Compiled by WD Kemner January 2024
CHAPTER 28
Woe to His People the Jews
WOE to KINGDOM of ISRAEL
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Isaiah Chapter 28 verse 1-4 |
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Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet: And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
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Ephraim = always a reference to the 10 tribes that made up the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
“Crown of pride” – capital of the Northern Kingdom (Israel) – Samaria
All the descriptions of Samaria at this time describe the city being on a hill surrounded by a valley of flowers like a crown.
This would all be destroyed when the Assyrian army (tempest of hail) came in and took Israel into captivity. Samaria would get destroyed as well. See back in chapter 17. The beauty would be destroyed as a flower that withers. This battle is talked about in the earlier chapters of Isaiah.
The nation of Judah would be destroyed at a later date.
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Isaiah Chapter 28 verse 5-6 |
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In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
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“In that day” - the day that the above events happen. Read the events of the war with the Assyrian nation. The hearts of some people began to turn back toward God.
“residue of his people” – the remnant or remaining.
WOE to KINGDOM of JUDAH
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Isaiah Chapter 28 verse 7-8 |
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But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
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Judah is not found to be any different than Israel. Drink controls their lives and gone is any faith in God.
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Isaiah Chapter 28 verse 9-13 |
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Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
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How can the child be taught anything, if they do not desire to grow and learn from the teacher?
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Isaiah Chapter 28 verse 14-20 |
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Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; 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:
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. 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.
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Turning to anything (Even the promises of Death and Hell = Satan) as long as it wasn’t God. That is the idea of those that were to lead the people. What sad leadership.
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Isaiah Chapter 28 verse 21-22 |
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For the 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 work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
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Referring to a battle King David had over the Philistines.
2 Samuel 5:17-21 and 1 Chronicles 14:8-11
“…strange act.” – strange because God is talking about the complete destruction of His people instead of their enemies. God had given them chance after chance.
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Isaiah Chapter 28 verse 23-29 |
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Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground? When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?
For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.
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The illustration of a farmer. Farmer does a lot to attempt to obtain the best harvest. In the same way God had dealt with Judah in many ways to bring them to righteousness to no success. Just like farmer ending up with a bad harvest.