David Bahn – Reflections

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These devotions are part of the Follow the Word Bible reading program at St. John Lutheran Church in Cypress, Texas. This year we are reading through the Scriptures together, listening for how God speaks through his Word day by day. I hope you will join me on this journey.

Today’s readings are Isaiah 28-30, Psalm 39.

Isaiah 28:14-18

Therefore hear the word of the LORD, you scoffers,
    who rule this people in Jerusalem!
¹⁵ Because you have said, “We have made a covenant with death,
    and with Sheol we have an agreement,
when the overwhelming whip passes through
    it will not come to us,
for we have made lies our refuge,
    and in falsehood we have taken shelter”;
¹⁶ therefore thus says the LORD God,
“Behold, I am the one who has laid as a foundation in Zion,
    a stone, a tested stone,
a precious cornerstone, of a sure foundation:
    ‘Whoever believes will not be in haste.’
¹⁷ And I will make justice the line,
    and righteousness the plumb line;
and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies,
    and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”
¹⁸ Then your covenant with death will be annulled,
    and your agreement with Sheol will not stand;
when the overwhelming scourge passes through,
    you will be beaten down by it.

God speaks to the people of Israel who mocked his word through Isaiah. In the previous verses it is clear that they had little use for God’s word. They didn’t just ignore it. They mocked the word itself. They said:

For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little. – Isaiah 28:10

The Hebrew of that verse is “sav lasav sav lasav / kav lakav kav lakav.” This is possibly meaningless sounds, mimicking the prophet’s words. So God responds, in essence, “OK. Let it be precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” God will not be mocked and he will stand by his prophet – whether his word is received or not.

Then comes what to us who are being saved a word of great comfort. God will lay a cornerstone upon which true life can be built. It is solid. It is polished. It is straight and true. It will not be moved. Just as God’s word is all these things, One is coming who will be that for all people. This finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus – no surprise here!

I love Martin Luther’s quote about this stone: Christ is a tested stone, that is, distressed and afflicted, or He is a testing stone, that is, a stone by whose shape all other stones are tested, so that we may be conformed to the image of the Son of God (Rom. 8;29). …Christ was polished, hewn, and squared by the promise, by death and the cross. (As quoted in the Lutheran Study Bible, CPH, © 2009)

There is warning and comfort here. The warning comes from Jesus himself, “Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” (Luke 20:18). Jesus is the stone that the builders (the church leaders of his day) rejected. But he is the chief cornerstone, shown by his resurrection from the grave.

This is why we must take heed, lest we become the ones of whom Isaiah speaks in 29:13:

And the LORD said:
“Because this people draw near with their mouth
and honor me with their lips,
while their hearts are far from me,
and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.”

Jesus also quotes this passage in Matthew 13. This is all about Jesus. The comfort is that when we build our lives on the cornerstone of Jesus Christ we will know what is true, dependable, right, and immovable. Whatever other wisdom, knowledge, insight, or understanding we may gain from the world must take a back seat to the truth of God’s Word – a precious cornerstone of grace and truth centered in our Lord Jesus Christ.