“Listen and hear my voice. Pay attention and hear what I say. Does the plowman plow every day to plant seed? Does he continuously break up and cultivate the soil? When he has leveled its surface, does he not then scatter black cumin and sow cumin? He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots, with spelt as their border. His God teaches him order; He instructs him. Certainly black cumin is not threshed with a threshing board, and a cart wheel is not rolled over the cumin. But black cumin is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. Bread grain is crushed, but is not threshed endlessly. Though the wheel of the farmer’s cart rumbles, his horses do not crush it. This also comes from the Lord of Hosts. He gives wonderful advice; He gives great wisdom.” (Isaiah 28:23-29 HCSB)
Key verse: “Therefore the Lord God said: “Look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakable.” (Isaiah 28:16 HCSB)
When I was much younger, I thought I was smart. I thought I had a high IQ, I liked to read and learn and was very intelligent. But now, the older I get the more I truly recognize how little I actually know, how little I truly understand. We’re all like that, really, thinking we know more than we actually do. Giving ourselves more credit than we actually deserve. Along those same lines, the more I study scriptures the more I recognize just how little I know and understand about God, too.
I only listed the final verses of our focal passage, above, but I suggest you go back and read the entire chapter, Isaiah 28. It is filled with examples of this very idea – people thinking they know and understand more about life and about God than they actually do. As we’ve seen so many times before, pride is often our biggest downfall. Not much has changed since then, has it? It continues to be our greatest stumbling block in knowing, understanding and walking with God.
This chapter is divided into three sections, 1) Ephraim’s example and Jerusalem’s reality; 2) God’s salvation and judgment; 3) a farming illustration. We will consider this chapter and its implications in light of those three, basic divisions.
“Ah, the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, and the fading flower of its glorious beauty” begins Isaiah’s strong condemnation of Jerusalem. Yes, he uses ironic comparisons of the northern kingdom’s failures with Judah’s plans as a means to shake the complacency of Jerusalem’s leaders. It’s possible that Isaiah is describing an actual event where he confronts the nation’s leaders as they celebrate an Egyptian alliance in hopes of averting Assyria’s growing aggression. He wants Judah’s king and his advisers to see their foolishness by reminding them of Samaria’s own failed attempts at averting destruction using these same tactics.
Ephraim’s leaders enjoy drunken revelry as they celebrate their political alliances that will preserve her “glorious beauty” but God has other plans for them. They believe their political choices will save their nation, but God’s judgment on their sin is coming upon them like a destructive hail storm and a devastating flood (v. 2). Their glory will be like a “first-ripe fig” hanging on a tree as summer approaches. When someone sees it, he plucks it off the tree and quickly swallows it in one bite. What they thought was glorious and would last, is gone in a second under God’s judgment.
Isaiah then bridges his illustration of Ephraim’s political failures (vs. 1-4) with her religious abandonment (vs. 7-8) with this divine truth: “In that day the Lord of hosts will be a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of his people, and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.” (Isaiah 28:5-6 ESV) The REAL crown of glory for God’s people is not human pride for their achievements and possessions, but their relationship with the LORD and His divine justice ruling over their lives and land. Notice, His spirit of justice sits in judgment over lawlessness and His strength turns back the battle at the city gate.
It’s not just political failure that destroys the northern kingdom, it is also religious failure. The priest and prophet also “reel with strong drink” as they “reel in vision, stumble in giving judgment (v. 7).” They’re in no condition to advise, guide and teach the people the truths of God. The tables where the priests serve and teach are not covered with the truth of God’s Word and things fit to offer up to God, instead they are covered in “filthy vomit.” These are not men fit to correctly handle the word of truth and teach men His ways (see 2 Tim. 2:15). They’re in need of someone to teach them. When they ought to be teachers, they’re in need of someone to teach them the basic principles of God’s word, again (see Heb. 5:12).
That’s a stinging condemnation of the state of their relationship with God. What’s sad is that it is also a stinging condemnation of the state of modern Christianity. We are so enamored with political power and cultural popularity that we fail to see how far we’ve fallen from upholding the righteousness of God and the glory of His just and right judgment on sin. The priests and prophets, those who are charged with bearing the truth of God’s word to His people, are muddled in their visions and stumble in their judgments and it all is a stench before God (v. 8).
Verses 9 & 10 are a bit difficult to translate and to understand, at first glance. Who is being taught and who is doing the teaching? I believe it is God doing the teaching and those being taught are the political and religious leaders who have just heard His scathing rebuke. Obviously, verse 9 is clearly indicating that those being taught, those receiving God’s instruction are not infants who have just been weaned from their mother’s milk. By now, they should have a good grasp on the truth’s of God’s revelation. Instead, God is needing to go back and teach them like a child just learning to speak.
The Hebrew translated as “law after law”, “line after line” and “a little here, a little there” could refer to simple childhood repetition of their lessons – the basics, repeated time after time until they learn them. It’s the way we teach the alphabet or numbers to young children by repetition. It could also refer to the way we teach babies to speak, starting with simple, easy, repetitive sounds – like dada and mama. Or it could be the politicians, priests and prophets response to Isaiah’s proclamation of God’s word. We might put it this way: “blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada… you just keep babbling on and on about this. Give it a rest. I’m sick of hearing it.”
Whichever it is, the result is crystal clear: THEY JUST DON’T GET IT! God had told them: “This is the place of rest, let the weary rest; this is the place of repose.” But they would NOT listen. So, He tells them that He will speak to them with “stammering speech and in a foreign language.” They refused to learn the simple lesson of faith and obedience the easy way, so God will resort to teaching them dependence on and faith in Him the hard way – through the actions and words of foreign soldiers occupying their city and their homes. Catch verse 13: God repeats back to them “Blah, blah, blah. Yada, yada, yada… you just keep babbling on and on about this. You just don’t get it. Well, listen to this!” And they stumble backward, to be broken, trapped and captured by His judgment.
Next, we move into the key section where Isaiah applies his lesson in the previous verses to the “mockers who rule this people in Jerusalem.” They have made a “deal with Death” and “an agreement with Sheol” so that when the Assyrian “scourge” passes through “it will not touch us, because we have made falsehood our refuge and have hidden behind treachery.” While these might be Isaiah’s words against the rulers of Jerusalem, we need to heed them, too. The leaders say, and the people believe, the political alliance they’ve established with Egypt will save them.
Pay attention to those words. God led His people out of slavery in Egypt to a “promised land” where they could walk with Him in obedience and worship Him as He demands and deserves. Yet, when they are faced with a massive political and military threat from Assyria, they pull back from their trust in the LORD and turn to Egypt for salvation. That’s not salvation, that’s slavery. That’s what Isaiah means when he says “we have made falsehood our refuge and have hidden behind treachery.” They made a deal with the devil when they believed his lies and fell for his tricks.
We face the same issue in the modern church. Instead of believing God and trusting that Jesus is our “sure foundation” we have turned to political alliances to try and save American Christianity and our favored cultural status. Let me remind you that when you stand on the truth’s of God’s word and call out the sins of political leaders you end up like John the Baptist. However, when you try to hold your position and power by building political power alliances, you end up like Judas Iscariot. If you think I’m overreacting, listen to God’s response in Isaiah:
“Therefore the Lord God said: ‘Look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakable. And I will make justice the measuring line and righteousness the mason’s level.’ Hail will sweep away the false refuge, and water will flood your hiding place.” (Isaiah 28:16-17 HCSB)
The sure foundation that makes the church unshakable is NOT a particular political party or presidential candidate. God does not call for us to make unholy alliances to try and achieve holy purposes. He calls for us to trust Him, walk with Him in obedience and righteousness and to keep justice as the measuring line and righteousness as the mason’s level. If we refuse to learn this lesson, we will face the same fate as Jerusalem, trampled under the foot of God’s judgment. To borrow Isaiah’s analogy: “this bed is too short to stretch out on, this blanket is too small to wrap up in.”
Finally, we are confronted by God’s “strange work” and His “disturbing task” (v. 21). But what is this strange work and disturbing task that God wants to accomplish? It is the fulfillment of God’s redemptive work and the basis for our salvation. It is the laying of that stone, the sure foundation that makes His people unshakable. But why is it strange and disturbing? Because it takes a path that we would normally avoid at all cost, destruction for the whole land (v. 22).
I have no doubt that it was extremely hard for God’s people and Isaiah’s family and friends to hear and find hope and comfort in those words. Yet, there they are. God is taking them down a path of destruction that’s designed to achieve His purpose through their trust and obedience. But Isaiah doesn’t leave them without a word of hope and encouragement. He begins to tell them about a poor tenant farmer and his work on that farm. “Pay attention and hear what I say: Does the plowman plow every day to plant seed? Does he continuously break up and cultivate the soil? When he has leveled its surface, does he not then scatter black cumin and sow cumin?”
Ok, so what? How are those words of hope and encouragement? The story of the farmer is one of knowledge and understanding on how to prepare the soil, plant the soil, harvest the crop and process it properly. He uses the right tools and techniques for the task that’s needed at that time in the crop’s development stage. You don’t plow and plow and plow. You plow and prepare the soil properly, you plant or sow according to the type of crop you’re wanting. Then you harvest and process it according to the same principles. What the farmer does is what is necessary to get the best crop results from the soil and the seed he has planted. Where did he learn how to do all of this? “His God teaches him order; He instructs him.”
In other words, God knows what He’s doing when it comes to “planting and harvesting” a good crop of people for His kingdom. If we would learn to listen to Him, learn from Him, trust Him, obey Him and consistently walk with Him every day then our faith will produce a people that bring glory and honor to our God. It’s faith, pure and simple, that produces the kind of people God desires us to be. We want to make it complicated, but it really is just learning to walk each step of life with Him in simple faith. Our pride wants answers and understanding and our doubts cause anxiety and questions, but He instructs us through our daily struggle and physical trials.
“Consider it a great joy, my brothers, whenever you experience various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. But endurance must do its complete work, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking nothing. Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without criticizing, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without doubting. For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind.” (James 1:2-6 HCSB)
Jesus told us to have childlike faith (see Matt. 18:3) and we somehow think that is some magical “super Christian” feat or achievement. In reality, it is learning to live life with God like a child does their father – in absolute trust. It is so easy a child can do it and yet it is so difficult most of struggle throughout life with it. Why? Because when we are small we realize just how much we don’t know and how much our father does know. We learn to trust our father’s love and care for us and our trust is well placed. If that is even remotely true for our earthly father, imagine how much more so for our Heavenly Father.
So, I want to call you to live and pursue a simple faith. Faith in your Heavenly Father that means you are willing to take His hand and go wherever He desires to take you. He knows when you, like the farmer’s soil, need some deep plowing to get you ready for the crop He desires to plant in your life. He knows when to stop plowing and prepping the soil and to begin planting. He knows just what is needed to cause those seeds He planted to sprout, develop and grow into mature, godly character and action.
Not only does He know how to plow, plant and grow a good crop He also knows how to properly bring in a bountiful harvest. Isaiah says, “Bread grain is crushed, but is not threshed endlessly. Though the wheel of the farmer’s cart rumbles, his horses do not crush it.” Again, if the farmer knows these things about the grain then how much more does God know about us and our lives? His goal is not to crush us beyond use but to prepare us for His use, His purpose, His kingdom and His glory!
“We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brothers. And those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified.” (Romans 8:28-30 HCSB)
If we will just learn to walk by simple faith in obedience to Him, it takes a whole lot less “threshing” on God’s part…
Hilltop Baptist Church - Shawnee, OK 
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