Tongues - A Sign of Judgment

TONGUES - A SIGN OF JUDGEMENT

Something about tongues we never hear in the modern church today. Most never knew what the day of Pentecost and tongues were actually a “sign” for and to whom the “sign” was to.

Let’s begin where Paul begins, not with the modern church experience, but with the Old Testament.

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.

Isaiah 28:11–12

Who are “this people”? Isaiah was speaking to covenant Israel. And we must notice the warning surrounding this prophecy. They would hear God speaking through stammering lips, tongues yet they would not hear Him. The sign of another tongue appears within a larger prophecy concerning covenant rebellion and approaching judgment.

Keep reading: Judgment.

Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

Isaiah 28:17

Prophetic imagery.

And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.

Isaiah 28:18

Trodden down is a keyword that surfaces throughout the scriptures. Which is significant.

… Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

Luke 21:24

Now, the language about a “covenant with death” is especially interesting when we come into the New Testament. In its immediate setting, Isaiah was condemning Judah’s rulers for trusting in a false refuge that they believed would protect them from the coming scourge. But there is also a powerful covenantal connection with Paul’s language concerning the Old Covenant.

Paul called the covenant written and engraved in stones “the ministration of death” and “the ministration of condemnation” in 2 Corinthians 3:7–9.

Remember, the Law itself was holy, but because of the power of sin, it would condemn rather than give life. By the first century, Israel’s leaders were clinging to that fading covenantal order while rejecting the one who brought life.

Paul said that administration was “done away” and that its glory was “passing away.” Isaiah’s covenant of death and Paul’s administration of death are not identical expressions, but the connection is striking. In both settings, trusting in something that could not deliver them from judgment would end in destruction.

That was the covenant of sin and death that many still try holding on to even this day. Paul called it weak in Romans 8:3.

So, Isaiah, therefore, was not merely predicting a supernatural outpouring but that prophecy of other tongues appears in a context of covenant unbelief, refusal to hear God, and judgment that would come.

Now, let’s really look at the Day of Pentecost. The apostles began speaking with other tongues, and the many Jews from throughout the nations heard them speaking in their own languages. Peter stood up and explained what was happening.

He said this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.

Acts 2:16

Joel also prophesied an upcoming judgment when speaking of the outpouring of the Spirit.

Peter did not separate the outpouring of the Spirit from the approaching Day of the Lord. He continued and this was his reminder:

And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come.

Acts 2:19–20

There it is again! The miraculous sign appears alongside prophetic judgment language.

Pentecost announced something wonderful, the pouring out of the Spirit, but it also announced that the covenant world was changing and that judgment was approaching upon that unbelieving nation.

Then Peter brings the warning directly home a few words later to the people standing in front of him.

Save yourselves from this untoward generation.

Acts 2:40

The perverse and wicked generation. That generation. This was the finale of what the prophets warned. That statement matters.

Pentecost was not an isolated event; it occurred within a specific covenant generation facing an approaching judgment. Peter was preaching to people living in a particular covenant generation. It was the same generation Jesus repeatedly warned concerning the judgment that would culminate in the destruction of Jerusalem.

Now watch what Paul does in 1 Corinthians. When Paul explains tongues, he reaches directly back to Isaiah 28.

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.

1 Corinthians 14:21

Then Paul tells us:

Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not.

1 Corinthians 14:22

The questions we need to ask is simple: A sign to whom? Who are the unbelievers?

Paul has already answered the question by quoting Isaiah: “THIS PEOPLE.” The original prophecy concerned covenant Israel refusing to hear God.

At Pentecost, Jews gathered from throughout the nations heard the apostles speaking in their own languages. Peter connected what was happening with the approaching Day of the Lord and then warned “this generation.” Paul later quotes the very prophecy from Isaiah when explaining the purpose of tongues as a sign to the multitude that heard him.

That context matters because and is often removed from its prophetic setting and made to mean that tongues are simply a sign for any unbelieving person who happens to walk into a church service today. But that misses why Paul quoted Isaiah in the first place. Paul was not inventing a new meaning for tongues. He was explaining their significance through an Old Testament prophecy concerning an unbelieving covenant people. Let this sink in.

Isaiah said that God would speak to “this people” with another tongue, yet they would not hear. Isaiah placed that sign in the context of approaching judgment. At Pentecost, the other tongues appeared, Peter announced the approaching Day of the Lord, and warned that very generation. Then Paul looked back to Isaiah and said that tongues were a sign to the unbelieving.

Once we allow Scripture to interpret Scripture, the picture becomes much clearer.

Tongues were not merely an unusual manifestation occurring in first century worship. They carried covenantal, prophetic, and judicial significance. They appeared during the transition from the Old Covenant administration of death and condemnation into the New Covenant ministry of the Spirit and life, while the unbelieving covenant nation was rapidly approaching the judgment Jesus said would come upon that generation.

And centuries before Pentecost, Isaiah had already told them what their response would be:

Yet they would not hear.

This article is neutral to the debate of Cessationism verses Continuationism. The main focus is that the tongues that appeared at Pentecost and was a prophetic sign that Judgment was near. It happened just like they said.