1.
Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
2.
Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
3.
The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
4.
And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
5.
In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
6.
And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
7.
But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
WINE IS A MOCKER
‘They also have erred through wine.’
Isaiah 28:7
I sin against myself when I yield to the power of wine.
You tell me that there is no reason why I should become a confirmed drunkard; that many a one who takes wine never degenerates into its vassal and prisoner; that I may find it a benefit and not a blight and a bane. But I have two answers to return to your argument.
I. One of them is that single acts of indulgence grow by imperceptible degrees into habits.—I protest that I am afraid to tamper with strong drink, lest it should have me entangled in the meshes of its net before I am aware.
II. But my second reply goes further.—One solitary surrender to the appetite, suppose that it is never repeated, is indefensible and unworthy. It is a letting slip the reins of self-control. There is in it a certain parting with personal dignity, a certain forfeiture of the sense of responsibility, a certain degradation and descent from the level on which I ought to stand. A man should always keep himself at his very best—clear, capable, resourceful. A man should always be fully prepared to take advantage of every opportunity that comes to him. But if by his own consent it is otherwise at one instant in his life, then at that instant he is guilty of sin.
8.
For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
9.
Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.
10.
For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:
11.
For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.
12.
To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear.
13.
But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
14.
Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15.
Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16.
Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
THE CALMNESS OF FAITH
‘He that believeth shall not make haste.’
Isaiah 28:16
Our day is one in which men, emphatically, ‘make haste.’ The idea of the text is, that if a man believes in God, and trusts in God, and will consent to work on the lines which God has laid down, he will be saved from that restless, worldly agitation of mind which produces so frequently such calamitous results.
I. Notice how, in temporal matters, this desirable state of things will be brought about.—Let a man believe thoroughly in God as One who rewards faithful labour, although He may not see fit to reward it at once, and that man will be kept from the perils into which a restless and unsettled agitation of mind would probably betray him. He can afford to be strong and patient, for he knows that the reward will come.
II. Turn from temporal to spiritual matters.—(1) The man who ‘believeth’ has not to run helplessly hither and thither, when a strain comes upon him, seeking for principles to sustain him in the hour of trial. He has got his principles, and they are ready for use. Restless agitation is not his, for his soul is centred and held in equipoise. (2) The man who believes in a living God will not be full of nervous apprehensions about the future of Christianity. Men may break themselves in pieces against the Rock of Ages, but the Rock itself will never move. ‘He that believeth shall not make haste.’
—Prebendary Gordon Calthrop.
Illustration
‘This passage brings before us what may be called the establishing power of faith; its power to impart strength and stability to the mind; its power to give solidity of character, to keep the soul calm amid all the changes of the world.’
17.
Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18.
And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19.
From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.
20.
For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it.
21.
For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
22.
Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
23.
Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.
24.
Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
25.
When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and rie in their place?
26.
For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.
27.
For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
28.
Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen.
29.
This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.