Isaiah 28
Notes
Transcript
Sermon Tone Analysis
A
D
F
J
S
Emotion
A
C
T
Language
O
C
E
A
E
Social
Isaiah 28
Isaiah 28
Good evening church! I want to begin by thanking you for allowing Nicole and I some time away to celebrate our 30th Wedding anniversary. We had a wonderful time of exploring Tennessee. We saw 7 bears not including the ones in zoos and country stores, got to see and do a ton of things, we were able to worship with Calvary Chapel brothers and sisters from the south, and just had a blast together, so thank you for that, but as always, it is good to be home! Thank you to the men who took on extra duties and taught the Word while I was gone, I’m looking forward to catching up with all of those teachings later in the week.
Let’s pray to begin....
You all can open your Bibles to Isaiah 28, I however want to begin reading from a passage in 2 Samuel chapter 12....
1 Then the Lord sent Nathan to David. And he came to him, and said to him: “There were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor.
2 The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds.
3 But the poor man had nothing, except one little ewe lamb which he had bought and nourished; and it grew up together with him and with his children. It ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom; and it was like a daughter to him.
4 And a traveler came to the rich man, who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him; but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.”
5 So David’s anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die!
6 And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity.”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
This is similar to what we find in Isaiah chapter 28 this evening…Chapter 28 begins a section of 8 chapters, 28-35 that are directed primarily to the southern kingdom of Judah. But as an introduction to get their attention, he begins with the sin in Northern Israel, referred to here as Ephraim. God knows us all too well. Often times we can get enraged and self righteous when hearing about the sins of others, that is shameful and so gross on them, when sometimes, it is something that is actually happening in our own lives.
This pattern in the Scriptures is seen often. Here God uses Ephraim to speak to Judah, and we need to understand and see that He is then using Judah to speak to us today. So chapter 28 verse 1...
1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower Which is at the head of the verdant valleys, To those who are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, Like a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, Like a flood of mighty waters overflowing, Who will bring them down to the earth with His hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, Will be trampled underfoot;
4 And the glorious beauty is a fading flower Which is at the head of the verdant valley, Like the first fruit before the summer, Which an observer sees; He eats it up while it is still in his hand.
This is the first of I believe 6 Woes that are pronounced in this section of Isaiah. Woe to the crown of pride. Here speaking of Ephraim and their pride is connected to their abuse of alcohol. The bible warns throughout of both the sin and the dangers of drunkeness. Saying here that it will overcome them, that they will be trampled underfoot, that their beauty is a fading flower…it will be their destruction.
Jesus warned that it would be the case in our day, in the final days. Luke 21:34-36
34 “But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that Day come on you unexpectedly.
35 For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth.
36 Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
As clear as the Bible is about drunkeness, it might make things cleaner if the Bible just declared an outright prohibition against alcohol, but it doesn’t do that either. The first miracle of Jesus was to turn water into wine…, I think there is pretty clear Biblical evidence that Jesus consumed wine and... In the Psalms we read Psalms 104:15
15 And wine that makes glad the heart of man, Oil to make his face shine, And bread which strengthens man’s heart.
In it’s proper use the Bible presents wine as a gift from God, outside of it’s moderate use, it is a curse and it is clearly sin. That is what Isaiah is addressing in chapter 28. The exception here is those that have not been overtaken or overcome with wine, the remnant that remains faithful to Him. Isaiah 28:5-6
5 In that day the Lord of hosts will be For a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty To the remnant of His people,
6 For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, And for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
Now here is where we see the turn, from the north to the south, from Ephraim to Jerusalem in Judah. Isaiah 28:7-8
7 But they also have erred through wine, And through intoxicating drink are out of the way; The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink, They are swallowed up by wine, They are out of the way through intoxicating drink; They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filth; No place is clean.
SO when it comes to Jerusalem, it is not just the politician, the popular, or the rich and famous that have been abusing the intoxicating drink, but the priest and the prophet as well, and as a result, they have erred....and the end of verse 7, I think gives us the gravest of consequences…They err in vision, and they stumble in judgement....If you guys remember from our study in Ephesians just before I left, Paul wrote…Eph 5:18
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,
These guys were drunk with wine and they were a waste, they erred in vision and they stumbled in judgement. God is addressing sin in the camp here. I don’t want to use this as a launching pad to preach against alcohol use, but I want you to consider some statistics just quickly....
In the U.S. annually there are 95 thousand alcohol related deaths.
10.5 K drunk driving deaths.
47.5 K deaths from alcohol related long term health failures…meaning in this advanced educated country, we lose 1 person every 52 minutes from an alcohol related death. Roughly 980 of those deaths are in children under the age of 18..
We know this is never true, but some might argue, so what, that only effects the drunks....not true, never true related to any sin. But when we look at alcohol related crime stats...
7,334 homicides have alcohol as a contributing factor every year.
48% of those convicted of homicide were under the influence at the time and 40% of homicide victims were drinking before they died.
Last category…date rape 3 out of 4 attackers had been drinking when they sexually assaulted their victims and half of sexual assault victims have been drinking at the time of their attack.
Drunkenness is clearly sin, and drunkeness has grave consequences in America and around the world. We somehow take pride in drunkeness here though. Nicole and I had opportunity to listen to a bunch of live music while we were in TN. One of the nights we went to live performances, there were four singer songwriters performing at a listening room. All very talented, two were overcome by alcohol, and it will be the destruction of them.
Continuing on, Isaiah uses the example of the north to get their attention, and then calls out the sin in the south, the drunkeness and err in vision and judgement of the priests and prophets in Jerusalem, being influenced by their drunkenness, rather than the influence of the Holy Spirit.
Now Isaiah shares with us, the reaction of the people to his message, their sarcastic response to his prophecy.
9 “Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts?
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little.”
Who is his message for, newborn babies? It is too simple, I’m not getting anything from it, some might say the same about how we teach line upon line, precept upon precept, but that is how the Word is learned and application is given. Now we see God’s response to their mockery of Isaiah’s message.
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 may cause the weary to rest,” And, “This is the refreshing”; Yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the Lord was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little,” That they might go and fall backward, and be broken And snared and caught.
There is a consequence to the rejection of the simple clear teaching of the Word of God. He speaks to the sinful arrogance of the leaders. Isaiah 28:14-15
14 Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, It will not come to us, For we have made lies our refuge, And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”
They had made alliances with Egypt in this case, and had placed their reliance and faith in this partnership rather than in God. This is a huge deception of the enemy, even what it says here of making a covenant with death and with Sheol of the place of the dead we are in agreement. People today are under this deception that they have their own deal with God, or that they are all set for what comes after death. But the world should not have a false sense of security or any security in their plan for death or the afterlife, they should in fact fear death, because death is finality. Death brings the end of opportunity for repentance and getting things right with God!
Jesus said he is the way the truth, and the life…any other way leads to death and separation from God for all of eternity, so this idea that we all go to heaven in the end is just deception. Isaiah 28:16-19
16 Therefore thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, A tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; Whoever believes will not act hastily.
17 Also I will make justice the measuring line, And righteousness the plummet; The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, And the waters will overflow the hiding place.
18 Your covenant with death will be annulled, And your agreement with Sheol will not stand; When the overflowing scourge passes through, Then you will be trampled down by it.
19 As often as it goes out it will take you; For morning by morning it will pass over, And by day and by night; It will be a terror just to understand the report.”
The prophet is not speaking of a plan or a program here, but a person, Jesus. The Cornerstone. To those that will be facing that judgement to come, Isaiah gives some advice....Isaiah 28:20-22
20 For the bed is too short to stretch out on, And the covering so narrow that one cannot wrap himself in it.
21 For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon— That He may do His work, His awesome work, And bring to pass His act, His unusual act.
22 Now therefore, do not be mockers, Lest your bonds be made strong; For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts, A destruction determined even upon the whole earth.
Now in verse 23 he begins an example related to farming. Isaiah 28:23-26
23 Give ear and hear my voice, Listen and hear my speech.
24 Does the plowman keep plowing all day to sow? Does he keep turning his soil and breaking the clods?
25 When he has leveled its surface, Does he not sow the black cummin And scatter the cummin, Plant the wheat in rows, The barley in the appointed place, And the spelt in its place?
26 For He instructs him in right judgment, His God teaches him.
27 For the black cummin is not threshed with a threshing sledge, Nor is a cartwheel rolled over the cummin; But the black cummin is beaten out with a stick, And the cummin with a rod.
28 Bread flour must be ground; Therefore he does not thresh it forever, Break it with his cartwheel, Or crush it with his horsemen.
29 This also comes from the Lord of hosts, Who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance.