Isaiah 28:29

This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working. THIS ALSO ... The skill wherewith the farmer duly adjusts his modes of threshing is given by God, as well as the skill () wherewith he tills and sows (). Therefore He must also be able to adapt His modes of treatment to the several moral needs of His creatures. His object in sending tribulation (derived from the Latin tribulum, a threshing instrument, ; ), is to sever the moral chaff from the wheat, not to crush utterly. 'His judgments are usually in the line of our offences: by the nature of the judgment we may usually ascertain the nature o...

29._This also hath proceeded from Jehovah of hosts. _This passage is explained by some, as if The Prophet had said that the science of agriculture proceeded from the Lord; but I consider it to be the application of what goes before. Having pointed out the wisdom of God, even in the smallest matters, he bids us, in like manner, raise our eyes to higher subjects, that we may learn to behold with greater reverence his wonderful and hidden judgments. A passing observation on the 26th verse may be made, and indeed ought to be made, that not only agriculture, but likewise all the arts which contribute to the advantage of mankind, are the gifts of God, and that all that belongs to skillful invention has been imparted by him to the minds of men. Men have no right to be proud on this account, or to arrogate to themselves the praise of invention, as we see that the ancients did, who, out of their...

23-29 The husbandman applies to his calling with pains and prudence, in all the works of it according to their nature. Thus the Lord, who has given men this wisdom, is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in his working. As the occasion requires, he threatens, corrects, spares, shows mercy, or executes vengeance. Afflictions are God's threshing instruments, to loosen us from the world, to part between us and our chaff, and to prepare us for use. God will proportion them to our strength; they shall be no heavier than there is need. When his end is answered, the trials and sufferings of his people shall cease; his wheat shall be gathered into the garner, but the chaff shall be burned with unquenchable fire....

THIS ALSO COMETH ... - That is, these various devices for threshing his grain comes from the Lord no less than the skill with which he tills his land. (see Isaiah 28:26). AND EXCELLENT IN WORKING - Or rather, who magnifies (חגדיל _chigdiyl_) his wisdom ( תוּשׁיה _tûshı̂yâh_). This word properly means wisdom, or understanding Job 11:6; Job 12:16; Job 26:3; Proverbs 3:21;...

SECTION VII. RENEWED DENUNCIATIONS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH (CH. 28-31.) EXPOSITION ISAIAH 28:1 A WARNING TO SAMARIA. The prophet has now east his eagle glance over the whole world and over all time. He has denounced woe upon all the principal nations of the earth (Isaiah 13-23.), glanced at the destruction of the world itself (Isaiah 24:17), and sung songs over the establishment of Christ's kingdom, and the ingathering of the nations into it (Isaiah 25-27.). In the present chapter he returns to the condition of things in his own time and among his own people. Afte

THIS ALSO COMETH FROM THE LORD OF HOSTS,.... All this wisdom the husbandman has, in manuring his ground, in sowing it with proper seed, and in threshing it out in a manner suitable to it. Agriculture or husbandry, even among the Heathens, is always ascribed to God, as an invention of his, and it was the first work which God put man to, and instructed him in, Genesis 3:23 and as this, so all other arts, and sciences, and manufactures, come from God, even all things in nature, providence, and grace, and the knowledge of them; wherefore he himself must be infinitely wise and knowing; see Psalms 94:9 and be as he is next described: [WHICH] IS WONDERFUL IN COUNSEL: in giving counsel to man, both with respect to things temporal and spiritual; and whose counsel is always wise and good,

3. THE SIX WOES OF THE PROPHET, JUDGMENT RUINS AND RESTORATION GLORIES TO COME (28-35) CHAPTER 28 The First Woe and the Message of Assurance 1. _Ephraim addressed (Isaiah 28:1)_ 2. _Jerusalem equally corrupt and guilty (Isaiah 28:7)_ 3. _The prophet mocked (Isaiah 28:9) The prophet's answer (Isaiah 28:11)_ 4. _Their covenant with death (Isaiah 28:14)_ 5. _The message of assurance (Isaiah 28:16)_ 6. How Jehovah judges

THE HUSBANDMAN ADAPTS HIS METHODS TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF EACH CASE. This parable may perhaps not have been spoken to the same audience as Isaiah 28:7, but there is no valid reason for denying it to Isaiah. When the ploughman has finished, does he begin to plough over again? Of course not. He does not go on ploughing indefinitely; he levels the surface of the ground, and then sows, putting each kind of seed in the soil adapted for it. For so God has taught him. In threshing, he uses the measures suited to each particular kind of grain. The tenderer seeds are beaten with a rod, for they would be crushed or spoiled by large or sharp implements. Bread corn is not crushed; it is threshed, it is true, with a cart wheel, but, once it has been threshed, the husbandman does not keep on driving the cart over it. Such wisdom is inspired by Yahweh, and thus, the prophet suggests, Yahweh will deal w...

THIS: i.e. this same design in His treatment of His people. His purpose is the same as that of the husbandman. Compare Amos 9:9. EXCELLENT. lofty. WORKING. wisdom. The sort of wisdom which carries the purpose through to permanency. Hebrew. _tushiyah,_ See note on Proverbs 2:7....

A parable derived from husbandry. The motive of its insertion in this place was probably the different treatment meted out to Samaria and to Jerusalem. The precise point of the analogy is somewhat uncertain; but perhaps we may interpret the thought as follows. There are two parts. The first (Isaiah 28:24) appears to justify Jehovah's procedure by the end He has in view. As the farmer does not go on ploughing for ever out of a mere blind passion for ploughing, but ploughs in order to sow; so Jehovah's work of judgment is to issue in the preparation of a seed-plot, and in due time ploughing will give place (in the case of Judah) to sowing. The second (Isaiah 28:27) draws the lesson that the operation of threshing varies with the material to be operated on. The delicate fennel, e.g. would be destroyed by the rough im