There is a lot of booze in the beginning of this chapter. Booze and drunks and flower garlands.

🍷🍺🍸🍾🌼🌸🌺💐✌🏼☮️🧡🚌🎸🪘

It looks like a Hippie festival.

“What sorrow awaits the proud city of Samaria— the glorious crown of the drunks of Israel. It sits at the head of a fertile valley, but its glorious beauty will fade like a flower. It is the pride of a people brought down by wine.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭28‬:‭1‬ ‭NLT‬‬

This isn’t just symbolism. Look at the topography of the city:

In the center is the location of ancient Samaria. The land surrounding it looks like an ancient crown:

Here it is today from Google Maps looking at the topography:

Samaria was the crown jewel wearing a wreath of green valleys dotted with flowering trees and fragrant blossoms.

And everyone here is an alcoholic- the civic leaders, the priests and prophets. They all stagger and slur their speech.

Up til now, I generally understood verses 9-10 to be a lesson about how we’re supposed to learn God’s Word: precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little there a little. But look at what the commentator A. R. Fausset said about this passage:

This is how the NLT renders this passage:

“Who does the Lord think we are?” they ask. “Why does he speak to us like this? Are we little children, just recently weaned? He tells us everything over and over— one line at a time, one line at a time, a little here, and a little there!””
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭28‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭NLT‬‬

In this view, the “line upon line” is a complaint from childish drunken men who won’t listen. The Lexam English Bible leans into this approach even more startlingly:

“To whom will he teach knowledge, and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from milk, those taken from the breast? For it is blah-blah upon blah-blah, blah-blah upon blah-blah, gah-gah upon gah-gah, gah-gah upon gah-gah, a little here, a little there.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭28‬:‭9‬-‭10‬ ‭LEB‬‬

“And to them the word of Yahweh will be blah-blah upon blah-blah blah-blah upon blah-blah gah-gah upon gah-gah gah-gah upon gah-gah, a little here, a little there, so that they may go and stumble backward and be broken and ensnared and captured.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭28‬:‭13‬ ‭LEB‬‬

It’s as if the northern kingdom of Israel is a rebellious teenager and after Dad has read her the riot act, her BFF calls…

👩‍🎤 Air-Head BFF: “So… what did your dad say?”

👱🏼‍♀️ Teen w/ Attitude: “Oh I don’t know. He just went on and on about how I needed to grow up… blah blah blah blah blah.”

God’s message to them has gone in one ear and out the other.

And you can’t be saved by a message you don’t listen to.

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A DEAL WITH DEATH (v 14-19)

In this section we shift focus back to the southern kingdom of Judah and the capital of Jerusalem.

“You boast, “We have struck a bargain to cheat death and have made a deal to dodge the grave. The coming destruction can never touch us, for we have built a strong refuge made of lies and deception.””
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭28‬:‭15‬ ‭NLT‬‬

I don’t know exactly what their bargain was, but it was a bad idea. Their “strong refuge” will turn out to be nothing but a sand castle. And it is contrasted with a solid rock, a foundation stone that is laid in Zion.

Remember how we’ve said that using the name Zion for Jerusalem often hints at the heavenly city? That’s how The Apostle Peter uses this very text from Isaiah in the NT.

“As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in Scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame.””
‭‭1 Peter‬ ‭2‬:‭4‬-‭6‬ ‭ESV‬‬

The house built in Zion is not a physical temple. It’s a spiritual house with living stones. And the living stones are people.

The sand castle of the rebellious doesn’t stand a chance against the coming storm.

The picture is one of utter insufficiency.

And if the hearers didn’t like that picture, here’s an other one:

“The bed you have made is too short to lie on. The blankets are too narrow to cover you.”
‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭28‬:‭20‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Which always makes me think of this scene from a classic Donald Duck cartoon called Fall Out Fall In…

(And in case anyone is wondering… no, I don’t sit around watching old Donald Duck cartoons. I think this one might’ve been on a VHS tape my little brothers had more than 30 years ago. But for some reason the image of Donald Duck tucking an impossibly small scrap of blanket around his feet then pulling it up to his chest just decided to get printed like a .gif file in my head. And it took me at least 30 minutes to find it online because I had no idea which cartoon it was from. You’re welcome.)

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ANCIENT AGRICULTURE 101 (v23-29)

In this little lesson on the proper way to harvest different types of grains and seeds, God is telling the listeners that He knows exactly how to separate the chaff from them.

Some grains require only a light beating with a stick in order to be separated from their hulls. Others must be pounded with a heavy flail. The hardest grains must threshed under a sledge or cart – but even then, you don’t thresh it forever or you’ll grind it up to a powder and it will be lost on the threshing floor.

Jesus makes a similar comment in the context of judgment:

“And that servant who knew his master’s will but did not get ready or act according to his will, will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, will receive a light beating. Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭12‬:‭47‬-‭48‬ ‭ESV‬‬

If you are a parent of more than one child you’ve probably realized that you cannot correct them in the same way. I was the child that needed only a disapproving look.

God is the best parent (and farmer) there is. He knows how to correct me. (V-E-R-Y gently). He also knew how to correct the hard-heads in ancient Israel. A few were corrected at only the stern words of the prophet. Some needed a light smack with a stick, some needed to have the stuffins’ wailed out of ‘em, and the rest had to be run right over with a Mack truck before they got the message. But in His mercy the Lord did not utterly destroy them.

Don’t be a tough nut to crack or a “bad seed.” Let’s be people who hear and obey. It’s all for our ultimate good.