A translation and
sermon for Christ the
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.
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 question is, How do we get in on the story of glory instead of the shameful ending?
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
23:8-9 Who has purposed this against
Also other
nation’s “glory” - 10:12 (Assyria); 13:19 (
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
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”
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 [
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
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
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
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”)
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
Prov. 20:1 “Wine
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.
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
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.”
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
o Sharing the Gospel with a drunk in downtown
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.”
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
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
God had told the Jews not to go to
war against Assyria or impose taxes to begin a treaty with
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
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
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: