Former Glory - Current Judgment (Part 2)

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 28:1-4

¹Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower Which is at the head of the verdant valleys, To those who are overcome with wine!

To the drunkards of Ephraim - Ephraim here denotes the kingdom of Israel, whose capital was Samaria (see the note at Isa. 7:2). That drunkenness was a  prevailing sin in the kingdom of Israel is not improbable. It prevailed to a great extent also in the kingdom of Judah (see Isa. 28:7-8: compare Isa. 5:11, 22). They indulged themselves in sensuality. Ephraim was notorious for drunkenness, and excess of riot;

Samaria, the head of the fat valleys, was full of those that were overcome with wine, were broken with it. See how foolishly drunkards act, and no marvel when, in the very commission of the sin, they make fools and brutes of themselves; they yield, to be conquered by the sin; it overcomes them, and brings them into bondage (2 Pt. 2:19); they are led captive by it, and the captivity is the more shameful and inglorious because it is voluntary. Some of these wretched drunkards have themselves owned that there is not a greater drudgery in the world than hard drinking. They are overcome not with the wine, but with the love of it.  They yield also to be ruined by it. They are broken by wine. Their constitution is broken by it, and their health ruined. They are broken in the callings and estates, and their souls are in danger of being eternally undone, and all this for the gratification of a base lust.

Woe to these drunkards of Ephraim! Ministers must bring the general woes of the word home to particular places and persons. We must say, Woe to this or that person, if he be a drunkard. There is a particular woe to the drunkards of Ephraim, for they are of God’s professing people, and it becomes them worse than any other; they know better, and therefore should give a better example. Some make the crown of pride to belong to the drunkards, and to mean the garlands with which those were crowned that got the victory in their wicked drinking matches and drank down the rest of the company. They were proud of their being mighty to drink wine; but woe to those who thus glory in their shame.

Whose glorious beauty is a fading flower - That is, it shall soon be destroyed, as a flower soon withers and fades away. Fading indicates that the party is almost over! To that city, the pride of is an NIV addition and is not in the MT. There should be a full stop after valley and laid low by wine should be treated as an exclamation of disgust. Pride is the deeper sin but dissoluteness also is culpable.

This was fulfilled in the destruction that came upon Samaria under the Assyrians when the ten tribes were carried into captivity (2 Kings 17:3-6). The allusion in this verse to the ‘crown’ and ‘the fading flower’ encircling Samaria is derived from the fact that among the ancients, drunkards and revelers were accustomed to wear a crown or garland on their heads, or that a wreath or chaplet of flowers was usually worn on their festival occasions. That this custom prevailed among the Jews as well as among the Greeks and Romans.

The justice of God in taking away their plenty from them, which they thus abused. Their glorious beauty, the plenty they were proud of, is but a fading flower; it is meat that perishes. The most substantial fruits, if God blast them and blow upon them, are but fading flowers God can easily take away their corn in the season thereof (Hos. 2:9), and recover ground that has been alienated and has run to waste, those goods of his which they prepared for Baal.

Which is at the head - Which flowers or chaplets are on the eminence that rises over the fat valleys; that is, on Samaria, which seemed to stand as the head rising from the valley.

Of the verdant valleys, to those who are overcome with wine - That are occupied by, or in the possession of, those who are overcome with wine. That is, they were overcome or subdued by it. A man’s reason, conscience, moral feelings, and physical strength are all overcome by indulgence in wine, and the entire man is prostrate by it. This passage is a proof of what has been often denied, but which further examination has abundantly confirmed, that the inhabitants of wine countries are as certainly intemperate as those which make rise of ardent spirits.