Isaiah: Our Cornerstone

Isaiah 28

We all have plans. We have college plans, career plans, family plans, and financial plans, complete with backup scenarios for all our plans! Our plans give us confidence, a sense of security, and a feeling that our lives are under control. But here are a few points to consider: Is your security based on something that will endure? Or is it built on something that will eventually crumble? 

Today’s chapter highlights how the northern and southern kingdoms of Israel are relying on what only offers false security. 

Israel’s King Omri built a capital city, Samaria, which overlooked a lush, fertile valley (1 Kgs. 16:24). Isaiah equated the beauty and prosperity of the town to a “proud crown” and noted its “glorious beauty” (Isa. 28:3-4). However, the people of Ephraim (a prominent tribe in Israel often used synonymously for Israel) were filled with pleasure-seekers instead of God worshipers. Twice, Isaiah points out that “the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim” will lead to its downfall (Isa. 28:1, 3).

Drunkenness in this chapter is presented as one sin among many. Due to Israel’s self-indulgence, God would send “one who is mighty and strong, like a storm of hail, a destroying tempest, like a storm of mighty, overflowing waters” to judge Israel (Isa. 28:2-3). Israel will be swiftly thrown down like “a first-ripe fig before summer” (Isa. 28:4). An early fig was considered a delicacy (Hosea 9:10, Micah 7:1). 

The “storm of hail” God sent to overtake Israel was the Assyrians. The admonition had been direct, but Ephraim wouldn’t listen. They continued in their self-focused, self-indulgent ways (Isa. 28:7-8). Note that the priests, who should have been leading the reform, mocked everything Isaiah said.

Isaiah 28:9-10
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? For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.

The priests complained that Isaiah was treating them like infants. “Here a little, there a little” characterized a method of teaching children, providing a small amount of information at a time. “Precept upon precept…line upon line” sounds like gibberish in Hebrew: saw lasaw, saw lasaw; qaw laqaw, qaw laqaw. 

Isaiah warned Israel that since they wouldn’t listen to him, they would be taught “by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue,” in other words, by their foreign captors (Isa. 28:11). Since they refused to heed Isaiah’s message, he declared they would be “broken, and snared, and taken” by the Assyrians (Isa. 28:13). As noted in previous sections, the Assyrians conquered Israel and took them captive in 722 BC.

Next, Isaiah addressed the southern kingdom. Judah should have acknowledged that, if Israel fell, they would be next. However, the leaders in Jerusalem also refused to listen. They had turned to other gods for help, enacting, in Isaiah’s words, “a covenant with death” (Isa. 28:15). They were certain that the Assyrians would not touch them, stating, “when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us” (Isa. 28:15). They made lies their refuge and falsehoods their shelter (Isa. 28:15). 

All Judah needs to do is turn back to God. If they heed Isaiah’s warning, here is what God promises them in today’s Anchor Point.

Isaiah 28:16-17a
Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste’ (stricken with panic). And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line….

God responded to all their boasts. The covenant they made with death will not stand. The enemy would defeat them day after day (Isa. 28:18). The message of judgment would bring terror (Isa. 28:19) because trusting in false gods is a worthless endeavor. Essentially, their “bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in” (Isa. 28:20). Judah is warned not to scoff at Isaiah’s message from God by acting as if Isaiah isn’t serious (Isa. 28:22).

Isaiah ends this chapter with an encouraging word. He likens God to a gracious farmer who will one day deliver his people. He “will not thresh [the grain] forever” (Isa. 28:28). The Lord of hosts is “wonderful in counsel and excellent in wisdom” (Isa. 28:29).

Let’s review our Anchor Point again:

Isaiah 28:16-17a
Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion, a stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation: ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste’ (stricken with panic). And I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line….

It remains uncertain whether Isaiah was telling about the forthcoming Messiah. Nonetheless, Paul asserted that Jesus was truly the cornerstone of the church. 

Ephesians 2:19-21
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord.  

And the apostle Peter quotes this passage from the Septuagint (the Greek translation of the Hebrew text) to confirm that Jesus is the Messiah.

1 Peter 2:6
Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and whoever believes in him will not be put to shame. 

We can rely on various sources for our security, but only God is “a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation.” When we trust in him, we are not overcome with panic. He keeps us in perfect peace “for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock” (Isa. 26:3-4; see also 44:8).

PERSONAL TIME WITH GOD
Time in the Word: Read and reflect on Isaiah 28. Focus on our Anchor Point: Isaiah 28:16-17a.

Talking to God: Thank God for the peace that comes from Jesus. Ask God to help you always rely on him as your sure foundation.

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