I have long thought Isaiah 28 ended with a beautiful little Paragraph. I’ve even tried to preach it a few times in my Ministry. It is both informative and encouraging, all the while magnifying our great God’s Wisdom, His Omniscience.

Here it is, today’s Text: “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? 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 the rie in their place? 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.” Isaiah 28:23-29. It almost sounds like “Proverbs,” or at least some of the Wisdom Literature of the Bible!

Isaiah the teacher, the statesman, the sage!

The Paragraph divides itself into halves. The first focuses on plowing (then sowing) … while the other concentrates on threshing/winnowing/milling (then storing the finished product). “He will not ever be threshing it.”

Then ending each paragraph is a “lesson/moral/nugget of wisdom” … an application of a “farm parable” to the so-called “leaders” of Isaiah’s day.

Wow!

Let me show you.

Introduction: “Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech.” Verse 23, again, this sounds a lot like Solomon in Proverbs! (I never knew the Prophecy of Isaiah was this “poetic,” this “illustrative.”)

Now, first comes the plowing (but just for a while) … then the sowing (as the next goal). Isaiah’s example. “Doth the plowman plow ALL DAY to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground?” Verse 24, God has taught the planter/farmer (via creation, via common sense) that you do not rip up the ground endlessly! The “opening,” the “breaking,” is merely a temporary (but necessary) means to an end, a much better end. (Biscuits on the table, eventually!) Do not “torture” the earth, the ground “all day!” Plow … then sow!

“Sow”, as in verse 25, the right seed in the right places, by the way. More “common sense!” Look: “When he hath made plain (level, via the plowing) the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad (sow) the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place?”A lot of work!

Then comes the growing season! A wise farmer, but now waiting, totally dependent on the Grace (favor) of God for warm weather and bountiful rainfall!

How did he learn all this? “For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him.” Verse 26, so true!

Beautiful as well!

But then Isaiah continues … to the “threshing” stage, the now ripened crop having been gathered. “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.” Verses 27-28, where little seed (“fitches and cumin”) are merely tapped a few times with a rod … but the larger grain, like “bread corn,” requires more stringent thrashing (an acceptable synonym for “threshing”). (Here separating the edible grain from the non-edible husk!) Hint: do not overdo the thrashing! Make it appropriate for the specific seed involved!

Some of this “winnowing” is pretty rough! “Horsemen” and “”ox-carts!” Trampling or rolling over those stalks of wheat!

Where is this critical “art” learned?

“This also cometh forth from the LORD of hosts, which is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working.” Verse 29, the end of the paragraph and chapter.

But WHY does Isaiah place this Unit where he does. He has not previously been talking to earth-workers, farmers!

Hint, back in verse 14: “Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.” Drunkards, liars, thieves (according to our chapter, Isaiah 28), listen up! Simple farmers “hear” God’s words and plow/plant/reap/thresh/store accordingly. Why can’t YOU hear God’s Word and lead Israel properly? Wisely?

Wow!

Moral of this Text.

God knows just how much to put on us … how much “plowing” and “threshing” is necessary … to produce good crops (fruit) in our lives! He is, after all, the real Gardener!

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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