40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Isaiah 27:12-28:20 (Episode 469)

Episode Date: July 9, 2025

The shofar will be blown as God gathers His people. You can have pride or the tested Cornerstone as your crown. And God will send those who refuse to listen a message without words. Have a listen. Show Notes: Support 1517 Podcast Network Fundraiser! 1517 Podcasts 1517 on Youtube 1517 Podcast Network on Apple Podcasts 1517 Events Schedule 1517 Academy - Free Theological Education What's New from 1517: Sinner Saint by Luke Kjolhaug The Impossible Prize: A Theology of Addiction by Donavan Riley Ditching the Checklist by Mark Mattes Broken Bonds: A Novel of the Reformation, Book 1 of 2 by Amy Mantravadi More from the hosts: Daniel Emery Price Chad Bird

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. You can go to 1517.org slash podcast to check out all the other podcasts that are living over there. And while you're over there, make sure you check out everything else that 1517 is doing. It's a lot of things. Got a lot of academies. Chad's busy recording a new academy. I think he just wrapped that up.

It's not out yet. You can't check it out by the time this releases. But, I mean, if you've never checked out an academy, there's a lot to choose from. So take an academy course while you get ready for Chad's new one to drop. You can take another one from Chad. Chad's got another one there. You can take something else. Find one that interests you.

There's a lot of different topics that are covered there. It's free. go educate yourself with the 1517 academy also while you're there and you're like man this is pretty high production this is pretty good how did i not pay anything for this well the answer to that is of course that donate link in the right hand corner you can click on that become a contributor you can support the work by becoming a one-time giver a reoccurring giver for those of you who have already done that we thank you very much chad we're at the very very end of isaiah chapter 27 we've talked about the the redemption of israel we had you know we had some some good

news uh it's the it's the standard fare as it as it were about what god's gonna do and hey are you uh broken down lowly desperate and have only one hope man i'm gonna lift you up uh i'm i'm exactly what you need uh are you full of pride and arrogance and uh don't feel like you really need me, well, I'm going to trample you down. And that's kind of where we ended. Yeah, we're almost to the end, but we've got a couple of verses left to go, and it's going to continue the same hope for Israel of what God is going to do, except it's going to switch gears a little bit to pick up this very common prophetic theme of an exodus. Not an exodus necessarily from egypt but from wherever you are so let me read those two verses 12 and 13 to wrap up this chapter

in that day from the river euphrates to the brook of egypt the lord will thresh the esv has thresh out the grain could be thresh uh this verb also is used for like the beating of an olive tree to facilitate the picking of of olives which i think is probably a better translation here Because it goes on to say And you will be gleaned one by one Well, the picking up of one by one Matches figs a whole lot better Than does grain

But anyway, it's an agricultural image The Lord's going to thresh Or he's going to beat the olive trees And you will be picked up or gleaned One by one, O people of Israel And in that day A great trumpet, a shofar Is the noun that's used here

So a big shofar Will be blown And those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem. And of course, that harkens back to the promise we encountered already in Isaiah 2, where in the latter days, the Lord is going to lift up Zion as the tallest of the mountains and peoples from all over will stream upward to that mountain. So it's the image, I mean, Daniel talks about this too, about the stone which destroys the statue, becomes a mountain that fills the whole earth. This is then picked up by John in Revelation. The mountain where God is located is scattered throughout the scriptures as an emblem of God pulling people to himself so they can be in his presence, worship him, receive his blessings. So here you have, from the river Euphrates, of course, that's in reference to the land of Assyria.

And then the brook of Egypt, of course, that's in reference to Egypt. So basically, if you're positioning yourself in Israel, you're looking to the east, northeast, to Assyria. You're looking to the south, the southwest, to Egypt. And the message is basically, wherever God's people are, east, west, north, south, then they're going to be picked up. God's going to pick them up one by one from wherever they are. And they have this great jubilee image. So this big shofar is going to be blown. Well, when was the shofar blown?

Well, one time it was blown was to announce the jubilee, which happens every 50th year. And this is a year of release. It's a year of forgiveness. It's a year of restoration of ancestral properties. and this coincides exactly with what jesus announced he was bringing about in his synagogue sermon in nazareth where he read from the scriptures from isaiah in fact and the scriptures he read is talking about this dawn of the messianic era and jesus says today the scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing so this is uh the beginning of a jubilee and this jubilee

is the jubilee of of the messiah and when that happens then god is going to bring all these people home to himself no matter where they they are and in new testament terms this is of course old testament kind of imagery in new testament terms it basically means that hey wherever you are uh not only geographically but spiritually no matter how far gone you are no matter what deep pit of sin that you have fallen into, whatever your Egypt, whatever your Assyria, wherever you are, you are not too far gone from God, because through his gospel, he pulls you up from the pit, he rescues you from your own Egypt, your own Assyria, and he brings you home to himself. Yeah, I mean, this one's hard not to sort of take as pretty eschatological, right? I mean,

this sounds like um the thing that you and i are still waiting for yeah yeah that's true uh yeah there's gonna be a trumpet and then uh one by one i mean this sound you know when jesus talks about like sort of the the last days you know like oh got some people in a field and uh got some people over you know and we're i'm gonna i'm gonna find them all right i'm out there finding them all from all over the world and yeah this is uh this definitely sounds like that yeah it's kind of a it's it's a typical now not yet that you have in the new testament too where i mean has the last day happened yes and no in a sense it happened already in jesus right yep you have death you have burial you have resurrection and you have basically the

microcosm of all human history narrowed down to what happens in him that's why i think that's why i think anyway that you have uh like the tombs being opened and the bodies of the saints coming out in Matthew's gospel, this weird, like, early resurrection. It's like, oh, it's the last day. It's time to leave the tombs. Yeah, so that's the now. And the not yet, of course, is, well, we're still in this world.

We're still waiting for Christ to return and to blow the trumpet and to bring everyone to himself. So in a sense, it's happening. In a sense, it hasn't happened yet. So we're awaiting the full revelation of this. Yeah. By the way, if you never heard a shofar be blown, which i did on sunday because uh i was at my dad's church on sunday his father's day and i was down

there and um for as long as i can remember uh they start the service by blowing a shofar oh really like every sunday every sunday uh for as long as i can remember interesting and uh you know big you know horn you know it's i mean yeah like a real animal real ram's horn yeah yeah and if you know how to do it uh it is loud i bet i've never heard it it is oh man chad do you need to come experience this so like i yeah like i'm not living up to my old testament calling here hey you know in modern churches you know before they do have like a countdown clock you know and it's like you know that's when you know service starts yeah not at my dad's church man for as long as i I can remember when it's time for everyone to shut up and sit down

and pay attention, you just get this blasting shofar. It sits right up there by the – Who blows it? My dad used to, but his lungs aren't as good as they used to be. Weirdly enough, my niece does. Oh, okay. She's like 10 and can belt that thing. She's got the shofar down.

Oh, yeah. Have you ever blown one? You've just heard it. No, I have, yeah. yeah okay yeah cool yeah cool yeah that's pretty neat yeah no i i have i have not done that but look at me for once just being a little little more old testament than chad i don't think i heard a shofar but i've blown one i think we're uh we're gonna have to change the format of 40 minutes now too like instead of our uh introductory music it's gonna have to be

this blast of the shofar there you go nose all right it is a very unique sound too it doesn't um like it doesn't sound like a trumpet it's uh it's it's it's much different than that but uh it's it is loud it's it's it's strikingly loud for like being the horn of an animal yeah you kind of can't believe how loud it is well makes sense i mean that's how you announce right get everybody's everybody's attention cool well here we have the the the ultimate blowing of of the shofar announcing that jubilee all right uh i guess we're uh we'll switch gears here we got to move into you know the way this goes listeners you know we had some good news some yeah that's awesome stuff well predictably when you uh when you have good news guess what's going

to follow it uh some some not great news some uh we go from gospel to law law the gospel so kind of bouncing back and forth which is uh i know we've said this before but it's just a reminder never never picture like when you're reading through the prophets minor prophets included never picture the uh the sequence of the chapters or the oracles the sermons or whatever as happening chronologically wasn't why or or even like isaiah you know it's toward the end of his ministry and he's like you know what i'm gonna write a book i'm gonna write all this down it's not the way not the way this happened there's nothing there's very little chronologically that happens there is a structure to be sure but the structure is not okay this is what happened the

first year the prophet's ministry this is what happened the second year the prophet's ministry rather it's a uh it's a range in the way that it is of course to communicate a message but that message that arrangement is not it's not chronological so here we're going to shift gears verse 20 in chapter 28 to uh oh the the the bible we're looking at has it titled judgment on ephraim and jerusalem which is a which is a pretty accurate way of describing what's coming up first of all we're going to hear about the uh the troubles in the northern kingdom and most of what we hear here is under the image of basically drunken stupidity. I guess that's probably the best way to put this. There's a lot of alcohol kind of imagery that occurs in these opening

verses. And then toward the end, toward the end of that section, we're going to switch gears and it's going to be basically a message to the Southern Kingdom, to Judah, Jerusalem saying, hey, you guys should have learned from the Northern Kingdom not to engage in this kind of behavior. you didn't and so here's what's going to what's going to befall you so i'm going to read the first six verses and these are going to be addressed to ephraim ephraim being one of the sons of joseph the biggest northern tribe in the northern kingdom and also just a synonymous name for for the northern kingdom also known as israel ah could also be translated whoa it kind of depends on the context as to how this hebrew word hoy is to be translated so ah or woe ah or woe to

the proud crown of the drunkards of ephraim and the fading flower of its glorious beauty which is on the head of the rich valley of those overcome with wine behold the lord has one he's talking here about syria that's the one that's described here the lord has one who is mighty and strong like a storm of hail a destroying tempest like a storm of mighty overflowing waters he cast down to the earth with his hand the proud crown of the drunkards of ephraim will be trodden underfoot and the fading flower of its glorious beauty which is on the head of the rich valley will be like a first ripe fig before the summer when someone sees it he swallows it as soon as it's in his hand in that day this is verse five in that day the lord of host let me start

that over again in that day the lord of host will be a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate so this is uh i mean this is of course using a lot of imagery about the drunkenness, this perhaps could be literal, could also be metaphorical. Drunkenness is often used metaphorically in the scriptures to describe someone who's just staggering about in foolishness, doing things which are evil, oppressing the weak, just basically acting, well, like drunk people do, you know, making dumb decisions, you know, wobbling back and forth, going here going there and also just not paying attention to the threats that are around them so

that's that's why the the metaphor of drunkenness is so apt here and he calls them the the they wear a proud crown uh and they have this fading flower of glorious beauty so yeah it's shocking so shocking that the crown is proud yeah it's just shocking that the crown is proud yeah so this is samaria this is the northern kingdom and uh if you familiar with first and second kings or you know followed us through that in the podcast then you know what was happening in the northern kingdom uh about the only guy who was even sort of decent up there was yahoo and that guy was a bloodthirsty crazy man so uh the rest of the the kings up there beginning with the very first of them, Jeroboam, who built the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, well,

they were just like an idol feast up there. And so you begin to see this downward spiral of the northern kingdom. And when this is happening, we read that the Lord has one who's mighty and strong. Well, that one is the Assyrians, and so he's going to bring them in. And they're like a storm of hail, a strolling tempest, mighty overflowing waters, and they're going to sweep in and they're going to take that proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim and they're going to trot it underfoot. And they're going to do this so rapidly and so completely that he has a simile where he compares it to, you know, somebody's walking along and the very first

figs are coming out. And man, there's one that is just so perfectly ripe. He picks it off the tree and he swallows it just like that and that is a picture of how assyria is going to come in they're just going to swallow up the northern kingdom so a full and a rapid judgment now you might think okay when that happens it's all over well no because verse 5 tells us there is going to be a remnant there always is a remnant right there's always going to be a remnant and this remnant instead of having a proud crown like the drunkards and the fading flower of glorious beauty it's going to be the lord of host who's a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the people so basically there's a switch there's going to be a remnant who are spared in this remnant

are going to do what the whole nation should have done and put their trust in the lord and in his strength and in his justice. Yeah, I mean, there's the obvious contrast here. So you can have pride as your crown, or you can have the Lord as your crown. This is the great two options in Isaiah, right? Over and over again, and many other places in the Bible, too.

So what's it going to be? Pride or the Lord? Which are these things you're going to wear on your head? Only two options. I recommend the Lord. Yeah, yeah. I recommend the Lord, too. There's quite a history behind what happens to those who choose pride as the crown.

Yeah, and it's not a pretty picture. No, no. So, okay, that's the first six verses. That's a pretty strong and pretty clear judgment against the Northern Kingdom. Now, you would think the Southern Kingdom would look at what was going on and be like, oh man, that is not the way to go. You see what happened to those people. We don't want to be going down that road. We should learn from their lesson. And, uh, that, well, that didn't happen. We know that from history. We know that from what Isaiah is talking about as well. So begin with

verse seven, read, uh, two or three verses, uh, prepare yourself. We have some pretty graphic image, image here, gross and graphic image. These also, okay. Who are these also? Well, this is the southern kingdom so he's described the northern these also that is those of the southern kingdom well what are they like are they like sober-minded and uh following the wise ways of the lord no we're going to continue with the alcohol imagery these also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink that's probably could be translated beer there uh but either way They reel with wine. They stagger around because they've been drinking beer or strong drink.

The priest and the prophet isn't just kind of, you know, you're whoever. This is the people that should know what to do. God's priest, God's prophet. What do they do? Well, the same thing. They reel with strong drink. And they, they think they're swallowing wine. Oh, no, actually, they are swallowed by wine.

They stagger with strong drink. they reel in vision they stumble in giving judgment for all tables are full of filthy vomit with no space left oh well that's uh that's quite the quite the sight yeah the old the old uh when you think that you're uh when you think you're drinking alcohol but the alcohol is drinking you yeah that's exactly what's happening here yeah you think that you're in control of the bottle of wine that or the fourth or fifth bottle of wine or however much you've had oh no no no the bottle is in control of you the the wine is is drinking you and the result of course is that uh you have what often happens after intoxication you have vomit and isaiah want to make sure that

he grosses us out by you know saying all their tables are full of filthy vomit he's picturing he's painting here this gross scene to you know impress upon us hey this is this is what happens maybe literally but certainly spiritually when the priest and the prophets are engaging in this behavior the picture is like if you walked into a house there's a party going on you walk into a house and um everyone's plastered everything's covered in vomit but everyone's still drinking it would be like this is a scene of insanity right here yeah yeah yeah not far away from some uh university scenes not saying that maybe maybe you've seen this before where you're like hey are you throwing up and still drinking is that what's happening yeah yeah oh i remember what

it's like to uh to live in the dorm with a bunch of guys and you never know what you're going to encounter with college age guys things can get pretty uh pretty gross well here it's applied of course to uh the people who definitely should know better not that all the israelites should have known better but hey these this is the priest and the prophet they're the ones who are reeling and staggering so he continues on here with verse nine uh saying to whom will he teach knowledge not who this he is i'll come back to in a minute but let me just read 9 and 10. To whom will he teach knowledge and to whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, those taken from the breast, for it is precept upon precept, precept upon

precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little. This is actually, so that verse 10 that I just read about precept, precept, line, line, that's going to be repeated at verse verse 13 there's some uh this is kind of a i mean it's funny it's kind of a dark humor but what's going on here is is also kind of kind of funny at the same time so first of all who's he talking about here well there's a couple different options so to whom will he teach knowledge and to whom will he explain the message so i think the of the two options uh we have these one this could be all these drunkards who plastered and vomiting everywhere are speaking to isaiah and so they're basically saying oh yeah to whom is he going to explain everything

and in their drunken slur that's one possibility the other possibility i kind of lean this direction although i'm not hard and fast on this that maybe this is just isaiah explaining uh who these people are like the priest and the prophets and whoever else is staggering around in their, their spiritual drunkenness, you know, who are they going to teach knowledge to? Who are they going to explain the message, their message to, to basically to babies, you know, to those who are weaned from milk, those taken from the breast, is that who they're going to be talking, talking to?

That's how I've taken this is that they're saying, okay, so here's these guys and who exactly is going to listen to them? Yeah. Right. You know, I mean, I don't know if you've ever had a really drunk person try to give you advice before, but I have. I have too, yes. I haven't held fast. They're very open about giving advice.

Yes, and I've not taken that advice to heart, really clung to it. Those are the situations you're like, oh, okay, yeah. That's kind of how that goes. That's kind of how that goes. so this gets even uh even more humorous because this this first verse 10 that says precept upon precept precept upon precept line upon line line upon line here a little there a little actually this is i mean that that translation is okay but here's how you should here's how you should actually hear that blah blah this blah blah that again and again here a little there a little

Or as Robert Alter translates it, filth, pilth, filth, pilth, vomit, vomit, vomit, vomit, a little here, a little there. Let me read it to you in the Hebrew. Kitzav, latzav, tzav, latzav, kav, lakav, kav, lakav, z'irsham, z'irsham. It's a whole string of these monosyllabic words, which are probably intended either to sound like the babbling of an infant or, more fittingly, I think, the stuttering words of someone who's drunk. So when you hear verse 10, just picture a very drunk person

who is trying to talk, but all the words that come out are just this person just kind of stuttering along, making no sense whatsoever. So that would be my recommendation. In fact, it might even be better just to transliterate those words from Hebrew into English.

Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. Add that with a drunken slur, and that's how verse 10 is intended to sound. So that's what these prophets and priests and others who are overcome by their foolish, spiritual, and maybe literal drunkenness, that's what they sound like. And this is the southern kingdom.

This is where Isaiah lives and works and preaches. So what's God going to do about this? well he's going to as it were turn things around so he picks up with verse 11 and says for by people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the lord will speak to this people to whom he has said this is rest give rest to the weary and this is repose yet they would not hear and the word of the lord will be to them and here we have blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah that precept precept line line line so that they may go and fall backward and be broken and snared and taken okay what's what's happening here first of all he starts out by a

people of strange lips and with a foreign tongue the lord will speak to his people see this is the assyrians are coming in and they don't of course they're not speaking hebrew So everything that they are speaking to the Israelites is not going to make any sense. So they're going to sound to the Israelites like that blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Or as the Greeks would have said, they called all non-Greek speakers barbarians because everything that the non-Greek speakers said to the Greek speakers sounded like bar, bar, bar, bar, bar. So they called them barbarians. so isaiah says listen god spoke to you very clearly he said if you want rest this is rest

then give rest to the weary and here's repose i'm offering you rest and i'm telling you to give rest to the weary i'm i'm giving you a very clear word and you you won't listen to it in fact all you do is just sit around uttering these drunken words and so what i'm going to do god says i'm going to bring in the assyrians these people with strange lips and these people with foreign tongue and through them i'm going to speak to you this is going to be my word to you but the way you're going to hear this word is blah blah blah blah blah blah precept precept line line here a little there a little and the result will be that you're going to go fall backward and be broken snared and taken yeah well the lord's going to speak to you uh through a

uh a strange lips and a foreign tongue and he's going to speak to you and uh you understanding the words are not going to really be that necessary i think you're going to get the message uh here's the kind of what's going on here like oh like you guys don't listen real well but uh so i'm gonna have to speak to you uh without words okay like you're like you're not gonna be able to understand what this people is saying to you but i think you're gonna understand yeah and that's the the non-verbal speech of a sword and spear and a shield that that communicates very very clearly better to listen and that'd be uh really having then to have to be taught without words uh that is i think still remains true to this day you know interestingly uh

verse 11 people of strange lips and of the foreign tongue the lord will speak to his people that's uh that's quoted by paul in uh in first corinthians 14 it's in that whole section he's just finished talking about love is the greatest gift first corinthians 13 and he's talking about tongues and prophecy and you know what what's best for uh for the congregation to hear and he quotes from that verse in in isaiah and his message i mean he's he's taking it in his own way to make his own point to the corinthians uh but he says in the law and by law here he means just kind of the old testament in general not the torah but in the law he says it's written by people of strange tongues by the lips of foreigners while i speak to this

people and even then they will not listen to me says the lord and then he says thus tongues are assigned not for believers but for unbelievers while prophecy is assigned not for unbelievers but for believers and so paul is using the same kind of idea of uh foreign tongues being uh assigned for uh unbelievers and so he's picking up the same idea that god is using this foreign speech as a way to talk to unbelievers just like god used foreign speech as a way to talk to the unbelievers the rebellious back in in isaiah's day that is him directly saying that the that israel is full unbelievers at this point it is yeah yeah that's exactly what what isaiah and pauler is saying okay uh now i i said this was a bunch of bad news actually has some some good news coming up here

in a sense we're going to hear about a cornerstone so let's uh move on to verse 14 therefore hear the word of the lord you scoffers who rule this people in jerusalem so he's still really addressing mainly the leadership of jerusalem because you have said quote we have made a covenant with death and with sheol we have an agreement when the overwhelming whip come passes through it will not come to us for we have made lies our refuge and in falsehood we have taken shelter so because they've said that therefore thus says the lord behold i am the one who has laid as a foundation in zion a stone a tested stone a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation whoever believes will not be in haste and i will make justice the measuring line and righteousness

the plumb line and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies and waters will overwhelm the shelter and then your covenant with death will be annulled and your agreement with show will not stand when the overwhelming scourge passes through and you will be beaten down by it i'm going to stop there that was uh taking us through verse uh 18 so back to the beginning of this verse 14 god addresses the scoffers the rulers in jerusalem and he begins by uh this this uh this kind of great rhetorical move he says because you have said we've made a covenant with death and we've made lies our refuge and in falsehood we have taken shelter so this is uh i don't know if this is the the technical term for it but this rhetorical move is uh sometimes called a mock

quotation this isn't actually what of course the israelites are saying they weren't saying hey we've made lies our refuge and we're going to find shelter in falsehood of course that's not what what they said they basically have said if this historical context is right we're going to make a covenant and we're gonna make an agreement we're gonna sign a pact with with egypt and we're gonna turn to them and they're gonna help us they're gonna we're gonna uh ally ourselves with them so that when the assyrians come we're gonna have help they're gonna team up with us and together we're gonna we're gonna beat the enemy they're gonna be our refuge they're gonna be our they're gonna be our shelter now when the lord quotes their words he just kind of switches them

around he has a mock quotation which he recast their words to make them sound negative or foolish so uh their agreement is nothing but a covenant with with death and the protection they think they are seeking in that is not going to happen because they're taking refuge in lies and falsehood but then he says in verse 16 this is this is the agreement that they make this is where they're seeking refuge and shelter well i i've already done something that they can take refuge in i've already done something that they can shelter in and that is i've taken this stone it's a tested stone it's a precious cornerstone i mean it's a it's a rock solid foundation and i've built upon this and the measuring line is justice and the plumb line is righteousness so you kind of have

you're vertical and you're horizontal there, measuring line, horizontal, plum line, vertical. I've built something. I've laid this foundation stone in Zion. And therefore, if you're looking for refuge and shelter, I've already given it to you. You don't have to go looking somewhere else and making covenants with what's going to end up being death and Sheol to you. And it's not going to protect you at all. In fact, it's going to be swept away, this refuge of lies and this shelter that you have made and this covenant with death. All of that is going to be wiped away, but you have a better option. Basically, you can do one of two things. You can either build your hope, your confidence, your protection on lies or to pick up the imagery from Jesus on sand,

or you can build it on a foundation stone which god himself has laid which god himself has built and this is i mean you could take this a number of different ways all of which are kind of part of the complete theological package god's promise of zion being his city god's promise of the davidic throne always being there and god raising up a son of david all of this is leading us really to its ultimate fulfillment and this is quoted numbers numerous times in the new testament where the the foundation the stone the tested stone the precious cornerstone is christ himself he is the sure foundation upon which we we can build yeah i mean yeah this is jesus picks up this language paul picks up this language like yes of course jesus peter picks up

This language in his epistles, like this is, of course, the language of Christ is this cornerstone. I mean, he's the one who's been tested and found true. I mean, this is the corner. This is the sure foundation. But the thing that's interesting about this, besides that, is that every covenant you make, So they're talking about a covenant with death and Sheol, which is really just a covenant with other powers, other peoples. What is true is that every covenant that you make, regardless of who it's with, is ultimately a covenant with death. There is only one covenant with life, and you can't make it.

He's already made it. And so you either rest in a covenant already made for you, because, I mean, this is how God's covenants work. It's how it worked with Abraham. This is how it works at the Passover when Jesus is talking about a new covenant. This is a one-sided deal when God's making covenants because, like, you're terrible, and, like, he wouldn't entrust any portion of it to you. And so—and this is just that example. When you make covenants and agreements and alliances and promises, you're always making these with death and hell. This is the end of all of those things.

But there is one sure covenant that's already been made, and for whatever reason, you refuse to just rest in that one. You think that there's some better promise, some better security out there, and there's just not. Yeah, that's a great way to put it. And all the other agreements, you know, are agreements with covenants with death because they ultimately all rest upon our own efforts. Yeah. And I mean, it wasn't any different in Isaiah's day. I mean, we can talk in terms of, yeah, trying to achieve salvation by works. That's very New Testament language.

Well, the same thing was happening with Israel. The works that they were trying to build their salvation on was not trusting in God's promises, not trusting in the one who himself had laid this foundation in Zion. And instead, they go running off to the Babylonians or they go running off to the Egyptians or running off to whoever it might be. They're always seeking security in what I can do, the covenants that I can make. And ultimately, of course, as you said, all these lead to death. The only life and security is found in God's covenant that he makes. Yeah, and what's great is that what Christ does on the cross is that he is the— because you might be like, what am I going to do with all these covenants that I've made that are covenants with death?

What's going to—I mean, they're covenants after all. What about all these false promises and alliances that I've made? And Christ comes along and says, well, I mean, at the cross, I'm going to annul every covenant with death that you've ever— that you ever made every agreement with hell that you've ever entered into uh all of that is going to be annulled and in my work yeah yeah burn to ashes at the cross yeah very good so uh i think we can just uh wrap up here with a with a couple more verses so uh verse 19 as often as it passes through it will take you morning by morning will pass through it by day and by night. This is talking about this scourge, this destruction that's going

to wipe out all of the false promises and the false covenants. I love the image in verse 20, for the bed is too short to stretch oneself on, the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in. I mean, I'm a little bit taller than average, Dan, you're very much taller than average. And I think you've even told me before, it doesn't matter how big the bed is, you still can't like completely stretch yourself no no i was i was in a hotel not too long ago i was at a uh a basketball uh college basketball thing for my my daughter and uh i had i had to spend the night down there and she was staying in the dorm so i was in a hotel room by myself so i got like just like one king and i just slept on that sucker diagonally and that was pretty good

smart you finally could stretch yourself out yeah yeah but just imagine yourself whoever is listening imagine like you're trying to you're on like a little kid's bed and you got half a blanket well that's the image yeah the bed's too short you can't stretch yourself out there the covering is too narrow you can't there's no comfort there's no security there's there's there's nothing but just discomfort and unease there's you're not getting any sleep whatsoever and that you know is an inappropriate image for what's going to happen if you put your confidence in something other than than god's work it's a short bed it's a half blanket don't go there yeah that's that's a bad that's a bad covenant well i guess we can leave it there with a short bed and a and a you

know kid's blanket uh that's that's not what you want you got a better you got a better uh option for sure in uh in the tested cornerstone all right well we will leave it there we will uh pick it up again next episode chad i will see you then see you then