Isaiah 29:1-15

Passage:
Isaiah 28
Woe to Ephraim and Jerusalem.
1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim,
Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower
Which is at the head of the verdant valleys,
To those who are overcome with wine!
2 Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one,
Like a tempest of hail and a destroying storm,
Like a flood of mighty waters overflowing,
Who will bring them down to the earth with His hand.
3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim,
Will be trampled underfoot;
4 And the glorious beauty is a fading flower
Which is at the head of the verdant valley,
Like the first fruit before the summer,
Which an observer sees;
He eats it up while it is still in his hand.
5 In that day the LORD of hosts will be
For a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty
To the remnant of His people,
6 For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,
And for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
7 But they also have erred through wine,
And through intoxicating drink are out of the way;
The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink,
They are swallowed up by wine,
They are out of the way through intoxicating drink;
They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
8 For all tables are full of vomit and filth;
No place is clean.
9 “ Whom will he teach knowledge?
And whom will he make to understand the message?
Those just weaned from milk?
Those just drawn from the breasts?
10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little.”
11 For with stammering lips and another tongue
He will speak to this people,
12 To whom He said, “This is the rest with which
You may cause the weary to rest,”
And, “This is the refreshing”;
Yet they would not hear.
13 But the word of the LORD was to them,
“ Precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little,”
That they might go and fall backward, and be broken
And snared and caught.
14 Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scornful men,
Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,
15 Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
And with Sheol we are in agreement.
When the overflowing scourge passes through,
It will not come to us,
or we have made lies our refuge,
And under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.”

Journal: Chapter 28 begins a new topic of discussion. The last four chapters largely had dealt with the final judgment of sin. Chapter 28 returns us to Isaiah's present and the threat that Judah faces from Assyria. We also have a new king that is ushered in for Judah, as King Hezekiah [generally, a righteous king] replaces King Ahaz [a wicked and evil king]. Also, Isaiah moves from oracles against the surrounding wicked nations to prophecies that reference Jerusalem. The time is approximately 720 B.C. The six woes that Isaiah mentioned in Chapter 5 are now taken up in detail in the next few chapters. Tomorrow, we will discuss the first woe, which relates to the mark of a fallen church. [28:7b - They err in vision, they stumble in judgment.] Not surprisingly, the mark of the fallen church remains the same today.