The Prophecy of Isaiah – Lesson 24

God in His Grace has made a way for us and He must correct us because He cares for us.

Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem! 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”; 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.’ 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.”
Isaiah 28:14-17

There is a great deal of superstition about cornerstones and the establishing of cornerstones. God in His sovereignty has a hand in it I'm sure. In Greece it is customary to sacrifice a chicken, a ram, or a lamb put the blood on the stone and bury the animal under the stone. The older custom was to sacrifice a human and even today in some parts of Europe an effigy, a secret measurement of an unsuspecting person, or the shadow of a person is ceremonially stolen to be placed under the stone in the belief the person will then die within one year. Some Romanians have a quicker turn around time. They give you only 40 days in Transylvania and they will actually shout to warn you to be careful around new construction to avoid getting your shadow stolen and buried with the cornerstone. To measure the shadow is said to be the same as taking the shadow and is also said to be equivalent to taking the soul. The tradition is that it provides a ritual sacrifice to make the building strong.

However, The Cornerstone of God actually has taken your soul if you are a Christian. He snatched you away from the enemy. We are being built up together on God's foundation as a spiritual house to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ (1 Peter 2:4-5). I pray that the light of the Gospel would reveal the truth and end these false superstitions.

When we allow superstition into our lives then we allow an alien rule of law that is in conflict with God's law. Who do you think will win in that conflict. You don't want to be on the wrong side. You must not trust in things apart from God anymore than Judah. God as a faithful Father will correct you. Why not avoid the discipline and dump the ungodly alliances now. God will overturn your deals and covenants just as fast as He overturned Judah's deal with Egypt. There is the recurring picture of corporate Israel as the individual redeemed by Christ and to turn back to your Egypt when you were dead in your trespasses and sins whenever hard times come is not wise.

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. 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.
Isaiah 28:18-19

In our lives, God's keeping power is sheer terror to the Christian who tests God. Of course, what is the level of terror for the man who tests God and finds no discipline? To about God in heaven and know in your heart that He is Lord without bending the knee or placing your trust for salvation in Him should be far more terrifying. But we are so good at denial that some of us will live a heartbeat from dying in sin just so we can think we are in control of our lives. There is really no room in your life to be comfortable with that lie. As Motyer says, “The only way to flee from God is to flee to Him.”

For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in. 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! 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. Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech.
Isaiah 28:20-24

There is no comfort when God's comfort is rejected or covering when God's covering is rejected. The references are to “as on Mount Perazim” for 2 Samuel 5:17-20 and to “as in the Valley of Gibeon” for 2 Samuel 5:22. It is indeed strange and alien because these examples show how broken the leadership is from the Covenant of David. These examples are victories when David sought God and God said to go up against the Philistines. They are going to be on the receiving end of God's wrath this time and Isaiah hears a decree destruction like David heard the sound of marching in the tops of the Balsam trees and knew it was time to attack because God was going out before him to attack his enemies. However, God knows precisely what response His correction will bring and is always under control.

Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? does he continually open and harrow his ground? 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? For he is rightly instructed; his God teaches him. 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. 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. This also comes from the Lord of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom.
Isaiah 28:25-29

Isaiah moves into a “Wisdom Literature” style here to stress that God is not out of control and His actions have purpose. Just as a farmer wouldn't keep plowing or harrowing without purpose He also only prepares a seedbed and then sows seed. He seeds the right crop in the right place. Emmer is a relative of wheat that will perform adequately on poorer soils so it goes in its place and wheat and barley in their place. Harvest threshing is specific to the crop and God tailors His harvest so that it occurs in the right way at the right time. As God has shown men how to grow crops, God has wonderful counsel and wisdom in His actions to redeem sinful man.

In the following verses Ariel refers to Jerusalem. Ariel can be translated “Altar-Hearth” (Ezekiel 43:15-16) or a place for burnt offerings. In the temple God's fire burned constantly and consumed sacrifices offered for sin. It is a good thing to have and a bad thing to be.

Ah, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped! Add year to year; let the feasts run their round. Yet I will distress Ariel, and there shall be moaning and lamentation, and she shall be to me like an Ariel. And I will encamp against you all around, and will besiege you with towers and I will raise siege works against you. 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. 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, 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.
Isaiah 29:1-6

The picture of the hearth of the altar is vivid here as God sends devouring fire. Those in Jerusalem are seen as being brought down to a whisper from the ground while their enemies are in the air and God makes the big noise so they can know that sin is judged by God.

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. As when a hungry man dreams he is eating and awakes with his hunger not satisfied, or as when a thirsty man dreams 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.
Isaiah 29:7-8

We see here a futility in the sea of enemies. You dream you're making progress and working your way out of the dilemma but then you have a period in which you realize that your no better off. No peace or rest apart from God. The references to hunger and thirst were not going to be lost on a people who knew what a siege was like either. They would be having dreams of food and water before it was over.

Astonish yourselves and be astonished; blind yourselves and be blind! Be drunk, but not with wine; stagger, but not with strong drink! 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). 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.” And when they give the book to one who cannot read, saying, “Read this,” he says, “I cannot read.”
Isaiah 29:9-12

This is a place that you never want to be. I guess that is an understatement but a sensitivity to the conviction of God is a wonderful gift. It isn't something natural because our natural state is a hard heart (Romans 1:21-25) produced by our sin natures. Conviction of sin is a gift of God's Grace and we need to ask God for the Grace to respond appropriately.

When we harden our hearts and persistently resist God's instruction then we loose our spiritual sight, our ability to reason, our ability to direct our lives wisely, and we simply don't have the eyes or the brain to understand what God has plainly said. Those who have the ability can't be bothered to open the book and those without the ability to read are not worried about what it might say. Apathy and ignorance are in joyful unity. 

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, 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.” 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?”
Isaiah 29:13-15

God is going to deal with “religion” and eliminate it. This verse is cited in Matthew 15:8-9 and Mark 7:6-7; [also similar to Ezekiel 33:31]. So the Lord said it to Isaiah and then said it aloud Himself while teaching. Adopting men's opinions about obeying God is a dangerous thing. Moving to Scripture is always the only sure path. Mankind will consistently modify what God has said and teach a different level of obedience as a means of showing fear of God. I think it is also instructive at this point to remind ourselves that a fear of God includes respect of God but is not fully defined by the word respect. It has a component of fear and it is rational to fear God and irrational not to fear Him. He has revealed His love and Grace so that we can know Him and fellowship with Him. However, He has also revealed His holiness and to know His holiness and your own sinfulness should produce that response that Isaiah had (Isaiah 6:5).

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”? 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? 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. The meek shall obtain fresh joy in the Lord, and the poor among mankind shall exult in the Holy One of Israel.
Isaiah 29:16-19

This is Scripture hits close to home. Many in our culture deny that God made them by any means. In addition, there is a heresy in the Church today known as “Open God Theology” that teaches that God doesn't know the future for certain. However, the promise here is that God would have a people in which the deaf hear and the blind see. That is you. You exult in the Holy One of Israel as a result of God's work on earth. 

For the ruthless shall come to nothing and the scoffer cease, and all who watch to do evil shall be cut off, 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. 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. 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. And those who go astray in spirit will come to understanding, and those who murmur will accept instruction.”
Isaiah 29:20-24

Remember that Romans makes it clear that, “... it is not as though the word of God has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham because they are his offspring, but “Through Isaac shall your offspring be named.” This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring (Romans 9:6-8).