Page 58 - Isaiah Student Worktext

We are told here that the ‘children of Israel’, God’s people, will be gathered ‘one by one’. Each of have
a place reserved for us in Heaven, not because we belong to a church or a group of people but based on
what each of us individually did with Jesus.

So much of this points to Jesus. It is Jesus who overcame sin and death…destroyed the Leviathan. In His
Second Coming, Jesus will destroy the evil of the antichrist and will send the beast and the devil to the
lake of fire.

Although this was written hundreds of years prior to the birth of Christ, it is about Him. Christ HAS
defeated the devil; He IS defeating the devil on a daily basis and He WILL continue to defeat Him until
the final and total defeat in the end times.

Chapter 28 - Main Idea: People try to save themselves from death by their own efforts. But
Christ alone is the rock of refuge, and whoever trusts in Him will never be shaken.

This and the next 4 chapters all begin with the word ‘woe’. All of them are a prophetic warning that
God’s judgment is coming. Chapter 28 deals specifically with the northern kingdom of Israel called
‘Ephraim’.

V. 1-4 One of the condemnations is that of the people’s obsession with drunkenness, specifically or
more generally to their interest in pleasure and power than in faithfulness.

‘The crown of pride’ and ‘the fading flower’ is used repeatedly here. The crown could refer to a wreath
of leaves and flowers which party-goers often wore, but which withered quickly. It was symbolic of the
pride that the people took in their prosperity, but the warning is that it will wither like the crown, like
the flower.

V. 5-6 The true crown, the true source of anything of which they might be proud, is the Lord.

V. 7-8 More about the error of using intoxicating drink. Even the priests were guilty. The result is to
stumble, both physically and spiritually. The tables are ‘full of vomit’ and filth. No place is clean,
obviously because of the filth but also because of the sin involved.

Alcohol is mentioned in scripture a great deal, but always in moderation. Drunkenness is condemned in
many scriptures. Ephesians 5: 18; Proverbs 20: 1.

V. 9-10 The people questioned the teaching of the Lord through Isaiah… ‘Whom will he teach? Those
just weaned’ In other words, the people thought they already knew more than Isaiah.

The ‘precept upon precept, line upon line’ concept could refer to a teaching method for children, here a
little, there a little. Or, it could just be a mockery of what Isaiah was saying, similar to someone today
saying ‘blah, blah, blah’.

V. 11-13 Even though Isaiah would not give up, the people would not hear him. God mocks their
mockery by turning their words back on them…precept upon precept, etc. The failure to listen will end
with them being fallen and broken, ‘snared’ and taken captive.

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