Dr Paul Allen

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” ( Isaiah 28:10 ) The setting of this unusual passage is most sobering. Both the people and their priests in Israel ’s northern kingdom (personified by “ Ephraim ”) were in gross rebellion and drunken disobedience to the Lord. They were even ridiculing God ’s prophets who were trying to call them back, complaining that they were being treated like school children. In effect, they were saying: “Are you presuming to teach us as you would freshly weaned infants, going line by line, with rule after rule?” Whereupon God replied that He would use people of another tongue to come in and teach them what they refused to learn from Him. These precepts He had been trying to teach them should have provided true rest and refreshment, but now learning these lessons would prove to be their undoing. What should have been a blessing to them would become their condemnation.