This chapter gives us a graphic picture of the state of things in the northern kingdom of Israel (called ‘Ephraim’) just before the Assyrian invasion. The people of Judah were following suit with Israel, and so Isaiah’s words are written to explain why Israel would be destroyed as a warning to Judah. They were partying hard and drowning their unrecognised sorrows in wine. The priests were drunkards, unable to perform their duties and their teaching is mocked by Isaiah here as being like the ‘ga-ga’ one might offer to an infant (vss. 9-10). They partied on completely oblivious to the fact that ‘their ship’ was sinking. They felt secure against Assyria because they had an alliance with Egypt, but Isaiah refers to this mockingly as ‘a covenant of death’. This alliance was a reproach on this people. Why would they seek security with Egypt when God himself had ‘laid a stone in Zion,’ that is, had promised them unshakable security in him. So, they would see which refuge would stand and which will not. Their false hopes of Egyptian protection would be dashed (vs.20). God wanted them to realise that, if they trusted him and lived his way, they would be fruitful like a farmer who sows and ploughs in the right way (vss. 23-29). Israel, however, was like a farmer who ignores the right way of growing crops and ends up destitute. Don’t make a mess of the one life you have. Build your life on the rock of God’s truth. This is the only way it can work properly.
Commit yourself to walking in God’s way.
Read Isaiah 28
