Isaiah 28

Buksbazen calls Isa. 28-33 The Book of Woes as each message begins with an announcement of woe!  The woe in Ch. 28 begins on the leaders of Ephraim but then settles in on the leaders of Jerusalem.

Concerning Ephraim Isaiah’s indictment is that she has the beauty of a fading flower (v1-4).  Her time has come and gone.  Her leaders are drunkards who will be trampled by the Lord’s mighty and strong one (the Assyrians).  How unlike the day that is coming when Israel will only be a remnant and yet the LORD of hosts will be her crown of glory (v5-6).

But wait, Isaiah says.  Jerusalem also is not like that coming day of the Messiah.  Isaiah has strong words for the priests and prophets of Jerusalem who also are engaged in orgies of drunkenness (v7-8).  These rulers respond to Isaiah in mimicry, asking why he thinks he can teach them (v9-10).  They mimic his teaching, something evident in v10 in the Hebrew.  

The response of God to this is to say that He will speak to the people and teach them through the stammering lips and foreign language of others (v11-13).  Isaiah may be referring to the Assyrians, although more likely the Babylonians who would be God’s instrument to teach Jerusalem what she refused to learn.  (Note: this passage is used in 1 Cor. 14:21 of speaking in tongues in NT times which, as Paul says, was a sign to Israel of what God was doing in that time.)

Isaiah now addresses the issue of faith in his day.  He speaks of a covenant with death the rulers in Jerusalem were seeking to make with Egypt to protect them from the Assyrians (v14-15).  The rulers thought they were escaping death through the intrigue (lies, falsehood) with Egypt.  Isaiah’s response is two-fold.

·        28:16-19: First he speaks of the Messiah, the tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.  There may be a double reference here, to Hezekiah who was the faithful Davidic king in Isaiah’s time, and then to the Messiah in the future.  The point is that He will, by righteousness and justice, turn away from the lies involved in trusting Egypt or anyone other than the LORD.  And in fact the rulers who made their covenant will not escape death.

·        28:20-22: Then the LORD says He will be the One to help.  To trust Egypt is like a bed that is too short and a cover not wide enough.  Rather, as at Perazim (2 Sam. 5:20) and Gibeon (Josh. 10:10) God will fight for His people.

The message concludes with a plea to hear what the LORD says (v23-29).  Like the plowman who knows how to do his work because he has wisdom from God, Isaiah pleads with them to hear the LORD who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.  

May we hear those words ourselves.  Are you hearing from God as you read the words of the great prophet Isaiah?