He tells the inhabitants of this city that their efforts to provide for their own security by means of diplomatic treaties (cf. Isaiah 30:2 and Hosea 12:1) will be in vain. He refers to Egypt and Assyria, with whom Judah had made such treaties, as ‘death’ and ‘Sheol’ because not only would those treaties fail to provide the anticipated protection, but also because Egypt and Assyria would be among the nations to attack Judah.
By contrast, true protection had already been instituted by God, a stability labeled a ‘foundation’ and a ‘cornerstone.’ But the inhabitants of Judah have rejected this provision. Beyond the immediate context of Judah’s national defense in the 700s and 600s B.C., this message reminds readers to find their confidence and security only in Jesus.
God will enable these aggressive nations to attack both kingdoms - Israel and Judah. (They had been one united Israelite kingdom until Solomon’s death, when they split after a civil war.) God will allow suffering to overtake Judah, which is a brief deviation from His normal pattern. For this reason, Isaiah calls His actions in this case ‘strange’ and ‘alien’ - Philip Melanchthon describes it this way:
He calls it the “strange” work of the Lord when He terrifies, because to make alive and comfort is God's own proper work. But He terrifies, Isaiah says, for this reason - that there may be a place for comfort and making alive. For hearts that are secure and do not feel God’s wrath hate consolation. In this manner Scripture is accustomed to join these two, the terrors and the consolation. It does this to teach that there are these chief parts in repentance: contrition and faith that comforts and justifies. Neither do we see how the nature of repentance can be presented more clearly and simply. For the two chief works of God in men are these, to terrify, and to justify and make alive those who have been terrified. Into these two works all Scripture has been distributed. The one part is the Law, which shows, reproves, and condemns sins. The other part is the Gospel, i.e., the promise of grace bestowed in Christ.
Isaiah goes on to examine the productive nature of God’s wrath. Although God allows misery to overtake Judah, it is not merely a negative and destructive process. God habitually brings good out of evil. The devil may take momentary delight when God briefly loosens the restraints which limit his activity. But the devil’s happiness soon fades when God extracts something good from the evil which the devil has wrought.
The prophet expresses this in an agricultural metaphor. The farmer’s actions toward the earth may seem violent - ‘ploughing’ and ‘opening’ and ‘harrowing’ - but they are only for a time, and they are for a constructive purpose. Seed will be sown and a harvest reaped.
Likewise, the actions of the harvest can be violent - ‘threshing’ and ‘beating’ and ‘crushing’ - but these actions are likewise limited in duration and produce nutritious and healthy food.
Therefore hear the word of Yahweh, 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.”Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
you will be beaten down by it.
As often as it passes through it will take you;
for morning by morning it will pass through,
by day and by night;
and it will be sheer terror to understand the message.For the bed is too short to stretch oneself on,
and the covering too narrow to wrap oneself in.For Yahweh will rise up as on Mount Perazim;
as in the Valley of Gibeon he will be roused;to do his deed — strange is his deed!
and to work his work — alien is his work!Now therefore do not scoff,
lest your bonds be made strong;
for I have heard a decree of destruction
from the Lord God of hosts against the whole land.Give ear, and hear my voice;
give attention, and hear my speech.Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
Does he continually open and harrow his ground?When he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,
and put in wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place,
and emmer as the border?For he is rightly instructed;
his God teaches him.Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.Does one crush grain for bread?
No, he does not thresh it forever;
when he drives his cart wheel over it
with his horses, he does not crush it.
This also comes from Yahweh of hosts;
he is wonderful in counsel
and excellent in wisdom.
In the midst of this passage, Isaiah uses an unusual metaphor - a bed which is too short and a blanket which is too narrow. Physically and concretely, such circumstances would keep the prospective sleeper ill at ease and in a process of continual rearrangement.
God’s wrath, and the message explaining God’s wrath, leave the listener restless. Lasting inner peace arrives only with Jesus and the indwelling of His Holy Spirit. Martin Luther writes:
Two proverbial comparisons are used: The bed is short, the cover is narrow; and so one has to adjust to the situation. Therefore also by affliction we are driven to the Word away from our presumption. Jerome applies this to marriage, where the husband says to his wife: “The bed is narrow, it cannot hold both me, your husband, and an adulterer. Either I or the adulterer has to fall out of it.” Thus Christ, our Husband, cannot be there at the same time as our presumption. One has to fall. But this thought of Jerome’s is allegorical. Let us understand it literally concerning distress. For just as the shortness of the bed keeps us from stretching our limbs but makes us pull them up so that we do not fall out and get cold, so distress holds us together so that we do not fall away from the Word of God, neither in good times or in affliction, but by faith abide in it. The cross teaches us how to snuggle up, since in good times we sometimes stroll and stray, inwardly by presumption and outwardly by our endeavors, our lusts and luxuries, and other evils.
Johann Peter Lange and Philip Schaff reflect on the dialectical moment in preaching which creates discomfort - that which is the “Law” in the “Law and Gospel” paradigm:
Is not that a dreadful preaching, when one finds himself in a situation which is fittingly compared to a bed that is too short, or a to a covering that is too narrow? - This is a distressful condition. For resistance is encountered on all sides, and the means are insufficient to any undertaking.
The Law, then, is a complex thing. It is a conviction of one’s own sin and guilt, which is in itself already a complex, inasmuch as one has one’s own committed sins as well as one’s inherited sinful nature; but it is also a sense of doom about the consequences of that guilt. Additionally, it is a restlessness, an Angst, which leaves one without inner peace.
For the ancient residents of Judah, as well as for the modern soul, relief arrives with Jesus. No treaties with Egypt and Assyria - no postmodern efforts to find a meaningful foundation in one’s emotions - are effective in soothing the soul, and are in fact eventually to inflict further anxiety upon the soul.
Jesus is the Prince of Peace, and He breaks into our uncomfortable bed of spiritual turmoil, bringing not only peace, but hope, and the possibility of meaning by means of serving one’s fellow man.
