“At thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore” (Ps. 16: 11)
The Basket Case Chronicles #169
“Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord. Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not: but prophesying serveth not for them that believe not, but for them which believe.” (1 Cor. 14:20–22).
We now come to a place in the New Testament where it is really important to let the testaments speak to one another. Paul starts by saying that we must not be childish in our thinking, but instead we should be mature. When it comes to malice we should not be mature, but in our theology we are called to maturity.
With this exhortation, Paul then quotes Isaiah 28, and cites it as his reason for encouraging them to speak intelligibly in their worship services. The context of Isaiah’s warning is a context of judicial blindness, where Isaiah’s warnings to the hard-hearted were all yammer yammer yammer.
“For with stammering lips and another tongue Will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; And this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was unto them Precept upon precept, precept upon precept; Line upon line, line upon line; Here a little, and there a little; That they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, And snared, and taken.” (Isaiah 28:11–13).
This is the passage Paul quotes when he is explaining why tongues is a sign (of judgment) on unbelievers. Isaiah taught them plainly, but they taunted him in return, mocking his simplistic teaching—line on line, precept on precept, sing-songy ABCing to the widdle Sunday School kids. Very well then, Isaiah says, if you treat the plain Word of God as gibberish, what you will get is gibberish. You don’t listen to God when the prophet speaks, and so maybe you will understand it when your streets are full of Babylonian soldiers speaking a strange language. The end result is that they go and fall backward, are broken, snared and captured.
The same thing is promised in the law.
“The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;” (Deut. 28:49).
Tongues speaking was therefore given as a sign of judgment. When the streets of Jerusalem were filled with the praises of God in multiple languages, this was a great blessing to those who were speaking those praises, along with those who heard them and entered into the praise But it was simultaneously (and more importantly) a sign of judgment on the residents of Jerusalem who did not know what was going on. Those who accused them of drunkenness were being handed over to the judgment of God, a precursor to the Latin-speaking soldiers who would be on them within a generation. It is not a good thing.
Tongues are a sign of pending military judgment, and they were an ominous sign given to the obdurate and unbelieving. So why should such a practice be emphasized inside a Christian worship service? Prophesy—intelligibility—is for the community of faith. Why? Because we are not under condemnation, not under judgment.
Good post. For Israel, there was also a command to teach the law to their children by rote: “And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring). For I know what they are inclined to do even today, before I have brought them into the land that I swore to give.” (Deuteronomy 31:21) This is the background not only for Psalm 8:2, but Jesus’ quoting of that Psalm in Matthew 21:15-16. Has anyone ever been reminded of a truth by… Read more »
I think the “why” is because they are a sign that God wishes the church to not be divided by the purposeful confusion of foreign languages, but rather that “nothing shall be impossible for them” in short, Acts 2 was the reverse of Babel. My experience has been that most arguments are (at the core) against the common application of tongues but “The abuse of a thing does not negate the use”. The chief difference between tongues, prophesy and healing is that they get progressively harder to fake. And by fake I mean self deception by people of good will… Read more »
This is very helpful. I had always struggled to understand what tongues as a sign to unbelievers meant. It seemed to me like it should have been the other way around tongues for believers (they get the gift) and prophecy for unbelievers (they get evidence of God’s truth); but Paul didn’t write this thus I knew I didn’t understand the passage. You are claiming that Paul states (foreign) tongues are generally a (judgment) sign to unbelievers (as per OT). If this is the case be careful about unintelligible languages in church. Perhaps I should read more commentaries, and pay attention… Read more »
Is there a name/reason for the odd capitlization in Isaiah 28:11–13 ? I have highlighted the words below; the ones in bold like ‘Will’ and Precept I find problematic. The ones in italics seem “ok” in that they look like the beginning of complete phrases “For with stammering lips and another tongue Will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; And this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was unto them Precept upon precept, precept upon precept; Line… Read more »
Timothy, I think you’re just looking at a cut and paste from a Bible version that capitalizes the first word of every line in prophetic passages, with the line breaks removed.
Jane, thank you.
This is the best commentary I’ve seen on this subject. After abandoning my Southern Baptist roots for a long while for “charismatic” churches, I finally, after many years, had to face facts that what I was experiencing/witnessing did not match the biblical accounts. Even allowing for user error I should have at least occasionally seen something that seemed authentic but I never did. Even so, I would have had a hard time making a scriptural case for believing tongues had ceased. This article is a big help.
The gift of tongues has definitely not ceased, despite all the counterfeit babble I’ve seen and heard through the years I have been witness to several legitimate and proper usages of tongues ( in quite varied situations and circumstances ). However one common theme was much needed correction ( once judgement ) aimed toward the leadership, which explains why the general disdain expressed by the leadership towards it Doug, as much as I really enjoy your blog , your outlook on things and generally very much agree with you, I have to say ( respectfully ) in this one area… Read more »
And yet in the same passage Paul said, “I speak in tongues more than all of you.” And “I wish you all spoke with tongues but rather that you prophesy.” Paul clearly lays out that those who speak in tongues are communing with God and that tongues accompanied by interpretation is equal to prophesy. Isaiah 28 is an obscure passage to build a theology regarding tongues on as it is not referring to the New Testament practice of “speaking in tongues”. Isaiah 28 is referring to the fact that God spoke clearly to Israel line on line and precept on… Read more »