Language is wonderful and mysterious. Language is a gift of God. To use your mouth and voice to express feelings, emotions, and to communicate with each other is a profound mystery. Some take for granted the power of language. The Bible is a foundational resource to study language. What is the origin of language? What is the purpose of language? Can language be redeemable? Does it need to be redeemed? There is something powerful about language that we can learn from the entirety of Scripture.
The Language of God
When you open the Bible you are immediately met with words. Page after page is filled with words, sentences, and paragraphs. You will see, propositions, poetry, songs, proverbs, parables, lamentations, prayers, commandments, and prophecies. All of these structures are using words, commas, periods, question marks, and grammar. You cannot escape language, even in the Bible.
Language reflects God. According to the Bible, God himself can speak. In Genesis, readers are met with the record that God has created with words. The phrase “God said” or “God called” occurs no less than thirteen times in Genesis. God created everything by simply speaking (Heb. 11:3). He upholds the universe by the word of His power (Heb. 1:3)
When God wanted to create man, He first contemplated it by saying, “Let us, make man in our image, and after our likeness..” (Gen. 1:26). Man was created from the dust of the ground, which was first created by the spoken Word of God.
The first recorded interaction between God and man involved language. When God spoke to Adam to give him instructions and commands He used plain language (Gen. 2:15-17). It was not some mysterious code that had to be deciphered. God expressed His will with plain language.
It should be noted that man was created in the likeness of a speaking God. It was God that made man and man’s mouth (Ex. 4:11). Man was to imitate his creator, so we find Adam speaking and naming the beasts, which God had created (Gen. 2:19). Not only did Adam have the capability of naming animals and creatures, Adam was created with the ability to interact with God using language. Prayer, worship, praise, and adoration with man’s Creator were to be done with heart and mouth (Hebrews 13:15).
The Language of Doubt
The world was created by words, and it was turned upside down with the use of words. The first question ever recorded in history was asked by a subtle serpent in the Garden of Eden.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made (Genesis 3:1)
He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
The word “crafty” in the ESV is translated as “subtle” in other translations. It’s Hebrew meaning is one of deception and being tricky and cunning. The same word is used in Job in one of Eliphaz’s arguments: “For your guilt teaches your mouth, And you choose the language of the crafty”(Job 15:5).
The serpent used crafty language and it was deceptive in nature. His language was meant to harm God’s creation and man’s relationship with God.
One question transmitted by language had the capability to ruin. The subtle serpent was a merchant of doubt. He peddled his wares by shrouding his intentions with a question. The phrase “Has God said” rearranges what has been recorded. “God has said” is the proper statement. However, by the subtle rearranging of words, the world was rearranged and man became his own god, ruled by his own desires and passions. Where man was to have dominion now dominates him. Harmony and unity are replaced with dysfunction and division. All because language had been misused and abused.
Likewise, beloved, death and life are in the power of the tongue (Pro. 18:21). It matters who you listen to, and it matters which words are used and left out. Where there should be a period, instead a question mark is given. Sin and death came on all men simply by believing the lies, or the language of a subtle serpent. Modernity is not any different. Listening, or communicating with merchants of doubt can destroy lives. I’m not just speaking about filthy talk, and cursing. I’m speaking of the YouTube false prophets and the Facebook phonies. The sanctimonious blurbs of Instagram and the 140 characters tweeted by shady characters. Not everything that glitters is gold, and not everything that has a Christian hashtag is true.
What’s more is that Adam stayed silent, while his wife ate the words of deception and swallowed the forbidden fruit. Silence is not always golden, but it loudly verbalizes ignorance and affirmation. Adam’s most powerful weapon of language stayed in its sheath while he stayed silent. God gave him authority and gave him a voice. You must speak up while deception is wholesaled and solicited. If you do not want to buy it, then you must use your voice and speak up. You must buy the truth and sell it not!
The Language of Promise
Adam and Eve’s eyes were opened and they beheld their own nakedness before each other and before God. God asked the next question, “Where are you?” While there were judgments given to the serpent and Adam and Eve, there was a divine promise articulated using illustrative terminology.
The seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent and the serpent would bruise the heel of the promised child (Gen. 3:15). Humanity would need a redeemer and it would come through the Promised Son.
The Language of Babel
Sin and rebellion increased in the earth after the Fall. God summoned Noah to build an ark because the destruction was imminent. God would destroy the earth through the waters of a flood. But after the flood and once the earth was being repopulated through Noah’s seed used the power of language to rebel against God.
It was at Babel that the whole earth was of one language, and one speech (Gen. 11:1). It was their intention to build a tower whose top may reach unto the heavens; and make a name for themselves lest they would be scattered (Gen. 11:4). However, it was God’s plan that man should be fruitful and multiply and be populate all of the earth (Gen. 1:22; 28; 8:17; 9:1). Man used language to rebel. They had one mind and unification of spirit to stay right where they were. They would make a name for themselves and not for God. So God came down and scattered them and confounded their language (Gen. 11:7). They would not be able to understand each other and they would not be able to stay in one place. God confounded their language, divided their tongues, and forced them to spread out.
God had judged man’s rebellion by confounding their language, thus language diversified and people groups began to form.
The Language of the Law
After several hundreds of years, the plan of redemption would take another step forward. God again used the power of language to disseminate His will. God gave Israel the Law of Moses or the Commandments. God met with Moses at Mt. Sinai and spake all of these words to him (Ex. 20:1). The people were to obey God’s voice and keep His covenant (Ex. 19:5). These laws were written by the finger of God (Ex. 31:18).
The Law was to be the guiding force for all Hebrews. God’s Word was to be obeyed and cherished. God had spoken and they were to live by His law made up of words and language, all which could be understood. The Commandments were to be written on their hearts and written in their homes:
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates (Deut. 6:4-9).
However, the Law could not redeem. It was only a teacher, a schoolmaster pointing to something greater (Gal. 3:24-25).
The Language of the Prophets
Though the law was still in force, the people could not and would not keep the Law. They were led by their own emotions and feelings. They did what was right in their own sight. They did not want God as their king but wanted to be like all the other nations.
Therefore, God unlocked the door to the office of the prophet. Like Moses before them, the prophets spoke on behalf of God reminding the people to keep God’s Laws and commands. Samuel was the original seed of which all later prophets in Israel were the flower and growth. The Lord was with Samuel, and he did not let any of his words fall to the ground (1 Sam. 3:19).
“Thus saith the Lord”, “Thus saith the Lord of Hosts”, “Thus saith the Lord God” is repeated throughout the OT. God spoke through his prophets and broadcasted his message with Words and language.
Imagery, poetry, proverbs, parables, songs, lamentations, figures of speech all are used by the prophets to issue God’s promises, punishment, and prophecies. He sent prophets upon whose lips were anointed, and their hearts were aflame, to Israel, Assyria, Babylon, Edom, and Joppa. It’s not that they did not understand the language, rather:
And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; And see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, And make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed (Isaiah 6:9–10)
From Samuel to Elisha, from Isaiah to Malachi God spoke through His prophets a divine message using language.
After the prophets and before the coming of the Messiah there were four hundred years of silence. No prophets. No messengers. No visions. No prophecies. The people would not listen, so heaven became silent. Four hundred years without a message from the Lord.
The Language of Jesus Christ
Four hundred years of silence was broken by a voice crying in the wilderness. His attire was camel hair, his diet was locusts and wild honey, but his language was preaching. John the Baptist was a preacher, the bridegroom preparing for the one who was to come. John used kingdom vernacular to proclaim the coming Messiah. John did no miracles. Instead, his trade was words and he preached, “Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand!”
How would God come and bring redemption? Remember, He would be the seed of the woman, coming to crush the head of the subtle and crafty serpent (Gen. 3:15). At this point, words alone could not redeem. The Law and the Prophets could not redeem man and or his language.
The Apostle John said it like this:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was at the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth (Jn. 1:1-5, 14).
Man had closed his ears and closed his eyes to God’s Word. Therefore, The Word became Man. God tabernacled himself in human flesh. Humanity and divinity supernaturally unified in the person of Jesus Christ. He was the Word come to redeem humanity.
Jesus was the Wisdom of God tabernacled in human flesh. Flesh and blood. Ink and Paper. Wisdom and Knowledge. Understanding and revelation. Words, sentences, and paragraphs. He was not a merchant of doubt, but a Revelation of Truth, and he was the embodiment of Truth. He was the Creator, the Promise, the Law, and the Prophet.
When people heard Jesus speak, they said, “never a man spake like this man” (Jn. 7:46). Others marveled and astonished at His words (Mt. 22:22, Mk. 10:24). Jesus’ words were pregnant with authority unlike the scribes (Mk. 1:22). Every word He spoke was gracious (Lk. 4:22). The disciples knew that they could follow no one else because Jesus had the Words of eternal life (Jn. 6:68).
What Jesus Spoke
When Jesus was tempted of satan in the wilderness He used the Word of God to combat his enemy,
“But he answered, It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’”(Matthew 4:4). Three times He defeated temptation with the Word of God.
His command of words, imagery, and language was at His beckoning when He taught the people using parables (Mt. 13:34). Jesus believed the words that He spoke were eternal (Matthew 24:35). If a person was ashamed of Christ’s words then He would be ashamed of that person (Mark 8:38). Jesus’ words were not just simply to be cognitive exercises, rather they were life and spirit giving expressions (Jn. 6:33). Rejection of Jesus’ words meant eternal judgment (Jn. 12:48). Anyone who desired to have their prayers answered must first allow the words of Christ to abide in them (John 15:7)
The Language of Pentecost
Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be given. Jesus said the Holy Spirit would be a Comforter that would “teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you” (John 14:26; Lk. 12:12). The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Now as the Holy Spirit He would dwell in our flesh and dwell in us! The Holy Spirit would be the empowering force that would be shed abroad in our hearts. The Holy Spirit
When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance (Acts 2:1–4)
Jesus Christ was the Word made flesh and purchased our redemption. But it was not just our hearts that needed redemption, but it was also our tongue. The world was created and sustained by the Word, it was the Word that was given at Sinai, the prophecy from the prophets, the Gospel preached from John, Jesus, and the Apostles and it’s the Holy Spirit within us taking over our hearts and our tongues.
Speaking with other tongues as the Spirit gives the ability is not some coincidence or accident. No, it was language that ignited the fall of humanity, and man’s language too that needed to be redeemed. God knew that if He could change the hearts of humanity, then He could take control of their tongue (Jm. 2:8). If a man’s tongue can set the world afire, then we should seek the Word made flesh to come and redeem our hearts, set aflame our tongues, that we may boldly proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.