Give ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
Isaiah 28 is a chapter of woe. It speaks against the pride of Ephraim, and against scornful men who mocked the prophet's plain words. Then the tone changes. Instead of another threat, the prophet asks for a hearing. He then paints a picture of a farmer at work in his field.
The demand for a hearing comes at the end of a section about God's judgment. One writer reads the whole chapter as pointing to a coming time of trouble, when a defiant people will think themselves safe from God.
The chapter is about the Tribulation. It describes what God will do when unbelieving Jews, who will yet rule in Jerusalem, make a pact with Antichrist... 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. He does not want anyone to perish. But the Day of Judgment is fixed, and He must judge, because men make light of His mercy and defy His authority.
Men had scoffed at both the warning and the offer of a sure foundation. The call to listen answers that scoffing by insisting God has been working to a plan all along.
Israel or men may mock at the thought of the judgment of God. They may fortify themselves, as they suppose, against it. They may sneer also at the idea of the grace of God, and despise the foundation... Yet God has not all this while been acting without counsel and design.
What follows the summons is a series of questions about ordinary farm work, and the point turns on the word "all day."
Even with man it is not always ploughing, nor always time to sow. Threshing comes at last, and in various ways and measures. So will it be in God's judgement of the earth... God had disciplined the people with a mighty hand and deep wisdom, but their unbelief made it fruitless. The dull earth yielded far better fruit to the farmer.
The farmer breaks the ground so he can sow, and threshes so he can separate. Neither the breaking nor the beating is where he stops.
The ploughman ploughs all day to sow: his ploughing is not the end but a means to an end, and the end is a harvest of grain. When the grain is ripe, he reaps and threshes. But he will not be threshing it forever. The threshing is not the end. It has an end in view... He will break up the hard ground in His people's hearts with the ploughshare of His chastisement and judgments. Then they will cry to Him in their sorrow, and their hearts will be ready for the sowing of His Word within them.
The passage says the farmer's skill was taught him by God. If the teacher gave that much sense to the pupil, the conclusion about the teacher is unavoidable.
Surely we may say: "He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see? He who disciplines the nations, does He not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge" — and that includes all the preparatory work of farming, aimed at a definite end. Does He not know how to manage man? Does He not know how to make man understand that He is God alone, and man himself only the creature of His hands?
The farmer uses a different tool for each kind of seed. That choice is deliberate, and it says something about how God handles each person.
The farmer does not treat all the grain alike... And this wisdom, we are told, comes from the Lord of Hosts. And shall He not act wisely with His own? He knows how we are made, our tendencies and weaknesses. He orders His ways towards us in infinite wisdom, and His wisdom is the servant of His love.
Commentators differ over how much of this points forward: some read the harvest of judgment as the crop of man's own sowing at the end of the age, while others apply the ploughing directly to present grief. The pastoral use is plain either way.
These are not the days of "the great tribulation," but they are still days of tribulation. The ploughshare of sorrow is cutting deeply into multitudes of lives. God is ploughing up the hard ground: has He no aim in this, and is He indifferent about results? No — He is preparing hearts to receive His Word, the Word of His grace.
- Listen — the call breaks into a chapter of woe. God asks for a hearing, because He has never been acting without counsel and design.
- Plough — hard ground must be broken before seed goes in. His chastisement opens the heart for the sowing of His Word.
- Sow — the farmer changes his work with the season, and so does God; it is not always ploughing, nor always sowing.
- Thresh — the beating has a stopping point. He will not thresh forever, and each seed gets its own tool, because His wisdom serves His love.
- Bread — the end of the whole process is a harvest of grain. If God taught the farmer this much sense, He knows how to handle man.
Doth the ploughman plough all day to sow? Is he [all day] opening and breaking the clods of his land?
Isaiah 28 is a chapter of judgment against proud leaders. At its close the prophet turns to farming and asks a question every listener could answer: does a farmer plough his field and never stop? The picture is simple. The argument behind it is not. Commentators read it as God explaining His own painful work with people.
The picture does not stand alone. It closes a chapter of judgment, and one writer sees God Himself in it: the farmer is God, and the field is His people.
There is a beautiful passage in Isaiah 28 which shows that God Himself is the farmer. He has always been carrying on a process like this in His own farming, in the field that belongs to Him (1 Cor. 3:9). Through the prophet God pronounced an awful judgment against Ephraim for their great pride and presumption. Yet mercy breaks into the middle of that sentence and rejoices against judgment. The prophet announces the Lord's own sure foundation as the only one that would stand. God has not all this while been acting without counsel and design. He may deal with people in many different ways while He is patient with them, yet the judgment He has appointed will come.
The verse names two jobs: opening the furrow, and harrowing, which breaks up the clods the plough turns over. The question expects the answer no. No farmer works soil for the sake of working it. He does it so the seed can go in, and he stops once the seed is in.
The ploughman ploughs all day to sow. His ploughing is not the end but a means to an end, and the end is a harvest of grain. When the grain is ripe, he reaps and threshes. But he will not go on threshing it forever. The threshing is not the end either. It has an end in view: separating the chaff from the wheat, the cumin, the barley and the rye.
Farming runs by seasons, and so do God's dealings. There is a sting in the comparison. The soil answers the farmer's work. The people under God's hand did not.
Even with man it is not always ploughing, nor always time to sow. Threshing comes at last, in different ways and measures. So will it be in God's judgment of the earth… The Lord had disciplined the people with His mighty hand and deep wisdom. It was all in vain, because they would not believe. The dull earth yielded far better fruit to its farmer.
The farmer's know-how is not his own invention. God taught it to him. So the picture argues from the small to the great. If God taught man how to work a field, He is not less wise in handling man.
Surely we may say: "He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see? He who disciplines the nations, does He not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge" — and He teaches him every preparatory step in farming, each aimed at a definite end — does He not know how to manage man? Does He not know how to make man understand that He alone is God, and that man himself is only the creature of His hands?
Commentators differ on how far ahead the chapter looks. Some read its judgments as pointing to a future time of trouble for the world. Others apply the farming picture straight to God's discipline of His people. Either way the lesson lands in ordinary sorrow: the furrow is cut for a purpose.
And what about our own day? Does our Scripture have any message for us? It surely does. These are not the days of "the great tribulation," but they are days of tribulation all the same. The ploughshare of sorrow is cutting deeply into many lives. God is ploughing up the fallow ground. Has He no aim in this, and is He indifferent about the results? No — He is preparing hearts to receive His Word, the Word of His grace.
- Plough — The ploughing is never the point. It is the means to an end, and the end is a harvest.
- Limit — No farmer ploughs forever. God's dealings work the same way. Each has its season, and then it stops.
- Skill — The farmer's know-how came from God. If God taught man how to handle a field, He knows how to handle man.
- Contrast — Soil repays the farmer's work. The people under God's hand did not, because they would not believe.
- Hope — When sorrow cuts deep furrows, God is preparing the heart for the seed of His Word. That is the harvest He is working toward.
Doth he not, when he hath levelled the face thereof, cast abroad dill, and scatter cummin, and set the wheat in rows, and the barley in an appointed place, and the rye in its border?
Isaiah 28 ends its warning with a farming scene: a farmer levels his field, then sets each seed in its own place. Why does a chapter about judgment close with sowing, and what does a farmer's plain skill say about God's ways with people?
The parable is not a change of subject. It interrupts a sentence of judgment on Ephraim, the northern part of Israel, and sounds a different note.
There is a beautiful passage in Isaiah 28. It shows that God Himself, as the farmer, has always been carrying on a process like this in "His field" (1 Cor. 3:9). The judgment of God against Ephraim is terrible, announced by the prophet because of their great pride and presumption. Yet in the middle of this sentence of judgment mercy breaks in and interrupts it: mercy rejoices against judgment.
The list runs from two small seeds to the bread grains. The smaller one, cumin, turns up again in the Gospels.
A plant yielding a small aromatic seed, used as a flavouring and as medicine. It is beaten out with a rod, and is one of the generous gifts of God. Isa. 28:25, 27. The Pharisees paid tithes of it, while they left out the weightier matters of the law — judgement, mercy, and faith. Matt. 23:23.
Older translations call the last grain in the row "rye." The ESV calls it emmer. One Hebrew word lies behind both:
kussemeth. This is thought to refer to "spelt" (Triticum spelta), a grain resembling wheat.
No farmer tears up soil for its own sake. Verse 24 breaks the ground; verse 25 sows it. That order carries the lesson.
The ploughman ploughs all day in order to sow. His ploughing is not the end but a means to an end, and the end is a harvest of grain. When the grain is ripe, he reaps and threshes — but "he does not thresh it forever." … God will break up the hard ground in His people's hearts with the plough of His discipline and judgments. Then they will cry to Him in their sorrow, and their hearts will be ready for the sowing of His Word within them.
Wheat in rows, barley in its own patch, spelt around the edge — that knowledge came from somewhere. Verse 26 says God taught it, and the argument runs from the small thing to the large one.
The end of the chapter (v. 23-29) shows the wisdom of God in the smallest things. He gives to man wisdom in cultivating the earth, in sowing, reaping, and dealing with the crops. And will He not know what to do best for His people?
God's care reaches from the seed in the ground to the way people deal with one another — and further still.
Jehovah showed His interest in teaching man the right way, even in the details of the dill and the cumin, the barley and the wheat. He cared not only about the sowing, but about the right treatment of the crops at harvest. In the same way He cared about the daily trade of men with one another, to secure right and guard against wrong. How much more does He feel about their readiness to overlook sin and judgment for eternity!
Because the seeds differ, the treatment differs. Verse 25 gives each seed its own place; the verses after it give each one its own beating.
The farmer does not treat all the grain alike. … This wisdom comes from the Lord of Hosts. And will He not act wisely with His own? He knows our frame, our tendencies and weaknesses. He orders His ways towards us in infinite wisdom, and His wisdom is the servant of His love.
There is a sting in the comparison. Ploughed ground gives something back. The people under God's own hand did not.
Even with man it is not always ploughing, and it is not always time to sow. Threshing comes at last, in various ways and measures. It will be the same in God's judgment of the earth. … Jehovah disciplined the people with a mighty hand and deep wisdom, but their unbelief made it useless. The dull earth gave the farmer far better fruit.
- Plough — the breaking up of ground is never the point; it is a means to an end, and the end is a harvest.
- Sow — after the levelling comes the seed, each kind in its own place. Mercy interrupts the sentence of judgment with a picture of planting.
- Taught — the farmer's skill comes from God. If He teaches men how to handle cumin and wheat, He knows what is best for His people.
- Suited — each seed gets its own handling. He knows our frame, and His wisdom serves His love.
- Fruit — soil answers the ploughman. Israel, under the same wise hand, gave nothing back, because of unbelief.
His God doth instruct him in [his] judgment, he doth teach him.
Isaiah closes a chapter of judgment on scoffing rulers with a scene from an ordinary field. A farmer ploughs, sows, and threshes, each step at the right time and in the right way. This verse traces that skill back to God Himself. So the picture raises a simple question. If God teaches a farmer how to handle grain, does He not know how to handle people?
The farming picture sits inside a warning of coming ruin. Long patience can look like God has no plan.
People may mock at the thought of God's judgment, and sneer at the idea of His grace. Mockers, scorners and scoffers mark the last days of Israel and of the professing Christian world alike. Yet God has not all this time been acting without counsel and design. He may deal with man, with Israel, or with the great professing Christian body in a variety of ways while He is patient, yet the appointed evil will come.
The verse credits the farmer's know-how to God. That has a wider reach than farming.
God could have given exact scientific classifications through Moses, had it pleased Him. Where has man got his knowledge of the things of nature, if not from the Creator? (Isaiah 28:26)
The closing verses of the chapter argue from the small to the great.
The end of the chapter (vv. 23-29) shows the wisdom of God in the smallest things. He gives man wisdom in cultivating the earth, in sowing, reaping, and dealing with the crops. And will He not know what to do best for His people?
Farm work changes with the season; so does God's work. Where the ESV has "rightly instructed," older translations read that God instructs the farmer "in judgment" — that is, in right measure.
Even with man it is not always ploughing, and it is not always time to sow. Threshing comes at last, and in different ways and measures. So will it be in God's judgment of the earth… The people had been disciplined under the mighty hand and the deep wisdom of Jehovah, yet through their unbelief it was in vain. The dull earth yielded far better fruit to the farmer.
The same skill shows in how the crop is threshed. A farmer matches the tool to the seed.
The farmer does not treat all the grain alike. He does not roll the cart wheel over the cumin; he beats out the dill with a staff and the cumin with a rod… And shall He not act wisely with His own? He knows our frame, our tendencies and weaknesses. He orders His ways towards us in infinite wisdom, and His wisdom is the servant of His love.
No farmer ploughs for the sake of ploughing.
The ploughman ploughs all day to sow. His ploughing is not the end but a means to an end, and the end is a harvest of grain. When the grain is ripe, he reaps and threshes, but he will not go on threshing forever. The threshing is not the end either; it has an end in view, and that end is separating the chaff from the wheat… He will break up the unploughed ground in His people's hearts with the ploughshare of His chastisement and judgments, so that they will cry to Him in their sorrow. Then their hearts will be ready for the sowing of His Word within them.
- Teacher. The farmer's skill is not his own discovery. All human knowledge of nature comes from the Creator.
- Scale. God's wisdom reaches down to seed, soil and harvest. If He is wise in the smallest things, He knows what to do with His own people.
- Plan. This picture stands inside a chapter of judgment. God has never acted without counsel and design, however varied His dealings look.
- Measure. It is not always ploughing time. God's discipline comes in different ways and measures: the staff for the dill, the rod for the cumin, never the crushing cart wheel.
- Harvest. Ploughing and threshing are means, not ends. God breaks up hard hearts to prepare them for His Word, and His wisdom serves His love.
For the dill is not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart-wheel turned about upon the cummin; but dill is beaten out with a staff, and cummin with a rod.
God ends this chapter of warning with a farm scene: each crop is beaten out with the tool that fits it. The small question — why not run the heavy sledge over the dill and the cumin? — opens a larger one about how God handles His people.
The farming picture closes a passage about coming judgment. The farmer's year has its seasons, and so do God's dealings.
Even with man it is not always ploughing, nor always time to sow. Threshing comes at last, and in various modes and measures. So will it be in God's judgment of the earth.
Kelly reads the passage as a rebuke. The soil answered the farmer better than the people answered God.
Jehovah disciplined the people with His mighty hand and His deep wisdom, but their unbelief made it all useless. The dull earth gave the farmer far better fruit.
The ESV calls the first seed "dill." One dictionary names it differently:
Black cumin. This is doubtless the nigella sativa. Its small black seeds are aromatic, and people use them as a spice and a medicine. The prophet says they are beaten out with a rod.
The point of the verse lies in the tools. Normal threshing was crushing work.
In the East they thresh by having oxen tread on the grain... There were also threshing "instruments," which beat the grain out. Oxen also drew a kind of sledge without runners over the grain, and that crushed the straw as well.
A sledge that crushes straw is too heavy for a tiny seed, so the farmer takes up a stick instead.
One writer presses the point with a chain of questions. The God who gave man his skills is not at a loss with man himself.
Surely we may say: "He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see? He who disciplines nations, does He not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge" — and that teaching includes all the preparation farming involves, aimed at a definite end. Does He not know how to manage man? Does He not know how to make man understand that He is God alone, and man himself only the creature of His hands?
The same writer looks at the chapter as a whole. The warning is severe, yet it does not run straight through:
The judgment of God that the prophet pronounced against Ephraim, for their great pride and presumption, is dreadful indeed. Yet in the middle of that condemnation, breaking into it and interrupting its course, mercy rejoices against judgment. The Lord's own sure foundation is announced as the only one that would stand.
Mawson applies the different tools to the life of a believer. The choice of tool rests on what God knows about each of us:
Further, the farmer does not treat all the grain alike... he uses the staff for the dill and the rod for the cumin. He does not break his bread with the wheel of his cart nor bruise it with his horsemen. And this wisdom, we are told, comes from the Lord of Hosts. And shall He not act wisely with His own? He knows our frame, our tendencies and weaknesses. He orders His ways towards us in infinite wisdom, and His wisdom is the servant of His love.
Mawson traces our word for trouble back to this very work:
The threshing has its application to those who have found a refuge in Him. To all such the Lord has said, "In the world you will have tribulation." Our word "tribulation" comes from the Latin tribulum. That was the threshing instrument, or harrow, which the farmer used to separate the grain from the husks. The Roman word tribulatio first meant the act of this separation (Trench).
The ploughing has an aim beyond itself:
The ploughshare of sorrow is cutting deeply into multitudes of lives. God is ploughing up the fallow ground: has He no aim in this, and is He indifferent about results? No, He is preparing hearts to receive His Word. That Word of His grace tells us that He is a very present help in time of trouble.
- Taught — God taught the farmer his trade. The One who teaches man knowledge knows how to handle man too.
- Matched — small seed is beaten out with a stick or a rod. The heavy sledge and the cart wheel are kept for stronger grain.
- Measured — God does not treat all His own alike; He knows our frame and our weaknesses, and His wisdom serves His love.
- Aimed — threshing separates; it does not destroy. Our word "tribulation" even comes from the name of the threshing tool.
- Trusted — God picks His instrument with such care that we can trust the hand holding the rod even as it falls.
Bread [corn] is crushed, because he will not ever be threshing it; and if he drove the wheels of his cart and his horses [over it], he would not crush it.
The chapter closes with a scene from a farm: grain crushed for bread, but not crushed forever. Behind that detail lies a question about God — does He know when to stop, and what is He after when He deals hard with people?
This farming parable closes a chapter full of warning. One writer traces the steps — plough, sow, reap, thresh — and notes that no step is the farmer's goal.
The ploughman ploughs all day in order to sow. His ploughing is not the goal but the means to a goal, and the goal is a harvest of grain. When the grain is ripe, he reaps and threshes, but "he does not thresh it forever." The threshing is not the end either. It has an end in view, and that end is separating the chaff from the wheat, the cumin, the barley and the rye... He will break up the hard ground in His people's hearts with the plough of His chastisement and judgments. Then they will cry to Him in their sorrow, and their hearts will be ready for the sowing of His Word within them.
Crushing is not the end of the grain. Turning a harvest into bread takes stage after stage, and the milling is only one of them.
Go further, and more work is needed. The grain for bread is crushed, and then it must be ground. That was a weary job, especially for women: "Take the millstones and grind meal." We cannot stop here either. To separate the bran from the flour you need a fine sieve, and sifting finally brings out "the fine flour."
The farmer suits his tool to the crop. One writer reads that as a picture of how God handles His own people.
The farmer does not treat all the grain alike... He does not break his grain for bread with the wheel of his cart, or crush it with his horses. And this wisdom, we are told, comes from the Lord of Hosts. So will He not act wisely with His own people? He knows what we are made of, our tendencies and our weaknesses. He orders His ways towards us in infinite wisdom, and His wisdom is the servant of His love.
The verse sets a limit on the threshing. One writer finds the same limit in God's dealings with His people.
"For the Lord will not cast off forever: but though He cause grief, yet will He have compassion according to the multitude of His mercies. For He does not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men." This confirms hope, and without hope there is no power to endure and no comfort either. His judicial chastenings of Israel are measured, and they will have an end. The same is true of the way He governs us in righteousness now.
The threshing also speaks to those who trust Him. Even our word for trouble comes from the threshing tool.
The threshing has its application to those who have found a refuge in Him. To all such the Lord has said, "In the world you will have tribulation." Our word "tribulation" comes from the Latin tribulum, the threshing tool the farmer used to separate the grain from the husks... Tribulation can come to us in many ways: in sickness, in being parted from those we love, in the death of those close to us, in persecution, or in oppression by unreasonable and godless men. But if we know the end God has in view in allowing it, we will glory in it.
The argument runs from the smaller thing to the greater. God taught the farmer his skill, so what must God Himself be?
Surely we may say: "He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see? He who disciplines the nations, does He not correct? He who teaches man knowledge" — even all the preparation that goes into farming, aimed at a definite end — does He not know how to handle man? Does He not know how to make man understand that He is God alone, and that man himself is only the creature of His hands?
- Purpose — Ploughing, threshing and crushing are never the farmer's goal. Each is a means to bread, and God's hard dealings have the same kind of end in view.
- Measure — The threshing has a limit built into it. His chastenings are measured, and they come to an end.
- Discretion — The farmer does not treat every grain alike, and the grain for bread is never crushed under the cart wheel. God suits His hand to each person, because He knows what we are made of.
- Tribulation — Our word for trouble comes from the threshing tool. Know the end God has in view, and trouble becomes something to glory in.
- Source — God taught the farmer his skill. The God who teaches such care knows how to handle us, and knows the end He is working toward.
This also cometh forth from Jehovah of hosts; he is wonderful in counsel, great in wisdom.
Isaiah 28 is a chapter of judgment, and this line closes it. The prophet has just described an ordinary farmer at work, and now he traces the farmer's skill back to God.
The chapter announces ruin for a proud people. Mercy keeps breaking into that announcement, and so does the promise of a sure foundation stone.
The judgment of God is terrible. The prophet pronounces it against Ephraim for their extreme pride and presumption. Yet while He is still speaking those threats, something breaks in and interrupts them. Mercy rejoices against judgment, and the Lord announces His own sure foundation as the only one that would stand... Men may mock at the thought of the judgment of God. They may fortify themselves against it, as they suppose. They may sneer also at the idea of the grace of God, and despise the foundation. Yet God has not all this while been acting without counsel and design.
The verse before says the farmer's God instructs him. Verse 29 runs from that small fact up to God Himself. If He can teach a man how to handle seed, He knows how to handle the man.
Surely we may say: "He who planted the ear, does He not hear? He who formed the eye, does He not see? He who disciplines the nations, does He not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge" — He teaches even all the preparatory work in farming, aimed at a definite end. Does He not know how to manage man? Does He not know how to make man understand that He is God alone, and man himself only the creature of His hands?
Mawson reads the farmer's work as a picture of how God deals with His people.
The ploughman ploughs all day to sow: his ploughing is not the end but a means to an end, and the end is a harvest of grain... The threshing is not the end, but it has an end in view; that end is separating the chaff from the wheat... And will not God, who has given men wisdom in these things, be wise Himself in what He does? He will break up the hard, unploughed ground in His people's hearts with the plough of His chastisement and judgments. They will cry to Him in their sorrow. Then their hearts will be ready for Him to sow His Word within them.
The farmer sorts his tools to the crop. He measures his force to what he is threshing, and the verse traces that skill to the Lord.
The farmer does not treat all the grain alike... And this wisdom, we are told, comes from the Lord of Hosts. And shall He not act wisely with His own? He knows our frame, our tendencies and weaknesses. He orders His ways towards us in infinite wisdom, and His wisdom is the servant of His love.
Commentators render the second half of the verse differently. Kelly gives it as "wonderful in counsel, great in wisdom," and he sets the whole parable against Israel's response.
Jehovah disciplined the people with a mighty hand and deep wisdom, but their unbelief made it useless. The dull earth yielded far better fruit to the farmer. But the day of Jehovah is yet to come, and it hurries on.
One writer uses the same words of the cross, where God met His own righteous claims and still saved the guilty. He quotes an older translation, which ends "excellent in working" where the ESV has "excellent in wisdom."
Here then God's wisdom shines out, in that He provides an answer equal to His own nature to His moral claims... The bronze serpent lifted on a pole was that answer for Israel; the Son of Man lifted up on the cross is that answer for sinners today... He came forth to show Himself able to vindicate His righteous attributes in the face of rebellion and revolt. At the same time He is able to save the guilty rebel, and to give him the place of a son and heir... Marvellous grace of our God, who is "wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working."
- Design — God pronounces ruin, yet He "has not all this while been acting without counsel and design." He announces the sure foundation inside the threat.
- Taught — The farmer's know-how is a gift from God; the One who teaches man knowledge knows how to manage man.
- Measured — Ploughing and threshing both stop. They are means, aimed at a harvest, never the end in themselves.
- Fitted — Staff, rod, cart wheel: the force matches the grain. He knows our frame, and "His wisdom is the servant of His love."
- Proved — The same counsel that measures the rod met God's righteous claims at the cross and saved the guilty.