But these also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are they gone astray. The priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink; they are overpowered by wine, they are gone astray through strong drink; they have erred in vision, they have stumbled [in] judgment.
Isaiah 28 opens with a woe on the drunkards of Ephraim, and by this verse the staggering has reached the priest and the prophet. The question is whether the men who were meant to see God's mind and to judge His people can still do either.
The wine here means more than heavy drinking. One commentator reads it as a picture of a whole moral state:
We should not take this drunkenness in its merely literal sense. It stands for their state: terribly excited, dazed and drunken, given up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, to the shame of the true God. Drunkenness among men has frightful natural effects. In a large moral sense, that is what the condition of these proud, senseless men of Ephraim will be.
One writer traces the chain from drink to failure:
Wine and strong drink cause excitement; as a result they err and they stumble.
The shock of the verse is who is named. Not the crowd, but the priest and the prophet. Each fails at his own work: one errs in vision, the other stumbles in giving judgment. One writer traces that failure back to the first priest:
When Israel turned away from God, the priests should still have kept knowledge on their lips. Instead they led the people into error and sin. Their father Aaron did the same. Before his anointing came, he built an altar to serve the people's sin, showing that he was unfit to serve in the Lord's sanctuary. And at the very opening of the tabernacle worship, the fire of God's jealousy consumed his two eldest sons. So now, while the nation ripened in its evil growth, both priest and prophet had erred alike.
Wine had long been shut out of the sanctuary, and one writer explains why:
"Wine" and "strong drink" — all that excites the flesh — must be put away. It does not belong to the clean spiritual understanding and judgment that fit those who go into the sanctuary.
The same rule reaches believers today:
This principle still holds. A believer may forget his heavenly calling and give in to the enjoyment of earthly pleasures. He is then "drunk with wine" instead of being "filled with the Spirit." He cannot tell the difference between things that differ, or see what is morally suitable to God. There is no greater mistake than to expect a right judgment on moral questions from worldly Christians. They may be completely sincere and upright. They may even want to see the truth. But they have lost their spiritual discernment.
Refusing light also has a cost that grows. One writer states the rule:
When men resist the light, the blindness that follows is all the greater, because it matches the light they refused. If a man receives the first testimony, more is always added. For it is given to him who has, and he shall have more abundantly.
The chapter does not end in staggering. Against the many who reel with wine, God keeps a remnant, and pride is not their mark:
Even so, there should still be found a "residue of His people." They should have not a crown of pride but a crown of glory, in the Lord Himself. The mass of the people had reeled with wine and stumbled in giving judgment. But these should be like little children, who learn a little at a time, step by step.
- Drink — the drunkenness is a picture. It shows a people given up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, and dazed by it.
- Duty — wine was shut out of the sanctuary for a reason. Whatever excites the flesh ruins the clean judgment a priest needs there.
- Damage — excitement makes men err and stumble. Here it is the priests, whose lips should have kept knowledge for everyone else.
- Darkness — refused light does not stay neutral. The blindness that follows matches the light refused.
- Deliverance — God still keeps a remnant, crowned with glory in the Lord Himself. Their mark is not a crown of pride but a readiness to learn a little at a time, like children.
For all tables are full of filthy vomit, so that there is no [more] place.
Isaiah's woe against Ephraim starts with the pride of its leaders. It ends with the mess their drinking has left: every table fouled, no clean space anywhere. Two questions follow. What sort of drunkenness does the prophet mean? And what will God do with a people whose priests and prophets are in this state?
One writer warns against reading this drunkenness as nothing more than literal drinking.
We should not take this drunkenness in a merely literal sense. It stands for their wildly excited, dazed and senseless state. They had given themselves up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, to the shame of the true God. What drunkenness is among men, with its horrible natural effects, that is what these proud, unfeeling men of Ephraim will be like in a wide moral sense.
These fouled tables belong to God's own people. The same writer notes where this run of woes starts, and why God begins there rather than with Israel's enemies.
In this group of woes the Holy Spirit begins in exactly the right place. He starts, not with the Assyrian, but with Ephraim, or Samaria, in Isaiah 28. Then He turns to Jerusalem — Ariel, the lion of God — in Isaiah 29. The Lord cannot overlook the evil of His own people. He must judge it, if He is about to put down their enemies without mercy... But even the remnant went wrong, priest and prophet alike. Self-indulgence leaves them unwilling to hear the word of the LORD, however He may come to His people.
Why does a people stay in this state? One commentator shows what happens when people resist the light God gives.
Resistance brings blindness on those who resist. The blindness is all the greater because it matches the light they refused... The more God shows Himself, the more the heart's natural opposition shows itself... The flesh always wants to keep enjoying its desires, and would harden the conscience against the testimony God sends.
The verses that follow show God teaching in the smallest possible steps, as to a child. That patience had been wasted, so a harsher voice was coming.
God had met their weakness and fed them with baby food, but all in vain... He would not correct them now with the childlike teaching they had despised. Instead He would whip them with the strange speech of enemies. They would not have His words of rest for the weary, so they had to hear a nation they could not understand. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
One writer names what keeps the word from reaching a comfortable conscience, and who receives the true crown instead.
Pride, ease, luxury, and the world's vain glory keep the word from striking the conscience; but for the poor, despised, afflicted remnant, God is their resource and strength, and becomes a crown of glory. It is quite possible that the people of God should be despised until then.
The same loss can strike anyone. One writer describes a believer who breaks no rule and still cannot judge as God judges.
So I stay away from everything that works on the flesh, and I stay near God. In the sanctuary I learn His mind, and I am able to "distinguish between the holy and the common, and between the unclean and the clean." Then I can teach others too... But have we not often found that we cannot judge according to the mind of God, even where we have broken no rule? That is a spiritual incompetence. Sadly, my friends, we have been content to "drink wine and strong drink," and so our spiritual faculties have grown dark.
- Drink — the wine stands for a whole condition. These men were dazed and senseless, living for their own pleasure at God's expense.
- Filth — the fouled tables belong to God's own people. Even the priest and the prophet had gone astray, and self-indulgence left them unwilling to hear Him.
- Blindness — the flesh hardens the conscience against the testimony God sends. Light refused comes back as blindness in the same measure.
- Discipline — they despised His childlike teaching. So His next word to them came in the strange speech of an invading enemy.
- Crown — ease and empty glory keep the word from reaching the conscience. To the poor, despised remnant the Lord Himself becomes a crown of glory.
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand the report? Them that are weaned from the milk, withdrawn from the breasts?
This question comes right after a scene of priests and prophets staggering in drink. It asks who can be taught at all, and the answer is startling: babies just off the breast. Commentators read it as God's own beginner's teaching, given to a people who could take nothing more — and they follow what happens when even that is refused.
Strong drink had left Judah's priests and prophets confused. They erred in vision and stumbled in judgment. God met them where they were.
In vain had God met their weakness, and fed them with infants' food.
Another writer ties this teaching directly to Israel's departure from God.
When Israel departs from God, God sends, as to children, precept upon precept, line upon line.
Against the drunken crowd stands a smaller group. The verse names them: those weaned from milk. They are the ones who can still be taught.
Yet even so, a remnant of His people would still be found. They would wear not a crown of pride but a crown of glory, in the Lord Himself. Most of the people had gone astray through wine and stumbled in judgment. But this remnant would be like little children, who learn a little at a time, step by step.
What sounds like an insult is also God's normal way of teaching. Here the teacher is the Lord Himself, working by His Spirit.
So we may accept that now, as then, there are stages of growth in the divine life. God unfolds His word to each believer to suit their differing capacity. When the Lord by His Spirit teaches knowledge and makes people understand wisdom, He does not hand over a tidy, finished system of theology. He gives the truth a bit at a time: "precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little" (Isa. 28:9-10).
A nursing child takes everything through someone else. A weaned child learns to feed. One writer turns that picture on believers who lean too much on other people.
Is this not the secret of much of our stunted growth, our lack of spiritual strength and discernment? Does it not explain the way we hang on others, accept leaders without thinking, and follow the crowd? We must use what God gives us for the good of others. We must be exercised at every step of our path. We must be weaned from depending even on the best of people (Isa. 28:9). Without that, how can we learn, or grow, or become strong? We cannot. We must learn to find Christ enough.
They slighted that simple teaching and would not have it. So God spoke to them again — this time through the speech of an invading army.
Another dealing is needed, and it will surely follow… They had slighted that childlike instruction, so He would not whip them with it. He would whip them with the foreign speech of enemies instead. They would not have His words of rest for the weary, so they had to hear a nation they could not understand. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
This is not only Israel's story. The same rule holds wherever God gives light.
When people resist, the result is blindness — and it is all the greater because it matches the light they refused. If someone receives the first testimony, more is always added. To him that has, more is given, and he shall have more abundance… Those who receive the first grace receive all the rest, right up to glory, and go from strength to strength.
Paul later quotes the verses that follow this one.
The prophet goes on to show that God might stoop to deal in this simple way with most of the people. He might even use stammering lips and another tongue. Yet they refuse to hear, and they are broken. The Apostle Paul refers to this passage in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22, to show that tongues are a sign to unbelievers rather than believers.
- Milk. Drink had left the priests and prophets stumbling. So God fed His people the food of infants. He met their weakness instead of matching their pride.
- Weaning. He teaches the weaned. They no longer lean on others, not even on the best of people. They find Christ enough.
- Degrees. God's normal method is not a finished system, handed over at once. He gives truth by stages, suited to what each believer can take.
- Refusal. Light received brings more light. Light refused brings a deeper blindness.
- Strange tongues. The people who would not hear the simple lesson heard the speech of invaders instead. Paul takes up that same word: tongues are a sign for unbelievers.
For [it is] precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, there a little. ...
Isaiah 28 opens with a woe against the drunkards of Ephraim. By verse 9, priests and prophets who cannot think straight are sizing up the prophet's message. Verse 10 is the sound of that message reduced to a nursery rhyme — and commentators read the jingle in more than one way.
One writer insists the drink language means more than literal drunkenness:
We should not take the drunkenness here in a merely literal sense. It stands for their wildly excited, dazed and stupefied state. They are given up to their own pleasure and self-indulgence, to the shame of the true God. Drunkenness among men has frightful natural effects. In a wide moral sense, that will be the condition of these proud, senseless men of Ephraim.
God stooped to the hearers' level, and it changed nothing:
God had met their weakness and fed them with infants' food, but it was all in vain… Another dealing is needed, and will surely follow.
Commentators differ on whose voice speaks verse 10. Some hear God Himself, dealing with a straying people the way a parent deals with a small child:
When Israel departs from God, God sends, as to children, precept upon precept, line upon line… God cannot stop bearing witness until He has used up every means of bringing them back to Himself.
Others hear the leaders instead. One outline of Isaiah heads verses 9–10 as "the prophet mocked" — the repetition being their sneer at Isaiah's simple, step-by-step teaching (Arno Clemens Gaebelein). Either way, they despise the childlike teaching.
Refusing the light has a result of its own:
Resistance brings on those who resist a blindness that is all the greater, because it matches the light they refused. If someone receives the first testimony, more is always added. It is given to him who has, and he shall have more abundance… The more God shows Himself, the more the heart's natural opposition shows itself. Those who receive the first grace receive the rest until glory, and go from strength to strength.
The same phrases come back in verse 13, now as a sentence rather than a lesson:
The prophet goes on to show that God might stoop to deal in this simple way with the mass of the people. He might even use "stammering lips and another tongue." Yet they refuse to hear, and they are broken. Paul refers to this passage in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22. He shows that tongues are a sign to unbelievers rather than believers.
Another writer names what took its place:
He would not punish them with the childlike instruction they had slighted, but with the foreign speech of enemies… It was a judgment on their unbelief.
Taken positively, the verse describes how truth still reaches a believer:
So we may accept that now, as then, there are stages of growth in the divine life. God unfolds His word to each believer to suit their differing capacity. When the Lord by His Spirit teaches knowledge and makes men understand wisdom, He does not hand over a neat, finished system of doctrine. He gives the truth by degrees: "precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little."
One writer traces a child's hardening against Scripture back to the way it was taught:
How else can we explain a strange fact? So many children of steady Christian parents, above all their sons, grow up with an unbelievable dislike — even disgust — for everything called "religious." The natural heart's hostility to God and His Word does not explain it. That reason would apply to every child of believing parents. Is it not rather that such parents, and fathers most of all, have handed divine truth to their children in a stern, law-like spirit, as at Mount Sinai? Then "the Word of the Lord was to them precept upon precept… that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."
- Condition — The hearers are drunk in more than one sense: excited, dazed, self-indulgent, fit for nothing but the simplest teaching.
- Kindness — God met that weakness with infants' food, teaching line by line as a father teaches a small child.
- Contempt — Commentators differ. Is verse 10 God's patient method, or the leaders mocking it? Either way, they despised the simple word.
- Consequence — They refused the gentle teaching, so it came back as judgment in the foreign speech of an invading people. Paul uses the verse to show that tongues are a sign to unbelievers.
- Continuation — God still gives His word by degrees, not as a finished system. Teach it that way, and gently: a stern delivery can drive a hearer backward.
For with stammering lips and a strange tongue will he speak to this people;
Isaiah has just described priests and prophets too drunk to take in God's plain teaching. They would not listen to words they understood, so God says He will speak to them in a language they cannot follow — but whose language is it, and why?
The verses just before speak of teaching in small, repeated portions, like feeding a newly weaned child. They ignored that patient method. The strange tongue is what comes next.
God had met their weakness and fed them with infants' food, but it was all in vain… Another way of dealing with them is needed, and it will surely come… He would punish them, not with the childlike teaching they had despised, but with the foreign speech of enemies. They would not have His words of rest for the weary, so they had to have a nation whose language they did not understand. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
Where the ESV reads "people of strange lips," older translations read "stammering lips." No other place in the Old Testament looks ahead to people speaking a language they never learned.
Speaking in other languages without having learned them does not occur in the Old Testament. Only one prophecy about it is found (Isaiah 28:11-13), and if 1 Corinthians 14:21 did not quote it with direct reference to speaking in tongues, we would probably never have connected the two. The priests and prophets in Israel were no longer open to true knowledge and God's message (v. 7-10). So God would speak to them through people whose speech they could not understand, in a strange tongue. These are their enemies, who would bring judgment on them.
Commentators differ. One reads the strange speech as God stooping to the crowd, not as the noise of an invading army:
The prophet goes on to show that God might stoop to deal with the mass of the people in this simple way, even using "stammering lips and another tongue." Yet they refuse to hear, and they are broken.
Nothing else in the Old Testament speaks of people using languages they never learned. Paul quotes these words in 1 Corinthians 14, and without that quotation the link would be easy to miss.
The Apostle quotes Isaiah 28:11-12 freely. He shows that in the day of Israel's failure, when the prophets had gone wrong, God spoke to them in the languages of foreigners. This was a sign of the unbelief of those who would not hear the plain word of God. So when the gift of tongues was used at the start of Christianity, it was a sign to unbelievers, not to believers, and it left the hearer without excuse.
The believers in Corinth preferred tongues to prophecy. Set beside what the verse first meant for Israel, that choice looks strange.
There God warns the Jews, who were slow to listen to His prophets, that He would speak to them with the stammering lips of foreigners. Such a tongue spoken to Israel was a sign of their humiliation, and of God's judgment. How wrong-headed, then, for the believers in Corinth to turn away from God speaking in prophecy to build them up, and to turn instead to tongues they could not understand! They took their pleasure as Christians in what was God's solemn threat to His ancient people.
Centuries later the same sign came back. This time the good news went out in the languages of other nations.
God would use foreign tongues to humble them, not to lift them up. He meant to wake them out of their unbelief, yet they would not hear. Now God had given Israel a fresh sign in speaking with tongues: the gospel of grace went out in the languages of other nations. This showed that the gospel was not only for Israel, but for the whole world.
Verse 13 tells what the strange tongue leads to — falling backward, breaking, being snared. The pattern is wider than Isaiah's own generation.
Resistance brings blindness on those who resist, and the greater the light they refuse, the greater the blindness. If a person receives the first testimony, more is always added… The more God shows Himself, the more the heart's natural opposition comes out. Those who receive the first grace receive the rest until glory, and go from strength to strength.
- Refusal. God had taught Israel gently, a little at a time, and they would not take it in.
- Reversal. They despised plain words, so God turned to speech they could not follow. Most read this as the voice of invading enemies. Some read it as God still stooping to their level.
- Sign. Paul uses the verse in 1 Corinthians 14. A foreign tongue was a sign for unbelievers, and it left the hearer without excuse.
- Reach. The sign came back when the gospel went out in the languages of other nations. The message was not for Israel alone.
- Result. Light refused hardens; light received grows. That is the warning and the promise carried by one strange-sounding verse.
to whom he said, This is the rest cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing. But they would not hear.
God had spoken to His people in the plainest way possible, offering them rest and relief, and they turned it down. Their refusal is why He said He would speak next through foreign lips — words Paul later quoted to correct a church that prized tongues.
The chapter opens with priests and prophets who had lost their grip on truth. God came down to their level and taught them like small children. One writer shows what followed when they refused even that.
God had met their weakness in vain and fed them with infants' food... He would whip them not with the childlike instruction they had slighted, but with the foreign tones of enemies. They would not have His words of rest for the weary; they had to have a nation whose speech they did not understand. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
"They would not hear" is the hinge of the chapter. One writer sets out the principle behind that refusal.
Resistance brings blindness on those who resist. That blindness is all the greater because it matches the light they refused. If the first testimony is received, more is always added, for it is given to him who has, and he shall have more abundance... The more God shows Himself, the more the heart's natural opposition shows itself... No blindness is like the blindness that comes from resisting the light and holding on to your own will while it shines... Those who receive the first grace receive the rest until glory, and go from strength to strength.
If they will not hear God in words they understand, He will speak in words they cannot. The chapter's own context shows who those speakers were.
The sense of the passage becomes clear from its context. The priests and prophets in Israel were no longer open to true knowledge and the divine report (vv. 7-10). So God would speak to them through people whose speech they could not understand, in a strange tongue. These are their enemies, who would bring judgment on them. The Holy Spirit uses this passage in 1 Corinthians 14 to make clear that tongues are a sign to unbelievers and not to believers (vv. 21, 22).
The pattern did not stay in Isaiah's day. One writer sees the Lord's own ministry fulfilling these verses.
In John 9:39 the Lord fulfils Isaiah 28:9-13. The judgment is a sifting process. Compare Luke 2:34: "for the fall and rising of many in Israel," leaving men either better or worse.
Paul quotes these words in a letter about speaking in tongues. The Corinthians prized what God had sent as a threat.
Such a tongue speaking to Israel was a sign of their humiliation and of God's judgment. What perversity, then, in the saints at Corinth! They turned away from God speaking in prophecy to build them up, and turned to tongues they could not understand. They took pleasure as Christians in what God had meant as a solemn threat to His ancient people, because they stubbornly refused to listen!
Another writer follows the same refusal into the day when tongues returned as a sign.
God would use foreign tongues to humble them, not to exalt them. By this means He sought to wake them out of their unbelief. Yet they would not hear. Now God had given Israel a fresh sign in speaking with tongues. Preachers proclaimed the gospel of grace in Gentile languages. This showed that the gospel was not only for Israel but for all the world... And unbelieving Israel still would not hear.
- Offered. God met a stumbling people at their level. He fed them "infants' food" and held out rest for the weary.
- Refused. They would not hear. God held out rest, and they turned it down.
- Replaced. Instead of rest they got speech they could not understand. The tongues of enemies came to humble them, not to exalt them.
- Repeated. The refusal did not end with Isaiah. Writers trace the same sifting judgment into the Gospels, and the same deafness when tongues sounded again with the gospel.
- Reversed for faith. Refused light hardens. Received light multiplies: those who take the first grace keep receiving until glory.
And the word of Jehovah was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
Isaiah 28 speaks to a people who would not listen when God taught them in the simplest way. In verse 13 that same gentle teaching becomes a trap: words meant to give rest leave them broken.
The repeated phrases of this verse appear a few lines earlier. There they describe how God fed a weak people with the simplest teaching He could give.
God had met their weakness and fed them with infants' food, but it was all in vain. … He would punish them, not with the childlike instruction they had despised, but with the foreign speech of enemies. They would not have His words of rest for the weary; they had to have a nation they did not understand. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
This is God's answer to a people who refused to hear. One writer follows the pattern through to where it ends.
Resistance brings blindness on those who resist. That blindness is all the greater because it matches the light they refused. If people receive the first testimony, God always adds more, for to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have more in abundance. … These testimonies bring on their judgment. The more God reveals Himself, the more the heart's natural opposition shows itself. Those who receive the first grace receive the rest, right up to glory, and go from strength to strength. God did not let judgment fall on Jerusalem until Jerusalem rejected the Holy Spirit. When grace is exhausted God sends judgment.
The same writer weighs this blindness against every other kind.
No blindness is like the blindness that comes from resisting the light. It belongs to the person who stands in the light and still will not give up his own will.
Not everyone in Israel was broken by this teaching. Some learned in exactly this way.
Yet even so, a "remnant of His people" would still be found. They would have not a crown of pride but a crown of glory, in the Lord Himself. Most of the people "reel with wine" and "stumble in giving judgment." These would be like little children, who learn a little at a time, step by step. The prophet goes on to show that God might stoop to deal in this simple way with most of the people, even speaking through strange lips and a foreign tongue. Yet they refuse to hear and are broken.
One writer describes the same method at work in a believer's growth today.
There are stages of growth in the divine life. God unfolds His word to each believer to suit their changing capacity. When the Lord by His Spirit teaches knowledge and makes men understand wisdom, He does not hand over a neat, finished system of doctrine. He presents the truth by degrees, "precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little."
The strange language turns up again in a letter to a church that prized the gift of tongues.
The apostle quotes Isaiah to show that they were overrating the spiritual value of tongues. Because the people of Israel had turned away from Him, God would not speak to them in the language they could understand. … So why should the Corinthians be so proud of tongues? Tongues were given to catch the attention of unbelievers with something they did not understand, not to convince them of its truth.
One writer brings the verse home. He asks why children raised in believing homes so often grow up hostile to anything religious.
Is it not rather because such Christian parents, especially fathers, have taught divine truth to their children in a stern spirit of law? The result is that the word of the LORD becomes to them "precept upon precept… here a little, there a little, that they may go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken."
- Little by little — the gift. God unfolds truth by degrees. He suits it to each believer's capacity, never handing over a finished system all at once.
- Little by little — refused. Israel refused the childlike teaching. So God spoke next in the foreign speech of enemies. It was a judgment on their unbelief.
- Little by little — the trap. The same words that offered rest to the weary became the trap that made them fall backward.
- The rule behind it. Blindness matches the light refused. Those who receive the first grace receive all the rest, right up to glory.
- The application. A stern spirit can drive away the very children the truth was meant to feed.