Isaiah 28:14-29

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? 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.

Target Date: Sunday, 18 August 2024

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

14 – scoffers: scoffers is the strongest negative term which the OT uses to describe the wicked. It is the diametric opposite of “faithful” (cf. Ps. 1:1, 2). Not only does this person choose the wrong way, but he mocks the right way.

“Scoffer” is the strongest negative term that the Old Testament writers used to describe the wicked (cf. Ps. 1:1–2; Prov. 1:22; 13:1; 14:9; 21:24; 29:8). A scoffer not only chooses the wrong way, but he or she also mocks the right way. He or she is not only misled, but he or she delights in misleading others.

16 – tested stone - בֹּחַן bôchan, bo’-khan; from 974; trial:— tried. Arguments below, but the NT uses of this passage seem to indicate the “trying” aspect of the stone – to built upon it or be crushed, a stone of stumbling and rock of offense, etc.

There is no agreement in commentaries and translations whether this means the STONE was tested and tried and proved to be solid (most translations), or whether this represents a TOUCHSTONE that is used to assay precious metals, i.e. a stone of trying.

Trying - Isaiah immediately goes on, however, to characterize the stone. It is a stone of testing, i.e., one that can be relied upon, a touchstone. In other words, by means of this stone men will be tested. To some it will be an occasion of offense; to others, a foundation for their souls and lives. It is Jesus Christ who divides men; they are known by their attitude toward Him.

Trying - a stone of testing may be a loanword from Egyptian, as first pointed out by Sethe, who noted that bhn-w was a particularly hard stone against which others could be measured.

Trying (Calvin) - As to the words, the genitive בחן, (bōchăn,) of trial, which is used instead of an adjective along with stone, may be taken both in an active and in a passive sense, either for a stone by which the whole building is “tried,” or examined as by a standard, or for a “tried stone.” The former meaning appears to me to be more appropriate, and undoubtedly the usage of the Hebrew language requires us to interpret it rather in an active sense. He calls it therefore a trying stone, or a trier, on account of the effect produced; because by this stone the whole building must be squared and adjusted, otherwise it must unavoidably totter and fall.

Trying - This stone is a ‘stone of testing’, in other words one that shows something about others. As in 8:14, how one treats Yahweh’s promise determines whether the stone is one of stumbling and defeat, or protection and refuge. Those who believe, as Isaiah does in 8:14, find sanctuary and help in this stone. Those who do not believe stumble over it. Like any good cornerstone, this one sustains strong and pure stones that rest on and around it. But it breaks weak stones that come up against it. Those who put their trust in this stone will find it secure. Those who do not trust will break when pressed against it.

Tried - This foundation is, (1.) The promises of God in general—his word, upon which he has caused his people to hope—his covenant with Abraham, that he would be a God to him and his; this is a foundation, a foundation of stone, firm and lasting, for faith to build upon; it is a tried stone, for all the saints have stayed themselves upon it and it never failed them.

Both - Tested (lit. ‘a stone of testing’) is either a stone which has undergone tests—and is therefore reliable—or one which tests whether they will take it as their foundation or turn elsewhere.

A tested stone/‘a stone of testing’ is either one ‘which has undergone tests’, or ‘which imposes tests’ by offering the opportunity’ either to build upon it or to turn to another foundation.

As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. - Daniel 2:34-35

Not as a touchstone, but a capstone – the finishing stone at the top that tests that everything is set in its place: First of all, it is a tested or testing stone. If the adjective is taken in an active sense, then it will simply indicate that the foundation stone has been tested for strength and shape. If passive, however, it may well refer to a topstone, shaped by the master mason for placing at the end of the whole building process, so forming a test of trueness of line for the whole edifice. This idea is found in Psalm 118:22 and is applied to Christ in Mark 12:10.

Thoughts on the Passage:

14 – It is, here, the rulers of the people being addressed. They were the ones leading their people to trust those great earthly alliances rather than God.

The question comes whether this is immediately applicable to any nation or people other than the singular nation of Israel and Judah. This was the people chosen by God to be the source of the promised Messiah.

This does not maintain an immediate or fleshly analogy because God has made no other covenant with any other nation in the way He made one with Israel.

What we see played out in the Old Testament often (always?) has parallels in general equity in the lives of believers living in the light of the New.

The cleverness and worldliness of believers can often lead us to trust in ourselves and our abilities without looking to the Lord for “daily bread”.

The sin of deriding God’s Word is unusually heinous when it is committed by those who live near the Temple of the Holy God. Not ignorant barbarians, but the rulers of Judah have derided the truth of God.

15 – The leaders have made friends and alliances with the world and are trusting in them.

16 – “I am the one who has laid…a precious cornerstone” – the world in all its bluster doesn’t control anything. The foundation of God’s work was laid at Zion, and it remains forever in the body of Jesus Christ.

Of importance is the past tense, for the stone has already been laid in the ground; and inasmuch as there is laid a firm foundation, it is mere folly to place one’s confidence in a foundation not firmly laid.

16 – a cornerstone, by its very nature, is immovable and perfectly aligned for the rest of the building to depend on.

The Messiah of God will be immovable from the truth and will have no deviation from its perfect end.

24 “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. 26 And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. 27 And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it.” - Matthew 7:24-27

17 – God does not cheat His own justice and righteousness – He upholds it. He doesn’t save us on a technicality of a legal fiction – He brings us in through what He Himself has built from the ground up.

The good that God does NEVER compromises with the demands or desires of anyone else.

20 – “The bed is too short…” – the things we trust in and try to rest in from this world will always be over-short and incomplete. We will find no rest in the things that are not established on the well-measured and amply Cornerstone of Jesus Christ.

The covering is narrower than that a man can wrap himself in it. Those that do not build upon Christ as their foundation, but rest in a righteousness of their own, will prove in the end thus to have deceived themselves; they can never be easy, safe, nor warm; the bed is too short, the covering is too narrow; like our first parents’ fig-leaves, the shame of their nakedness will still appear.

21 – This is a reference to the defeats of the Philistines under David: 1 Chronicles 14:8-17, 2 Samuel 5:17-25.

God’s work in history in the Scriptures is given as testimony to His character and faithfulness.

27 – An implication of these two parables (vv. 24–25 and 27–28), not stated, is that God might deal differently with the Southern Kingdom than He dealt with the Northern Kingdom. The Jerusalemites should not conclude that because God would allow the Assyrians to defeat the Ephraimites, the same fate would necessarily befall them. A change of attitude could reduce their judgment. So this whole “woe” ends with an implied offer of grace.

It would have been easy, even natural, for Assyria to wipe out both Israel and Judah from the nations of the world. But God’s plans for the Northern Kingdom were different than for the Southern Kingdom; The Northern kingdom was conquered and eradicated – the Southern was exiled for seventy years and then restored because God controlled the heart of the Persian conqueror, Cyrus.

Bunyan synopsis:

The Allure of Morality

A. As Christian continued toward the wicket gate, he met Mr. Worldly Wiseman.

i. Seeing Christian’s burden, Worldly Wiseman suggested that he visit the village of Morality.

ii. In Morality there lived a man named Mr. Legality, who was skilled at removing burdens such as the one Christian carried.

iii. By following the path of moral obedience, Christian could be free from his burden without having to find the wicket gate.

B. As Christian began to climb the steep hill to Morality, his burden seemed to grow greater and heavier.

C. Seeing Christian wander from the true path, Evangelist rebuked him and warned him of the danger that awaited him on the path to Morality.

Teachings:

What do we learn about God/ Jesus/ Holy Spirit?

God has no need to negotiate for anything in this world. He does not negotiate for nations; He will not negotiate even for your salvation. He is sovereign, and even His grace is in perfect harmony with His justice and righteousness.

Applications:

For the Christian:

Believers can often trust in their worldly wisdom – their cleverness or abilities – to get them out of scrapes. They trust their own “street smarts” and may look down on others who are not as “worldly-wise”. The leading of the Spirit is often (always?) immediately contrary to the wisdom of the world – it is leading to an entirely different destination and will use entirely different means. There is an entirely different creature you are being converted to.

For the Backslidden:

You have been straddling a fence, declaring your faith in God but never relying on that faith to do anything for you.

You trust yourself to make things happen rather than looking to God who moves all things for the good of His people.

In that condition, you have gained very little:

A self-faith that will betray you at the depths of tribulation.

A wisdom contrary to everything you have learned about the world.

A worry that God will somehow be at odds with your control.

And a fear that if you DO trust God, He won’t give you the things you want. That He might mess it up or, even worse, decide you do not need it and take it from you.

Your faith is the ephemeral faith James describes: Show me your faith without works…

For the Unconverted:

It is ludicrous to say something like “If God will do this for me, I will believe in Him.” God does not need you, and he will not pander to your pride or conceit to bring you to Him.

If you will come to Him, in fact, those very things you try to use as bargaining chips will be the very things He requires you to give up. To the Rich young man: And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” – Mark 10:21

Only those who realize their utter bankruptcy before God will ever recognize their need of the Savior, Jesus Christ. Those with any other die to cast from their own resources will persist in their own strength until it is too late.

Sermon Text:

[Read Isaiah 28:14-29]

Have you ever known a scoffer?

Someone who not only chooses the wrong way of living, glorying in their own sinfulness,

But then who mocks the right way of living, the godly way of living?

In the Old Testament, perhaps all of Scripture, there is no more negative term for the wicked than “scoffer”.

In past ages, before the conquest of our schools by humanistic thought and teaching, one of the books every student knew, after the Bible, was John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.

In it, he has a character, Mr. Worldly-Wiseman, who tries to detour the hero of the story, Christian, from his straight path.

In his speeches, he extols the ease of the destinations of Morality and Legality, telling Christian they are much easier paths to relieve him of his heavy burden.

And in one speech in particular, he had this to say about the straight path Christian was trying to follow:

Hear me, I am older than thou! Thou art like to meet with, in the way which thou goest, wearisomeness, painfulness, hunger, perils, nakedness, sword, lions, dragons, darkness, and, in a word, death, and what not? …Why should a man so carelessly cast away himself, by giving heed to a stranger [the Evangelist]?

The wise of this world, like Mr. Worldly-Wiseman of the story, prefer to have Morality and Legality for their abode because 1) They can more easily manipulate and control others, and 2) These two things make the Cross unnecessary.

I would not be surprised if Mr. Bunyan had our passage today in the back of his mind as he pondered (from his jail cell) the character and temptations of the scoffer, Mr. Worldly-Wiseman.

These scoffers were the leaders of the people of Judah from Jerusalem, the king and the ministers and the priests, as we have seen before.

But we ignore God’s warnings here to our peril;

It would be a grave mistake to take some trite application like “our leaders should be better” or some equally hollow teaching:

These were the leaders, the priests, that GOD Himself had sovereignly put into those positions.

Men God had installed into those roles for His own sovereign purposes.

The Holy Spirit didn’t include portions of His Scripture to speak ONLY to kings and priests – every word is a precious revelation of God we could receive no other way.

Nothing is wasted, and you and I should never consider any word of God’s Scripture to be for someone else.

Those very things we might try to pass to someone else may well be the things we ourselves are most in need of correction for.

The idea of deflecting some of the commandments and instructions of Scripture to someone else, to make it “their” responsibility, is a supremely lazy and unholy practice, almost unthinkable to someone who seeks daily the presence of our beloved Lord.

These scoffers didn’t have that. They weren’t interested in pleasing God; they were interested in winning at life.

See what they claim in verse 15: We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement…we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter.

It is obvious God doesn’t agree with their great confidence:

Verse 18 says: your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;

Now, you may be thinking “Who in their right mind says that anyway?”

“Who would make such a brash and foolish claim?”

“How do you even make a covenant with death?”

“Certainly if they were so foolish or superstitious way back then, we are far too modern, too civilized to even think something like that.”

But if you look closely at what they are saying in this scoffing, we may find things there that are uncomfortably modern.

It all comes down to the question I just asked: HOW do you make a covenant with death?

You do that by being the dealer of death instead of the victim of it.

In short, you become stronger or more clever or better-suited to survive in the world.

It is Darwinian – the survival of the fittest.

Everywhere around us, we are taught to laud and applaud the brash, the clever, the worldly-wise.

To hold up as examples of virtue those who are the best suited for life in this dog-eat-dog world.

Lies and falsehoods are just a few of the tools for those who will get ahead in this world.

Well-placed snitching, tattling, and passing of rumors, whether true or false, are effective ways we see practiced every day to neutralize opponents.

Bullying and cutting people down was raised to an art form in my school years; now it is as casual as “roasting” somebody.

It doesn’t take a politician to bribe people to our side; or to win them to our camp so we can win.

And there are Christians – people who claim to follow Christ – who practice these very things every day to win in pulpits, podcasts, or the public square.

I ask you a very serious question, brothers and sisters: are you an expert with the carnal weapons of this world?

Do you use other people’s weaknesses or failures against them?

When they have a job or a title or something else that you want, how hard will you go after it?

Is that the measure you have of being a man: that you are a greater warrior than the other men around you?

THAT is what it means to have a covenant with death: you have the will to conquer and will pay almost any cost to do so.

And sadly, that is what God is condemning in these, His people:

They had gotten better at being worldly, and, in the process, had ceased being godly.

There is a saying in football that is so common, I cannot find who said it first: “If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying.”

Believer, is that how you are living your life?

Are you constantly battling other people for jobs, perks, recognition, or respect?

And have you convinced yourself that this is the RIGHT thing to do?

Here is what God says about all that striving in verse 20: the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.

All those things YOU are striving for, all those things that you are battling others for – even if you are battling with some semblance of worldly honor –

They all will come up short.

You will never have enough.

You will always be stretching them, finding the covers too short to hide your face from terror or to cover your feet from cold.

All that worldly wisdom, all those street-smarts, in the end are a bed you cannot rest in and a covering that cannot keep you warm.

Have you ever looked at someone and thought they are hopelessly naïve?

That they are going to get shredded in the great gladiatorial combat that is life?

Perhaps you shook your head when they just seemed ill-equipped with the killer instinct they would need to survive.

Because you believed this was, after all, Darwin’s world. Survival of the fittest.

We may proclaim very loudly “Jesus said we are to be as wise as serpents…”

And then perhaps whisper “…and as innocent as doves.”

And we think that this is our permission, perhaps even our COMMISSION, to be worldly-wise and street-smart,

To feel free to use our wits to WIN whatever earthly thing is being contested.

But listen to that WHOLE verse – Matthew 10:16:

Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.

Jesus is SENDING US OUT, as SHEEP into the middle of WOLVES?

If you read on, and I hope you will this evening, you see that He tells them nothing about defending themselves, winning the fights, or calling down fire from heaven to consume their enemies.

He tells us: do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell. – Matthew 10:28

And you will find in that remarkable tenth chapter of Matthew that He is not sending us out ill-equipped to survive in the battles of this world; He is sending us out to fight an even greater battle to rescue those very souls to life in the next one.

And for that, we are hyper-conquerors.

Entirely fitted for our mission.

So how is God’s way different from the worldly-wise way?

Verse 16 of our passage today: 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.’

We see this repeated twice in the New Testament – Romans 9 and 1 Peter 2.

In both places we are told this is a direct prophecy of Jesus Christ, the Messiah of God.

In the time we have left, I want to point out a few things about this passage:

1. God has laid this foundation stone.

He is not calling us to “do your best” or to “make me proud of you”.

This is a work He is accomplishing all by Himself.

2. The stone is a stone of testing.

It is the purpose of this stone to show the difference between God’s people and the world’s people.

Between worldly wisdom and faith.

Between walking in faith and walking by sight.

Between living in God’s glory and living for yourself.

Many are the people who will try to negotiate with God for their salvation.

As if God can be conned by their words.

Or perhaps they are even sincere, saying something like “If God will do this for me, I will believe in Him.”

How ludicrous.

God is not diminished if you don’t believe; you are the one who needs Him, not the other way around.

He loves His children too much to pander to your pride or conceit.

In fact, if you come to Him, it is those very things you try to reserve from Him that may well be demanded of you.

Recall the Rich young man, who avoided any mention of his wealth, disconnecting it entirely from his inquiry about eternal life.

But that wealth needed to be removed and the man needed to follow Jesus Christ so that his life could be saved from his wealth.

If he did not later repent, it is fair to ask: what would he give in exchange for his soul NOW?

3. The key to that precious foundation stone is FAITH – He who BELIEVES will not be in haste/ put to shame.

For those who are believers in Jesus Christ, the peril may be greater for us in this test.

Because we may go to church regularly, read our Bibles, pray often, and even think about spiritual things throughout our day,

But still find ourselves using our wits and our worldly wisdom to make our way in this world.

When we do that, we walk by sight and by cleverness, and we may even win some battles and make a greater name or wealth for ourselves and our family.

So when we grab for the greater position, or the greater recognition, or raise our hands in victory over someone else,

We do that, most often (every time?) with a complete lack of faith.

We may proclaim that our faith brought us that victory, or that our adherence to God’s Law was rewarded with that recognition,

But if you had to claw your way for it, faith in Jesus Christ had nothing to do with it.

Jesus didn’t send you out to be the biggest wolf out there;

He didn’t send you out to be the sheep version of David against the wolfy Goliath.

And He certainly didn’t send you to leave a bunch of hurt feelings and resentments in your wake as you advanced yourself.

But the problem, if we are honest, is that sometimes we don’t trust God to do those things FOR us.

We might trust Him more if we KNEW He would get us the promotion, or make us win the contest, or would get us the exposure on social media we crave.

But we know, down deep, that even to ASK for those things might be sinful, so we strive for them by ourselves without asking God to help.

And that, brothers and sisters, is the very definition of faithlessness.

The way He calls us to live is in verse 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.

That is a poetic way of saying do everything the WAY God commands, making sure the WAY we do things matches His godly purpose.

whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. - Colossians 3:17

If we are doing everything in the NAME of the Lord Jesus, HOW we do them will be even more important than the result.

Because if we are doing them in His name, He is the Lord of the result.

So glorify God if you get the promotion or if you fail to;

Glorify God in obedience if you keep the job or get laid off;

Glorify God in obedience if you are recognized or if you remain in obscurity. Nothing you do in secret is hidden from God, and He rewards secret obedience.

Glorify God in the WAY you do everything, seeking with humility and love to be faithful everywhere in your life.