Isaiah Chapter 28
PROPHECY AGAINST SAMARIA
This chapter introduces a new series of prophetic messages covering chapters 28-33. This section is characterized by six oracles which remind us of those in Isaiah 5. These, however, have to do with Israel and the surrounding nations in the last days, although the first one has already had a partial fulfillment in the judgment that fell on Ephraim when Shalmaneezer, King of Assyria, overthrew the Northern Kingdom in 721 B.C. But that judgment was a forerunner of an even greater disaster that will yet fall upon the land to which Israel returned in 1948.
In verses 1-8 we see the doom of the drunkards of Ephraim.
Isaiah 28:1-8 ESV:
1 Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has one who is mighty and strong; like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters, he casts down to the earth with his hand.
3 The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot;
4 and the fading flower of its glorious beauty, which is on the head of the rich valley, will be like a first-ripe fig before the summer: when someone sees it, he swallows it as soon as it is in his hand.
5 In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people,
6 and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment.
8 For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left.
The declining Northern Kingdom, Israel, sometimes referred to as Ephraim, is set forth as a warning example to the Kingdom of Judah. Though God had Assyria poised to deliver the final blow of destruction, the Ephraimites continued to trust in the fertility of their soil and in economic prosperity, and to lead a life of unrestrained immorality in which even the clergy participated with disgusting excess. Israel was puffed up by self-confidence and a groundless optimism. They scorned the power of Assyria, feeling secure in their own might. But their armies were totally defeated. Ephraim should be a warning to us concerning the foolishness of trusting in self rather than in the power of God. Had Israel been worshipping God and living for God, they could have counted on Him to defend them against every enemy.
The time frame shifts in verse 5 and 6 to the end times. The phrase “In that day” invariably is the signal shifting the focus to the end times. A time when the remnant of Israel will be saved. In contrast to this behavior of Ephraim stands the Lord himself, who is Israel’s only true glory, and who will some day be recognized as such by the remnant of true believers. He will empower them for righteousness in judgment and for victory in warfare.
Isaiah 28:9,10 ESV:
9 “To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast?
10 For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”
The drunken leaders resented it when Isaiah and other true prophets treated them as toddlers by reminding them of elementary truths of right and wrong. They scoffed at his remarks as Sunday School moralizing, appropriate for infants but quite irrelevant to grown men who understand the art of practical politics. Here we see the drunkards’ sarcastically mocking response to corrective advice from the prophet. These imitations of a young child’s babbling ridicule Isaiah’s preaching.
Isaiah 28:11-13 ESV:
11 For by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the Lord will speak to this people,
12 to whom he has said, “This is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose”; yet they would not hear.
13 And the word of the Lord will be to them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Since the drunkard’s would not listen to Isaiah, God responded by predicting they would be overrun and conquered by a nation (Assyria) that would give them instructions in a language they didn’t understand. God gave them instructions in simple language, a simple way out of their predicament if they would just obey Him, but they refused to listen. As a result of their rejection the Lord imitated the mockery of the drunkards in babbling they could not understand.
Isaiah 28:14,15 ESV:
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem!
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter.”
These scoffers are identified as the top officials in the government, who had backed Ahaz’ foreign policy of bribing Assyria to engage in a treaty of alliance. Assyria wielded her power in the interests of Hell, and she spread death and destruction in her wake. Yet the Jews had chosen her, rather than God, to be their protector, vainly supposing they would thus escape her devastating might. They had made a compact with a heathen power that regarded inconvenient treaties as mere scraps of paper.
Isaiah 28:16 ESV:
16 therefore thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
In contrast to this supposedly clever diplomacy of power politics, God declares the true basis of Israel’s safety: the person and work of Jesus Christ. “Foundation ... Stone” implies that Christ’s atonement is the basis upon which Israel and the Church are built; apart from Him and His merit, there could be no Church at all. “In Zion” speaks of the appointed place of revelation, the only valid disclosure of the one true God; and of blood sacrifice, the only way of salvation. “A tested stone”is one with no faults or cleavages. Christ proved equal to the subtlest and craftiest temptations Satan could bring against him in the wilderness. “Precious corner stone” means that Jesus is of greater value than anything in the whole world. He alone makes the difference between eternal Heaven and eternal Hell for the sinner. “Will not be in haste” might better be expressed “shall not be excited or alarmed.”
Isaiah 28:17.18 ESV:
17 And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
18 Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it.
When the Messiah rules His kingdom, justice and righteousness will be the norm, and will contrast strongly with the string of lies in which Jerusalem’s leaders engaged. And trusting in neighboring countries to help protect them will fail miserably.
Isaiah 28:19-22ESV:
19 As often as it passes through it will take you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
20 For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.
21 For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim; as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused; to do his deed—strange is his deed! and to work his work—alien is his work!
22 Now therefore do not scoff, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.
The punishing incursions of the Assyrians would be recurrent and of mounting intensity right up to the dreadful campaign of 701 B.C. “The bed is too short“ suggests that even with Egyptian aid Judah’s resources would be wretchedly insufficient to meet the pressure of the Assyrian attack. “Mount Perazim” is the place where David, with God’s help, routed the Philistines (2 Samuel 5:20). But now that power of God was to be turned against his own covenant children, a “strange deed“, which God was required to do because of their disobedience.
Isaiah 28:23-29 ESV:
23 Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech.
24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? does he continually open and harrow his ground?
25 When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border?
26 For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him.
27 Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.
28 Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it.
29 This also comes from the Lord of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.
Judah’s situation is given here in a parable. The farmer doesn’t plow for the sake of plowing, but rather to prepare for his intended crop. So also God prepares His garden for the crop He wishes to reap, the crop of righteousness from a holy people. The farmer does his different tasks, each in the right season and proportion, adopting his methods to his purposes: now mercy. God’s purpose id now mercy then judgment. God’s purpose was not to destroy His people, any more than the farmer’s objective by threshing and plowing is to ruin his crop. A farmer doesn’t plow and turn the soil endlessly. He also plants according to what is proper for each crop. After preparing the soil, the farmer carefully plants his seed. Farming intelligently is a God given gift. God-given understanding prevails in the threshing of various types of grain. If God’s way in the physical realm of farming is best, why did Jerusalem persist in refusing to accept His spiritual guidance?
Let’s think for a moment about the implications of that last verse for us today. God is “wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.” When we follow His directives and guidelines, we find the true way to joy, peace, and to a fulfilling life that will climax in an eternity spent in Heaven. Doesn’t it, therefore, make sense to place your trust in God and to walk in His ways?
