As it passeth through it shall take you; for morning by morning shall it pass through, by day and by night; and it shall be terror only to understand the report.
Isaiah has just told Jerusalem's rulers that their deal to escape disaster will fail. Now he describes what comes instead: a blow that returns every morning and never stops, until even the news of it is a horror. Commentators see here an invader that God Himself sends. They ask who he is, when this happens, and why the terror never lets up.
Writers identify the "it" that passes through as an invading power from the north. It sweeps over Ephraim (the northern part of Israel) first, then over Jerusalem. Jerusalem's leaders had tried to buy protection from that flood by a deal with the powers of darkness.
The scourge comes from the north. An overflowing flood invades Ephraim, a storm of hail that strikes and destroys; Ephraim is trampled underfoot... There they had made a covenant with death and the powers of darkness, hoping to escape the overflowing flood. But the covenant will be cancelled, and the scourge will overtake them. They will be trampled down and struck by this terrible rod.
The scourge does not just arrive; it "takes" them. Writers trace it to a treaty the people made for protection, and to a double guilt behind the sentence.
Antichrist leads the Jews to make a treaty with the head of the Roman empire, to protect themselves from their enemy in the north. And the "scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem," boast that they are safe... In fact, God uses the Assyrian as a rod to break the guilty people to pieces. They are guilty twice over — they rejected Christ, and then they took idolatry back after the house had been swept clean and put in order.
The verse describes a visitation with no let-up. Writers place it in a crisis still ahead, and its reach is not limited to one land.
The visitation is so terrible that the prophet describes it like this... The rest of the passage shows that these events are still future. They take place at that great crisis of human affairs when "the LORD is coming out from His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity."... The judgments of that coming day reach the whole earth, however much the land of Israel and the countries around it may be their special focus and centre.
Just after this verse, Isaiah says the Lord will rise up to do a work He calls strange: "alien is his work." Writers explain why judging His own people gets that name.
What is Jehovah's "strange work" and "act"? It is the judgment of His people, towards whom His goodness has no bounds. This "act," strange to the heart of God, which made the Lord Jesus weep, is the execution of judgment on His people, then apostate. God does this only when their extreme wickedness forces Him to it... The same principle holds, and it is even worse, for Christendom, which had the light but rejected it. The more fully someone stands in the light, the more that person is joined to Satan by rejecting it.
One obvious candidate for this scourge is the Assyrian attack on Jerusalem in the past. Kelly shows that the details do not fit. The king in Jerusalem then did the opposite of what these rulers do.
When Sennacherib came against Jerusalem long ago, the godly king Hezekiah ruled there. Instead of making a covenant with death, Hezekiah begged Jehovah for help against the scornful king of Assyria. The angel of Jehovah then struck the army of Assyria, and no fewer than 185,000 fell. The Assyrian will oppose the Jews once again — but apart from that, almost every feature of the past event is the reverse of what we have here.
The relentless language is not the last word. Writers who trace the scourge also mark where it ends.
Israel too, sadly, boasts of its security and strength in the spirit of the world. Israel will also go through the invasion, the flood of great waters, the scourge of God. When this passes through the land — that is, the land of Israel — they will be cut down (compare Isaiah 28:18-19; 14:25). But this scourge completes the judgment of God, and the prophet says Israel's deliverance will now be complete and final.
- Refuge. These people had built their own shelter — a covenant with death, meant to let the flood pass them by. It fails.
- Reach. What began in the north sweeps south to Jerusalem, and the judgment of that day is not local but universal in range.
- Repetition. It returns morning by morning, day and night, so that even grasping the news of it becomes terror.
- Reluctance. Judging His own people is God's strange work. He does it only when driven to it, and it falls heavier still on those who had light and refused it.
- Rest. The scourge completes God's judgment; it does not go on forever. Deliverance follows, and it is final.
For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow when he would wrap himself in it.
These words close a warning to the rulers in Jerusalem, who had made their own plans for safety and so felt independent of God. God measures those plans with a bed nobody can stretch out on — and every reader has to ask whether his own shelter is any bigger.
Verse 20 is God's verdict on a policy. One writer traces what those rulers had done and what it was worth.
Then at verse 14 the prophetic message turns to 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 was God's own work, which He would accomplish in the coming Messiah.
In these verses God calls what He is about to do His "strange work." One writer asks what lies behind that name.
What is the LORD's "strange work" and "act"? It is the judgment of His people, towards whom His goodness has no limits. This act is strange to the heart of God, and it made the Lord Jesus weep. It is judgment carried out on His people, who had by then turned away from Him. God does it only when their extreme wickedness forces Him to it.
The prophecy had some application in Isaiah's own day. One writer argues its reach is far larger.
But the Messiah is the sole and sure foundation stone which the Lord GOD lays in Zion. The one who trusts will not be in haste. Lies and falsehood will only guarantee judgment, and the overflowing scourge will trample down those who sought shelter in the power of darkness. How can any Christian doubt that the prophecy, both for good and for evil, looks far beyond whatever partial application it had in Isaiah's day?
One writer turns the picture from politics to religion. A shelter can look fine for years and still turn out to be the wrong size.
The more we examine man's religion, in all its forms, the more we see that it cannot fix his condition. It cannot even meet his own sense of that condition. It may do very well for a time. It may serve as long as a man looks at death, judgment, and the wrath of God from a distance, if he looks at them at all. But when he comes to look these realities straight in the face, he will find that his religion truly is a bed too short for him to stretch himself on, and a covering too narrow for him to wrap himself in.
One writer holds the same measure against the law:
For everyone else, whether under Isaiah, Jeremiah, or Ezekiel, the law revealed the fact that "the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in."
The same picture tests anyone who tries to settle down in this world.
If contentment were here, heaven would not be heaven. Whoever seeks the world for a bed will at best find it short and poorly made. There will be a stone under their side to keep them awake, not a soft pillow to sleep on.
Earlier in the chapter God lays a stone in Zion. One writer shows what it means for those who trust Him.
Peter quotes verse 16 in his first letter (1 Peter 2:6), and Paul refers to it in Romans 10:11. In Peter we discover that what will be true for Israel in the day to come has an application to us today. Christ was indeed tested at His first coming and revealed as the sure foundation. He is not yet displayed as the cornerstone, but His preciousness belongs to those who believe, as Peter tells us. So we shall not "make haste" in alarm or confusion. The New Testament renders this word "ashamed" and "confounded." Note too that this wonderful Stone is laid in Zion, which stands for God acting in His mercy.
- Shelter chosen. Jerusalem's rulers made their own safety by treaty and felt independent of God. It was falsehood, and it could not stand.
- Shelter measured. The short bed and narrow covering are God's measure of that arrangement. It cannot cover the man who lies down in it.
- Shelter swept. The overflowing scourge tramples down everyone who sheltered in the dark. The LORD rises to do His "strange work" — judgment on His own people, which He does only when their wickedness forces Him to it.
- Shelter tested. The same measure exposes man's religion, the law, and the world itself. They look fine while judgment stays far off, and fail when a man looks it in the face.
- Shelter given. In the same chapter God lays a tried, precious cornerstone in Zion, and the one who trusts Him is never put to shame.
For Jehovah will rise up as on mount Perazim, he will be moved with anger as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his strange work, and perform his act, his unwonted act.
Isaiah's warning ends with a shock: the Lord rises up to fight, but this time He rises against His own people. He names two old battlefields, then calls the work He does there strange — an act unlike Himself.
Perazim points back to a victory won long before, when God broke through Israel's enemies for them.
A place probably connected with BAAL-PERAZIM, where David struck the Philistines. Isaiah 28:21: compare 2 Samuel 5:20.
The shock lies in the reversal. God once fought for Jerusalem; now He rises against the men who rule it.
When Sennacherib came against Jerusalem long ago, the godly king Hezekiah ruled there. He made no covenant with death. Instead he begged Jehovah for help against the scornful king of Assyria. The result was that the angel of Jehovah struck the host of Assyria, so that no less than 185,000 fell. The Assyrian will oppose the Jews once more. Apart from that, almost every feature of the past is the reverse of what we have here.
"Strange" here says something about the One doing the work, not about how rare it is.
His strange work is judgment, His strange act the destruction of these scornful men. It is strange work, because He is the God of all grace and does not want anyone to perish. But He has appointed the Day of Judgment. He must judge, because men treat His mercy lightly and defy His authority.
What makes this act unlike anything else is not its severity but its target. God is striking the very people He has loved without limit.
What is Jehovah's "strange work" and "act"? It is the judgment of His people, towards whom His goodness has no bounds. This "act" is strange to the heart of God, and it made the Lord Jesus weep. It is judgment carried out on His people, who had turned away from Him. It is a thing God does only when He is forced to it by their extreme wickedness.
Judgment is not God's last word on the sinner. He uses it to press home the lesson man finds hardest to learn.
Of himself, man is a complete stranger to grace, and the Spirit he insults is the Spirit of grace. Man lost the knowledge of God when he fell... But God will win him in spite of himself, and melt his heart by grace. It is God's will, God's right, the necessity of His nature, because He is Love. And so He makes judgment an opportunity for acting in grace. In this way He presses on man's heart and conscience, as clearly as possible, the hardest lesson he has to learn: God can and does love the sinner, and He can be perfectly just in forgiving him.
The word strange also sets a limit on how long the work lasts.
Since judgment is God's "strange work" (Isaiah 28:21), it will be a "short work" (Romans 9:28). So vengeance is only for a day compared with the year of redemption.
The phrases "strange work" and "short work" come from an older translation. The ESV reads "strange is his deed" here in Isaiah 28:21.
The verse also explains the hand of God on a believer's life. Correction is not God at His most natural.
He might have said to you what He said to His beloved Israel, "Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone" (Hosea 4:17). A terrible punishment! Harder than the most severe outward chastening! But our God will not deprive us of the light of His face and the sweetness of His fellowship. For God does not chasten willingly: it is a strange work for Him, as He says (Isaiah 28:21). But sin is always sin in His eyes, and He cannot allow it.
God puts His warning in writing before He acts.
God always warns before He judges... He loves mercy, He loves blessing. He loves to bless the soul. Do you suppose, friend, that God wants to judge you? No, it is the last thing in His heart; but if you refuse to be blessed by Him, you must be judged.
- Strange, not weak. Judgment is strange because it is foreign to God's heart — yet He carries it through in full.
- Rescue reversed. Perazim marked a rescue; now the same power rises against the people it once defended.
- Forced, not eager. God judges only when men keep defying Him and leave Him no other way.
- Short by nature. What is strange to God cannot last; a day of vengeance stands against a year of redemption.
- Grace has the last word. God turns even judgment into an occasion to show that He can love a sinner and still be just. The warning He gives first is mercy already.
Now therefore be ye not scorners, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard from the Lord Jehovah of hosts a consumption, and [one] determined, upon the whole land.
These words close a long warning to the rulers of Jerusalem, who had made a covenant with death to survive an invasion. Their scorn will only tighten the bonds already on them, because God has fixed the outcome.
The judgment falls on Israel. The warning against mocking lands on the men who rule Jerusalem.
In Isaiah 28 the judgment is clearly on Israel. As it moves through Ephraim, it finds the rulers of Jerusalem in league with death. So they are warned (v. 22) not to be mockers, because a full end is determined on the whole earth (land).
The word behind "a decree of destruction" is a strong one. Other prophets use it for judgment carried right through to the end.
The word translated "consumption", or "consummation", is used elsewhere for God's judgments carried out to the full. In Jeremiah the same word is translated "full end" in several places (Jer. 4:27; Jer. 5:10, 18; Jer. 30:11; Jer. 46:28). The prophecy means that the avenging judgments carried out by the destroyer will be the climax of God's repayment as He governs the world.
Translators give the last phrase as "the whole land" or "the whole earth," and commentators differ on how far it reaches. Some keep it to Israel. Others hold that the sentence covers far more than the region where it begins.
The judgments of that coming day extend to the whole earth. The land of Israel and the countries around it may be their special focus and centre, but they are universal in their range.
Scorn attacks more than the threat of judgment. It also sneers at God's grace. Neither one moves.
Israel or men may mock at the thought of the judgment of God. They may fortify themselves against it, as they suppose. They may sneer as well at the idea of the grace of God, and despise the foundation. "Mockers," "scorners," "scoffers" mark the last days of Israel and of Christendom alike. Yet God has not all this while been acting without counsel and design. He may deal with man, Israel, or the great professing Christian body in many ways while He is patient, yet the appointed evil will come.
The same principle reaches past Jerusalem. It touches everyone who has had the truth put in front of them.
The Jews have rejected the Christ, and they will have the Antichrist. The full end determined on the whole earth will be much more terrible for them. The same principle holds, and is even worse, for Christendom, which had the light but rejected it. The more fully a person stands in the light, the more surely he is joined to Satan if he rejects that light. Nothing is more terrible than a conscience hardened by a perverse will.
Assyria did come against Jerusalem long ago. But the details do not match. The king then, Hezekiah, did the opposite of what these rulers do.
When Sennacherib came against Jerusalem long ago, the godly king Hezekiah ruled there. Instead of making a covenant with death, he begged Jehovah for help against the scornful king of Assyria. The angel of Jehovah then struck the army of Assyria, and no fewer than 185,000 fell. The Assyrian will oppose the Jews once more; apart from that, almost every feature of the past event is the opposite of what we have here.
If no past event matches these words, only two options are left.
Nothing that comes near this prediction has yet happened; that is perfectly certain. So only one fair conclusion is left. Either the prophecy is still to be fulfilled, or the prophet who spoke it was a fake, guilty of a lie or a boast. The Christian believes instead that God has written nothing in vain, and that every word not yet accomplished must be fulfilled to the letter.
- Mock — God warns rulers who had made their own deal with death and treated His threat as a joke.
- Bonds — scorn loosens nothing. Men may fortify themselves as they suppose, and sneer at grace as well as at judgment. The appointed evil still comes.
- Decree — the word means judgment carried out to the full. Elsewhere it is "full end," the climax of God's dealing in judgment.
- Reach — commentators read the last phrase as "land" or "earth." Israel is the centre, but the judgments are universal in range.
- Light — the sentence falls heaviest where the light was clearest. Rejected truth, not ignorance, is the most dangerous place to stand.