Isaiah 28 "The Covenant with Death"
We begin now the fourth and final section of the first part of Isaiah.
Alec Motyer calls the first 37 chapters "the Book of the King,"
because the focus is on the house of David and the city of Jerusalem.
The first section (chapters 1-6) set forth the basic problem-
the sin of Judah and Jerusalem, and the coming judgment.
The second section (chapters 7-12) spoke of the dying house of David,
and the promise of a future deliverer who would arise from Jesse's stump.
The third section (chapters 13-27) broadened the horizon,
and spoke of the judgments against the nations-
climaxing with the vision of the two cities: the city of man and the city of God.
Now in the fourth section Isaiah returns to the present,
in order to demonstrate that God is truly the Lord of history.
You may trust God's promises about the future, because of what you see in the present.
Isaiah 28 is quoted twice in the New Testament.
Paul plainly thought that Isaiah 28 had much to say to the church.
But before we look at how Paul uses Isaiah 28,
I want you to understand what Isaiah is doing.
Chapters 28-35 are woven together by six woes.
28:1 Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim
29:1 Woe to Ariel
29:15 Woe to those who hide deep from the LORD your counsel
30:1 Woe to the stubborn children
31:1 Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help
33:1 Woe to the destroyer
This parallels the six woes of chapter 5-the parable of the vineyard.
The harvest of stink fruit is revealed here as lack of faith in Yahweh's ability to save.
The theme of this entire section is Judah's proposed treaty with Egypt
in the face of the Assyrian threat.
But Isaiah begins with Ephraim-the northern kingdom.
When Assyria came upon Samaria,
Ephraim was like a drunkard.
Assyria was like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest,
like a storm of mighty overflowing waters--
an irresistible force overwhelming the northern kingdom.
And the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim was trodden underfoot.
And in his stupor he was easy game.
He was plucked and eaten like a first-ripe fig (you don't harvest the first fig, you eat it!).
In that day-in the day of Ephraim's fall-the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory,
and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people.
The remnant of Ephraim will see-in that day-that Yahweh is their only hope and refuge.
The false and fading glory of verse 1 is replaced
by the true and abiding glory and beauty of Yahweh in verse 5.
And in that day the Davidic king-the Messiah-will sit in judgment over his enemies.
Someday Ephraim will again sit in the city of God-the strong city that turns back its foes.
Why does he start with Ephraim?
By the time Judah is contemplating its treaty with Egypt,
Ephraim has already been destroyed.
And we hear from 2 Chronicles 30 that Hezekiah invited the remnant of Ephraim
to come to the Passover.
But further, the last act of rebellion against Assyria committed by Ephraim
was entering into an alliance with Egypt (2 Kings 17:4).
Ephraim, the drunken fool, thought that Egypt could save him from Assyria.
But just as Ephraim was sloshed, so also is Judah.
"These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink;
the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine,
they stagger with strong drink,
they reel in vision,
they stumble in giving judgment.
For all tables are full of filthy vomit, with no space left." (7-8)
Verses 9 and 19 form an inclusio
framing the two responses of God to the leaders of Judah
"Explain the message" (v9)
And "understand the message" (v19)
set up the contrast.
The priests and prophets of Judah are rejoicing
because they do not fear what happened to Ephraim.
In fact, they mock Isaiah:
"To whom will he teach knowledge?
And to whom will he explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk-those taken from the breast?"
Go teach the babies, Isaiah! We don't need you!
Whenever you're around it is "precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little."
Isaiah, you're a bore.
Go away.
The Hebrew here is like baby talk
tsaw latsaw, tsaw latsaw,
qaw laqaw, qaw laqaw,
Go back to your kindergarten and teach the children, Isaiah!
We don't need to hear it.
But Isaiah replies that "by a people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue
Yahweh will speak to this people,
to whom he has said, "this is rest; give rest to the weary; and this is repose;"
Yet they would not hear."
Yes, they're right.
It was a simple message.
Simple enough for a child to understand.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths.
But because they have refused it,
yes, indeed, "the word of Yahweh to them will be
precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little and there a little,
that they may go and fall backward,
and be broken, and snared, and taken." (13)
Remember what we saw this morning in the death Eli and the capture of the ark?
What happened in 1 Samuel 4, with the death of the priest and capture of the ark,
will happen again.
Drunken priests who stumble in giving judgment will themselves be judged.
Now Isaiah turns to the house of David:
"Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, you scoffers who rule this people in Jerusalem."
The prophets weren't always as blunt as they could have been.
You don't hear Isaiah saying, "hear the word of the LORD, O king Ahaz"
or "O king Hezekiah."
You see, Isaiah is giving the king a chance.
By blaming the sin of Judah upon its "leaders,"
the king may yet prove himself faithful to the Lord.
But of course, if the Son of David fails to act,
then he too is indicted by this warning.
But now we finally hear what is the cause of the celebration of the prophets and priests in 7-8.
Why were they getting drunk like Ephraim.
Because, like Ephraim, they were celebrating the signing of a treaty with Egypt.
And now they are confident that Assyria will not succeed against them!
Now you don't need to be a prophet to realize how stupid this is.
Egypt failed to protect Israel.
Why does Judah think that they are any different?
But Isaiah, with the eyes of faith, sees that this covenant with Egypt is but a covenant with death.
That's fitting.
Egypt is frequently portrayed as the land of the dead.
Egypt is like the underworld-the Yam Suph lies between Egypt and Judah.
Yam Suph is often translated "Red Sea,"
but Suph doesn't mean Red.
Sometimes it is translated, "Sea of Reeds,"
but there aren't any reeds there.
Yam Suph most likely means "Sea at the End."
The Red Sea-the Yam Suph-is the sea at the end of the world.
To go to Egypt is figuratively to go to the land of the dead-the underworld-
otherwise known as Sheol.
And so it is not surprising to hear Isaiah call a treaty with Egypt:
"A covenant with death-and with Sheol we have an agreement."
That's really smart, guys!
You make a covenant with the grave.
What? That's it's going to protect you from death?
That's why Isaiah mocks them:
"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!"
Once again, God uses the same vocabulary to reply to the drunken mockers:
(Verse 15 with verse 18).
God has laid his "foundation in Zion-a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation.
Whoever believes will not be in haste."
Yahweh has a city that will endure.
The one who takes refuge in Yahweh will not fear the city of man.
He will not be in haste to make alliances with the nations.
And as he had said with respect to Ephraim in verses 5-6,
God will rule in justice.
God's own righteousness will be the plumb line that straightens out his people.
Hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
and waters will overwhelm the shelter.
The same storm that overwhelmed Ephraim will overwhelm Egypt.
Your "deliverer" will be delivered into the hands of Assyria.
Then what will you say for your covenant with death?
Your agreement with Sheol will not stand.
Both it and you will be beaten down by Assyria.
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.
This is the language of the angel of death at the Passover.
The verb to "Pass through" in verses 15, 18, and twice in 19,
is the word used to describe the angel of death in Exodus 12.
You have entered a covenant with death.
The same angel of death who passed through the land of Egypt
will come again-this time in the hosts of Assyria.
And it will pass through your land, taking you away to Sheol.
This time there is no sacrifice.
There is no Passover lamb.
There is nothing shielding you from the angel of death.
It will come, morning by morning, by day and by night.
And it will be sheer terror to understand the message.
God offered you rest.
He called you to trust in him!
He said for you to give rest to the weary-this is repose!
But you would not rest in him.
You had to make your covenant with death.
Very well then-try to rest!
Try to get some sleep tonight, when the angel of death passes through!
But the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,
and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.
That's what kind of rest you have to look forward to.
Tossing and turning all night long as you await the dreaded judgment.
Because God himself will rise up against you-as on Mt Perazim and the Valley of Gibeon.
"to do his deed-his strange deed-and to work his work-his alien work." (21)
Do you know how strange and alien this work is?
The Passover language should already give you a sense.
God is bringing the judgment of Egypt upon his own people.
But Perazim and Gibeon are mentioned together in one other place.
2 Samuel 5 (cf. 1 Chronicles 14:11-16).
This was David's first victory over his enemies after being crowned king of Israel.
This was the first time that God arose to give glory to his anointed king-
the man after God's own heart.
And now God is going to arise again
-as on Mt Perazim and in the Valley of Gibeon-
But this time to cast down the house of David.
A strange deed and an alien work.
And so Isaiah says, as strange as this sounds,
do not scoff-do not mock,
"Lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord Yahweh of hosts
against the whole land."
Don't make it worse for yourself than it already is.
Judgment is coming-darkness inescapable.
But Isaiah concludes with a message of hope.
Give ear, and hear my voice; pay attention, and hear my speech.
Listen up, folks, this is important!
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 (a type of wheat) as the border?
Of course. The point of plowing is to plant. So what's your point, Isaiah?
"He is rightly instructed; his God teaches him."
This is what God is doing.
He is plowing-he is harrowing-but he will plant.
There will yet be a harvest.
God knows what he is doing.
As a wise farmer knows what implements to use-
he will beat dill out with a stick-not thresh it with a sledge.
God has not forgotten wisdom.
He is bringing all things together for his purposes in order to produce a bountiful harvest.
"This also comes from the LORD of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom."
This is not the end.
There is a future for the people of God beyond the darkness-
beyond the terror of the coming night.
Our Lord Jesus Christ recapitulates the history of Israel in his own life.
He was called out of Egypt-rescued from the hand of a wicked Pharaoh (Herod)
who sought to destroy him.
He entered the Promised Land through the Jordan River,
and was tempted in the wilderness for forty days.
And on that Passover night, as all Israel remembered that fearful night
when the angel of death passed through the land,
our Lord trembled at the terror of judgment.
For we had entered a covenant with death.
We had listened to the voice of the serpent, and taken refuge in lies.
And in order for him to annul our agreement with Sheol,
Jesus had to endure the sheer terror of understanding the message.
For Jesus, that night, the bed was too short to stretch out on,
and the covering too narrow to wrap himself in.
And the Father arose to strike down the house of David-
to do his strange deed, his alien work-
to strike down his beloved Son.
The apostle Paul uses this passage twice to talk about the Jews.
In 1 Corinthians 14:21, he explains the purpose of speaking in tongues.
(Read 14:13-22)
In Isaiah 28, the people of strange tongues were the Assyrians.
God's judgment was signified in the invasion of the nations.
In 1 Cor 14, once again, it is the invasion of the nations that signifies judgment.
As all these foreign languages are spoken, as the Gentiles are brought in,
it is a sign that judgment has come upon Israel.
The same theme is found in Romans 9:33,
where Paul cites Isaiah 28:16.
Jesus is the stone of stumbling.
Israel did not believe that God could save them through the death of Jesus.
And so they stumble and fall.
Paul's usage of Isaiah 28 is conditioned by his role as apostle to the Gentiles.
He sees Isaiah 28 as speaking to the Jews of his own day,
through the new Assyrian invasion-the ingathering of the Gentiles.
Does that sound strange?
You are part of the new Assyrian invasion!
But this time the Gentiles are flocking to the heavenly Jerusalem,
in faith! submitting to the righteousness of God!
But Paul understands that through the darkness of the storm,
there is yet a light.
God has purposed this for the salvation of his people.
The apostle Peter also uses Isaiah 28.
And while he too understands the judgment involved,
he uses it in a more positive sense.
1 Peter 2:4-8.
If Paul focuses on explaining the judgment that has come to the Jews,
Peter focuses on the blessing that has come to those who believe.
Jesus, the precious cornerstone, is the foundation for a spiritual temple.
And you, as living stones, are being built upon that foundation
as a fitting dwelling for God himself.
The covenant with death has been annulled.
Your agreement with Sheol has been destroyed.
You will never face the terror of that night-
the terror of the angel of death hovering outside your window.
The strange and alien work of God has been accomplished for the last time in Jesus Christ.
Never again will God hand his people over to destruction.
Now is the time for planting and reaping.
So let us plant wisely, and harvest the crop that others have planted before us.
Let us imitate the wisdom of our heavenly Father,
and serve him as wise farmers in his fields.