21. In the law it is written, With (men of) other tongues and other hps will I speak unto this people ; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.
In the laic. The word law signifies that which binds ; es- pecially that which binds the conscience as a rule of faith and practice. That rule may be revealed in our hearts, in the whole Scriptures, in the Pentateuch, or in the moral law ; and hence the word as used in Scripture may refer to any one of these forms in which the will of God is made known ; or it may include them all. The context must decide its meaning in each particular case. Here, as in John 10, 34. Rom. 3, 20, and elsewhere, the reference is not to the Pentateuch, but to the Old Testament. The passage quoted is Is. 28, 11. 12, which in our version stands thus, " For with stammering Ups, 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.'' The apostle gives the 11th verse in a free translation, and the concluding words of the 12th. He does not quote the passage as having any prophetic reference to the events in Corinth ; much less does he give an allegorical interpretation of it in order to make it a condemnation of speaking with tongues. It is a simple reference to a signal event in the Jewish history from which the Corinthians might derive a useful lesson. The Jews had refused to hear the prophets speaking their own language, and God threatened to bring upon them a people whose language they could not understand. This was a judgment ; a mark of displeasure designed as a punishment and. not for their conversion. From this the Corinthians might learn that it was no mark of the divine favour to have teachers whose language they could not understand. They were turning a blessing into a curse. The gift of tongues was designed, among other things, to faciUtate the propagation of the gospel, by enabling Christians to address people of vari- ous nations each in his own language. Used for this pur- pose it was a blessing ; but to employ it for the sake of display, in addressing those who could not understand the language employed, was to make it a curse. The Spirit of God often confers gifts on men, and then holds them responsible for the way in which they exercise them.