Isaiah 28:1-13 Story of Glory/Story of Shame

A translation and sermon for Christ the Redeemer Church, Manhattan, KS by Nate Wilson

 

1 Woe,

proud crown of Ephraim’s alcoholics.

and fading flower, his glorious beauty which is upon the head of the valley of riches

- overcome by wine.

2 Look, a strong and mighty man belongs to the Lord,

like a storm of hail, a storm of destruction,

like a storm of heavy waters flooding, he has brought down to the land with a hand.

3 The proud crown of the alcoholics of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot.

4 And the fading flower of the beauty of his gory which is upon the head of the valley of riches will be like a ripe fig before summer which as soon as the see-er sees it, it is in his hand and he swallows it.

5 In that day Jehovah of Hosts will turn

into the crown of beauty

and into the diadem of glory for the remnant of His people,

6 and into a Spirit of justice to the one who sits over justice

and into the strength of those who turn battle towards a gate.

7 And also these reel with wine and with alcohol they stagger:

Priest and prophet reel with alcohol; they are swallowed from the wine.

They stagger from the alcohol, they reel while seeing; they waver in judgment.

8 For the tables are full of vomit, filth, and there is not a place!

9 Who will teach knowledge and who will cause understanding of what is heard? Those weaned from milk? Those taken from the breasts?

10 For, “Precept to precept,

precept to precept,

line to line,

line to line,

a little there, a little there.”

11 For with mocking lip and with another tongue He will speak to this people.

12 Which He said to them, “Rest! This is the rest for the weary one, and this is the repose.”

Yet they did not consent to listen.

13 And the word of Jehovah will happen to them,

“Precept to precept, precept to precept,

line to line, line to line,

a little there, a little there,”

in order that they may walk and fall behind and be shattered and snared and taken.

 

Introduction

Isaiah 28 starts a new section in Isaiah, the first of 5 chapters starting with the word “Woe.” It steps back in time from the last chapters which were looking out to the end of the world, back to Isaiah’s and Hezekiah’s time when Assyria was just becoming a world power and the Northern kingdom of Ephraim was still around, and the big question was, “Can Egypt deliver us from Assyria?”

 

Verses 1-13 tell two stories, a story of glory and a story of shame.

  • The story of shame includes: vomiting and filth, not understanding what’s going on, the confusion of trying to understand a foreign language, never getting enough rest, being stepped on, turning ugly, loosing respect, getting eaten for lunch, falling down and getting captured.
  • The story of glory includes: glory, beauty, a crown, getting rest when you’re tired, understanding what’s going on, being the head, being strong, surviving, everything turning out right, justice, and being victorious in battle.

The question is, How do we get in on the story of glory instead of the shameful ending?

 

1 The glory of Ephraim

Woe, proud crown of Ephraim’s alcoholics and fading flower, his glorious beauty which is upon the head of the valley of riches- overcome by wine.

The northern kingdom (Ephraim) had a fertile valley running through it called Jezreel. The round-walled capitol city of Samaria situated on a hill overlooking Jezreel may have looked like a crown on a head over the valley.

23:8-9 Who has purposed this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns…? The LORD of hosts has purposed it, to defile the pompous pride of all glory.”

Also other nation’s “glory” - 10:12 (Assyria); 13:19 (Babylon); 20:5 (Egypt)

2 The glorious mighty man and storm

Look, a strong and mighty man belongs to the Lord, like a storm of hail, a storm of destruction, like a storm of heavy waters flooding, he has brought down to the land with a hand.

These adjectives have no modifier, but are probably referring to Assyria. Like God brought the flood of Noah. If they don’t settle down in His ways, He brings storms down on His people. 17:12 explains that these are mighty nations, not literal water (underscored by “trampling feet” in v.3)

30:30 “Jehovah will cause his majestic voice to be heard and the descending blow of his arm to be seen, in furious anger and a flame of devouring fire, with a cloudburst and storm and hailstones.”

4:6; 25:4, 32:2 But God will be a refuge from that “storm”

3-4 The collision of two of God’s glorious creations

The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden underfoot. And the fading flower of the beauty of his gory which is upon the head of the valley of riches will be like a ripe fig before summer which as soon as the see-er sees it, it is in his hand and he swallows it.

It’s like the Calvin and Hobbes comic strip where you have the little boy playing with a car. He introduces the car and how sleek and fast it is, then he introduces “The Cliff” and how high and scary it is, then in the third frame car meets cliff and crashes.

Those who enjoy the gifts of God but despise the Giver may expect such gifts to be soon cut off. (Young)

Interestingly, God turns it around on the country that devoured Ephraim. Nahum 3:12 “All [Assyria’s] fortressses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs-- if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.”

5-6 The goal – the end of the story of glory

In that day Jehovah of Hosts will turn into:

a) “the crown of beauty”
This crown is in contrast to their earthly crown in v.1, and it will not fade away like their human crown either!

b) “the diadem of beauty for the remnant of His people”
10:20-21 In that day the remnant of Israel…will… lean on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. (cf. 11:11ff)
4:2 In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel.

c) “a spirit of justice to the one who sits over justice”
It is God who empowers judges to judge justly and warriors to fight!
Isa 4:3-4 “he who is left in Zion…will be called holy… when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion… by a spirit of judgment…”
Judge -9:7; 16:5-Jesus! cf. Rom. 14:10 and 2 Cor. 5:10 “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.”

d) “the strength of those who turn battle towards a gate”
Isa 11:2 “The Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon Him, the Spirit of wisdom and under­standing, the Spirit of counsel & might
Either this is turning an attacking enemy away from the gate of the city (cf. 22:7 with the same directional He ending – “horsemen will arrange themselves toward the gate”)
OR this is the conqueror returning victoriously into his fortress after a battle, God having given him strength to win (cf. 26:2 “Open the gates that the righteous may go in”)

7-8 The story of shame – the sin of God’s people

And also these reel with wine and with alcohol they stagger: Priest and prophet reel with alcohol; they are swallowed from the wine. They stagger from the alcohol, they reel while seeing; they waver in judgment. For the tables are full of vomit, filth, and there is not a place!

Don’t believe anyone who tells you it’s fun to get drunk! They’ve either got something to sell or something to prove and either way it’s not good for you. The picture of people staggering around and throwing up on the tables is disgusting, but realistic. The Perfect tenses indicate their total addiction to wine. Irony: swallowed by what they swallow!

Priests were forbidden to drink alcohol while on duty (Lev. 10:9)

also these” indicates the Southern kingdom of Judah as well as the Northern kingdom of Ephraim. Mic. 2:11 confirms problem of alcoholism in Judah  (If a man should…say, ‘I will preach to you of wine and strong drink,’ he would be the preacher for this people!” ), already mentioned in Isa. 5:11-12; 5:22, 22:13; & 24:11

Prov. 20:1Wine is a mocker… whoever is led astray by it is not wise.” (That is not to say that all wine-drinking is wrong: in Prov. 9:2-5, wisdom serves wine, the prophets wrote of wine being enjoyed in heaven Jer 31:12; Joel 2:19 ; Amos 9:14; Isa 56:12, Jesus made and drank wine - John 2; Luke 7:33-34; and Paul told Timothy to drink a little for his stomach problems 1 Tim 5:23.) The point is that any gift of God, when enjoyed to excess can lead us astray. Here we have priests and prophets who are supposed to lead God’s people in His ways who instead are so smashed with alcohol that they cannot lead.

9 The shame of incompetence

He will teach knowledge to whom? And WHO will he cause to understand what is heard? Those weaned from milk? Those taken from the breasts?

There is no one who will listen. The only ones not drunk and going astray are the infants that haven’t weaned yet.

56:11-12 “they are shepherds who have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way…"Come," they say, "let me get wine; let us fill ourselves with strong drink..."

6:10 “Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."

29:14 “the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden."

44:18 “They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand.”

Yet there is hope:

32:4 “The heart of the hasty will understand and know, and the tongue of the stammerers will hasten to speak distinctly.”

v.26, also 2:3 “many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah…that He may teach us His ways and that we may walk in His paths.’ For out of Zion shall go the law.”

Ps. 22: 9-10 “You took me out of the womb; You made me trust when I was upon my mother's breasts… You have been my God since my mother bore me.”

10 The shame of ignorance

For, “Precept to precept, precept to precept, line to line, line to line, a little there, a little there.”

The drunks speak, mocking Isaiah:

·         They accuse Isaiah of legalism (precept=KJV, Order=NAS, Do=NIV).

·         They don’t like being held accountable to an absolute standard of truth and justice (“line to line” – standard for judgment in v.7 and measuring for carpentry in Isa 44:13)

·         They pick up on bits and pieces of the message but haven’t seen the big picture – because they don’t want to!
ILLUSTRATIONS:

o       Paul in Athens: Act 17:18 “Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, "What does this babbler wish to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities" - because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

o       Sharing the Gospel with a drunk in downtown Chattanooga;

o       Joseph Fiennes saying that the main idea of the Luther movie is “You can’t keep man down… sooner or later he will gain knowledge… and be liberated.”

 

11 the cure - God brings discipline to his people through antagonistic foreigners.

For with mocking lip and with another tongue He will speak to this people.

The word translated strange=ESV/foreign=NIV/Stammering=KJV,ASV here in this verse is translated “mocking” pretty much everywhere else in the O.T. I think that the Septuagint is spot-on in translating the word “contemptuous”

Ps. 22:7-8 “All they that see me laugh me to scorn: They shoot out the lip, they shake the head”

Delitzsch - Assyrian Semitic language sounded like a broken, uneducated form of Hebrew to Jews, but we’re going to read a passage later on in Isaiah 36-37 where these Assyrians speak Hebrew and mock the God of Israel, the king of Judah, and the city of Jerusalem.

Hosea 7:10-16 The pride of Israel testifies to his face… Ephraim.. is silly and w/o sense, calling to Egypt, going to Assyria… I will bring them down like birds of the heavens; I will discipline them according to the report made to their congregation… I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me… for grain and wine they gash themselves; they rebel against me… their princes shall fall by the sword because of the insolence of their tongue. This shall be their derision in the land of Egypt.

 

12 The neglected cure – the Gospel

Which He said to them, “Rest! This is the rest for the weary one, and this is the repose.” Yet they did not consent to listen.

“Rest” is where God is. and is found in faith and obedience to Him.

11:10 In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples--of him shall the nations inquire, and his resting place shall be glorious.

Deut. 28:65 “And among these nations you shall find no rest…”

51:4 “…give ear unto me, O my nation: for a law shall go forth from me, and I will cause my justice to rest for a light of the peoples.”

would not” – has to do with the will * Consenting is a form of resting & faith, and ties into the first half of the verse

1:19 “If you are willing and listen, you shall eat the good of the land;”

30:9 “a rebellious people, lying children… unwilling to hear the law of God”

Matt. 23:37 "O Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets… How often would I have gathered your children as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not!

God had told the Jews not to go to war against Assyria or impose taxes to begin a treaty with Egypt, but they did it anyway. If they had just followed His word, they would have found peace from these enemies. (Delitzsch)

 

13 The terrible end of the story of shame

And the word of Jehovah will happen to them, “Precept to precept, precept to precept, line to line, line to line, a little there, a little there,” in order that they may walk and fall behind and be shattered and snared and taken.

When we harden our hearts in rebellion against God, He gives us over to a depraved mind. ILLUSTRATION: The story of Uncle Andrew not understanding the animals at creation from The Magician’s Nephew pp. 148-152

8:12-15 “…do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. But the LORD of hosts, Him you shall regard as holy. Let Him be your fear, and let Him be your dread. And He will become a sanctuary and a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling to both houses of Israel, a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”

To those who reject the word of the Lord, He has ordained mockery, stumbling, and utter ruin.

Eph 4:18 being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignore­ance that is in them, because of the hardening of their heart;

Pro 13:15b “the way of the transgressor is hard.”

 

FULFILLMENT: 2Ki 18:9-12 In the 4th year of King Hezekiah, which was the 7th year of Hoshea son of Elah, king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it, and at the end of 3 years he took it.... The king of Assyria carried the Israelites away to Assyria… because they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God but trans­gressed his covenant, even all that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. They neither listened nor obeyed.

 

Conclusion and Application

But that’s not really the end. We are able to look at the big-picture flow of history and see that this story of shame is really just a chapter in the story of God’s glory. Chronologically, verses 7-13 fit inbetween verses 4 & 5, because, as we see from the rest of scripture, the capture and exile of the Jews was not the end of the story, it was followed by the restoration of a faithful remnant which gave birth to the church. The end of the story is really verses 4-5

In that day Jehovah of Hosts will turn into the crown of beauty and into the diadem of beauty for the remnant of His people, and into a Spirit of justice to the one who sits over justice and into the strength of those who turn battle towards a gate.

 

So let me return to the question I posed at the beginning: “How do we get in on this story of glory?”

Let me highlight 3 things suggested by this passage:

  1. Rest/trust in Jesus
    1. v.12 “Rest! This is the rest for the weary one, and this is the repose.”
    2. Jesus said,Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Mat 11:28
    3.  “Heb 4:2-3 “For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened. But you who have believed enter that rest…”
    4. The second question asked of candidates for baptism in the PCA book of church order also talks about resting, “Do you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the Son of God, and Savior of sinners, and do you receive and rest upon Him alone for salvation as He is offered in the Gospel?”
  2. Humbly submit and worship
    1. v.1 “Woe to the proud crown of Ephraim
    2. Let Jesus become your crown of glory – let the honor and glory be His (4:2 the branch of Jehovah will be beautiful and glorious… the pride and honor of the remnant)
    3. Worship Him wholeheartedly in your prayer and scripture reading and singing
    4. In your conversations with others, don’t think of how to impress others and draw glory to yourself, rather think of how to shift honor to God and make Jesus look impressive.
  3. Throw off the sins that entangle you
    1. v.7 Priest and prophet reel with alcohol; they are swallowed from the wine. They stagger from the alcohol, they reel while seeing; they waver in judgment.
    2. So, what sins do we allow to hamper our ability to fulfill God’s calling? It could be alcohol or any other drug, food, seeking acceptance from others, money, academics, even an idolatrous preoccupation with our children. We can so easily get off track.
    3. Isa. 53:6 “All we like sheep have gone astray [same word as used in v.7 to describe the staggering and reeling from alcohol – this what any sin does]… but the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.”
    4. Mic.2:11 “Arise and go, for this is no place to rest, because of uncleanness that destroys with a grievous destruction.”
    5. Heb. 12:1 Therefore… let us lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, keeping our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”