Read Isaiah
28-29 & Ephesians
6
To discover:
As you read note the
attitude to all Isaiah has said that is being commended.
To ponder:
Chapter 28 begins with a woe against a city described like
the garland of flowers worn by revellers, which fades and diminishes as the
night goes on. Most likely this is Samaria ,
the key city of the northern kingdom, described after its major tribe
“Ephraim.” Isaiah predicts its sacking by Assyria , being
brought by the Lord like a destructive storm. So Samaria
will be like a beautiful wreath now trampled and faded, or a ripe fig that is swallowed
and so disappears (28v1-4). And whereas Ephraim took pride in the glorious
beauty of Samaria, then the remnant of faithful Israelites will regard the Lord
as their glorious crown or wreath – granting a spirit of justice to those who
judge and strength to warriors, and so enabling his people to live uprightly
before him (28v5-6).
The key sin
Isaiah denounces is drunkenness, which in context implies a disregard of
responsibility amongst rulers who are supposed to execute justice. He adds that
even priests and prophets live as drunks, and mock his teaching, arrogantly
saying they are not children just off the breast to be told to do this and do
that (28v7-10). In response, Isaiah states God will therefore speak to them
through the Assyrian foreigners that he will grant rest in their land, and who
will bring rules Israel must live by, until the people end up injured, ensnared
and captured by them. The picture here is perhaps of them like children who
refuse to listen and have to learn the hard way by stumbling (28v11-13).
There’s strong warning, here,
against scoffing at the warnings of scripture regarding our impending
judgement. And in the light of that, Isaiah turns to Jerusalem
in the south, wanting them to learn from Samaria .
He parodies the rulers in Jerusalem
who have made an agreement (with Egypt, 31v1 )
to protect them against harm: They scoff at Isaiah’s warnings, boasting that
this covenant means that any disaster won’t affect them. In this sense it is an
agreement with death, that death will not take them. But, Isaiah declares, they
are seeking safety in a lie, as this is a false confidence (28v14-15). Yet,
there is hope: God is laying a stone in Zion
(Jerusalem ), that will uphold and
keep it together like the cornerstone of a building and its foundation.
Moreover, he will measure and lay out the structure of Zion
not with a tape measure but with justice and righteousness. In other words, he
is promising spiritual renewal for the people, not something literally
structural for the city. And in the light of that he promises that those who
trust in him will never be dismayed at what is to come. Nevertheless, he does
promise that Jerusalem’s false refuge in their alliance will be swept away,
their covenant annulled so that they will suffer the coming disaster, and be
carried away – presumably in being taken captive (28v16-19). In applying the
language of cornerstone to Christ (1 Pet 2v6), Peter teaches that he is the
means of spiritual renewal for God’s people and of salvation from the greater
judgement to come.
Isaiah
declares this message will bring terror, and can’t be escaped by dulling
oneself with sleep or a false alliance. Yet, the coming disaster God brings
will be his “strange work” in the sense that judgement against his people is
unusual, as he leans by nature towards grace and mercy. Indeed, he calls the
people to stop mocking so that their captivity doesn’t have to be worse
(28v19-22). The point of 28v23-29 is unclear. It may be saying that just as God
instructs the farmer with wisdom, so that he doesn’t continually plow, but
plants, so God will not continue the ploughing of Judah
by Babylon forever, but plant his
people to bear the fruit of righteousness. Again, just as the farmer protects
his grain in the way he treats it, so that it will fulfil the purpose he has
for it, so the LORD will be careful in the judgement he brings, so that his
people eventually fulfil his purpose for them. All this, we’re told displays
God’s magnificent wisdom. Even in the impending disaster, as in the trials we face,
he knows what he is doing, working out his purposes.
Here the
LORD declares the problem: The people honour him in what they say, but have
hearts that are actually far from him, worshipping only according to their own
rules. So God will astound them, by causing this so called wisdom of man-made
religion to perish, and punishing those who think their wicked plans are hidden
from him, and who effectively deny God made them or that they are subject to
him (29v13-16). Jesus faced the same problem (Mk 7v6-23).
29v17
refers to the great cedars of Lebanon becoming like a field, and a field like
the cedars. It is probably saying that the proud amongst God’s will be humbled,
whilst the humble will be exalted. That will come as those previously deaf and
blind to what Isaiah has declared will understand and so come to rejoice in
God, whilst the ruthless, mocking, wicked and unjust will be “cut down” in
judgement. So God, who redeemed (freed) Abraham from sin and its consequences,
in order to build a people from his descendents, will bring about a time when
his people will see God causing Jerusalem
to flourish with people he describes as children of Jacob. At that time, rather
than be dismayed at the destruction Jerusalem
has undergone, the people will acknowledge God’s holiness with awe, and those
who have been like wayward children, will receive instruction from him as their
heavenly parent – no doubt, by accepting the truths Isaiah has taught
(29v22-24). We see all this fulfilled as Christ opens spiritually blind eyes to
understand his word.
Praying it home:
Praise God for
opening your blind eyes. Pray that you would accept the truths you’ve been
learning.
Thinking
further:
None
today.
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