Isaiah 28–31: The Cornerstone, the Sealed Scroll, and "In Quiet Confidence
Scripture: Berean Standard Bible
Woe to the majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards,to the fading flower of his glorious splendor,set on the summit above the fertile valley,the pride of those overcome by wine.Behold, the Lord has onewho is strong and mighty.Like a hailstorm or destructive tempest,like a driving rain or flooding downpour,he will smash that crown to the ground.The majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkardswill be trampled underfoot.The fading flower of his beautiful splendor,set on the summit above the fertile valley,will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest:Whoever sees it will take it in his hand and swallow it.
On that day the LORD of Hosts will be a crown of glory,a diadem of splendor to the remnant of his people,a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment,and a strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.
These also stagger from wineand stumble from strong drink:Priests and prophets reel from strong drinkand are befuddled by wine.They stumble because of strong drink,muddled in their visions and stumbling in their judgments.For all their tables are covered with vomit;there is not a place without filth.
Whom is he trying to teach?To whom is he explaining his message?To infants just weaned from milk?To babies removed from the breast?For they hear:“Order on order, order on order,line on line, line on line;a little here, a little there.”Indeed, with mocking lips and foreign tongues,he will speak to this people to whom he has said:“This is the place of rest, let the weary rest;this is the place of repose.”
But they would not listen.
Then the word of the LORD to them will become:“Order on order, order on order,line on line, line on line;a little here, a little there,”so that they will go stumbling backwardand will be injured, ensnared, and captured.
Therefore hear the word of the LORD, O scofferswho rule this people in Jerusalem.For you said, “We have made a covenant with death;we have fashioned an agreement with Sheol.When the overwhelming scourge passes throughit will not touch us,because we have made lies our refugeand falsehood our hiding place.”
So this is what the Lord GOD says:
“See, I lay a stone in Zion,a tested stone,a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;the one who believes will never be shaken.I will make justice the measuring lineand righteousness the level.Hail will sweep away your refuge of lies,and water will flood your hiding place.Your covenant with death will be dissolved,and your agreement with Sheol will not stand.When the overwhelming scourge passes through,you will be trampled by it.As often as it passes through,it will carry you away;it will sweep through morning after morning,by day and by night.”
The understanding of this messagewill bring sheer terror.Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on,and the blanket too small to wrap around you.For the LORD will rise up as at Mount Perazim.He will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon,to do his work, his strange work,and to perform his task, his disturbing task.
So now, do not mock,or your shackles will become heavier.Indeed, I have heard from the Lord GOD of Hostsa decree of destruction against the whole land.
Listen and hear my voice.Pay attention and hear what I say.Does the plowman plow for planting every day?Does he continuously loosen and harrow the soil?When he has leveled its surface,does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin?He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots,and rye within its border.
For his God instructsand teaches him properly.Surely caraway is not threshed with a sledge,and the wheel of a cart is not rolled over the cumin.But caraway is beaten out with a stick,and cumin with a rod.Grain for bread must be ground,but it is not endlessly threshed.Though the wheels of the cart roll over it,the horses do not crush it.This also comes from the LORD of Hosts,who is wonderful in counseland excellent in wisdom.Woe to you, O Ariel,the city of Ariel where David camped!Year upon yearlet your festivals recur.And I will constrain Ariel,and there will be mourning and lamentation;she will be like an altar hearth before me.I will camp in a circle around you;I will besiege you with towersand set up siege works against you.You will be brought low,you will speak from the ground,and out of the dustyour words will be muffled.Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground;your speech will whisper out of the dust.
But your many foes will be like fine dust,the multitude of the ruthless like blowing chaff.Then suddenly, in an instant,you will be visited by the LORD of Hostswith thunder and earthquake and loud noise,with windstorm and tempest and consuming flame of fire.All the many nationsgoing out to battle against Ariel—even all who war against her,laying siege and attacking her—will be like a dream,like a vision in the night,as when a hungry man dreams he is eating,then awakens still hungry;as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking,then awakens faint and parched.So will it be for all the many nationswho go to battle against Mount Zion.
Stop and be astonished;blind yourselves and be sightless;be drunk, but not with wine;stagger, but not from strong drink.For the LORD has poured out on youa spirit of deep sleep.He has shut your eyes, O prophets;he has covered your heads, O seers.
And the entire vision will be to you like the words sealed in a scroll. If it is handed to someone to read, he will say, “I cannot, because it is sealed.” Or if the scroll is handed to one unable to read, he will say, “I cannot read.”
Therefore the Lord said:
“These people draw near to me with their mouthsand honor me with their lips,but their hearts are far from me.Their worship of me is but rules taught by men.Therefore I will again confound these peoplewith wonder upon wonder.The wisdom of the wise will vanish,and the intelligence of the intelligent will be hidden.”
Woe to those who dig deepto hide their plans from the LORD.In darkness they do their works and say,“Who sees us, and who will know?”You have turned things upside down,as if the potter were regarded as clay.Shall what is formed say to him who formed it,“He did not make me”?Can the pottery say of the potter,“He has no understanding”?
In a very short time,will not Lebanon become an orchard,and the orchard seem like a forest?On that day the deaf will hear the words of the scroll,and out of the deep darkness the eyes of the blind will see.The humble will increase their joy in the LORD,and the poor among men will rejoice in the Holy One of Israel.
For the ruthless will vanish,the mockers will disappear,and all who look for evilwill be cut down—those who indict a man with a word,who ensnare the mediator at the gate,and who with false chargesdeprive the innocent of justice.
Therefore the LORD who redeemed Abraham says of the house of Jacob:
“No longer will Jacob be ashamedand no more will his face grow pale.For when he sees his children around him,the work of my hands,they will honor my name,they will sanctify the Holy One of Jacob,and they will stand in aweof the God of Israel.Then the wayward in spirit will come to understanding,and those who grumble will accept instruction.”“Woe to the rebellious children,”declares the LORD,“to those who carry out a plan that is not mine,who form an alliance, but against my will,heaping up sin upon sin.They set out to go down to Egyptwithout asking my advice,to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protectionand take refuge in Egypt’s shade.
But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame,and the refuge of Egypt’s shade your disgrace.For though their princes are at Zoanand their envoys have arrived in Hanes,everyone will be put to shamebecause of a people useless to them.They cannot be of help;they are good for nothing but shame and reproach.”
This is the burden against the beasts of the Negev:
Through a land of hardship and distress,of lioness and lion,of viper and flying serpent,they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeysand their treasures on the humps of camels,to a people of no profit to them.Egypt’s help is futile and empty;therefore I have called herRahab Who Sits Still.
Go now, write it on a tablet in their presenceand inscribe it on a scroll;it will be for the days to come,a witness forever and ever.These are rebellious people, deceitful children,children unwilling to obey the LORD’s instruction.They say to the seers,“Stop seeing visions!”and to the prophets,“Do not prophesy to us the truth!Speak to us pleasant words;prophesy illusions.Get out of the way; turn off the road.Rid us of the Holy One of Israel!”
Therefore this is what the Holy One of Israel says:
“Because you have rejected this message,trusting in oppression and relying on deceit,this iniquity of yours is like a breach about to fail,a bulge in a high wall,whose collapse will come suddenly—in an instant!It will break in pieces like a potter’s jar,shattered so that no fragment can be found.Not a shard will be found in the dustlarge enough to scoop the coals from a hearthor to skim the water from a cistern.”
For the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, has said:
“By repentance and restyou would be saved;your strength would lie in quiet confidence—but you were not willing.”
“No,” you say, “we will flee on horses.”Therefore you will flee!“We will ride swift horses,”but your pursuers will be faster.A thousand will flee at the threat of one;at the threat of five you will all flee,until you are left alone like a pole on a mountaintop,like a banner on a hill.
Therefore the LORD longs to be gracious to you;therefore he rises to show you compassion,for the LORD is a just God.Blessed are all who wait for him.
O people in Zion who dwell in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. He will surely be gracious when you cry for help; when he hears, he will answer you. The Lord will give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, but your Teacher will no longer hide himself—with your own eyes you will see him.
And whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.” So you will desecrate your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, saying to them, “Be gone!”
Then he will send rain for the seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food that comes from your land will be rich and plentiful. On that day your cattle will graze in open pastures. The oxen and donkeys that work the ground will eat salted fodder, winnowed with shovel and pitchfork.
And from every high mountain and every raised hill, streams of water will flow in the day of great slaughter, when the towers fall. The light of the moon will be as bright as the sun, and the light of the sun will be seven times brighter—like the light of seven days—on the day that the LORD binds up the brokenness of his people and heals the wounds he has inflicted.
Behold, the Name of the LORD comes from afar,with burning anger and dense smoke.His lips are full of fury,and his tongue is like a consuming fire.His breath is like a rushing torrentthat rises to the neck.He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction;he bridles the jaws of the peoples to lead them astray.
You will singas on the night of a holy festival,and your heart will rejoicelike one who walks to the music of a flute,going up to the mountain of the LORD,to the Rock of Israel.And the LORD will cause his majestic voice to be heardand his mighty arm to be revealed,striking in angry wrath with a flame of consuming fire,and with cloudburst, storm, and hailstones.
For Assyria will be shattered at the voice of the LORD;he will strike them with his scepter.And with every stroke of the rod of punishmentthat the LORD brings down on them,the tambourines and lyres will soundas he battles with weapons brandished.For Topheth has long been prepared;it has been made ready for the king.Its funeral pyre is deep and wide,with plenty of fire and wood.The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur,sets it ablaze.Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help,who rely on horses,who trust in their abundance of chariotsand in their multitude of horsemen.They do not look to the Holy One of Israel;they do not seek the LORD.Yet he too is wise and brings disaster;he does not call back his words.He will rise up against the house of the wickedand against the allies of evildoers.But the Egyptians are men, not God;their horses are flesh, not spirit.When the LORD stretches out his hand,the helper will stumble,and the one he helps will fall;both will perish together.
For this is what the LORD has said to me:
“Like a lion roaringor a young lion over its prey—and though a band of shepherds is called out against it,it is not terrified by their shoutingor subdued by their clamor—so the LORD of Hosts will come downto do battle on Mount Zion and its heights.Like birds hovering overhead,so the LORD of Hosts will protect Jerusalem.He will shield it and deliver it;he will pass over it and preserve it.”
Return to the One against whom you have so blatantly rebelled, O children of Israel. For on that day, every one of you will reject the idols of silver and gold that your own hands have sinfully made.
“Then Assyria will fall,but not by the sword of man;a sword will devour them,but not one made by mortals.They will flee before the sword,and their young men will be put to forced labor.Their rock will pass away for fear,and their princes will panic at the sight of the battle standard,”declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion,whose furnace is in Jerusalem.