Isaiah 28:15–17

Notice the language of the prophet here: "Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem! … I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord GOD of hosts against the whole land." The fact is that Sennacherib came against Jerusalem long ago. At that time the godly king Hezekiah ruled there. He made no covenant with death. He begged Jehovah for help against the scornful king of Assyria. The result was that the angel of Jehovah struck the army of Assyria, so that no fewer than 185,000 fell. The Assyrian will oppose the Jews once again. Apart from that, almost every feature of the past is the opposite of what we have here.

When the Holy Spirit says, "Because you have said, We have made a covenant with death" (v. 15), we are not to take it as a confession they actually made. Instead, God is exposing their real mind in its evil and ruin. They may boast of their covenant, but they do not know it is with Sheol. They fall for a false Messiah, whose power will turn out to be of Satan, and they never see the trick. No Jew would say out loud that he had made a pact with the devil. A man would have to be extraordinarily blind and defiant toward God to admit such a thing.

As to the covenant, if we refer to Isaiah 28, it is said in verse 15, "We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us." And in verse 18, "Then your covenant with death will be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol will not stand; when the overwhelming scourge passes through, you will be beaten down by it." I have no question that this is the covenant referred to here… They had hoped to escape by making a covenant with this prince; they fondly thought, as it is said in Isaiah, to be delivered in this way from the overflowing scourge.

The true refuge is God Himself, who has laid in Zion a sure foundation-stone. The faithful can rest on this foundation. While they wait for the Messiah to deliver them, they "do not make haste." The rest of the people are terrified and unbelieving. They listen to the lies of the antichrist. Under his guidance they seek refuge in a covenant with death and an agreement with hell… It does them no good. The scourge still overflows, their refuge of lies fails, their covenant with death is dissolved.

Men make their covenants, their alliances, their friendly agreements. They flatter themselves that all will be well. But when they say, "Peace and safety," then sudden destruction comes upon them, and from the quarter least expected. The prince they made the covenant with cares little for the scrap of paper the terms are written on. He breaks the covenant, and friendless Israel falls under the power of the destroyer.

A real hurricane of divine wrath will burst out before long. It will show beyond dispute where men stand. Every unreal structure will then totter and fall. Some have never trusted, as lost sinners, in the Saviour and in His precious blood. The finest moral and religious exterior will not shield them from judgement. As the prophet declared ages ago: "Hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter" (Isa. 28:17). Happy, eternally happy, is the man who has built on Christ, the Son of God.

Then at verse 14 the prophetic message turns from the scornful men who were ruling the two tribes from Jerusalem. They had made covenants and formed alliances and so felt independent of God. Their alliance with some worldly power or powers — Egypt probably — was really an agreement with death and hell. It was all falsehood and would not stand. What would stand would be God's own work to be accomplished in the coming Messiah.

It is the Supreme Ruler who lays this Foundation — the Lord God. He establishes it in Zion. There He sets the only Foundation of lasting order and blessing. The context shows that the settling of the nation is especially in view. But the Spirit has more in mind, for we read of His dealing with "the whole earth" (v. 22)… Every building God owns rests on the Foundation laid in Zion. There is none other.

In Isaiah the scornful rulers of Jerusalem hold to their own self-chosen, self-confident policy. Jehovah confronts them with a stone He has laid in Zion. The coming storm sweeps their building away, but the stone will remain… Delitzsch points out that bochan is active and means testing… The fact is that it is a testing stone. Isaiah never speaks of its being built on. It is a pledge of safety to those who believe in the day that "the shelter of lies" will be swept away.

He is God's own precious, tried, chief corner stone. He is that blessed One who went down into death's dark waters. He bore the heavy judgement and wrath of God against sin. He robbed death of its sting and the grave of its victory. He destroyed the one who had the power of death… Having done all this, He was received up into glory, and seated at the right hand of the Majesty in the heavens.

In 1 Cor. 3:11 we are told "no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ"; and in Eph. 2:20 we read "Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone." So the Lord Jesus is the chief corner stone that binds all together. He is also the foundation on which all rests. In addition to this, as the stone which the Jewish builders rejected, Christ has become the head of the corner. As well as being the foundation, He must have the highest place.

The believer is not ashamed. This is quoted from Isaiah 28:16… The "make haste" of Isaiah becomes "ashamed" in Romans, and "put to shame" in Peter. This is a good example of how New Testament quotations enlarge the sense of Old Testament predictions. Anyone who believed Isaiah's word would never have to flee in panic before the avenging judgment. Neither shall we. But we also have One introduced as Lord, who fills us with confidence and in whom we glory.

In the coming time of great trouble there will be a godly remnant who suffer because they stay faithful. Christ, the "tried stone," will be the support of these suffering saints. The Lord in whom they will trust is our Lord. Whatever our trials, we do not need to "make haste." How often we panic over our circumstances and anxiety overtakes us.

A plumb line is a simple device: a lump of lead, a stone, or another weight tied to a string. It tests whether a building or other structure stands upright. It also pictures the exactness with which God brought judgement on Israel. God had built Israel up as a wall with a plumb line, and with a plumb line He would destroy it.

God's people must be judged. At the same time, salvation must be found in the middle of that judgment, as Noah in the ark rode over the waters of the flood. It is in the cross of Christ that faith sees the judgment of God against our sins, and for ourselves; we are saved righteously in this way. So here too Jehovah makes judgment the measuring line and righteousness the plumb line. He does this when He lays in Zion a foundation stone, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, the waters overflowing the hiding place; but the Stone stays sure and steady. The very same thing — God's judgment — that destroys the wicked also guarantees the believer against all evil. God has made that believer His righteousness in Christ.

Hail signifies a sudden, sharp, and overwhelming judgment from above, God being the executor of it.

"I will make justice the line, and righteousness the plumb line." This results in the hail of God's judgment sweeping away the refuges of lies and the covenants with death that men make. It happened to Israel shortly after Isaiah's day. It will happen on a world-wide scale at the end of this age, even though verse 21 calls judgment God's "strange work."

It is perfectly certain that nothing which approaches the prediction has yet occurred. Therefore the only legitimate inference to be drawn from it is either that the prophecy is still to be fulfilled, or that the false prophet was guilty of a lie or a boast.

Heaven is silent today: no bolts of fire come from there to drive the guilty into eternal misery. But a real hurricane of divine wrath will burst out before long, and it will reveal beyond dispute where people really stand. Every unreal structure will then totter and fall. The finest moral and religious exterior will not shield people from judgement. It cannot help anyone who has not, as a lost sinner, put their trust in the Saviour and in His precious blood. As the prophet said ages ago: "Hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter." Happy, eternally happy, is the person who has built on Christ, the Son of God. This foundation will stand, and this alone.

If I look at the circumstances and shelter myself behind them, I am taking refuge behind lies; and the person who has to do with God always says, "Away with every refuge of lies."