Isaiah 3.3

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Isaiah 28-29

God’s word is simple: listen and rest in me. But they keep seeking security and safety and rescue in other things and what do they find? They find no rest at all.

Isaiah 28:14–29 ESV

14 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.

The focus shifts now to Jerusalem. If a terrible fate has befallen Samaria, the rulers of Jerusalem should be on guard, yet they are as senseless as the others. The therefore is a way to reiterate warning, look: destruction comes, take note!

Isaiah calls the leaders of Jerusalem scoffers. One scholar says that this term is the most negative term used for the wicked and sinners in scripture for it desribes someone who not only sins and does wicked, but they mock the righteous, they mock those who would choose the way of YHWH and are enticing them to their own way.

When scoffers are the leaders in the city, the people are in a dire situation.

And indeed they are, for the rulers of Jerusalem have entered into a covenant with death! This is not good.

Now, what’s going on? This is Isaiah’s way of referring to their refusal to trust in the Lord and instead to make a covenant with the pagan nations around them. Of course they didn’t set out to make a covenant with death, but in effect, this is what they’ve done.

And remember, we’ve seen this already throughout Isaiah, Death is the great enemy of God. So if God’s people have made a covenant with death, what should they prepare for? They should be prepared for God to do away His enemy. The promise of this section is that judgment is coming and they will feel it’s pain and feel the hurt.

God is laying the foundations, the cornerstone of a new city.

The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39 (a) Covenant with Death (28:14–22)

The cornerstone may be the whole complex of ideas relating to the Lord’s revelation of his faithfulness and the call to reciprocate with the same kind of faithfulness toward him. That entire message would one day be summed up in Jesus Christ. The issue remains the same today as then: upon what shall we build our lives, human schemes or divine trustworthiness?

That cornerstone is Jesus Christ. This is our hope. And look at what it says of God: He will make justice the line, righteousness and obedience the plumb line and he will get rid of everything else such that their covenant with death will be annulled. I love this, this is great hope!

You’ve made a bad deal, you’ve refused me, you’ve turned from me…I will wipe it all away and I will get rid of this covenant you’ve made.

This whole section then concludes with a parable of a farmer. This simple farmer is contrasted with the leaders of Jerusalem, and what is the difference? The farmer is rightly instructed, he listens to the instructions of the Lord. But within this parable to we see the design of pruning, of crushing, of threshing. These things are a part of the process, Judah is going through that. We might go through that, but it will not last for ever.

Isaiah 29:1–14 ESV

1 Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round. 2 Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel. 3 And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siegeworks against you. 4 And you will be brought low; from the earth you shall speak, and from the dust your speech will be bowed down; your voice shall come from the ground like the voice of a ghost, and from the dust your speech shall whisper.

Ah! Remember what ‘ah’ means? Yes, WOE! This is the second “woe” in this series of chapters 28-35. This woe is directed at the city of Jerusalem. Isaiah presents Jerusalem—the city where David encamped—as Ariel. Ariel was the Hebrew word for altar-hearth, or the fire that would have been constantly burning in the tabernacle and in the temple. Ariel was the fire that the priests were to keep going at all times, day and night, always burning.

The altar hearth then was a twofold symbol, the fire was aa sign of YHWH’s presence always with them and it was a reminder of their need to continually offer sacrifices before the LORD, their need to receive continued atonement for their sin.

So there’s an irony here that the Lord refers to Jerusalem as Ariel. For the city would have taken great pride in being called Ariel, the altar of God, the center of worship to YHWH. But, in fact, God is not pleased with their worship at all for it is overshadowed by their sin, idolatry, and oppression of others.

And the irony goes further in v. 2 when it says that it shall be to me like an Ariel. God’s burning fire of wrath and judgment will cause this city to truly be an a burning altar for the Lord.

These 4 verses represent judgment and a coming destruction. God is the active agent—it is God who will encamp against them, he will burn them away. Though it may appear to be Assyria or Babylon or some other foreign enemy. These are but tools in the hand of God, rods to enact his judgment on His people.

Now let’s go to v. 5-8

Isaiah 29:1–14 ESV

5 But the multitude of your foreign foes shall be like small dust, and the multitude of the ruthless like passing chaff. And in an instant, suddenly, 6 you will be visited by the Lord of hosts with thunder and with earthquake and great noise, with whirlwind and tempest, and the flame of a devouring fire. 7 And the multitude of all the nations that fight against Ariel, all that fight against her and her stronghold and distress her, shall be like a dream, a vision of the night. 8 As when a hungry man dreams, and behold, he is eating, and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams, and behold, he is drinking, and awakes faint, with his thirst not quenched, so shall the multitude of all the nations be that fight against Mount Zion.

And just like that—they are saved! In the eleventh hour, at the very threshold of total defeat—the foes of Zion will be like dust and chaff in the wind! In an instant, it says, suddenly they will be saved by the Lord.

The prophet is showing the people that God can save them now and he can save them after they have experienced the consequences of their refusal to trust in him. Even after their dig their heels in, even as they persist in their idolatry and trusting foreign nations above God, even then…YHWH can still rescue them.

Now, our problem as human beings is this. As our enemies close in our around us. As our trials seem more and more overwhelming, as the difficulties we face grow into insurmountable problems…our ability to trust in God diminishes. As things get harder, our natural instinct is to trust God less. But Isaiah is saying, trust Him even when the city is laid siege! Trust Him when the enemies are at the gates and climbing the walls. It is never too late for salvation and rescue.

Isaiah 29:1–14 ESV

9 Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink! 10 For the Lord has poured out upon you a spirit of deep sleep, and has closed your eyes (the prophets), and covered your heads (the seers). 11 And the vision of all this has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed. When men give it to one who can read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot, for it is sealed.” 12 And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.” 13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men, 14 therefore, behold, I will again do wonderful things with this people, with wonder upon wonder; and the wisdom of their wise men shall perish, and the discernment of their discerning men shall be hidden.”

In a parallel to the drunken language of chapter 28, we now see a leadership community drunk not on literal wine, but drunk off of their own religiosity, drunk off their own worship practices. They are so proud of their own religious goodness that they are blind to their disastrous relationship with God.

One scholar summarized this section this way:

The Book of Isaiah, Chapters 1–39 (ii) Blindness of Rote Religion (29:9–14)

“Alright, go ahead and be blind; be insensible, like a drunk. But your problem does not come from alcohol, like the Samaritans’; your problem comes from God, whom you have offended so deeply that he no longer enables you to hear.”

This is some good, solid Reformed theology in Isaiah. It is God who enables us to hear Him and to have faith in Him. And right now, with this people, God has caused their hearts to be hard and their eyes to be closed. They are spiritually blind.

The heart of this section is Isaiah 29:13 “13 And the Lord said: “Because this people draw near with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men,”

It is the religious hypocrisy of this people that has made the Lord grow tired. They honor me with their lips…but their hearts are far from me. They say the right things, they sing the right songs, they have the right outward practices. Yet on the inside, they don’t know me at all.

It reminds me of the words of Jesus, in fact one of the Woes of Jesus in Matthew 23:25-26

Matthew 23:25–26 ESV

25 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 You blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and the plate, that the outside also may be clean.

God wants our hearts, he does not want our religious practice or observance. God is less concerned with stellar church attendance than He is with a heart that is repentan of sin and has turned toward Him.

That’s our invitation in these passages. To trust in God, that even the final moments where death and destruction seem like an inevitability, we’re invited to trust in Him that even then he can rescue and save us. And then we’re invited to give him our whole hearts.

Let’s finish off chapter Isaiah 29:15-24

Isaiah 29:15–24 ESV

15 Ah, you who hide deep from the Lord your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark, and who say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?” 16 You turn things upside down! Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me”; or the thing formed say of him who formed it, “He has no understanding”? 17 Is it not yet a very little while until Lebanon shall be turned into a fruitful field, and the fruitful field shall be regarded as a forest? 18 In that day the deaf shall hear the words of a book, and out of their gloom and darkness the eyes of the blind shall see. 19 The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel. 20 For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off, 21 who by a word make a man out to be an offender, and lay a snare for him who reproves in the gate, and with an empty plea turn aside him who is in the right. 22 Therefore thus says the Lord, who redeemed Abraham, concerning the house of Jacob: “Jacob shall no more be ashamed, no more shall his face grow pale. 23 For when he sees his children, the work of my hands, in his midst, they will sanctify my name; they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob and will stand in awe of the God of Israel. 24 And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.”

Ah! The third WOE! This woe is to all who think they could run from the wisdom of God, for all those who think what they do in the secret remains a secret from the Lord. A woe to those who think the pot is greater and knows more than the potter.

That’s the central image in these first few verses, “Shall the potter be regarded as the clay, that the thing made should say of its maker, “He did not make me” or “he has no understanding.”

V. 16 says, “you turn things upside down!” They are perverting or subverting the way of the Lord. The leaders of Jerusalem have taken up their counsel as if God did not exist, and the result is that ordinary people are oppressed and that ordinary people are at the mercy of their ill-advised political leaders and the newly forged alliances with pagan nations.

That’s the thing to remember here, that your average Israelite was at the mercy of their kings and leaders.

But this section that follows shows God doing an overturning work Himself, a subverting work, if you will. The blind will see, the deaf will hear. The helpless will be empowered, the meek will receive fresh joy. And those ruthless, the scoffers, all who have perverted justice, subverted the way of the Lord, they will be cut off!

It’s a reminder: if the world seems unfair, that the wicked always prosper. We must be reminded that God’s justice will prevail in the end. In the end of all things, on THAT day, those in high positions will be brought low and it is the humble and meek who will inherit the earth. It is humility that allows us to see ourselves as we are: sinners in need of God’s grace.

It is in this humility that we can earnestly seek God for the salvation only he can provide. That we can, in all humility, say: we cannot save ourselves, we need help and we trust that Jesus is the help we need.