Whom shall he teach knowledge

"Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: 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" (Isa. 28:9-13). It is quite evident that God was reproving the mindset of his people who "leaned on [their] own understanding" in regard to the scriptures, but did NOT regard the actual word of the Lord (Prov. 3:5). This passage was in fact about Jesus and his Gospel that he left for his apostles to establish. How do I know this? By this part of the passage: "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." According to the apostle Paul this passage of scripture, and the reference of "stammering lips and another tongue," was speaking directly of the new testament sign of "speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives the utterance," which sign began on the day of Pentecost (I Cor. 14:21,22; Acts 2:4). In fact speaking with other tongues upon receiving God's Spirit is the sign of the covenant which Jesus died and rose to establish. The new covenant is all about the true remission of sins for those who believe, which literal remission of sins was not offered by the old covenant, as the scriptures affirm to us (Heb. 9:13,14; Heb. 10:4). Note in our text passage that Isaiah said that speaking in tongues IS the rest for the weary, and it is the refreshing as well.

So what is this rest and refreshing about? "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you REST" (Mat. 11:28). And this: "Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord" (Acts 3:19). The 'rest' that Jesus came to provide is the rest that our soul obtains when we believe on Jesus, and have our sins literally and truly taken away. Peter plainly said that the 'refreshing' would come from the Lord when we "repent, and [are] converted, having [our] sins blotted out." So again I say that the new testament sign of speaking with other tongues is the sign of the new covenant, even as circumcision was the sign of the old covenant (Gen. 17:10,11). So even as God told Abraham that his sign of circumcision must be in the flesh of every male of his seed, so God's chosen sign of speaking in tongues is present with everyone who enters into covenant with the Lord through the remission of their sins. And yes, that does mean that the baptism of the holy Ghost, evidenced by speaking with other tongues, is the new birth experience. Period. And yes, that scriptural truth is contrary to all of modern Christian tradition, but there is certainly nothing new about that. That brings me back to our passage from Isaiah, and the significance of it. What our text passage is really saying is that the religious leaders when Jesus was here, had their own interpretation of the law and the scriptures, and that is why they rejected Jesus and the apostles who carried on his Gospel after him. Isaiah clearly said that the 'wise' of Jesus' time fell backward, and were "broken, snared and taken." And he clearly said that was because they did not recognize the word of the Lord that God established in Jesus, and the sign he gave to commemorate what Jesus accomplished; that being "stammering lips and another tongue." We also see in the very beginning of Isaiah's passage something that Jesus alluded to as well: "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes" (Mat. 11:25).

Before Pentecost, and before Jesus died, rose again, and went back to heaven; he told those who rejected him the exact same thing that Isaiah wrote about approximately seven hundred years before: "Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life" (Jn. 5:39,40). So the religious elite thought they had great understanding of the scriptures, but they did not recognize the very "Word of God [that] was made flesh, and dwelt among [them]" (Jn. 1:14). And of course that is why they also did not recognize his sign of the new covenant that was established at Pentecost with the birth of the body of Christ. So Jesus told his detractors that they thought they had eternal life through the scriptures, even as Isaiah had said of them; saying, "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." I hope you can see that Isaiah and Jesus were saying the exact same thing about those who rejected Jesus and the apostles after him. The lesson to be learned here more than any is that the universally embraced tradition of the Bible being the word of God, is a preparation for falling into the exact same trap that those supposed Bible scholars fell into, which caused them to persecute and kill both Jesus and the apostles after him. That is the way they thought, and both Isaiah and Jesus reproved that mindset, pointing out that the word of God is in fact Jesus and everything he says and does. We are told of Jesus, "Now the Lord is that Spirit" (II Cor. 3:17). So when the Spirit was first sent back from heaven after Jesus went away, it was manifested first by the supernatural sign of "stammering lips and another tongue" at Pentecost. That means that speaking in other tongues is in fact the word of God, because it IS the Spirit of God speaking through a person, which Spirit IS Jesus. Those who rejected Jesus certainly missed that word, even as Isaiah prophesied of; because to them the word of God was something that they could interpret from the scriptures by their own understanding.

If we call the scriptures the word of God, we miss the reality that God's Spirit and what IT reveals, is the actual word of God. Jesus even said the same, many years after he had gone back to heaven, when he gave 'the Revelation' to John on the island of Patmos: "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the SPIRIT SAITH unto the [congregations]" (Rev. 2:17). Now THAT my friend is the word of God, meaning whatever the Spirit of God truly reveals and says to believers in Christ. If we hold to the idea of depending on the scriptures to be the word of God, then we may very likely miss the word of God when and how God chooses to manifest his word. If the religious leaders who opposed the apostles after Pentecost would have truly known and loved the scriptures, they could have seen that Isaiah prophesied of the apparent foolish sign of speaking with other tongues that was manifested at Pentecost and afterward. So what I'm trying to get across here is that we need above all things to be attuned to the holy Ghost, because that is the only way we can truly understand the scriptures and recognize the word of God when it is shown forth. Isaiah showed us very clearly that the word of God may show up in a way that we think not, and if our hearts are not wholly after God and his righteousness, we just might end up rejecting Jesus while believing we are following the word of God. That said, let me say that certainly the word of God, in ANY way it is shown forth, can and must be confirmed by the scriptures. Let me also say that the scriptures are inspired by God, and that they are infallible (II Tim. 3:16). To say that the Bible is not the word of God is not to demean what the scriptures actually are, because the Bible is surely the most important article of any kind in the entire natural world. We just need to keep in mind that the Bible is all about faith in one who is NOT in the natural world, and about the spiritual experience of receiving his love and his power into our inner being, and abiding therein. "Because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us... But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you... For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power... (Rom. 5:5; Acts 1:8; I Cor. 4:20). I think that says it for now. God bless.