Isaiah 28:14 - Meaning and Application

The prophet has already reproved those who made fun of God’s word. Now he turns to those who mocked God’s judgments and acted as if they did not matter. The Lord is a jealous God, and he will not allow either his commands or his works in history to be treated with contempt. Isaiah addresses the scornful men who ruled in Jerusalem, the city’s magistrates (Isaiah 28:14). It is bad when the seats of justice become the seats of mockery, and rulers are scoffers. It is even sadder when the leaders of Jerusalem were like that and treated God’s warnings lightly.

How could there be mourners in Zion if the rulers themselves were scorners? These men had lulled themselves into a false sense of safety, and they even seemed to challenge Almighty God to do his worst (Isaiah 28:15). They said, “We have made a covenant with death and the grave.” In effect, they thought their lives were safe even while destructive judgment was already moving through the land. It was as if they believed they had made a deal with death, so it would not come for them until they wanted it to, or until they died of old age.

If we are at peace with God and have made covenant with him, then death itself cannot truly harm us. For those who belong to Christ, even death is theirs, and they belong to Christ (Colossians 3:22-23). But it is foolish in the highest degree to think of death as a friend while sin is making God our enemy. These scorners also said that when the overflowing scourge passed through the land, it would not touch them, even if others fell under it. It is great folly for unrepentant sinners to think they will fare better than their neighbors, either in this world or the next.

What was the ground of their confidence? “We have made lies our refuge.” This may mean, first, that they trusted in things that the prophets had called lies and emptiness, things that would deceive them. They leaned on idols, false prophets, their own schemes, their wealth, and their influence with the people, instead of trusting God. Or it may mean, second, that they thought they could make lies work against their enemy, who was God’s scourge, by using war tricks or false promises in peace talks. The other cities of Judah were taken because they resisted stubbornly, but the rulers of Jerusalem hoped to do better by cleverness. They thought they were better politicians than the leaders of the country towns. They would flatter the king of Assyria with promises of surrender or tribute, while planning to shake off his rule as soon as the danger passed, even if that meant lying to him (Deuteronomy 33:29). People cheat themselves when they think they can reach their goals by cheating others. Tricky, low, and dishonest methods may sometimes seem to succeed, but they cannot bring real peace or comfort. Honest dealing is still the best policy.

These are the kinds of refuges people run to when they turn away from God and step out from under his protection. But God, through the prophet, wakes them from this sleep and shows how empty their security is. He first points them to the one safe foundation on which they may rest (Isaiah 28:16): “Look, I am laying in Zion a stone for a foundation.” This foundation is, first, God’s promises in general, his word, on which his people have been taught to hope. It includes his covenant with Abraham, that he would be a God to him and to his family. This is a firm foundation, like stone, for faith to build on. It is a tried stone, because all the saints have trusted it, and it has never failed them.

In a special sense, this points to Christ, because the New Testament applies it to him (1 Peter 2:6-8). He is the stone that has become the head of the corner. The promise of the Messiah and his kingdom, which would begin at Jerusalem, was enough to give God’s people peace even in the worst times. They knew the ruler’s line would remain until he came. So Zion would stand until this foundation had been laid there. The Lord says, in effect, for the comfort of those who will not make lies their refuge, “Look at me as the one who has undertaken to lay this stone in Zion.” Jesus Christ is a foundation laid by God himself. This is the Lord’s doing.

He is laid in Zion, in the church, on the holy hill. He is a tried stone, and some understand that as a testing stone, a touchstone that shows the difference between what is true and what is false. He is a precious stone, like the foundations of the New Jerusalem (Revelation 21:19). He is a cornerstone, joining the sides of the building together, and the headstone at the corner. Whoever believes these promises and rests on them will not be shaken into frantic action. He will not rush around in panic, like a person at his wits’ end, trying one escape after another. He will not be driven by fear, but will wait quietly for God’s answer, saying, “I welcome the will of God.”

He will not make hasty demands in his expectations, as if he could force God’s timing. Even if the promise seems slow, he will wait for the appointed hour, knowing that the one who is to come will come, and will not delay. Faith does not run ahead of God’s time. It trusts that God’s time is the best time and waits patiently for it. As the apostle explains from the Septuagint, “Whoever believes on him will not be put to shame” (1 Peter 2:6). His hope will not fail him. It will be more than fulfilled.

God also tells them that the grounds they were building on would never keep them safe. Their confidence would surely collapse (Isaiah 28:17). “Judgment will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet.” This picture can mean, first, the building of God’s church. After laying the foundation, he raises the structure by line and plummet, as builders do (Zechariah 4:10). Righteousness is the line, and judgment is the plummet. Since the church is founded on Christ, it will be shaped and corrected by Scripture, the fixed rule of judgment and righteousness. Judgment will come back to righteousness (Psalm 94:15).

Or it can mean, second, the punishment of the church’s enemies. Against them, God will proceed in strict justice, according to the warnings of the law.

God will give these people what they deserve and bring on the judgments they have dared. Yet he will do it with wisdom and exactness, so the weeds are not pulled up with the wheat. When God comes to judge in this way, these scornful people will be shamed by the empty hopes they trusted.

First, they wanted lies to be their shelter, but it will turn out to be a shelter that is itself a lie, swept away by the hail, the hailstorm spoken of in Isaiah 28:2. Anyone who makes lies their refuge is building on sand, and the house will collapse when the storm comes. Anyone who hides in anything other than Christ will find that the flood rises over it, just as every shelter except the ark was drowned in the flood. This is the hope of the hypocrite. This is what comes of all his false confidence.

Second, they boasted about a covenant with death and an agreement with the grave, but that covenant will be canceled, because it was made without the approval of the One who holds the keys and commands over hell and death. People fool themselves if they think they can use clever tricks to avoid God’s judgment. Third, they thought that when the overflowing disaster swept through the land, it would not come near them. But the prophet tells them that, when others are falling in the common disaster, they will not only share it, they will be crushed by it. “You will be trampled by it. It will triumph over you as much as over anyone else, and you will become its easy prey.”

They are also told, in Isaiah 28:19, that the judgment will begin with them. They will be the first to fall, far from escaping it. “From the time it goes out, it will seize you,” as if it had been sent to catch you. It will also follow them closely. Morning after morning, they will hear of fresh ruin, because divine justice will keep driving the blow forward. They will never be safe or at peace, day or night. There will be a pestilence that walks in darkness and destruction wasting at noonday.

There will be no way to avoid it. Even if the news of its approach reaches them in time, there will be no escape open to them. It will only add to their misery, because they will see it coming and still be helpless. Or, the very report of it at a distance will fill them with fear. If the news is terrifying, what will the thing itself be? Evil news is a terror and trouble to scorners, but the person whose heart is steady, trusting in God, is not afraid. When the overflowing disaster comes, then all the comforts and false hopes of scorners fail them, as Isaiah 28:20 says.

What they thought would be a place of rest will not be long enough for them. The bed is too short for a person to stretch out on, so he must curl up and crowd himself. What they thought would cover and protect them will be too narrow. The covering cannot wrap around them as they expected. Anyone who does not build on Christ as the foundation, but trusts in their own righteousness, will find they have deceived themselves. They can never truly be at ease, safe, or warm. The bed is too short, the covering too narrow. Like Adam and Eve’s fig leaves, their shame still shows.

God will also be glorified in carrying out his purposes, as Isaiah 28:21 says. When God rises to deal with these scorners, he will do his own work and bring his own plan to completion. He will act for his own honor and glory, according to his own purpose, and everyone will see that this is the work of God, the righteous Judge of the earth. He will do this now against his own people, just as he once did against their enemies, and his justice will be seen as fair.

He will rise up against Jerusalem as he once rose up against the Philistines at Mount Perazim (2 Samuel 5:20), and as he did against the Canaanites in the valley of Gibeon in Joshua’s time. If those who claim to belong to God’s church make themselves like Philistines and Canaanites through pride and scorn, they should expect to be treated like them. This will be his strange work, his unusual act. It is work he is slow to do, because he delights in mercy and does not afflict willingly. It is also strange because it is not what he usually does with his own people, whom he protects and favors. It would indeed be a strange work if he turned against them and fought against them, as in Isaiah 63:10. It will amaze all the surrounding nations (Deuteronomy 29:24), which is why Jerusalem’s ruins are spoken of as something shocking (Jeremiah 25:18).

Finally, we have the lesson to apply from all this, in Isaiah 28:22: “Do not be mockers.” Do not laugh at the warnings of God’s word or the nearness of his judgments. Mocking God’s messengers was one of Jerusalem’s worst sins, and it was one that filled up the measure of her guilt. Thinking about God’s coming judgments on hypocritical churchgoers should silence mockers and make them serious. Do not mock, or your bonds will be made stronger, both the bonds that keep you under the power of sin, for there is little hope of a mocker’s conversion, and the bonds that tie you over to God’s judgments.

God has strong bonds of justice ready for those who break all the bonds of his law and throw off his warnings. So let these mockers not treat divine threats lightly. The prophet, who has been given the Lord’s secret, has heard the Lord God of hosts determine destruction for the whole earth. Can they really expect to escape? Can their unbelief cancel what God has spoken?