Open Rebellion - Current Warning (Part 1)

Pastor Bill Farrow

Isaiah 28:14-15a

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem,  ¹⁵Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, And with Sheol we are in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, It will not come to us…

The prophet, having reproved those that made a jest of the word of God, here goes on to reprove those that made a jest of the judgments of God, and set them at defiance; for he is a jealous God, and will not suffer either his ordinances or his providences to be brought into contempt.

Isaiah 28:14

Therefore, hear the Word of the Lord - This verse commences a direct address to the scoffing and scornful nation, which is continued to the close of Isa. 28:22. It is addressed particularly to the rulers in Jerusalem, as being the leaders in crime, and as being eminently deserving of the wrath of God.

Ye scornful men, who rule this people who are in Jerusalem - Ye who despise and reproach God and his message; who fancy yourselves to be secure, and mock at the threatened judgments of the Almighty. He addressed himself to the scornful men who ruled in Jerusalem, who were the magistrates of the city, v. 14. It is bad with a people when their thrones of judgment become the seats of the scornful, when rulers are scorners; but that the rulers of Jerusalem should be men of such a character, that they should make light of God’s judgments and scorn to take notice of the tokens of his displeasure, is very sad. Who will be mourners in Zion if they are scorners?

Isaiah 28:15

We have made a covenant with death - We are not to suppose that they had formally said this, but that their conduct was as if they had said it; they lived as securely as if they had entered into a compact with death not to destroy them, and with hell not to devour them. The figure is a very bold one, and is designed to express the extraordinary stupidity of the nation. It is most strikingly descriptive of the great mass of people. They are as little anxious about death and hell as if they had made a compact with the king of terrors and the prince of darkness not to destroy them. They are as little moved by the appeals of the gospel, by the alarms of God’s providence, by the preaching of his word, and by all the demonstrations that they are exposed to eternal death, as though they had proved that there was no hell, or had entered into a solemn covenant that they should be unmolested. A figure similar to this occurs in Job 5:23, Compare Hos. 2:18.

And with Sheol we are in agreement - Hebrew, ‘Sheol’ - the land of shades, or of departed spirits (see the note at Isa. 5:14). It is virtually synonymous here with death.

When the overflowing scourge passes through, it will not come to us - There is here, in our translation, a little confusion of metaphor, since we speak usually of an overflowing “stream,” and not of an overflowing “scourge.” The word ‘scourge’ means usually “a whip, a scourge,” and then means any punishment or calamity (see the note at Isa. 10:26; compare Job 9:23; 5:21). Here its means severe judgments or calamities, as overflowing like water, or inundating a people.

This is typical of the way that the unredeemed, particularly the religious unredeemed kid themselves concerning their accountability to God.  They hide from it and pretend that it will not approach them.  Everyone else is under judgment, but not them!  God would not judge them because they are sufficiently good so as to escape his judgment.  It will all work out in the end and all will be well.  What tragic self-deception - spirituality based on feeling and intuition - on anything but upon the rock of the revelation of the Word of God.

Many believers think in similar terms when they think that they will escape God’s chastening on the sin they allow in their lives.  Judgment will come to others, but not to me, I am different!  Once again, how said and potentially tragic!  The issue with believers is surely not one of eternal destiny, but of fellowship and blessing.