Self-Salvation versus Salvation in Christ

Isaiah 28:14-22

Having rejected God’s place of rest, they had no choice but to craft their own refuge for the coming storm of Assyria. The mocking leaders of Jerusalem claim to have “made a covenant with Death” (v. 15), crafting a refuge that will protect them from the imminent “overwhelming catastrophe.” This covenant probably refers to the alliance with Egypt, which Isaiah will attack in chapters 30–31. Isaiah calls this self-salvation “falsehood” and “treachery.” God will sweep away their false refuge and dissolve their covenant with Death (vv. 17-20). There is no possible refuge from the judgment of God other than the grace of God.

Instead of self-salvation by a false refuge, God established a genuine salvation by a stone he lays in Zion. Isaiah 28:16 is quoted three times in the New Testament to refer to Jesus Christ: Romans 9:30-33 and 10:9-13 and 1 Peter 2:6-8. Jesus Christ is a “tested stone,” a “precious” stone, a “cornerstone.” He is infinitely valuable, absolutely secure, a perfectly righteous stone worthy of being the foundation of your life. Whoever trusts in this precious, tested cornerstone will be “unshakable” and will survive the storm of God’s wrath.

And that storm is coming! Isaiah says God is going to rise and do an “unexpected work” (v. 21), as he did at Mount Perazim and at the valley of Gibeon (two places where David defeated the Philistines with God’s direct intervention). Strangely, now God will directly intervene to destroy his people in judgment rather than to save them. The only possible refuge is to stop mocking the word of God (v. 22) and to trust in the tested, precious stone God lays in Zion.

Isaiah 28:23-29

The chapter ends with a parable about a farmer. It teaches the same lesson in two phases: In phase 1 (plowing and planting), the farmer knows when to stop plowing and start planting; one doesn’t go on plowing forever. In phase 2 (harvesting and threshing), the farmer knows when to stop threshing the grain and to start grinding it to make bread. In both cases, all of his knowledge has come from almighty God (vv. 26,29). It was God who taught the farmer his agricultural skills, and by that knowledge he knows when “enough is enough.” How much more does God know what he’s doing when it comes to judging his people. When it is time for the judgment to come, it will come; when it is time for the judgment to end, it will end.

We should also embrace a rich secondary lesson here concerning God’s mysterious activity in the development of all human science. Just as God teaches farmers the science of agriculture, so the God who made the universe secretly teaches the human race all branches of science, especially in its “Eureka!” moments of discovery. This is true whether the scientist acknowledges God or not.^[9] (See Isa 45:5, where God leads Cyrus even though he does not know God is doing it.)

First, in our day of affluence, when our soil keeps producing rich crops and our businesses keep turning handsome profits, we must guard our hearts against not only drunkenness but also against overindulgence of every kind. Second, we must see that the most crucial moment in any person’s life is at the hearing of any word from Scripture. If we hear and obey, we will be blessed. But if we hear and mock, God may well speak to us more plainly in his providential judgments in life. Heed the word, or live the judgments!

The centerpiece of all prophetic words is Christ. The “overwhelming scourge” that sweeps through human history is death itself. If we think we can rely on some self-salvation, some “covenant with Death,” to escape, we are deluded. This includes good works, foreign religions, and atheistic rationalization (“Death is just the biological end of life”). Jesus Christ is the refuge, the place of repose (v. 12) and the precious, tested cornerstone (v. 16). If we trust in him, we will never be shaken—not by any trial in life and not even by death itself.

Finally, we must see the hand of God in all human knowledge—all science (agricultural and otherwise) comes ultimately from God (vv. 26,29). To him alone be the glory for physics, mathematics, chemistry, cosmology, biology, and every branch of knowledge.