Unshakable and Never Put to Shame – Isaiah 28-30

Joy: You’re listening to Season 2 of the Lifting Her Voice podcast.  This is Episode #215 and today we’ll read Isaiah 28-30 together.   The one who believes will be unshakable and never put to shame.  

Welcome

Welcome to the Lifting Her Voice podcast, Season 2!  I’m your host, Joy Miller, and I invite you to grab your Bible and join me – from the beginning – simply reading God’s word together.  We built some spiritual muscles in 2020 with just the New Testament.  But this year we’re going all out, cover-to-cover, Old Testament and New.  So, whether with your first cup in the morning, your commute to work, or as the last thing on your mind before sleep, God’s Word will equip you for every good work.  I’m really glad you’re here!

Isaiah Chapter 28

Woe to Samaria

Woe to the majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards,

and to the fading flower of its beautiful splendor,

which is on the summit above the rich valley.

Woe to those overcome with wine.

Look, the Lord has a strong and mighty one —

like a devastating hail storm,

like a storm with strong flooding water.

He will bring it across the land with his hand.

The majestic crown of Ephraim’s drunkards

will be trampled underfoot.

The fading flower of his beautiful splendor,

which is on the summit above the rich valley,

will be like a ripe fig before the summer harvest.

Whoever sees it will swallow it

while it is still in his hand.

On that day

the Lord of Armies will become a crown of beauty

and a diadem of splendor

to the remnant of his people,

a spirit of justice

to the one who sits in judgment,

and strength

to those who repel attacks at the city gate.

A Little Here, A Little There

Even these stagger because of wine

and stumble under the influence of beer:

Priest and prophet stagger because of beer.

They are confused by wine.

They stumble because of beer.

They are muddled in their visions.

They stumble in their judgments.

Indeed, all their tables are covered with vomit;

there is no place without a stench.

Who is he trying to teach?

Who is he trying to instruct?

Infants just weaned from milk?

Babies removed from the breast?

“Law after law, law after law,

line after line, line after line,

a little here, a little there.”

For he will speak to this people

with stammering speech

and in a foreign language.

He had said to them,

“This is the place of rest;

let the weary rest;

this is the place of repose.”

But they would not listen.

The word of the Lord will come to them:

“Law after law, law after law,

line after line, line after line,

a little here, a little there,”

so they go stumbling backward,

to be broken, trapped, and captured.

A Deal with Death

Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers

who rule this people in Jerusalem.

For you said, “We have made a covenant with Death,

and we have an agreement with Sheol;

when the overwhelming catastrophe passes through,

it will not touch us,

because we have made falsehood our refuge

and have hidden behind treachery.”

Therefore the Lord God said:

“Look, I have laid a stone in Zion,

a tested stone,

a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation;

the one who believes will be unshakable.

And I will make justice the measuring line

and righteousness the mason’s level.”

Hail will sweep away the false refuge,

and water will flood your hiding place.

Your covenant with Death will be dissolved,

and your agreement with Sheol will not last.

When the overwhelming catastrophe passes through,

you will be trampled.

Every time it passes through,

it will carry you away;

it will pass through every morning —

every day and every night.

Only terror will cause you

to understand the message.

Indeed, the bed is too short to stretch out on,

and its cover too small to wrap up in.

For the Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim.

He will rise in wrath, as at the Valley of Gibeon,

to do his work, his unexpected work,

and to perform his task, his unfamiliar task.

So now, do not scoff,

or your shackles will become stronger.

Indeed, I have heard from the Lord God of Armies

a decree of destruction for the whole land.

God’s Wonderful Advice

Listen and hear my voice.

Pay attention and hear what I say.

Does the plowman plow every day to plant seed?

Does he continuously break up and cultivate the soil?

When he has leveled its surface,

does he not then scatter black cumin and sow cumin?

He plants wheat in rows and barley in plots,

with spelt as their border.

His God teaches him order;

he instructs him.

Certainly black cumin is not threshed

with a threshing board,

and a cart wheel is not rolled over the cumin.

But black cumin is beaten out with a stick,

and cumin with a rod.

Bread grain is crushed,

but is not threshed endlessly.

Though the wheel of the farmer’s cart rumbles,

his horses do not crush it.

This also comes from the Lord of Armies.

He gives wondrous advice;

he gives great wisdom.

Isaiah Chapter 29

Woe to Jerusalem

Woe to Ariel, Ariel,

the city where David camped!

Continue year after year;

let the festivals recur.

I will oppress Ariel,

and there will be mourning and crying,

and she will be to me like an Ariel.

I will camp in a circle around you;

I will besiege you with earth ramps,

and I will set up my siege towers against you.

You will be brought down;

you will speak from the ground,

and your words will come from low in the dust.

Your voice will be like that of a spirit from the ground;

your speech will whisper from the dust.

Your many foes will be like fine dust,

and many of the ruthless, like blowing chaff.

Then suddenly, in an instant,

you will be punished by the Lord of Armies

with thunder, earthquake, and loud noise,

storm, tempest, and a flame of consuming fire.

All the many nations

going out to battle against Ariel —

all the attackers, the siege works against her,

and those who oppress her —

will then be like a dream, a vision in the night.

It will be like a hungry one who dreams he is eating,

then wakes and is still hungry;

and like a thirsty one who dreams he is drinking,

then wakes and is still thirsty, longing for water.

Lip-Service

For you the entire vision will be like the words of a sealed document. If it is given to one who can read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t read it, because it is sealed.” And if the document is given to one who cannot read and he is asked to read it, he will say, “I can’t read.”

The Lord said:

These people approach me with their speeches

to honor me with lip-service,

yet their hearts are far from me,

and human rules direct their worship of me.

Therefore, I will again confound these people

with wonder after wonder.

The wisdom of their wise will vanish,

and the perception of their perceptive will be hidden.

The Humble Will Have Joy

Woe to those who go to great lengths

to hide their plans from the Lord.

They do their works in the dark,

and say, “Who sees us? Who knows us?”

You have turned things around,

as if the potter were the same as the clay.

How can what is made say about its maker,

“He didn’t make me”?

How can what is formed

say about the one who formed it,

“He doesn’t understand what he’s doing”?

Isn’t it true that in just a little while

Lebanon will become an orchard,

and the orchard will seem like a forest?

On that day the deaf will hear

the words of a document,

and out of a deep darkness

the eyes of the blind will see.

The humble will have joy

after joy in the Lord,

and the poor people will rejoice

in the Holy One of Israel.

For the ruthless one will vanish,

the scorner will disappear,

and all those who lie in wait with evil intent

will be killed —

those who, with their speech,

accuse a person of wrongdoing,

who set a trap for the one mediating at the city gate

and without cause deprive the righteous of justice.

Therefore, the Lord who redeemed Abraham says this about the house of Jacob:

Jacob will no longer be ashamed,

and his face will no longer be pale.

For when he sees his children,

the work of my hands within his nation,

they will honor my name,

they will honor the Holy One of Jacob

and stand in awe of the God of Israel.

Those who are confused will gain understanding,

and those who grumble will accept instruction.

Isaiah Chapter 30

Condemnation of the Egyptian Alliance

Woe to the rebellious children!

This is the Lord’s declaration.

They carry out a plan, but not mine;

they make an alliance,

but against my will,

piling sin on top of sin.

Without asking my advice

they set out to go down to Egypt

in order to seek shelter under Pharaoh’s protection

and take refuge in Egypt’s shadow.

But Pharaoh’s protection will become your shame,

and refuge in Egypt’s shadow your humiliation.

For though his princes are at Zoan

and his messengers reach as far as Hanes,

everyone will be ashamed

because of a people who can’t help.

They are of no benefit, they are no help;

they are good for nothing but shame and disgrace.

A pronouncement concerning the animals of the Negev:

Through a land of trouble and distress,

of lioness and lion,

of viper and flying serpent,

they carry their wealth on the backs of donkeys

and their treasures on the humps of camels,

to a people who will not help them.

Egypt’s help is completely worthless;

therefore, I call her:

Rahab Who Just Sits.

Go now, write it on a tablet in their presence

and inscribe it on a scroll;

it will be for the future,

forever and ever.

They are a rebellious people,

deceptive children,

children who do not want to listen to the Lord’s instruction.

A Bulge in a High Wall

They say to the seers, “Do not see,”

and to the prophets,

“Do not prophesy the truth to us.

Tell us flattering things.

Prophesy illusions.

Get out of the way!

Leave the pathway.

Rid us of the Holy One of Israel.”

Therefore the Holy One of Israel says:

“Because you have rejected this message

and have trusted in oppression and deceit,

and have depended on them,

this iniquity of yours will be

like a crumbling gap,

a bulge in a high wall

whose collapse will come in an instant — suddenly!

Its collapse will be like the shattering

of a potter’s jar, crushed to pieces,

so that not even a fragment of pottery

will be found among its shattered remains —

no fragment large enough to take fire from a hearth

or scoop water from a cistern.”

For the Lord God, the Holy One of Israel, has said:

“You will be delivered by returning and resting;

your strength will lie in quiet confidence.

But you are not willing.”

You say, “No!

We will escape on horses” —

therefore you will escape! —

and, “We will ride on fast horses” —

but those who pursue you will be faster.

One thousand will flee at the threat of one,

at the threat of five you will flee,

until you remain

like a solitary pole on a mountaintop

or a banner on a hill.

The Lord’s Mercy to Israel

Therefore the Lord is waiting to show you mercy,

and is rising up to show you compassion,

for the Lord is a just God.

All who wait patiently for him are happy.

For people will live on Zion in Jerusalem. You will never weep again; he will show favor to you at the sound of your outcry; as soon as he hears, he will answer you. The Lord will give you meager bread and water during oppression, but your Teacher will not hide any longer. Your eyes will see your Teacher, and whenever you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear this command behind you: “This is the way. Walk in it.” Then you will defile your silver-plated idols and your gold-plated images. You will throw them away like menstrual cloths, and call them filth.

Then he will send rain for your seed that you have sown in the ground, and the food, the produce of the ground, 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 scattered with winnowing shovel and fork. Streams flowing with water will be on every high mountain and every raised hill on the day of great slaughter when the towers fall. The moonlight will be as bright as the sunlight, and the sunlight will be seven times brighter — like the light of seven days — on the day that the Lord bandages his people’s injuries and heals the wounds he inflicted.

Annihilation of the Assyrians

Look! The name of the Lord is coming from far away,

his anger burning and heavy with smoke.

His lips are full of fury,

and his tongue is like a consuming fire.

His breath is like an overflowing torrent

that rises to the neck.

He comes to sift the nations in a sieve of destruction

and to put a bridle on the jaws of the peoples

to lead them astray.

Your singing will be like that

on the night of a holy festival,

and your heart will rejoice

like 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 make the splendor of his voice heard

and reveal his arm striking in angry wrath

and a flame of consuming fire,

in driving rain, a torrent, and hailstones.

Assyria will be shattered by the voice of the Lord.

He will strike with a rod.

And every stroke of the appointed staff

that the Lord brings down on him

will be to the sound of tambourines and lyres;

he will fight against him with brandished weapons.

Indeed! Topheth has been ready

for the king for a long time.

Its funeral pyre is deep and wide,

with plenty of fire and wood.

The breath of the Lord, like a torrent of burning sulfur,

kindles it.

Close

In chapter 28, verse 16, Isaiah gives us yet another glimpse of Jesus:  Therefore the Lord God said: “Look, I have laid a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation; the one who believes will be unshakable.  Peter quotes Isaiah in his first letter, chapter 2, verse 6:  For it stands in Scripture: See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and honored cornerstone, and the one who believes in him will never be put to shame.  

When writing to the Romans, Paul quotes Isaiah too, chapter 9, verse 33:  As it is written, Look, I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and the one who believes on him will not be put to shame. And if we believe, we will be unshakable and never be put to shame.  That empowers me…how about you?  

Then, in chapter 29 of this episode, I am reminded of Ann Voskamp and her book, 1000 Gifts.  I am re-reading this special little book because I cannot be reminded enough to be grateful, regardless of what is going on around me.  On the night before He died, Jesus gave thanks and He received joy.  Thanksgiving must come before joy.  Or as Isaiah puts it, joy after joy.  

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See You Tomorrow!

Thank you for joining me here today.  I pray that by spending time in His Word every day, you will by changed.  Visit me at Lifting Her Voice.com with your comments and questions.  And don’t forget to visit the Blog page while you’re there.  If you like the podcast, it would be great if you’d give it a five-star review and share it with everyone you know.  Don’t forget to subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.  See you tomorrow!

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Christian Standard Bible(r), Copyright (c) 2017 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Christian Standard Bible(r) and CSB(r) are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.