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Isaiah

Chapter 28
{Note: In Isaiah 28:1-8 we have a warning of judgement to the northern kingdom in 725 BC, and Isaiah is a prophet of the southern kingdom. He warns the northern kingdom of their impending doom and the warning was given some forty years before it actually occurred. You have to remember that when Isaiah was saying all of these things Samaria was a prosperous city, the country of Ephraim was very prosperous, and it showed not the remote possibility that there would be any kind of an invasion.

And, Isaiah was prophesying that they would become a nation of alcoholics which they were not at the time. The northern kingdom was going to go into captivity and so Isaiah is commissioned of the Lord to warn them. In 721 BC we have the fall of Samaria and the northern tribes go into captivity until the Second Advent. The southern kingdom will not go into captivity the first time until 586 BC and they will recover, but eventually in 70 AD they will go into the fifth cycle again and the second advent is the point at which the entire Jewish race will be regathered and restored, and the fifth cycle of discipline terminated.}

{Verses 1-8: Warning of judgment of Northern Kingdom}
1`` Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,
whose glorious beauty is a fading flower,
which are on the head of the prosperous valleys
of them that are overcome with wine!

{Note: The proud crown refers to a crown of flowers. People went to banquets and parties and when they came in the first thing that happened was a servant would put crowns of flowers on their heads. This was always a sign of going to a party. This mean that at the time that Isaiah wrote, the people of the northern kingdom had generally become alcoholics and this was the number one problem along with religion.}

{Note: The 'glorious beauty' refers to Samaria, which was one of the most beautiful cities of the ancient world. The city was built on a three hundred-foot hill and all the way around was a great basin or valley called the plains of Sharon. On three sides are great mountain ranges and all very beautiful. Rising up out of this valley is this 300-foot hill and on top is this beautiful city, which, as you see when you are approaching, looks like a crown on a head.}

{Three analogies to the Assyrian conquest of Ephraim}
2`` Behold, 'Adonay/'the Lord' has a mighty and strong one,
who . . . as a tempest of hail {picture of artillery coming down}
and a destroying storm {destruction as in a sandstorm in a desert},
as a flood of mighty waters overflowing
  {picture of total destruction - all covered in water} . . .
He {God} shall cast down to the earth
  {divine discipline behind destruction}.

{Note: The strong one here is a reference to the Assyrian empire under Shalmanezer the fifth, the son of Tiglath-Pileser the third, which is going to be used by God to discipline the northern kingdom permanently.}

{Sublimation - the heavy drinking here - Removed by this Judgment}
3`` With their feet they tread down the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim.

{Detail of the Fall of Samaria}
4`` And the glorious beauty,
which is on the head of the prosperous valley,
shall be a fading flower,
and as the hasty fruit before the summer;
when he looks upon it sees it,
while it is yet in his hand he eats it up."

{Note: The Assyrians came, they saw, and they ate.}

 5`` In that day {reference to the Second Advent}
shall the Jehovah/God of the armies/hosts be for a crown of glory
and He will be for a diadem of beauty,
unto the residue of the people.

{Note: Instead of the crown of flowers (pseudo-happiness in parties and drunkenness) there will be a beautiful crown - the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. The crown of glory is Jesus Christ at the Second Advent.}

6`` And for a spirit of judgment to Him Who sits in judgement
and for strength to them that turn back war to the gate.

{Note: 'To drive back war at the gate' is a description of the believers who resist in Jerusalem at the end of the Tribulation in the Armageddon campaign. See also Zechariah 14:1-4.}

7`` But they {Northern Kingdom} also have erred through wine.
And through strong drink,
they have gone out of the way {staggering in drunkenness}.
The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink.
They are swallowed up of wine {they gulped down wine},
They are out of the way through strong drink.
They err in vision.
They stumble in the execution of judgement.

{Note: We go from the believers in the Tribulation who resist right down to the point of the Second Advent, and there is a contrast between them and the Jews of the northern kingdom in the time of king Hoshea. He is the last king of the northern kingdom and he has a kingdom of drunkards. The overall point of the verse is this: when you get alcoholics in places of leadership or the operation of justice, the nation breaks down. When there is breakdown in the judicial department the result is chaos. No nation can survive without good judicial procedures.}

8`` For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness,
so that there is no place clean.

{Note: Too much alcohol destroys everything in life; it distorts everything. And everything was destroyed for these people. Why did they destroy themselves? The northern kingdom actually destroyed itself by rejecting the Word and the principles, which are found in the Word. This is the beginning of decadence, and it may take many turns. The alcoholic problem was merely the result of rejecting the Word - same reason people turn to ritualism, legalism, and religion - sublimation from the void left from no doctrine in the soul. Isaiah now explains this.}

{Verses 9-10: Doctrine as the Strength of the Nation}
9~~Whom shall He {God} teach knowledge?
And, whom shall He {God} make to understand doctrine?
Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?

{Note: If this nation or any client nation to God is to be saved, it will be saved through doctrine. Among the people and the leaders of the northern kingdom the question is asked: Who is responsive to doctrine?}

{God's Principal on How Doctrine Must Be Taught in All Dispensations - 'ICE teaching}
10~~ For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept
  {Doctrine must be taught in categories - with GREAT repetition}.
Line upon line, line upon line
  {exegetical analysis of scripture -
  each word analyzed as to its exact meaning}.
Here a little, and there a little.
  {teach one portion of the Word and another portion of the Word -
  do NOT spend a year teaching ONE doctrine - teach what God
  the Holy Spirit puts in front of you in the section of the Word
  being taught.}

{Note: In the Hebrew, repeating something indicates perfection. Jehovah means 'I am . . . the I am' - total perfection. Here is the description of perfect teaching of God's Word.}

{Note: So from this verse, we see that the Word needs to be broken into 'categories of doctrines' and each word used studied and taught exegetically - to determine its exact meaning in the verse under study.}

{SideNote: As time moves on, languages change as do societies and 'experiences'. Idioms clearly understood in the day the Bible was written can be misunderstood centuries later. Therefore, ICE type pastors believe that the idioms of the day in which the bible was written also need to be clearly taught. Therefore isagogics means the bible should be taught in the framework of what was happening in the day the bible was written. For example, 'the eye of the needle' was the small door at the back of a walled city. It was used as an idiom meaning 'difficult to do something, but not impossible'. You CAN get a camel through the eye of a needle, but it is not easy.}

{Fate of Ephraim and warning to Judah - Sign of the Coming 5th Cycle of Discipline}
11~~ For with stammering/stuttering lips {From Jewish viewpoint
  of gentile lips making the sounds of their language}
and another tongue/language will he speak to this people.

{Note: Stammering lips was speaking in a gentile language. The Jews language was very musical and speaking in gentile languages sounded like stammering to them. This is the warning or sign of the coming of the 5th cycle of discipline. The Jews were responsible for evangelism in the Jewish age. With the 5th cycle of discipline, the Church becomes responsible for evangelism and it will start with evangelism in foreign, gentile languages. From I Corinthians 14:21 - "In the law it is written, By men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people &ldots;" Verse 22 "Wherefore tongues are for a sign, not to them that believe, but to them that believe not."}

{Purpose of the True Gift of Languages/Tongues}
12`` To whom {Israel} He said,
"This is His rest {referring to salvation}
to the weary ones.
And this is refreshing {no nation can be refreshed except
  through regeneration of its citizens}
You {God} they would not hear.

{Verses 13-14: Warning to the Southern Kingdom}
13``Therefore the Word of Jehovah/God was unto them
precept upon precept, precept upon precept;
line upon line, line upon line;
here a little, there a little.
That they might go {fall into captivity},
and fall backward {reverses in battle and conquest},
and be broken {fall of Samaria in 721 BC},
and snared, and taken.
  {mechanics of the fifth cycle of discipline, captured and
  taken into slavery} 14``
Therefore HEAR the Word of the Lord,
you scornful men, who rule this people who are in Jerusalem.

{Note: The rulers of the Southern Kingdom also are rejected the study of the Word of God. However there will be a break in this because Isaiah finally gets a breakthrough with Hezekiah who will listen to the Word of God.}

{Verses 15 - 16: Two Foundations. Verse 15: False Foundation}
15``Because you {the rulers} have said,
"We have made a covenant with death
  {Northern kingdom making an alliance with Egypt}.
And with the grave/sheol are we at agreement
  {alliance with the death of the nation}.
When the overflowing scourge shall pass through,
it shall not come unto us;
for we have made lies our refuge,
and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.

{Note: Isaiah prophesized that the northern kingdom would be invaded by Assyria - and it will not only come to Samaria and destroy it - but it will pass through and come south. Were it not for the fact that Hezekiah and the people turned to the Lord under the Isaiah revival the same thing would have happened to the southern kingdom. The only thing that saved them was the turning to the Lord on the part of the people and on the part of king Hezekiah. In other words, revival saved the nation. When the people listened to the Word of God they were delivered. The Word of God was the source of their deliverance.}

{The True foundation}
16``Therefore thus said 'Adonay/'the Lord' Jehovah/God,
"Behold, I lay in Zion {referring to the Southern Kingdom}
for a foundation stone {Jesus Christ},
a tried stone . . .
a precious {of greatest value} corner stone
of sure/secure foundation.
He that believes
  {salvation always was and always will be Faith in Christ}
will not go away."

{Note: In other words they are going to hear the message of Christ, He is the true foundation. Isaiah's message is going to reach out and save a king - Hezekiah - and it is going to reach out and save a maximum number of people among the city of Jerusalem. And the results are going to be absolutely fantastic.}

{Note: What is the meaning of the word "cornerstone"? What do future Israel (born-again) and the Church have in common? They are separated forever. Israel will live in the new earth. The Church will live in the new heavens. But they have in common, Christ. Christ has two kingdoms of regenerate in eternity - Israel and the Church.}

{The 5th cycle Judgement to Ephraim}
17`` But I will make justice the measuring line,
and righteousness will be the level.
And the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies,
and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.

{Note: The source of the fifth cycle of discipline: justice and righteousness. This is the basis for all judgement. All judgement comes from God and the essence box is applied. Discipline comes from the justice of God and it is based upon the righteousness of God.}

{Note: The hiding place is the principle of human security. There is no security for the Jews under the fifth cycle of discipline except in the Lord and in His provision. And since His provision has been rejected there is no security.}

18``And your covenant with death shall be disannulled,
and your agreement with sheol/'the grave' shall not stand.
When the overflowing scourge {Assyria} shall pass through,
then you shall be trodden down by it.

{Note: This is a reference to the Assyrian army first under Shalmanezer V and then under Sargon II.}

19``From the time that it {[the Assyrian army}
goes forth, it shall take you
  {it will eventually gobble up the entire nation}
Morning by morning it shall pass over {invade},
by day and by night.
And it shall be a terror . . . only to understand the report
  {just to hear about the disaster of the previous town
  will be frightening}.

{How do the Jews take the News? Worry Causes Insomnia}
20`` For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it
And the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.

{Certainty of This Judgement}
21``For Jehovah/God Lord shall rise up
as in mount Perazim,
He shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon,
that He may do His work,
His strange {in the sense of 'different from His desire} work;
and bring to pass His act,
His strange act.

{Note: Mount Perazim is described in II Samuel 5:20-21 and it was God's wrath expressed against idolatry of the Philistines. Gibeon refers to Joshua chapter 10 in which the Amorites were annihilated. In both of these analogies we have a reference to complete annihilation - the first one, Perazim, emphasizes religion. Gibeon emphasizes that the fifth cycle of discipline is the complete destruction of a nation. God's work here is judgement. These things are ghastly but God is fair and righteous. Often we feel sorry for people because they are going through such terrible things but you must always remember that when it is divine judgement, if anything it is overdue. God never judges a nation or a person without first giving ample opportunity for salvation - grace before judgement. Grace precedes judgement. And when God judges He must do so because it is being compatible with His own character. The love of God is demonstrated by the gift of His Son at the cross. When the love of God is rejected then the alternative is righteousness and justice. This is compatible with His own character but not compatible with His desire.}

Continued