Isaiah 28:11: “For with stammering lips and another tongue / He will speak to this people,”

August 22nd, 2024 by Pastor Ed in devotional

The people of Jerusalem had grown weary of hearing Isaiah speak and began rejecting his teachings. So the Lord told them He would speak to them through someone else in the near future, referring to the Assyrians. The Assyrians were a brutal nation that suddenly invaded their northern border like a flood, taking them into captivity, where they were spoken to in a language they didn’t understand. When that happened, no doubt these people said, “We should have listened to Isaiah. God was speaking to us through him.”

The Apostle Paul quoted this verse in 1 Corinthians 14:21 to show that God had predicted one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit, called “other tongues,” 600 years earlier. Paul explained it was a sign so that people would be convinced of God’s supernatural work on the earth today.

Unbelief is still rampant all around us in the 21st century. In 1949 a famous Denver atheist, Oscar Whitenack, made a recording of the things he wanted said at his funeral. When he died, the record was played, and his voice was heard to say:

This is my funeral. I am an atheist and have been for many years. I have the utmost contempt for theological nonsense. Clergymen are moral cowards. Miracles are a product of the imagination. If any four reporters were sent to an execution and got their facts as twisted as the apostles in the Bible report, they would be fired forthwith. I want no religious songs. This is going to be a perfectly rational funeral.

Then, in accordance with Whitenack’s wishes, the record of his funeral oration was laid on his chest, sealed in the casket, and buried with him. But of course that was not the end of his story, because “it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment” (Heb. 9:27).

“LORD, help us to reach those around us this day with the truth of Your sacrifice for their salvation.”