Gift of Tongues

This week we will conclude the subject concerning the Gift of Tongues and show how tongues were used in Acts and Corinthians and why Paul says they were a “sign” to the unbeliever in 1 Cor. 14.22. To understand v 22 you have to understand v.21 where Paul quotes Isaiah 28 11. Starting in v9 of Isaiah he tells the people that God cannot teach knowledge to babies who were just weaned from “milk” or simple things. He has had no success telling them the plain truth about what was coming upon the land. The people wouldn’t listen and so instead of dealing with them as adults, they would be dealt with like children. In v 10 it says “Order on order, order on order, line on line, line on line, a little here and a little there.” In Hebrew however it says “ Tzav L’tzav, tzav l’zav, kav l’kav,kav l’kav, ze’er sham, ze’er sham” which doesn’t mean a thing and certainly not how it is translated in English. It’s gibberish and “foreign” sounding and that was the point. Now he says that God was going to speak to this people through stammering lips and a foreign tongue (language).

In other words, because they wouldn’t listen to the plain words of the prophets to repent and turn to Him, he was going to speak to them through people with a strange language they wouldn’t understand, speaking of the Assyrians and Babylonians, later the Greeks and Romans. They would fill the streets of Jerusalem with a foreign language the people would not know as a sign to them that they had rejected the plain words of the Scriptures and the prophets and now this was judgment against them. And we know from history this did indeed happen and the people learned a valuable lesson resulting in a return from the Babylonian captivity after 70 years. But, after awhile they went back to their old ways of not listening to the prophets and began to be like children in their understanding of the Scriptures and when Yeshua came along they didn’t recognize Him because of all the man-made interpretations that overshadowed the plain understanding of the Scriptures and the coming of the Messiah. Yeshua was barely recognizable to the religious man of the 1st century. This brings us up to Acts 2.2-41. The people are gathered in the Temple at the Feast of Shavuot, or Pentecost.

As promised, the Holy Spirit comes upon the believers there and they begin to speak in ”tongues” or foreign languages. In v 5-11 the people who heard these “tongues” were unbelievers at the time and were amazed because they heard them in their native languages and wondered what it all meant (v 12-15). In Acts 2.16-36 Peter says that it was a sign that the Holy Spirit had come as promised as another proof that Yeshua was the Messiah. After hearing this they were shocked and asked what to do and Peter tells them to repent, be immersed and filled with the Holy Spirit, and 3000 were saved that day. The tongues got their attention. So, Paul tells the Corinthians that tongues are a sign to the unbeliever.

They reveal what is in his heart and it will get their attention in order that they might repent and be saved. Tongues were used in the Scriptures as a sign of judgment because the unbeliever has obviously not paid attention to the plain words of the Scriptures and this was to get their attention. That’s why Paul tells the Corinthians not to be so desirous of tongues, not that they shouldn’t desire the gift but know why God manifested Himself in that way in the past.

Some of the Corinthians were puffed up in pride and liked the more demonstrative gifts to show their spirituality so Paul had to put these things in proper order and perspective without dampening their desire for spiritual gifts as a whole.