The poetic prophet Isaiah
© jodie777 – Fotolia.com

Based on Isaiah 28:1-13

What is good poetry? It is beautiful, has a depth of meaning, and expresses a truth that we can see at work around us. The prophet Isaiah is so poetic! Let me show you:

Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim,
And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the fertile valley
Of those who are overcome with wine!
Behold, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent;
As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction,
Like a storm of mighty overflowing waters,
He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.
The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim is trodden under foot.
And the fading flower of its glorious beauty,
Which is at the head of the fertile valley,
Will be like the first-ripe fig prior to summer,
Which one sees,
And as soon as it is in his hand,
He swallows it. (NASB) Isa 28:1-4

It stands out to me in this passage that those who are against God are described as beautiful and having glory. God gives us such incredible ability to create beautiful things: buildings and compositions and organizations. He made us beautiful and placed us in a world that overflows with magnificent beauty. He also gave us a choice to pursue and enjoy this beauty for his glory or ours, to serve him or ourselves. Too often we serve ourselves.

What concerns me most is not how non-believers serve themselves, but how the church and Christians are doing this very thing, which is what this chapter in Isaiah is all about. I wish I could play the audio from the dramatized NIV audio version, it does a great job of expressing it. But the word will have to suffice here:

And these also stagger from wine
and reel from beer:
Priests and prophets stagger from beer
and are befuddled with wine;
they reel from beer,
they stagger when seeing visions,
they stumble when rendering decisions.
All the tables are covered with vomit
and there is not a spot without filth.
“Who is it he is trying to teach?
To whom is he explaining his message?
To children weaned from their milk,
to those just taken from the breast?
For it is:
Do this, do that,
a rule for this, a rule for that;
a little here, a little there.” (NIV) Isa 28:7-10

At first, I wondered why the priests were drunk. Were they depressed? Is the drunkenness symbolic of their self-indulgence and abuse of their position? The way they mock the prophet explains it, I believe.

I have seen Christians, friends as well as church leaders on television and in print, make excuses for the standard in the Bible. They make excuses for their pursuit of pleasure, for their sin, and mock the Bible by saying it is outdated or misunderstood. Like these drunk priests Isaiah describes, in order to validate our pursuit of pleasure we must discredit the Bible’s teaching. Discredit is too small a word for what is really being done, though. Malign is more accurate, and honest Christians would agree.

The pleasures we pursue sinfully are not ugly and sinful in themselves. God gave us beauty and pleasure in our wine and sex and art and music and the ability to build and create and organize, and he wants us to use and implement all these things. But he wants us to do it to his glory, not ours, because he created them and gave them to us. It is simply a matter of respect. We are created and we ought to hold our Maker high esteem. We do this by enjoying the beauty and pleasures of this world within the confines he gave us. Drink in moderation, sleep only with your spouse, build in prayer, compose the beauty of God’s truths, organize and lead in humility and meekness.

The Bible is clear about what will happen to those who, like these mocking priests, malign God’s truths:

Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues
God will speak to this people,
to whom he said,
“This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;
and, “This is the place of repose”—
but they would not listen.
So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:
Do this, do that,
a rule for this, a rule for that;
a little here, a little there —
so that as they go they will fall backward;
they will be injured and snared and captured. (NIV) Isa 28:11-13

Notice, the poetry they used to mock God is used against them. Observe as well that before God’s judgment came, he reached out to these mockers, even using the same words Jesus spoke years later, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (NIV) Mat 11:28 (italics added)

The poetic prophecy continues with what I believe is the most important part. When we enjoy and exercise God’s beauty appropriately, he offers a promise:

In that day the Lord Almighty
will be a glorious crown,
a beautiful wreath
for the remnant of his people.
He will be a spirit of justice
to the one who sits in judgment,
a source of strength
to those who turn back the battle at the gate. (NIV) Isa 28:5-6

See how God wears the crown, not us. If God is our glory and not ourselves, if we pursue his beauty instead of ours, he promises to be our strength at the gate where our enemies come against us to mock us and hurt us and tear us down. This is truly poetic justice in every sense of the phrase, with beauty and irony and depth and truth.

Blessings! – Shamar Covenant