Isaiah 28-29

< Back to Isaiah Index


TALKS FOR GROWING CHRISTIANS

Denunciation Upon Israel and Judah

BACKGROUND NOTES



DOCTRINAL POINT(S)

  1. The discipline of the Lord is God’s strange and perfect work.

  2. The discipline of the Lord is God’s redeeming and restoring work.

PRACTICAL APPLICATION

  1. Don’t let your godly ancestors be ashamed.

QUESTIONS

  1. What was the condition of Israel at the time of Isaiah’s prophecy here?

  2. What was the people’s complaint to Isaiah (28:9-10) and what was his response (verses 11-13)?

  3. Explain the poignant analogy in Isaiah 28:20.

  4. Ariel (Isaiah 29:1) is a symbolic name for what city?

  5. What is the message of hope in Isaiah 29:5-8?

ANSWERS

  1. Israel had gone so far downhill morally and spiritually that the nation was characterized as a nation of drunkards. Even the religious community was so involved in overdrinking that their sermons and judgments carried no weight.

  2. They complained that Isaiah was insulting them by speaking to them as little children. Isaiah replied that if Israel did not learn her lesson, she would hear it again in a foreign language – namely the foreign tongue of the Assyrians who would conquer them and take them captive.

  3. The comfort and rest Israel had hoped for in her foreign treaties would prove to be like sleeping on a bed too short with a blanket too small.

  4. Jerusalem

  5. Although God was using enemy powers such as Assyria to judge and discipline His people, these nations themselves would be blown away in judgment.

DISCUSS/CONSIDER

  1. Review God’s strange and awesome work of discipline in Isaiah 28:23-19 in order to bless His people, not judge them. Explain the illustration of the farmer using different threshing implements for different grains. So God knows the right form of discipline to use on His people to produce the best results. Are you undergoing a trial, hardship, or sickness for the purpose of discipline? How will this be for your best?

  2. Review Isaiah 29:15-16. Do you try to hide your thoughts and actions from the Lord and think He doesn’t see or know? Don’t kid yourself. Do you try and reverse roles with your Creator and think you’re the potter and He’s the clay? How must you correct your thinking?

CHALLENGE

  1. The principle of Isaiah 29:13 is that if you will not see what God is saying to you, you cannot see. Don’t let yourself be blinded; be willing to see what God is saying to you.

KEY VERSES

  • “For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line, Here a little, there a little. For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people.” Isaiah 28:10-11

  • “Therefore the Lord said: ‘Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths and honor Me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from Me, and their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men.’” Isaiah 29:13

  • “For shall the thing made say of him who made it, ‘He did not make me’? Or shall the thing formed say of him who formed it, ‘He has no understanding’?” Isaiah 29:16

Isaiah, Old Testament, TalksDeb HarmsIsaiah 28-29