Tongues and Appointed Times

[Gary]

Tongues and Appointed Times

��”That is why the Lord now says: ‘sav lasav, sav lasav, kav lakav, kav lakav, zeer sham, zeer sham’, so that when they walk they may fall over backwards and be broken, snared and made captive.”(Is.28:10-13).��

The NIV has “foreign lips.” Most pertinent to our study, however, is the fact that the Hebrew לעג could not imply “ecstatic speech” —it is a term used often in contexts of “derision” or “mocking” and is certainly the contextual meaning here. Isaiah, in his prophecy, was simply applying a previous prophecy found in Deut 28:49, where God promises the invasion of foreigners whose language would be unknown.

Tongues are a sign of judgement, not a sign of a true believer. In the Hebrew sav lasav sav lasav; kav lakav kav lakav is written and it essentially means, simplified, “Line upon line, precept upon precept. But more directly it describes the simple process of obedience, “Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there.” This is very simple, childlike Instructions, almost a melodious rhyme, describing the process not only of obedience but the process of all believers in all times.

Those who will not understand what is plain, but scorn and despise it as mean and trifling, are justly punished. If we are at peace with God, we have, in effect, made a covenant with death; whenever it comes, it cannot do us any real damage, if we are Messiah’s.

“Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far, O house of Israel, saith the Lord: it is a mighty nation, an ancient nation, a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say,” Jeremiah 5:15. Is it a wonder the Syrians are being moved to America and Isis is having its rage upon the land today?

“In the law it is written, with men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people (Jews); 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…”. 1Corinthians 14:21,22. It is not from lack of ability, but from a kind of paralysis of the understanding, dare I say a blindness, except within a certain range of thought that mankind once dispersed has difficulty understanding the simplest commands or thought.

Tongues must have a significant story to tell us as to the purpose of the Ruach’s(Spirit’s) coming in this way, Acts 2. The most obvious interpretation fits well with Messiah’s command upon the disciples to evangelize the world, Matthew. 28:19, 20; Acts 1:8. That He enabled them to speak in different languages was enormously symbolic of the realized New Covenant first mentioned in Jeremiah 31:31-34, which would bring to fruition the promise made to the fathers that “in your seed all the nations of earth will be blessed.” And Shavuot, celebrating the harvest, is likewise replete with symbolism as the followers of Messiah are now endowed to reap the harvest of mankind for God’s glory.

Isaiah, in 712 BC (Isaiah 28:11), had in simple Hebrew warned the Jews to repent from their sinful ways. They rejected his plain message in Hebrew, and so God said that He would speak to them in the tongues of foreigners, like the Assyrians, to see if this would cause them to repent. Paul quotes this to show that the main purpose of tongues in the first century was to authenticate the message of Messiah to unbelieving Jews to get them to repent of their sins.

Now, my question is, are believers that disregard the Saturday, Seventh Day Sabbath and YHWH ‘s appointed times, His Feasts and Festivals really any better than the unbelieving Jews? After all dispersion followed quite often after the people rebelled. Isn’t rebellion a sign of Torahlessness, Lawlessness? Isn’t that Antinomianism? The believers that proclaim and defend outbursts of ecstatic utterances, do they really understand what they are doing and proclaiming or what the purpose was originally for and intended? Do said believers of today really understand that the Torah, His perpetual Feasts and Festivals are really Messiah’s loving Instructions and a most joyous Ketubah for His Betrothed? Many do not, hence the rebellion, hence the dispersion.

Let’s begin, back to the Bereshith, the Begining and see a bit of untold or unfamilar Truth from history and Scripture:

Tower of Babel. Genesis 11.
Foreign tongues first appeared in Genesis 11:1 “And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech.” Pride, thinking one could reach The Holy One in a different Way than Instructed.

Disobedient Israel followed next. Deuteronomy 28:1,15, 49-“God causes tongues to be heard as a sign of judgment: One curse that God promised was a foreign conquering nation speaking strange tongues.”The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far…..as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand,” Deut. 28:49. The Chaldeans might be said to come from far, in comparison of the Moabites, Philistines, and other neighbouring nations, which used to infest Judea.” Read Jeremiah 5:15 and Jeremiah 6:22. And they are represented as pursuing them with the swiftness of eagles, Lamentations 4:19. The Romans too, from the rapidity of their conquests, might very well be compared to eagles, and perhaps not without an allusion to the standard of the Roman armies, which was an eagle, and their language was more unknown to the Jews than the Chaldee. Hence we are now influenced today by the majority of Greco-Roman rule and thought.

Continuing on, the Babylonian tongues heard by dishonest Judah in 612 BC. Jeremiah 3-5. The people refuse to listen to God: “thou hast consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction….they have refused to return.” Jeremiah 5:3. If Israel would not heed Jeremiah’s warnings, then God would speak to them by strange tongues and swords of an invading nation. “Lo, I will bring a nation upon you from far…..a mighty nation,…..a nation whose language thou knowest not, neither understandest what they say.” Jeremiah 5:15.

God caused tongues to be heard as a sign of judgment: “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.” Isaiah 28:11.

Dispersion follows: “that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken, (captive) Isaiah 28:13.

New Testament tongues to Israel 30-70 AD. Israel did not learn from the tongues warnings that led to the Assyrian and Babylonian captivities in 721 and 606 BC. So God again warned them with the early Followers speaking in tongues from 30-70 AD to warn them to repent or God would judge them. This happened by Titus the Roman general destroying Jerusalem in 70 AD.

God has a message for the people:”Come unto me…..and I will give you rest.” Matthew 11:28. “We do hear them speak in our tongues. (v11) Then Peter said unto them, Repent….(v39).” Acts 2:11, 38, 39.

However the people refuse to listen to God:”O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not.” Matthew 23:37.

Isn’t it interesting how the prophets who told the people to get back to “Biblical” Truth and walk in accordance to the Torah (The Mark, The Instructions, His “Yarah”) they were mocked shunned and silenced just as those that point to The Way back to Torah are mocked, shunned and many attempt to silence them in the Church today due to the presumed acceptance of Dispensationalism.

The people refused to listen and heed Instructions then, as many still do today. The purpose of tongues in Acts 2 may be collectively discussed under two main heads: (1) To mark the giving of the Ruach as promised by Jochanan the Baptizer and Messiah for the realization of Messiah’s world-wide evangelistic commission, and (2) to mark the beginning of the “times of the Gentiles” and thus of God’s judgment against the nation of Israel according to the prophets of the TaNaK and the words of Messiah in Matthew 21:43. The Ruach was given, then, to bring to fruition the “New Covenant” promised by Jeremiah. The flow of the narrative in Acts makes it clearly Luke’s purpose to show the Shavuot following Messiah’s resurrection as the realization of Messiah’s promise that the Ruach would come to aid in the fulfillment of His commands.

The Apostolic Scriptures declare, “11And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” Ephesians 4

He gave, to equip, for the building up of the Body, to attain unity of the faith and knowledge, to maturity, so we don’t get distracted and misled. It’s not, and never was about us, or building ourselves up. Tongues were not given for personal use yet for the expansion of the Gospel.Thus it is written in Acts 2:6, “And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one was hearing them speak in his own language.” We were created to glorify YHWH not ourselves. So if we children, pray in the Assembly without interpretations we truly are not glorifying anyone, but ourselves. Each man understood, understanding is a gift, a miracle of the Spirit, thus, there must either a known language or an Interpretation. These are not my opinions, they are commands from Paul scribed all over 1Corinthians 14, direct case and point of verses 27, “If anyone speaks in a tongue, two—or at the most three—should speak, one at a time, and someone must interpret. 28, If there is no interpreter, the speaker should keep quiet in the church and speak to himself and to God.”

20″Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. 21In the Law it is written, “By people of strange tongues and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and even then they will not listen to me, says the Lord.” 22Thus tongues are a sign not for believers but for unbelievers, while prophecy is a sign not for unbelievers but for believers. 23If, therefore, the whole church comes together and all speak in tongues, and outsiders or unbelievers enter, will they not say that you are out of your minds? 24But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is convicted by all, he is called to account by all, 25the secrets of his heart are disclosed, and so, falling on his face, he will worship God and declare that God is really among you.”1 Corinthians 14

We have clearly seen from the TaNaK and the Apostolic Scriptures exactly the point and purpose of tongues.

The point I’m making is the Jews required a sign, something to be shown right then and there that those coming into fellowship with them were truly of the Faith. Christians are no better than the Jews of that day by declaring tongues be the sign they are saved, that they are of the Faith, that going to church on Sunday, dressing nice, tithing, singing songs or weekly programs and midweek services are signs as well. Those are not signs the Right Hand of Majesty asks of us!

Nowhere in any of the Apostolic Scriptures will you find Messiah commanding such. Nowhere are ecstatic utterances commanded, by the Messiah yet He did command us to make disciples teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you, Matthew 28:20. Repentance and Obedience to His commands is the sign we love Him, otherwise He wouldn’t have commanded us, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.”John 15:9,10.

Again, even from the simple words of Messiah we hear and read a clear command,”Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love,” interesting how that supports,”Do this, do that, a rule for this, a rule for that; a little here, a little there.”

Messiah said, “A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign! But none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah,”Matthew 12:39. An inward change producing an outward obedience is what He has always asked for. Trees producing good fruit. Not just fruit, but good fruit.

Here, again, we see tongues was a call to repentance, repentance came through preaching True Gospel Message. Repentance is a returning to The Torah. How can we repent if we refuse to acknowledge His Torah and return to it? The Body can’t rightly preach the law is done away with while they preach repentance. It’s self contradictory.

Keeping Sabbath, following His Feasts and Festivals, His perpetual Appointed Seasons, following His “‘sav lasav, sav lasav, kav lakav, kav lakav, zeer sham, zeer sham,'” (Line upon line, precept upon precept; rule on rule, a little here, a little there) that is the sign! “Tell the people of Israel: ‘Be careful to keep my Sabbath day, for the Sabbath is a sign of the covenant between me and you from generation to generation.” Exodus 31:31

“And I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, to know that I am יהוה who sets them apart. ‘And set apart My Sabbaths, and they shall be a sign between Me and you, to know that I am יהוה your Elohim.’’- Ezekiel 20:12, 20

We all have our appointed times we get up, go to work, and go to sleep. How we do things, what we eat and how we cook. He is simply asking us to follow His Instructions, His Appointed Times. That is our sign! To do things how He wants things to be done. If we confess with our lips He is יהוה why not do things, celebrate things in honor of Him, doing the things He asked, The Way He asked. Is not obedience the highest form of worship? Is not imitation the highest form of flattery? However as I stated in the begining when we reject His commands, we are no better than the Jews.

In conclusion, according to Scripture we must return to Biblical Truth and Understanding, tongues are a sign for unbelievers, it is a sign of judgement being brought to fruition, a method used by and through The Ruach HaKodesh(The Holy Spirit) used by the early Church to spread the Gospel. The Gospel first given providing a way back to an obedient relationship with the Father.

Birekoth (blessings) to you,
Gary Murphy
Hupomeno Ministries-hupomoné: a patient enduring

Ashrei!Aleychem HaShalom – Blessed contentment, May peace be upon you.

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