The Sowing Series - Part Two - How to Sow the Word - Isaiah 28
Writer Author Sylvia Huffnagle
Christian Article
:
Bible Teaching
- Fiction No
Isaiah 28: 5-6 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
(God is looking for the day when Christians truly are led by His Spirit and not by man’s understanding of His Spirit. You can tell which one by the results. When God’s Spirit is truly in operation the church will bear good fruit--she will be godly and effective. Effective in what? Evangelization? Yes, but also the church needs to be effective as being light and salt--the culture will then see godly standards.)
Verses 7-8 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment. For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.
(The strong wine (has fermented or become stagnant) here is man’s understanding and teaching of the Bible. The vomit is people teaching what they have learned from other teachers instead of learning from God and teaching the pure wine of truth.).
Verses 9-13 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little; that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.
(God says He had some teachers, but the people would not hear the straight stuff, so teachers began teaching the stuff the people would tolerate or that they liked and so it was line upon line and precept upon precept until they fell away backward. That is teachers keep teaching the same things over and over and therefore the church never goes on with God, in fact over time she goes backward or loses ground--accepts lower standards.)
Verses 14-22 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem. Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves: Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. (flee in panic) Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place. And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it. From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report. For the bed is shorter than that a man can stretch himself on it: and the covering narrower than that he can wrap himself in it. For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act. Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.
(God is speaking to those who have short-changed His Word, His teachings, and His precepts. Many people think they will be all right with God because of what Jesus has done for mankind. But they have been wrongly taught and have misunderstood what God was doing. Had they heeded the word--such as Isaiah 8:20: To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.--they would not have been fooled. There are many scriptures that can be used to help a person understand why God sent Jesus. He sent Jesus to restore those who will accept His offer to spiritual life, not to mainly get sinners into heaven, but to give Christians the power to resist the devil. But the group that God is referring to in the above scripture is those who really didn’t want to hear the hard stuff, they just wanted to get by--that was Cain’s attitude and God told him in Genesis 4:7 Amp. V.: If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin crouches at your door; its desire is for you, but you must master it. The above group thought they could get away with a short-changed gospel and God says it can’t be done. He calls that kind of believing a covenant with death. And He goes on to tell them that that is why they have a short-changed salvation. [Vs 20] The strange work that God is doing today is told about in II Thessalonians 2:11-12: And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.)
(The last segment of Isaiah 28 is teaching about sowing and reaping.)
Verse 23 Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?
(God is saying to teachers and preachers the first thing you have to do to sow His word is the break up the fallow ground--prepare the ground. How? Using the Bible, show the class or congregation the love of God, the righteousness of God, the mandate of God, the inevitable results of disobeying God, and the inevitable results of obeying God. That, if taught rightly, should have the people eager to receive forgiveness and a new life.)
Verses 24-25 When he hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and rie in their place?
(He says the next thing that must be done is to sow the right seed, the right way, to the right people or group. That’s right--one group might need the foundation laid--the milk of the word. That would be new believers and the young children. Another group needs the next step up in instruction, and a third group is ready to move on to greater understanding. Not only is He talking about what teachers sow, but He points out that there are different methods of sowing for different seeds. He will teach the teacher who is being led by His Spirit how to teach and what to teach.)
Verses 26-29 For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned about upon the cummin; but the fitches are beaten out with a staff, and the cummin with a rod.
Bread corn is bruised; because he will not ever be threshing it, nor break it with the wheel of his cart, nor bruise it with his horsemen. This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.
(Now we find out that it’s not just getting the ground ready and planting the right seeds, but there is a certain way to harvest each kind of seed also. God says the teacher must have discretion. He must be able to discern the right approach--the one that will zero in and get the desired result.)
(So Isaiah 28 teaches the considerations involved in sowing and then reaping. My reason for pointing this scripture out is because I don’t think that many teachers are following this instruction. I think mostly that they throw everything out there on unplowed ground and hope some of it will come up. Very seldom do they harvest or even know when harvest time has come.)
© Sylvia Huffnagle
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