CHAPTER ONE
“Speaking in Tongues Defined”
What is Speaking in Tongues?
The first reference to speaking in tongues can be found in the 28th chapter of Isaiah, where the prophet wrote:
“For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, (Israel)”
verse 11, (parentheses added)
In this verse we find the Prophet Isaiah is relaying to the Nation of Israel the Lord’s displeasure with their waywardness. God had chosen them to be the vessel through which he would make his will know to mankind. (Deut 7:6,7; Isa 49:6) Thus, if anyone desired to know God, he would need to submit himself to the moral and ceremonial mandates given to Israel by God. (Exo 12:48, 49; Lev 16:29, 30; 17:13-15; Num 15:28-30)
As God’s chosen vessel, Israel had the incredible responsibility of not only maintaining God’s moral and ceremonial commandments, but to also look forward to the coming of the One who these commandments foreshadowed. (Deut 18:15-19; Jer 23:5-8) Had Israel been consistent in the performance of this duty, Christ would have had a broad base of support from which to make his will known during his incarnation. Instead, Israel repeatedly fell short of this responsibility throughout their history. Isaiah 28 records God’s rebuke for this shortsighted disobedience.
This chapter begins with God reproving Israel for their pride and drunkenness, and likening their authority as His sole channel through which salvation could be attained to a fading flower. (verses 1-4) He goes on to express that this would occur at His incarnation; to the joy of the few in Israel that were looking for him, and to the dismay of the majority of Israel who weren’t. (verses 5, 6)
The Israel of Isaiah’s day had grown stagnant and self-willed, seeking their own will rather than the Lord’s. Instead of following the Lord’s lead in the way they should go, they turned to their own way; a way of drunkenness and self-indulgence leading to spiritual blindness. (verse 7, 8)
As a result of this spiritual blindness, Israel became incapable of understanding the purpose of the Law. Instead of seeing its spiritual significance, they were hung up on the carrying out of ritual. Or as Isaiah puts it; “But he word of the Lord was to them precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught.” In this, the Prophet Isaiah illustrates how the law had become merely a ritual to be followed with no thought as to its purpose to Israel. (verses 9, 10, 13)
It was this lack of insight that actually caused the apostasy of Israel. They “stumbled at the stumbling stone.” (Isa 8:13-15; 28:13; Rom 9:30-33) Because of this apostasy, Israel was rendered incapable of understanding God’s rest, let alone entering into it. (verse 12; Matt 11:28) Further, because of this wanton ignorance, God made it known to Israel that His judgment would befall them at some point in time in their future. The sign by which they would be able to recognize the onset of this judgment would be seen in the “stammering lips and another tongue” that God would use to “speak to this people.” (verse 11)
Thus, tongues are defined as the phenomenon by which God would reveal to National Israel that their position as the sole conduit by which he would make His will known unto mankind had been removed. Others outside of National Israel would then enjoy the privilege of entering into God’s rest apart from them, and would play a major role in His plan of salvation to mankind as well. It would be nearly one thousand years before this prophecy was realized.
