CHAPTER 28

(725 B.C.)

WOE TO EPHRAIM

¹Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them who are overcome with wine! (Chapters 28 through 35 may be regarded as one continuous Prophecy. Its woes are contrasted with the burdens of the preceding section. In these woes, the Divine purpose is alternately thrown into sharp contrast.

The men of Ephraim [the Northern Kingdom] were drunkards, both actually and morally. They were intoxicated with the strong wine of idolatry.)

²Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the Earth with the hand. (The mighty and strong one pertains to the king of Assyria, who was to destroy the Northern Kingdom and, thereby, take the Ten Tribes into captivity [II Ki., Chpt. 17].

As well, after cast down, supply the words, drunkards of Ephraim.

³The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet (this crown of pride is the self-complacency and boastful spirit of the Israelite people, who will be trodden under feet by the Assyrians):

⁴And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he who looks upon it sees, while it is yet in his hand he eats it up. (Figs ripen in August, but some which ripen in June are considered a great delicacy. Immediately, they are plucked then and eaten. So would Sennacherib, the Assyrian prince, quickly and thoroughly swallow up Samaria.)

⁵In that day shall the LORD of Hosts be for a Crown of Glory, and for a Diadem of beauty, unto the residue of His People. (Across the gloom of this Chapter is cast the bright ray of Verses 5 and 6. The Prophecy of these two Verses pertains to Isaiahs day, as well as the coming Millennium.)

⁶And for a spirit of judgment to him who sits in judgment, and for strength to them who turn the battle to the gate. (Hezekiah came to the throne of Judah only three years before the fatal siege of Samaria, the Northern Kingdom, began. It was the dawn of a day of promise for the Southern Kingdom, such as the Prophet seems to point to in these two Verses. Under Hezekiah, the Lord would bring back a spirit of judgment, which pertains to the following of the Bible.

The strength addressed here pertains to Hezekiah smiting the Philistines, etc. [II Ki. 18:8].)

WOE TO JUDAH

⁷But they also (Judah) have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the Priest and the Prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. (The magistrates were Priests. The Preachers were Prophets. These were drunk in the pulpit [they reel in Vision] and were tipsy while on the bench [they stumble in judgment]. This tells us that the reformation effected by Hezekiah was but a half-reformation. It put away idolatry, but it left untouched a variety of moral evils.)

⁸For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. (Isaiah says, There is no place, referring to the fact that every part of Judah, from the ruling order to the Priestly order, was contaminated. It was quite an indictment!)

⁹Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. (This Verse is meant to be understood as the mocking words of the scornful men of Jerusalem [Vs. 14]. They taunted Isaiah with his own words, knowledge and doctrine, insinuating that they were mere catch-words.

The term translated doctrine properly means tidings, and involves the idea that the Prophet obtained the teachings so designated by direct Revelation from God.)

¹⁰For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little (the Hebrew word for precept is tsav and means injunction or commandment. The second precept is from the Hebrew word tsavah, which means to enjoin or to appoint, charge, set in order. The Hebrew for line is qav, which means a rule, measuring cord, here a little and there a little.

The idea is that everything must be measured by the Word of God. No other measurement will be accepted. To be sure, Judah fell woefully short):

¹¹For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this People. (The phrase, stammering lips, refers to a proper language being spoken, but yet the people hearing it would not understand it. Paul quoted this same Passage as it regards the Gift of Tongues as a sign to unbelievers [I Cor. 14:21-22]. Oftentimes, the Holy Spirit used strange circumstances to present Prophecy proclaiming tremendously important coming events, even as this Prophecy does.

Such also was the Prophecy given through Isaiah of the Birth of Christ through a virgin [Isa. 7:14]. The occasion would be the unbelief, ridicule, and scorn of wicked Ahaz.

Therefore, it seems that the Holy Spirit designed both these Prophecies [the Virgin Birth of Christ and the Baptism with the Holy Spirit], to occasion faith in Believers and unbelief in mockers!)

¹²To whom He said, This is the rest wherewith you may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. (Coupled with Verse 11, this tells us that speaking with other tongues brings about a rest from the tiredness of the journey of life. As well, speaking with other tongues brings about a refreshing, which rejuvenates the person. Many people ask, What good is there in speaking with other tongues? This mentioned by Isaiah presents two blessings, of which there are many. Regrettably, despite this tremendous gift given to the people of God, at least to those who will believe, like Judah of old, most will not hear, even as Paul quoted Isaiah [I Cor. 14:21].)

¹³But the Word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. (The meaning is that because they would not hear, therefore, by a just judgment, will the simplicity of the Gospel become a stumblingblock to them, resulting in their captivity.

While this captivity pertained to Judah of old, it also pertains to modern Christians who will not hear.)

JERUSALEM WARNED

¹⁴Wherefore hear the Word of the LORD, you scornful men, who rule this people which is in Jerusalem. (Isaiah now turns from a denunciation of the Priests and Prophets, who especially opposed his teaching, to a threatening of the great men who guided the course of public affairs. He called them scornful men.)

¹⁵Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with Hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves (the covenant of death that Isaiah was speaking of was probably Judahs agreement with Egypt. It also refers to the covenant that Israel will make with the Antichrist at the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

It is very interesting to see the terminology used by the Holy Spirit. Truly the covenant that Judah had made, whatever it was, was with death and Hell):

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a tried Stone, a precious Corner Stone, a sure Foundation: he who believes shall not make haste. (This Passage speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Zion was not itself the Corner Stone, so the Church is not the Saviour. Christ is the Stone, but sadly almost the entirety of the world stumbles over this tried Stone.

Every foundation that is not Jesus Christ and Him Crucified is built upon lies and falsehood.)

¹⁷Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. (A plummet is a piece of metal on a string that makes a straight line of its own weight as it hangs down. Not only is the Messiah the Foundation, He is also the Plummet, i.e., He is the standard of Righteousness that will stand in the judgment. All who stand there will be measured by this Divine Line and Plummet, and those who are not found as perfect and sinless as He will be rejected.)

¹⁸And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with Hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then you shall be trodden down by it. (The Assyrians, like an overflowing scourge, would go through Judah. The Holy Spirit is saying that the entire clever arrangement by which Judah thought to avert the danger from themselves will come to naught.)

¹⁹From the time that it goes forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. (The words, to understand the report, are an allusion to Verse 9. They had scorned Isaiahs doctrine, when he taught them by word of mouth; they will understand it too well and find it nothing but a terror, when it is impressed upon them by its actual fulfillment.)

²⁰For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. (The Jews will have made themselves a bed in which they can have no comfort or ease, and consequently no rest. But they will only have themselves to blame! This also has reference to the Plumbline. The righteousness produced by man is woefully inadequate.)

²¹For the LORD shall rise up as in Mount Perazim, He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act. (Just as God broke forth at Gibeon and at Perazim [II Sam. 5:20], so He was about to break forth upon His Own People; but, He adds with anguish in His tone, to act against them would be for Him a foreign and an unwanted action, i.e., a strange work.

It was Judahs strange conduct which caused Gods strange action. They had become, as it were, Philistines.)

²²Now therefore be you not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of Hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole Earth. (The Holy Spirit through the Prophet now entreats Judah to repent.)

AN ILLUSTRATION OF THE FARMER

²³Give you ear, and hear My voice; hearken, and hear My speech. (Judah at this time would in fact partially hear. Because of the intercession of Hezekiah and Isaiah, God would send an Angel who would kill 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. Thus, Jerusalem and Judah would be spared, at least for now.)

²⁴Does the plowman plow all day to sow? does he open and break the clods of his ground? (Using a farmer as an example, the Lord in effect says that He will try again to bring Judah to the place she ought to be.)

²⁵When he has made plain the face thereof, does he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place? (The detail to which the Holy Spirit went in describing how the farmer protects his land and plants the seed illustrates the detail with which God had prepared the spiritual soil of Judah.)

²⁶For his God does instruct him to discretion, and does teach him. (That which taught man then, and that which teaches man now, is the Word of God.)

²⁷For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.

²⁸Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. (The idea is that the farmer will not continue always threshing the grain nor crunching it with his cart wheel and with his horses. In other words, he will not bruise it.

The afflictions which God sends upon His People are adapted to their strengths or the lack thereof, and to their needs. In no case are they used to crush and injure; only such violence is used that is required to detach the good seed from the husk. Where the process is most severe, still, the bread corn is not bruised.)

²⁹This also comes forth from the LORD of Hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. (The Prophet goes no further, but leaves his disciples to draw the conclusion that Gods Own method of working will be similar to the farmer threshing the grain [Prov. 8:14].)