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It was approximately AD 30. Jesus, God’s promised Messiah, had come just as the prophets foretold. However, the religious leaders did not believe in Him and demanded a sign that He was indeed God’s Messiah. But Jesus had already given them many signs including healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons. So, Jesus refuses declaring to them: “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt 12:39-40)
Jesus says that the only sign He will give them is the sign of Jonah. Like Jonah spent three days and nights inside the belly of a fish and left for dead, Jesus too will spend three days and nights in the belly of the earth after being mercilessly crucified. But like Jonah, Jesus will return alive. While this is the only additional sign Jesus will give these unbelieving Jews, there may be more to it than Jesus’ death and resurrection. Notice what Jesus says next:
“The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.” (Matt 12:41-42)
But Jesus had already given them many signs including healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons.
Jesus says that the Ninevites and the Queen of Sheba who are Gentiles will condemn these unbelieving Jews on judgment day. Jesus also pronounces similar judgments on other Jewish cities including Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum who refused to believe in Him despite all the mighty works He did there. He says if Gentile cities like Tyre and Sidon and even Sodom and Gomorrah had witnessed such works, they would have immediately repented and believed. (Matt 11:20-24, 10:5-15) Jesus is shaming the nation of Israel because God had chosen them to be a light bearer to the Gentile nations (the rest of the world) yet they refuse to repent and believe.
But this unbelief did not begin in New Testament times. In fact, national Jewish unbelief is a common motif all throughout the Old Testament. And in Isaiah, God deals with this unbelief in a unique way. He says in Isaiah 28:11-12 that since they would not listen to Him in their own native language through prophets like Isaiah that “With men of other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people; and yet, for all that, they will not hear Me.” God was going to turn them over to the Assyrians—Gentiles who spoke with “foreign lips.” Thus, this foreign language in the land would be a sign of Israel’s unbelief as Paul the Apostle himself points out in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22. Fast forwarding to the New Testament, it seems Jesus is preaching a similar message: Since you Israel will not believe or listen to Me (a native Jew), Gentiles who speak in a foreign language will rise up and condemn you. Furthermore, as a sign of their unbelief there will be multiple foreign languages in the land of Israel proclaiming God’s truth at Pentecost when the Holy Spirit rains down tongues of fire. (Acts 2)
Thus, the sign Jesus will give the unbelieving and unrepentant Jews is twofold. First will be His death and resurrection. And second, foreign tongues will fill the land as a sign of their unbelief.
Ryan Hembree is a daily co-host, speaker, and writer of Bible Discovery. He also hosts a YouTube channel that shows the unity of the Bible and how science and Scripture fit together. Ryan also has an honorary Masters of Ministry in Creation Science from Phoenix University of Theology.
This is actually Paul quoting and summarizing Isaiah 28:11-12 in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22.
NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible, Note on Isaiah 28:11-13.
