kind, with the Gentiles being subjected as mere servants, even slaves, to build up and maintain their cities, farms, and flocks.  They had no time for the true rest that can only come from an humble and contrite heart and from having one’s sins purged away.

After a period of grace, about 40 years, the Jews revolted against Rome.  It was disas­trous.  Jerusalem was once again destroyed, most of the population killed, and the rest led into slavery among the Gentile nations.  After another 65 years, the remaining Jews in the countryside revolted once more.  This time, Rome emptied the holy land of every Jew.  It was a repetition of the Babylonian defeat over 700 years previ­ously.

We are now ready to take a look at Paul’s clue.  He quotes Isaiah 28:11-12 in his first epistle to the Corinthians (14:21).  His subject is the gift of tongues that was being exer­cised by that church.  I think we should note what he says about the gift of tongues, for it will have a decided bearing on our subject.

In verses 2-20, Paul elaborates on the point that it is useless to try to communi­cate in a language that the hearer does not understand.  He summarizes with these words:  “I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than ye all:  yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thou­sand words in an unknown tongue” (1 Cor. 14:18-19).

God adhered to the same principle.  When he spoke to ancient Israel through the prophets, it was always in their own language (Hebrew).  Even if such a mir­acle had hap­pened that a Hebrew prophet should sud­denly and without learning have begun speaking in a foreign lan­guage, of what use would it have been?  How could the people have un­der­stood?  God’s message would have been wasted.  So truly did God adhere to this principle that on those occasions when the Israelites be­gan speaking an­other language, the language of prophecy was changed to suit.  For ex­ample, while in captivity in Babylon, Israel began speak­ing Aramaic, a Se­mitic language related to, but distinct from, Hebrew.  Those por­tions of prophecy that were recorded during the captivity are also written in Aramaic.  This includes portions of Ezra, Daniel, and Jeremiah.  The postexilic prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, re­turned to Hebrew for their writings because the nation had been restored and had returned to Hebrew as its native language.

Tongues was also a sign that Israel’s God had forsaken her in an­other but closely related way.  With the beheading of John the Baptist, of whom Jesus said no greater prophet ever lived, the age of the He­brew prophets was ended.  “The law and the prophets were until John”—now God was per­forming a new thing.  As Peter informed Israel on that feast of Pente­cost, Joel’s prophecy (2:28-32) was being fulfilled before their eyes:  God was pour­ing out his Spirit upon all flesh, and they would prophesy.  Not only Hebrews, but Ro­mans, Greeks, Arabians, Rus­sians, Germans, Americans, Hottentots and Eskimos, were to be prophets of the most High.  Their sons and daughters would prophesy (no dis­crimina­tion by sex); young men would see visions and old men would dream dreams (two ways in which prophecy came; no dis­crimination by age); even upon the servants and the hand­maids would God pour out his Spirit (no discrimination by social status); all would receive God’s Spirit and all would be prophets.  As Paul summed it up, “For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free” (1 Cor. 12:13).

The tongues of Pentecost was a sign that the spirit of prophecy, the gift of prophecy, and the power to understand prophecy were now de­parting from Israel and resting upon the Gentiles.  If, by some incredi­ble stretch of the imagination, the Jews should ever again wish to hear from the Lord, or have the prophetic or­acles expounded unto them, they must go inquire of some lowly Gentile prophet and hear his message spoken perhaps in Greek, Russian, Chinese or En­glish.  No more would they have the luxury of hearing (and by hearing, I mean with under­standing) God’s or­acles in the sacred Hebrew tongue.

One of the most obvious ways in which the sign of tongues is mani­fested is simply that the words of Jesus and the apostles, which we call the New Testament, are written in Greek, not Hebrew.  An ancient tra­dition says that Matthew alone wrote his gospel origi­nally in Hebrew, but later it was translated into Greek.  No known copies of his Hebrew manuscript survive.

But, as Isaiah prophesied, they will not hear.  The message they refuse to hear is the testimony of Jesus—which is the spirit of prophecy (Rev. 19:10)—found in their own Holy Scrip­tures.  To the un­believer, the Scriptures might as well be written, and the prophecies spoken, in an unknown tongue.  To the Jew, the or­acles of the holy prophets are a closed book, sealed with seven seals.  The disciple of Je­sus can open those seals for him but only if he believes.  Thus, tongues are a sign to the unbeliever, but prophecy is for the be­liever.

It is hardly possible to discuss the Biblical phenomenon of tongues without mentioning the tower of Babel.  The story, found in Genesis 11:1-9, is about an attempt by a certain people to build a city and a tower, “whose top may reach unto heaven.”  The Lord was displeased with their project; he “confounded” their language that they could not under­stand one another’s speech.  As a consequence, they were “scattered abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city” (Gen. 11:9).  The name of the city was Babel, which means “confusion,” because of the confusion of tongues that be­gan there.

There is an obvious parallel here with the events of the day of Pen­tecost, when the dis­ciples spoke miraculously in several languages.  As I was studying this one day, I noticed a key word that appeared in both accounts:  confound.  In Genesis, the Lord “confounded” their language and scattered the people abroad.  In Acts, the Jews who “came to­gether” were “confounded because that every man heard them speak in his own language.”  Knowing that the English words selected by the translators can sometimes be misleading, since the same English word may be used to translate different Hebrew or Greek words, I took the trouble to look it up.  Here is what I found:  the word “confound” in the Genesis story is from the He­brew balal which means “to mix, mingle.”  The name Babel, which means “confusion,” is derived from this word.⁶ The word in the story in Acts comes from the Greek sugchuno which means “to confuse, pour out to­gether.”  Hence, the word “confound” is correctly applied to both.

Here is the parallel I noticed:  whereas the language of the Babyloni­ans was “confounded” and the people scattered abroad, the Jews of the Diaspora, who were scat­tered abroad and spoke many languages, were gathered together in Jeru­salem where they were “confounded.”  These incidents are the “inverses” of one another, to use a mathe­matical con­cept.  After this hint, I began looking for other parallels.

First, we note that the people of Babylon (the Greek form of Babel) began to build a city and a tower “whose top may reach unto heaven.”  This, of course, simply means “a very high tower.”  It might also mean that the priests used the tower to influence the gods of heaven by the sacrifices that were performed on its top.  We note, finally, that the re­sult of the Lord’s visit was an end of building the city.

When we consider Jerusalem, we can see some of the same elements.  The people were of one speech—in the first century, this was Aramaic, the same lan­guage as Babylon of the Chaldees.  The priests were also building a city and a tower whose top might reach unto heaven.  That city was Jerusalem.  The tower was the priestly link between God and man.  The high priest was the only man on earth who actually was per­mitted to stand in the presence of God (on the day of Atonement).  His mediatorial function was based on the Levitical rituals recorded in the writ­ings of Moses.  No man could come to God except as he became a Jew, being circumcised if a male, subjecting himself to the Mosaic law, and bringing sacrifices for his sins to the temple.  Having done all this, he could consider him­self a candidate for heaven.  Thus, the cult of Moses, called Judaism, was a tower “whose top may reach unto heaven.”

As we have shown, the priests and other spiritual rulers of Jerusalem had be­come con­fused concerning the writings of the prophets.  In their blindness and confusion, they cast out the Rock that should have been the chief cornerstone of the temple they were trying to build.  Here is what Peter said of them:

Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief cor­ner stone, elect, precious: and he that be­lieveth on him shall not be confounded (1 Pet. 2:6, cited from Isa. 28:16).

Finally, we note that, just as the ancient Babylonians called Babylon the “gate of God,” the Jewish leaders considered Jerusalem to be the “gate of God.”  In reality, it was a city of confusion.  Their confusion, or “confounding,” became complete when they cruci­fied the Lord and rejected the gospel preached by the apostles.  When the Lord came down to Jerusalem in the form of the Holy Spirit, the disciples began miraculously speaking in tongues.  This was a sign that pointed to the soon coming day when the citizens of Jerusa­lem would be scattered abroad and forced to speak in tongues other than their own.  This sec­ond scattering also caused the cessation of the building of Jerusalem.

Had they but known it, the Lord was building a new city and a new tower.  That new city is called the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from God (Rev. 3:12).  The new tower is the name of the Lord which the Son of God was given.  “The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous runneth into it and is safe” (Prov. 18:10).

Surely, these parallels between ancient Babylon with its tower and Jerusalem with its temple are not without significance, as we shall see

 

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