Isaiah_27-28

Isaiah 27:1-13 (ESV)
¹  In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.
²  In that day, “A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!
³  I, the LORD, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day;
⁴  I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to battle! I would march against them, I would burn them up together.
⁵  Or let them lay hold of my protection, let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me.”
⁶  In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.
⁷  Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?
⁸  Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them; he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.
⁹  Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
¹⁰  For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; there the calf grazes; there it lies down and strips its branches.
¹¹  When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them; he who formed them will show them no favor.
¹²  In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel.
¹³  And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

V.1 – “In that day” – refers to the “Day of the Lord” – “The Great Tribulation” and into the “Millennial Kingdom” and could be considered into “eternity time” as that follows in the sequence.

Revelation 20:1-3 (ESV)
¹  Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain.
²  And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years,
³  and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while.

The Sword is the Word of God!  By His word the world was created and by His word Satan will be bounded a thousand years.

Revelation 12:9 (ESV)
⁹  And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

V.2 – moves into the day of plenty…

V.3 – the Lord is the husbandman here and never again will it be turned over to anyone else.

V.9 – the iniquity of Jacob will be purged…  Israel’s sin has been ‘atoned’.

V.10-13 – the nation of Israel rejected the light and judgement occurred.

However, Israel is going to be literally restored and they will come and worship Him once more.

The Jubilee times were celebrated every fifth year.  It was a yearlong celebration of rest and release and homecoming.  It was symbolic of the future promise occurring after Armageddon.   (The Jubilee year:  Leviticus 25:8-55.)

Galatians 5:1 (ESV)
¹  For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Isaiah 28 – 35 are chapters that contain prophecies with a local and past fulfillment.  Some reach into the future and cover some periods as previous chapters.

This section has 6 woes and culminates in the great War of Armageddon in chapter 34 and in chapter 35 the millennial benefits that will come to the earth.

Isaiah 28 contains prophecies for the near and far view.    Here Ephraim (the northern kingdom) will soon be taken over by the Assyrians and it was to be a lesson to Judah or some 100 years they would face the same.

Isaiah sets up a series of three contrasts. He wants us to see the issues clearly and to respond decisively. Isaiah 28 invites us to find in God glory for our shame, truth for our lies, and confidence for our timidity.  Quote: Ray Ortlund

1. The two crowns: What are we proud of? (28:1–6)

A   The pride of Ephraim trampled by Assyria (28:1–4)

B   The glory of the remnant empowered by God (28:5, 6)

2. The two words: What are we hearing? (28:7–22)

A¹ Degraded leaders, insensitive to God’s word (28:7, 8)

B¹ God’s simple message rejected, man’s mockery reversed (28:9–13)

A² Scoffing leaders, overwhelmed by God’s word (28:14–19)

B² Man’s false trust exposed, God’s “strange … work” activated (28:20–22)

3. The two outcomes: Can we trust God’s ways with us? (28:23–29)

A   God’s work of “plowing” purposeful (28:23–26)

B   God’s methods of “crushing” appropriate (28:27–29)

Isaiah 28:1-5 (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,
 

V.1-2 Ephraim or Israel or even called Samaria would be terms synonymous of the ten northern tribes.  They are drunkards in a literal and spiritual sense.  To be spiritually drunk is to be filled with pride.  The “one who is mighty” that is used by God is “Assyria”.

V.3 – they will be trodden under feet”  –
V.4 – their glorious beauty”
A high level of civilization had been developed in the land.  They had built up many comforts in their homes and gardens.  There was a palace built by Omri and Ahab and where Jezebel lived.  The wicked seem to have the nicest stuff.  Could be termed “poetic justice” with their pride and hardened hearts when they are brought low and removed from the earth for their evil ways.

V.5 – “In that day…”  refers to the Day of the Lord which begins with the Great Tribulation and extends on through the Millennium.

What causes their downfall?   It is that ‘crown of pride’ that they wore.

HOWEVER, in the future God will bring them back to the land that will be a crown of glory.

In V.1-5 Isaiah mentions three crowns but V.5 is the Crown that Christ has for us, “the crown of glory”.  Do we want that one?

Isaiah 28:6-13 (ESV) – A Far Distant Judgment

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.
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.”
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.
V.6-7 – By strong drink they error in vision and stumble in judgment…

V.9-13 – “teach knowledge” –

? – to gain knowledge is there a quick way?  You want to learn how to be a better husband or wife, thus take a course or read a book.  Does that provide the solution?

NO – knowledge is gain slowly – as V. 10 shows the concept of gaining knowledge when it says:  “precept upon precept… line upon line…  here a little…

The text is telling us we learn ‘line by line’ etc – That is why we need to be in the Word daily.  Thus we need to be under the teaching of the Word in SS & Church preaching.  Here we learn a bit by bit that is used to adjust self at a niche-in-time… (stich in time). 

Bottom Line:  Teaching is a slow, patient, and continuous work. 

V.12 – that we find ‘rest’ in God…

Quote: V. McGee and Ray Ortlund about this text in Isaiah.

There are many Christians today who are not satisfied with their Christian lives. To be brutally frank, they are ignorant of the Word of God. Then they hear about a wonderful two–week course that will give them the answers to all their problems. They will learn how to handle their marital problems, how to get along with their mother–in–law, how to guide their children aright, and how to become model employees. My friend, let me say this to you very candidly. Neither a little course nor some great emotional experience will solve your problems. There is no shortcut to success in the Christian life. There is only one way to grow as a Christian, and it is so commonplace and ordinary that I hesitate to say it. The Word of the Lord was given unto Israel precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little. It was the daily grind of getting into God’s Word. What happened? Israel did not follow through. They fell backward; that is, they were in a backslidden state. There are many Christians in the same condition today. It is not that they are weaker than anybody else; it is simply that they do not spend enough time in the Word of God. I realize that this method is not very exciting, but line upon line and precept upon precept is the only way you are going to grow in the Christian life.  Quote: V. McGee

Isaiah is communicating the tragedy of unreality with God. Any shelter other than God is a “refuge of lies” (Isaiah 28:15, 17). What is the point at which your faith is being tested? How is God calling you to surrender control and accept his answers and keep pace with his timing? There’s a lot more to God’s salvation than deliverance from long-gone powers of the ancient Near East. Our real enemy is sin, and it can enslave us forever. God is saying, “Take refuge in me, not in denial, not in pleasant falsehoods. You can face the reality of your guilt, and I will show you how I can forgive a sinner.” .” One of Nietzsche’s aphorisms shows how we take refuge in soothing lies:

“I did this,” says my memory. “I cannot have done this,” says my pride, remaining inexorable. Eventually, my memory yields.

Isn’t that the way we are? But God loves dishonest sinners. He is willing to be our ally through Christ, if only we’ll trust him.

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.” (Isaiah 28:16)

_ Quote:  Ray Ortlund

Isaiah 28:14-24 – The Warning to Judah

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”;
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.’
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.
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.
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?
V.14 – The prophecy should be a warning to Judah.    When Israel fell it should have really shake them up.

WHY do you think they didn’t?  What reasoning might they have used to contradict the visible destruction?

Daniel tells about a future covenant which Israel will make with the Antichrist, the man of sin or the beast from the sea.

Daniel 9:27 (ESV)
²⁷  And he shall make a strong covenant with many for one week, and for half of the week he shall put an end to sacrifice and offering. And on the wing of abominations shall come one who makes desolate, until the decreed end is poured out on the desolator.”

The future prophecy states a repeat of the same error:  1 Peter 2:6-8

1 Peter 2:6-8 (ESV)
⁶  For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.”
⁷  So the honor is for you who believe, but for those who do not believe, “The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone,”
⁸  and “A stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense.” They stumble because they disobey the word, as they were destined to do.

V.20-24 – “..the bed is to short”  –  God speaks about the judgment that will come upon Judah.

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.
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?

V.23 – God pleads for them to “give ear, and hear my voice….”

Do we listen even today?  What affects our listening skills today?

Isaiah 28:25-29 (ESV)  -The Final Judgment of God Upon His People
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.

Think about the parable of the “wheat and the tares” – does that not seem to fit here?
The different kinds of grain, the hard grains and the soft grains – plus the different methods of threshing it.

The grains are “fitches”  which is sometimes translated ‘fennel or dill’ or “cumin, wheat, barley, and rye”.

KJV:  ²⁵ When he hath [made plain] the face^,, thereof, doth he not^, [cast abroad^,] the fitches, and scatter the cummin,^, and cast^, in the principal wheat and the appointed barley^, and the rye^, in their place?^,

Nutmeg Flower (Nigella sativa). The “fitches”   V 2, p 1717    p 1717  of Isaiah 28:25, 27 are probably the nutmeg flower, Nigella sativa, an annual plant of the buttercup family. The plant grows wild in southern Europe, Syria, Egypt, north Africa, and other Mediterranean lands where it is extensively cultivated for its strongly pungent, pepper-like aromatic seeds. These are sprinkled over some kinds of bread and cakes in the Orient and are used for flavoring curries and other dishes in the Holy Land and Egypt. Cummin and nutmeg flowers are still gathered in the Holy Land in the same way described by Isaiah. If a wheel passes over these plants, they are crushed and the valuable carminative oil wasted. To avoid this the seeds are beaten out with a staff or flail. Being more easily detached, the cummin seeds can be harvested by being beaten with a short rod, but the nutmeg flowers require a longer and stronger staff or flail.

The word “fitches” suggests that these were vetches, species of the genus Vicia, but today it is generally agreed that this identification is incorrect.^[1]  Baker Encyclopedia

The KJV renders the verses this way: “For 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. Bread 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.”

Threshing with a sled – From:  Manners & customs of the Bible   (QUOTE)

Three different methods of threshing are mentioned:

1. With a rod and stick. This was for the small delicate seeds, such as caraway and cummin (or preferred spelling: cumin). They were also used for grain when only a small quantity was to be threshed, or when it was necessary to conceal the operation from an enemy. It was doubtless in this manner that Ruth, when she was in the field of Boaz, “beat out” (KJV) at evening what she had gleaned during the day (Ruth 2:17). It was probably in the same way that Gideon was “threshing wheat in a winepress to keep it from the Midianites” (Judges 6:11). With a rod or stick he could beat out a little at a time, and conceal it in the tub of the winepress from the hostile Midianites.
2. The Hebrew word charuwts is rendered sledge by the NIV and threshing instrument by the KJV. It can also mean threshing-sledge. This was probably a machine in some respects resembling a stone-sledge that was used many years ago by American farmers. One writer describes one that he saw in Beirut, Lebanon, in the mid-1800s: “The frame was composed of thick pieces of plank, turned up in front like our stone-sledge, and perforated with holes underneath for holding the teeth. The teeth consisted of sharp basaltic rock about three inches long, and almost as strong as iron. This machine was drawn over the grain by horses or oxen, and served, together with the trampling of the feet of the animals, to beat out the kernels and cut up the straw preparatory to winnowing.” Sometimes the teeth were made of iron.
3. The Hebrew word agalah, translated cartwheel or cart, means a wheeled vehicle. It’s believed to be the same as the mowrag, threshing sledge, in 2 Samuel 24:22, 1 Chronicles 21:23, and Isaiah 41:15, although some commentators say the mowrag and the charuwts are the same. Some years ago there was what seemed to be a similar instrument in Egypt known as the mowrej. It consisted of three or four heavy rollers of wood, iron, or stone, roughly made and joined together in a square frame, which was in the form of a sledge or drag. The rollers were said to be somewhat like large, modern, barrels. They were parallel to each other and had many square-pointed spikes projecting from them. It was used in the same way as the charuwts. The driver sat on the machine to increase the weight on the rollers. This instrument or one like it is probably referred to in Proverbs 20:26 where it says: “A wise king winnows out the wicked; he drives the threshing wheel over them.”

(Commentators don’t agree as to the difference between the charuwts, the agalah, and the mowrag. We have, however, tried as much as possible to harmonize the conflicting opinions.)^[2]

 “Crush Grain for Bread”

ESV – V.28 – 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.
KJV – ²⁸ Bread 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.^,,,

NLT – ²⁸ Grain for bread is easily crushed, so he doesn’t keep on pounding it.  He threshes it under the wheels of a cart, but he doesn’t pulverize it.

This is the way God Judges.   –  Judgement is spoken of as the harvest.  The individual or nation actually determines the character of the judgment which is to fall upon them.

–  If you are hard and resist God, you are a hard grain – a tough nut to crack.  Then judgement is going to be severe for you.    God will trash you until you learn….

Matthew 13:30 (ESV)
³⁰  Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.’”

Matthew 13:41 (ESV)
⁴¹  The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers,

If we listen the harvester will place us where the wheat is.

^[1] Elwell, W. A., & Beitzel, B. J. (1988). In Baker encyclopedia of the Bible (pp. 1716–1717). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

^[2] Freeman, J. M., & Chadwick, H. J. (1998). Manners & customs of the Bible (pp. 358–359). North Brunswick, NJ: Bridge-Logos Publishers.