Isaiah 28

 

The Lord is our crown of glory

 

1 Cries of grief to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is on the head of the fat valleys of those that are overcome/broken with wine! 2 Behold, 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, will cast down to the earth with the hand. 3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, will be trampled under feet: 4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, will be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looks upon it sees, while it is yet in his hand he swallows it up.

 

5 In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remainder of his people, 6 And a spirit of judgment to him that sits in judgment, and strength to them that turn the battle to the gate. 7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they have been swallowed up by wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

 

  • Alcohol controlled their lives. It was their God.
  • The priests were the judges in Israel.
  • The prophets battled evil in the hearts of the people by giving them God’s word.
  • The gates mean the government because the government business was done at the city gates.
  • Proverbs 31:4-5 It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine; or for princes strong drink: 5 Lest they drink, and forget the law, and pervert the judgment of any of the afflicted.
  • Deuteronomy 32:4 He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.

 

8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean. 9 Whom can he teach knowledge? And whom can he make to understand doctrine? Those that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. 10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: 11 For with stammering lips and another tongue he will speak to this people. 12 To whom he said, This is the rest with which you will cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. 13 But 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. 14 So hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men that rule this people who are in Jerusalem.

 

15 Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death, and are in agreement with hell; when the overflowing scourge passes through, it will not come to us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: 16 Therefore the Lord GOD says, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believes will not hurry.

 

  • Jesus is the chief cornerstone. In ancient buildings the whole building rested on the solidness one cornerstone. If that one stone were removed the whole building collapsed.
  • Matthew 21:42 Jesus said to them, Did you never read in the scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner: this is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes?

 

17 I will lay judgment to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. 18 And your covenant with death will be disannulled, and your agreement with hell will not stand; when the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it. 19 From the time that it goes forth it will take you: for morning by morning it will pass over, by day and by night: and it will be a terror when he makes you understand the doctrine. 20 For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than what he can wrap himself in. 21 For the LORD will rise up as in mount Perazim, he will be furious as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.

 

22 So do not be mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption determined on the whole earth. 23.Give ear, and hear my voice; listen, and hear my speech. 24 Does the plowman plow all day to sow? Does he open and break the clods of his ground? 25 When he has made plain its face does 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?

 

The Lord gives wonderful advice; His works are excellent

 

26 For his God instructs him into discretion, and teaches him. 27 For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about on the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod. 28 Bread grain is bruised. Because he will not always be threshing it or break it with the wheel of his cart or bruise it with his horsemen. 29 This also comes forth from the LORD of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.

 

  • He will not always be threshing it.’ God does not continually discipline. Too much threshing would damage the grain. Judgment prepares the heart to receive God’s truth like a field is plowed before the seed is planted.Hebrews 12:6 For whom the Lord loves he chastens, and scourges every son whom he receives.
  • Isaiah 9:6-7For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government will be on his shoulder: and his name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end, on the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from now on even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

 

 

                                           Isaiah 29

 

1 Cries of grief to Ariel, to Ariel, the city where David dwelt! Add year to year; let feasts run their circle. 2 I will still distress Ariel, and there will be heaviness and sorrow: and it will be to me as Ariel. 3 And I will camp against you round about, and will lay siege against you with a mound, and I will raise forts against you. 4 And you will be brought down, and will speak out of the ground, and your speech will be low out of the dust, and your voice will be, as of one that has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech will whisper out of the dust. 5 Moreover the multitude of your foreigners will be like small dust, and the multitude of the terrible ones will be as chaff that passes away: yes, it will in an instant, suddenly.

 

  • Ariel is a special name for Jerusalem. It means lion of God.
  • Psalm 9:11 Sing praises to the LORD, who dwells in Zion: declare among the people his doings.

 

The Lord visits the idolatrous nation with thunder, earthquake, and fire

 

6 The LORD of hosts will visit you with thunder with earthquake and great noise, with storm and tempest, and the flame of devouring fire. 7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, even all that fight against her and her stronghold, and that compress her, will be as a dream of a night vision. 8 It will be as when a hungry man dreams, and, behold, he eats; but he awakens, and his soul is empty: or as when a thirsty man dreams, and, behold, he drinks; but he awakens, and, behold, he is faint, and his soul has appetite: so will the multitude of all the nations be, that fight against mount Zion. 9 Stop and wonder; cry out, and cry: they are drunk, but not with wine; they stagger, but not with strong drink. 10 For the LORD has poured out on you the spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers he has covered. 11 And the vision of all has become to you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I ask you: and he says, I cannot; for it is sealed: 12 And the book is delivered to him that is not learned, saying, Read this, I ask you: and he says, I am not learned. 13 Therefore the Lord said, Because this people draw near me with their mouth, and honor me with their lips, but have removed their heart far from me, and their reverence toward me is taught by the precept of men.

 

  • 1 Samuel 16:7But the LORD said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.

 

14 Therefore, behold, I will proceed to do a marvelous work among this people, even a marvelous work and a wonder: for the wisdom of their wise men will perish, and the understanding of their prudent men will be hid. 15 Cries of grief to them that seek deep to hide their counsel from the LORD, and their works are in the dark, and they say, Who sees us? And who knows us?

 

  • The One who knows all things (1 John 3:20) has given us perfect counsel in His word.
  • He is going to cause false wisdom to perish and hide false understanding from the prudent who are far from Him.
  • None can hide from God. He sees everything.
  • Proverbs 15:3 The eyes of the LORD are in every place, beholding the evil and the good.

 

The Lord brings great blessing after discipline

 

16 Surely your turning of things upside down will be esteemed as the potter's clay: will the work say of him that made it, He did not make me? Can the thing framed say of him that framed it he had no understanding? 17 Is it not yet a very little while, and Lebanon will be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field will be esteemed as a forest? 18 And in that day the deaf will hear the words of the book, and the eyes of the blind will see out of obscurity, and out of darkness. 19 The meek also will increase their joy in the LORD, and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel. 20 For the terrible one is brought to nothing, and the scorner is consumed, and all that watch for iniquity are cut off: 21 That make a man an offender for a word, and lay a snare for him that reproves in the gate, and turn aside the just for a thing of nothing.

 

  • They were arresting people just for stating opinions contrary to theirs. Lawyers were twisting words to get the guilty acquitted and therefore depriving the innocent of justice.
  • They trapped and imprisoned those who spoke the truth, Jeremiah like John the Baptist was arrested for telling God’s truth (Mark 6:18-27).

 

22 Therefore thus says the LORD, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob, Jacob will not be ashamed nor will his face now grow pale. 23 But when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in the midst of him, they will sanctify my name, and sanctify the Holy One of Jacob, and will fear the God of Israel. 24 They also that erred in spirit will come to understanding, and they that murmured will learn doctrine.

 

 

                                             Isaiah 30

 

1 Cries of grief to the rebellious children, says the LORD, that take counsel, but not by me; and that cover with a covering, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin. 2 That walk to go down into Egypt, and have not asked at my mouth; to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! 3 Therefore the strength of Pharaoh will be your shame, and the trust in the shadow of Egypt your confusion. 4 For his princes in Tanis were bad angels. 5 They were all ashamed of a people that could not profit them or be a help or profit, but are a shame, and a reproach. 6 The burden of the beasts of the south: into the land of trouble and anguish, from there comes the young and old lion, the viper and fiery flying serpent, they will carry their riches on the shoulders of young asses, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people that will not profit them. 7 For the Egyptians will help in vain, and to no purpose: therefore I have cried concerning this, Their strength is to sit still.

 

  •  God’s people were trusting in another nation to help them instead of the Lord who made all nations.Jeremiah17:5 Thus says the LORD; Cursed is the man that trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm, and whose heart departs from the LORD.Psalm 46:10 Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

 

The Lord saves us from trouble when we return to Him and rest in Him

  

8 Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come forever and ever: 9 That this is a rebellious people, lying children, children that will not hear the law of the LORD: 10 Which say to the seers, Do not see; and to the prophets, Do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits: 11 Get out of the way, turn aside out of the path, cause the Holy One of Israel to cease from before us. 12 Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says, Because you despise this word, and trust in fraud and perverseness, and rely on it: 13 Therefore this iniquity will be to you as a breach ready to fall, a swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking comes suddenly at an instant. 14 And he will break it as the breaking of the potters' vessel that is broken in pieces; he will not spare: so that there will not be found from its bursting a shard to take fire from the hearth, or to take water with it out of the pit. 15 For this is what the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel says; In returning and rest you will be saved; in quietness and in confidence will be your strength: and you would not. 16 But you said, No; we will flee on horses; therefore you will flee: and, We will ride on the swift; so those that pursue you will be swift. 17 One thousand will flee at the rebuke of one; at the rebuke of five you will flee: until you are left as a beacon on the top of a mountain, and as a flagpole on a hill.

 

He waits to be gracious to us

 

18 And therefore the LORD will wait, that he may be gracious to you, and he will be exalted, that he may have mercy on you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all those that wait for him. 19 For the people will dwell in Zion at Jerusalem: you will weep no more: he will be very gracious to you atthe voice of your cry; when he hears it, he will answer you. 20 And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner any more, but your eyes will see your teachers: 21 And your ears will hear a word behind you, saying, This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right hand, and when you turn to the left. 22 You will defile the covering of your carved images of silver, and the ornament of your molten images of gold: you will cast them away as a menstruous cloth; you will say to it, Get away.

 

The Lord prospers when we turn from our idols

 

23 Then he will give the rain of your seed, that you will sow the ground with it; and food of the increase of the earth, and it will be fat and plenteous: in that day your cattle will feed in large pastures. 24 The oxen and the young asses that ear the ground will eat clean provender, which has been winnowed with the shovel and with the fan. 25 And on every high mountain and on every high hill there will be rivers and streams of waters in the day of the great slaughter when the towers fall. 26 Moreover the light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun will be sevenfold, as the light of seven days, in the day that the LORD binds up the breach of his people, and heals the stroke of their wound.

 

  • Psalm 103:2Bless the LORD, O my soul, and do not forget all his benefits: 3 Who forgives all your iniquities; who heals all your diseases; 4 Who redeems your life from destruction; who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies.

 

He is coming

 

27 Behold, the LORD comes from afar, burning with his anger, and its burden is heavy: his lips are full of indignation, and his tongue as a devouring fire: 28 And his breath, as an overflowing stream, will reach to the midst of the neck, to sift the nations with the sieve of vanity: and there will be a bridle in the jaws of the people, causing them to err. 29 You will have a song, as in the night when a holy solemnity is kept; and gladness of heart, as when one goes with a pipe to come into the mountain of the LORD, to the mighty One of Israel. 30 And the LORD will cause the glory of his voice to be heard, and will show the lighting down his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.

 

  • He comes from the throne of God in the third heaven.
  • He sifts the nations to preserve those that have value and remove those that have no value, no thought for their Maker.

 

31 For through the voice of the LORD the Assyrian will be beaten down, who struck with a rod. 32 And in every place where the grounded staff will pass, which the LORD will lay on him, it will be with tambourines and harps: and in battles of shaking he will fight against them. 33 For Tophet is ordained of old; yes, for the king it is prepared; he has made it deep and large: its pile is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, ignites it.

 

 

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SUMMARY: Isaiah 28-30

 

  • The Lord is our crown of glory
  • The Lord gives wonderful advice; His works are excellent
  • The Lord visits the idolatrous nation with thunder, earthquake, and fire
  • The Lord brings great blessing after discipline
  • The Lord saves us from trouble when we return to Him and rest in Him
  • He waits to be gracious to us
  • The Lord prospers when we turn from our idols
  • He is coming