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Overview 

The vision of Isaiah again turns towards Ephraim and Jerusalem. Ephraim (the northern kingdom) is filled with drunkards and is not aware of God’s impending judgment. Jerusalem is living in a state of reckless self-confidence. Both will be brought low. 

Isaiah 28:1, 7

Ah, 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! These also reel with wine and stagger with strong drink; the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, they are swallowed by wine, they stagger with strong drink, they reel in vision, they stumble in giving judgment.

At this point, the vision takes a strange turn. The first part of Isaiah 28 is about the drunkenness of the northern kingdom. We read that the spiritual leadership is bankrupt, fueled by alcohol, unable to provide any proper judgment and guidance to the people of Israel. 

There is no question about the damage alcohol can bring to a person, a family, a nation. Countless stories can be told of abuse, violence and premature death. In this context, instead of repenting and turning back to God, Ephraim is turning to strong drink to cope, to forget. I mean—to be clear, alcohol will help you forget at least until you sober up. So you either have to keep drinking to stay in a state of mental fuzziness or wake up and face reality. Ephraim chose the path of strong drink. 

Isaiah 28:14-17

Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, who rule this people in Jerusalem! Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol we have an agreement, when the overwhelming whip passes through it will not come to us, for we have made lies our refuge, and in falsehood we have taken shelter”; therefore thus says the Lord God,

“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 line, and righteousness the plumb line; and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”

The Lord addressing the leaders of Jerusalem makes sense. People need to be led. They are sheep. They need spiritual shepherds. Sadly, instead of remembering the covenants given to Abraham or Moses or David—these leaders made a covenant with death, with Sheol. Sheol is basically the place of the dead, a shadowy place, a place of conscious existence. In other words, Jerusalem has chosen to give up, accept their fate, pull out a page out of the betrayer’s playbook, a man yet to be born, but instead of repenting he decided to kill himself, dying in his guilt and sins—when redemption and forgiveness were right at his fingertips. 

And then we see verse 16. God reveals there is a stone to come, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone. Through our post-resurrection eyes, we obviously see this is a reference to the Messiah, the foundation of the new covenant. Though Jerusalem would reject God in 700 B.C. and in 30 A.D., He continues to be patient, wanting all to come to repentance and place their faith in Jesus, the precious cornerstone of our faith. 

Who or what is your foundation? Who or what is your foundation today?