Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Isaiah 28:1 - 28:13

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Paul Kretzmann Commentary - Isaiah 28:1 - 28:13


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Concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Chapters 28 to 33 in the Book of Isaiah contain a cycle of prophecies and proclamations concerning the relation of Judah to Assyria in the time of King Hezekiah. Ahaz had sinned in seeking protection against Syria and Israel not in the Lord, but in Assyria, thereby making Assyria a scourge of Judah. Hezekiah, otherwise a pious king, erred in seeking protection against Assyria by appealing to Egypt and entering into an alliance with this heathen nation. All this is described at length in these chapters and the planning and scheming without tile Lord condemned. At the same time, like flashes of sunlight on a dark day, Messianic promises are found in the midst of the gloomy denunciations of the prophet.

The Lord Rebukes and Comforts

v. 1. Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim,
that upon which they prided themselves in their contempt of the Lord, whose glorious beauty, like that of a wreath or garland put on during a drunken feast, is a fading flower, which are, rather, which is, for the reference is to the crown or garland worn by the drunken fools of Samaria, on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine. The picture is that of Samaria, the capital of tile Northern Kingdom, situated on a beautiful hill, surrounded with rich, terraced valleys like wreaths, but with its leaders slaves of wine, overcome by the vice of drunkenness. The picture is purposely painted dark, as a warning to the inhabitants of the Southern Kingdom.

v. 2. Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one,
namely, the Assyrian conqueror, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, a shower of destruction, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand, overthrowing boast fill Ephraim with its proud capital, Samaria.

v. 3.
The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, the wreath which the drunkards of Ephraim, tile rulers of the Northern Kingdom, wear with such arrogant haughtiness, shall be trodden under feet;

v. 4. 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,
that is, it will happen to the fading flower of Ephraim's beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, as it does to the early fig, which, when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand, just as soon as he has gotten hold of it, he eateth it up. The ruin of Samaria took place in hardly more than four or five years, and there was as yet no intimation of its destruction when the prophet wrote these words. But the reference to the overthrow of the false glory of Samaria leads to the mention of the divine, the Messianic beauty.

v. 5. In that day,
with the dawn of the Messianic era, shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory and for a diadem of beauty unto the residue of His people, namely, to the believers of the true Israel, especially in the New Testament, the small number from all nations and peoples who accept the Messiah,

v. 6. and for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment,
to have righteousness and justice prevailing throughout the land, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate, both in repelling an attack of the enemies and in directing the battle against the stronghold of the adversaries. The believers have power both to withstand the evil and to wage an offensive war against those who are its exponents. After this beautiful interlude the Lord turns to the people of Judah with a similar earnest warning.

v. 7. But they also have erred through wine,
the rulers of Judah being addicted to tile same vice as those of Samaria, and through strong drink are out of the way, reeling and staggering in their drunkenness; the priest, to whom the use of intoxicating liquors was strictly forbidden, and the prophet have erred through strong drink, Cf Lev_10:9; Eze_44:21, they are swallowed up of wine, altogether overcome by the vice, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, at the very time when they should be under the influence of the Spirit of God alone, they stumble in judgment, their befuddled minds causing them to make wrong applications and interpretations of the Law.

v. 8. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness,
the result of their beastly drunkenness, so that there is no place clean. The prophet paints the picture of their besottedness before the eyes of these leaders of the people, in order to hold the filth of their vice up before them as in a mirror. He now introduces the drunken adversaries in person, with all their scoffing comment of his warnings.

v. 9. Whom shall he teach knowledge?
so they sneeringly ask. And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? presuming to teach them knowledge. Them that are weaned from the milk and drawn from the breasts. They would have him know that they are no unweaned children, and that they are tired of his schoolmastery ways. They now try to heap ridicule and mockery upon him by stammering about his endless preaching and dinning in their ears.

v. 10. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line,
that is, rule upon rule; here a little and there a little, the gist of their attempted reproach being that the prophet was wearying their souls with a mass of little rules and precepts, directions and warnings in wearisome repetition, and without a right plan and order.

v. 11. For with stammering lips and another tongue will He,
namely, Jehovah, speak to this people, namely, by a foreign and hostile people, whose language would indeed seem strange and barbarous to them, the Assyrian invaders.

v. 12. To whom He said,
or, "He who said to them," This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest, for that is what the Lord in His Word offers to weary souls longing for salvation; and this is the refreshing; yet they would not hear, they despised and rejected the Word of the Lord.

v. 13. But the Word of the Lord was unto them,
that is, it shall now truly be, precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little, namely, in stammering sounds and a tedious repetition which would come upon them as a judgment from on high, that they might go, unwilling though it may be, and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken, snared and captured by the enemy. Thus many a person, who in our days is sneering at the Word of God as an endless repetition of a jumble of rules and orders of life, will find himself judged and condemned to an eternity of damnation by that very Word; for "he that believeth not shall be damned. "