God’s Strange Work

The LORD will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon-to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task. Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the LORD Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land.

Isaiah 28:14-22

Sometimes God does a strange work with his own people-a work of destruction, not salvation. He does this when his people act strangely toward him, acting not as his children, but as his enemies. This is especially true of people who have been born and brought up in the church.

This strange work of God is seen in the woes pronounced on the people of God in Isaiah 28 and the following chapters: “Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards. . .” (28:1). Here God is pronouncing woe on the northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel. “Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David settled!” (29:1), referring to Jerusalem, the capital of Judah. “Woe to those who go to great depths to hide their plans from the Lord, who do their work in darkness and think, ‘Who sees us? Who will know?'” (29:15) “‘Woe to the obstinate children,’ declares the Lord, ‘to those who carry out plans that are not mine. . . .'” (30:1) “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in the multitude of their chariots and in the great strength of their horsemen, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel or seek help from the Lord.” (31:1) “Woe to you, O destroyer, you who have not been destroyed! Woe to you, O traitor, you who have not been betrayed!” (33:1)

Material Prosperity Produces Pride

Isaiah’s prophecy can be dated just before the destruction of Samaria in 722 B.C. by the Assyrians, especially by Sargon II. The northern kingdom was enjoying a time of great economic prosperity. Its capital, Samaria, was situated on a hill three hundred feet high overlooking the Esdraelon Valley, which produced, among other things, an abundance of wine grapes.

What did this prosperity produce in these people? Pride. So Isaiah 28:1 tells us, “Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards. . . set on the head of a fertile valley-to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!” Verse 3 says, “That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, will be trampled underfoot.” And throughout the rest of Isaiah 28 the leaders, priests, and prophets are depicted as drunkards who regularly would eat, drink, and vomit.

We find the same idea in the book of Amos, where not only the priests and prophets, but also the people, engaged in drunkenness: “Hear this word, you cows of Bashan on Mount Samaria, you women who oppress the poor and crush the needy and say to your husbands, ‘Bring us some drinks!'” (Amos 4:1) “Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you notable men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!” (6:1)

As God’s people became proud and self-sufficient, they thought they were independent of their God and his rule. In their drunken state they rejected the word of God in favor of their own false revelations and judgments. The people of God, especially leaders, are supposed to be filled with the Holy Spirit, so they can understand God’s true revelation. But these leaders were filled with wine; there was no word of God in them.

In times of prosperity, people usually indulge themselves in the pleasures of this world and lose interest in the word of God. But their pride blinds them to this reality, and they become like the church of Laodicea, to which the Lord said, “You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked” (Revelation 3:17).

Mocking God and His Prophets

Materialism leads to escapism as well as to practical and theoretical atheism. Israel’s leaders rejected and mocked the word of their God: “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 and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule, a little here, a little there” (Isaiah 28:9-10).

These sophisticated people were saying, “God, when you tell us about sin, repentance, and our need to trust in you, aren’t you treating us like infants? You have such silly rules of conduct: Do and do, command and command, here a rule, there a rule, everywhere a rule. We will not put up with your treating us this way. We hate this discipleship! We hate your control over our lives! We are sick and tired of not being permitted to live the way we want! We are sick and tired of this Bible! Don’t we read and write books ourselves? Haven’t we come a long way from the exodus from Egypt? Don’t you know that we are now very cultured, educated, and scientific? In fact, we have gone beyond modernism; we are post-modernists now. We reject the idea that God created the heavens and the earth. In fact, we reject the idea that there even is a God who communicates infallibly with us and has anything to do with our lives. We reject any absolute standard of right and wrong. We believe in moral relativism. We reject any binding moral law. We want to do whatever gives us pleasure. Why should we be bound by primitive ideas of good behavior? Aren’t we grown-ups? Why should we believe that there is any absolute truth or judgment to come?” Thus these people mocked the prophets and refused to be bound by the word of God.

What was God’s response? “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. . .'” (Isaiah 28:11-12). God’s prophets were speaking words of rest, peace, and salvation to his people, but “they would not listen.” Jesus Christ called to the people of Israel as a hen calls to her chicks, but they would not listen. It is not that they did not hear him; they refused to believe and accept his offer of salvation.

Isaiah told the Lord, “Here I am. Send me!” when God asked who would go to speak to his people (Isaiah 6:8). But then God gave Isaiah this strange commission: “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed'” (9-10).

Amazingly, this happens when the word of God is preached. Isaiah asked, “Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” (53:1) Not many believe God’s message and experience his salvation.

God’s Strange Work

What, then, is God’s strange work? “The Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim, he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon-to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task” (Isaiah 28:21).

When people mock and reject God and his word, he performs his strange, alien work. The Bible tells us that God is the righteous, holy One who must judge evil. That is why I said this word is especially important to those who are born and brought up in the church. God’s eyes “are too pure to look on evil,” so he must do the strange work of dealing with the sin of his people.

The use of the word “strange” means that this is not a work God delights in doing. His true delight comes from saving those who humble, repent, and trust in him. Ezekiel 18:32 tells us, “For I take no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Sovereign Lord. Repent and live!” But when his own people mock him, God must punish them.

Isaiah 63:8-10 also speaks of God’s strange work: “He said, ‘Surely they are my people, sons who will not be false to me’; and so he became their Savior. In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.”

This strange work of God was prophesied long before Isaiah’s time, as we read in Deuteronomy 29:22-28:

Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it. The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur-nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger. All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce burning anger?” And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them. Therefore the Lord’s anger burned against the land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”

We find another reference to this strange work of God in Proverbs 29:1: “A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed-without remedy.”

In the book of Lamentations, Jeremiah speaks about this judgment of God on his own people. It is a work so strange that makes one’s blood curdle. In Lamentations 2:5 we read, “The Lord is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel.” And verse 14 of the same chapter tells us, “The visions of your prophets were false and worthless; they did not expose your sin to ward off your captivity. The oracles they gave you were false and misleading.” How many people go around with itching ears looking for pastors who will tell them what they want to hear? Such pastors will never expose sin by speaking about repentance, saving faith, or the coming judgment. Instead, they will introduce the people to escapism and turn them away from reality by declaring “false and misleading” oracles. But what is the result of such escapism? In Lamentations 2:20-21 Jeremiah says, “Look, O Lord, and consider: Whom have you ever treated like this? Should women eat their offspring, the children they have cared for? Should priest and prophet be killed in the sanctuary of the Lord? Young and old lie together in the dust of the streets; my young men and maidens have fallen by the sword. You have slain them in the day of your anger; you have slaughtered them without pity.”

So Isaiah 28:21 tells us, “The Lord will rise up as he did at Mount Perazim; he will rouse himself as in the Valley of Gibeon-to do his work, his strange work, and perform his task, his alien task.” What happened at Mount Perazim? In 2 Samuel 5 we read that the Philistines came against the people of God there. Under the direction of the Holy Spirit, “David went to Baal Perazim, and there he defeated them. He said, ‘As waters break out, the Lord has broken out against my enemies before me'” (v. 20). This is an example of God’s normal work of breaking out against his enemies and bringing deliverance to Israel. What happened in the Valley of Gibeon? Joshua 10 tells us Joshua fought against the Canaanites there. In verse 11 we read that as the Canaanites “fled before Israel on the road down from Beth Horon to Azekah, the Lord hurled large hailstones down on them from the sky, and more of them died from the hailstones than were killed by the swords of the Israelites.” Here again we see God doing his normal work of saving his people by defeating his enemies.

But Isaiah 28:21 tells us God was going to turn his destructive power against his own people. That is why it is called a strange work. If prosperity causes God’s people to become so proud, self-reliant, and “grown up” that they mock him and his word, God will act in judgment against them.

The Consequences of God’s Strange Work

The Lord rose up against his own people to cut them down to size. He did so by raising up the Assyrians and Babylonians to deal first with Israel and later with Judah.

Isaiah 28:2 tells us, “See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong. Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind, like a driving rain and a flooding downpour, he will throw it forcefully to the ground.” The God of Israel is the Lord of history; all the armies of the world are under his command. Through these enemy forces, Samaria-the wreath, the crown, the garland, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards-would be brought to the ground.

In verse 4 Isaiah calls Samaria “that fading flower.” This is speaking of the fading of man’s glory. Isaiah continues, “his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley, will be like a fig ripe before harvest. . . .” The early figs appeared in June, long before the normal harvest in September. As soon as people saw these figs, they would pluck and eat them. Isaiah was warning that the Assyrians were coming to pluck and swallow up God’s people. Then Isaiah concludes, “as soon as someone sees it and takes it in his hand, he swallows it.”

What was God’s response to these people who hated his word? “So then, the word of the Lord to them will become: Do and do, do and do, rule on rule, rule on rule, a little here, a little there-so that they will go and fall backward, be injured and snared and captured” (v. 13). What is wrong with falling backward? It is the most terrible kind of fall because one has no control. This is what happens when people reject the word of God. When people mock God’s authority and government, God himself performs the strange work of cutting them down to the ground, where they will be trampled. So Isaiah says, “That wreath, the pride of Ephraim’s drunkards, will be trampled underfoot” (v. 3).

Additionally, verse 12 tells us that because God’s people rejected his word of rest, they would hear his word of judgment from foreigners who would come to rule them, beat them, and strip them. If we refuse to listen when the preacher brings God’s word to us, God will bring other people, put his words into their mouths, and have them speak to us in tongues that we do not understand. They will crack their whips and say, “Do, do, rule, rule, turn left, turn right-move!” Then those who did not like God’s discipleship will have no choice but to be driven, governed, ruled, and brought down.

God’s people rejected his salvation, choosing instead to trust in self-salvation via idolatry and power politics. They thought they could even escape death, saying, in essence, “We have made a covenant with death so that we will be exempt from it. We have devised a way of escape from death and judgment. Aren’t we grown-ups? Why should we believe in God? Don’t we know how to take care of ourselves?” God’s people wanted to hear and believe the message of self-salvation because they had itching ears. But such a message is a lie; it only leads to death. So in verses 18-19 God responds to them:

“Your covenant with death will be annulled; your agreement with the grave will not stand. When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by, you will be beaten down by it. As often as it comes it will carry you away; morning after morning, by day and by night, it will sweep through.” The understanding of this message will bring sheer terror.

God Saves the Remnant

This does not mean that God will not save his elect people. God does save his people even when he performs his strange work. Remember what the apostle Paul said in Romans 9:6: “Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.” Only a remnant shall be saved.

Isaiah 28:5 tells us, “In that day the Lord Almighty will be a glorious crown, a beautiful wreath for the remnant of his people.” Even when the vast majority of people are taking pride in their own accomplishments and self-salvation and rejecting the word of God, there will still be some who worship God and glory in him alone. (PGM) Such people will experience God’s salvation in the midst of judgment.

There is only one way of salvation, only one way the wrath of God can be averted, only one way death can be overcome and rest achieved. Those who are proud shall experience the strange work of God; but a remnant shall be saved. Notice, though, the remnant is very small.

This idea of remnant is very important in the Bible. Isaiah 1:9 says, “Unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.” Although this is speaking about total destruction, God does leave some survivors. In Isaiah 10:22 we read, “Though your people, O Israel, be like the sand by the sea. . . .” The people of Israel were an innumerable multitude. But “only a remnant will return.” The apostle Paul quotes these verses in Romans 9:27-29 as he declares that not all Israel but only God’s elect will be saved.

God always saves his elect people-those who will listen to his word and believe in the gospel. Faith comes by hearing the word of God. As the preacher declares the gospel, a remnant will hear the word of God, love it, and put their trust in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.

God Lays a Stone in Zion

This passage, then, tells us that there is only one way of salvation. In Isaiah 28:16 God addresses those who think they can save themselves, who think they can avoid death by entering into a covenant with it, who pretend that disaster will not touch them, and who believe in falsehood: “So this is what the Sovereign Lord says: ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation; the one who trusts will never be dismayed.'”

This is speaking about God’s one way of salvation. Notice, it is God who is laying a stone in Zion. Salvation is by divine provision and initiation; we cannot save ourselves. The words “in Zion” tells us salvation is of the Jews. That is why Islam or Hinduism or Buddhism or any other religion cannot save us. It is Jesus Christ the Jew who alone can save us. He is the stone God laid in Zion.

Not only is Jesus Christ the stone God laid in Zion; he is a tested stone-tested by God as well as by the devil. Concerning his Son God said, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.” Jesus himself asked, “Who can convict me of sin?” The answer, of course, is “No one.”

He is also the testing stone, the one who tests us on the basis of his own perfection and righteousness. If anyone comes to him in his own merit, he cannot be saved. But the one who comes to him acknowledging his sin and lack of righteousness, and who prays, “Have mercy upon me, a sinner,” will be saved. Not only will he be forgiven of all his sins, but he will be clothed with the perfect righteousness of Jesus Christ.

This passage also tells us Jesus Christ is a precious stone. The eternal Son of God asked, “Who do you say I am?” and Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” He is the stone not cut by human hands, coming down from heaven to destroy all his opponents (Daniel 2). He is God himself.

Jesus Christ is also the sure foundation, a massive stone able to bear up the whole weight of his church. He is an immovable, unchangeable, unshakable, and everlasting stone. As we put the entire weight of our being on him, he will bear us up. That is the meaning of the words, “Abram believed the Lord.”

This stone language, this stone testimonium, is found also in Isaiah 8:13-14: “The Lord Almighty is the one you are to regard as holy, he is the one you are to fear, he is the one you are to dread, and he will be a sanctuary; but for both houses of Israel he will be a stone that causes men to stumble and a rock that makes them fall.” This stone is a sanctuary to those who come to him and trust in him, but he is also a stone that causes people to stumble. This stone is Jesus Christ (Matthew 21:42, Psalm 118:22), as Paul declared in Romans 9:33 and 10:11. The vast majority of his own people stumbled over this stone and were destroyed in A.D. 70.

In Acts 4:11 the apostle Peter declared concerning Jesus Christ, “He is ‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.'” Then he made this bold statement: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (v. 12). Later, in 1 Peter 2:4-7 he wrote, “As you come to him, the living Stone-rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him-you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says, ‘See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame.’ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. . . .”

Have you ever wondered why we, out of all the people in the world, are in the church, listening to the word of God and praising him? Have you ever wondered why we humbled ourselves before God and trusted in him? It is because this stone, the living Stone, regenerated us and made us his living stones. He is building us into a spiritual house of priests and prophets who will praise, worship and love him. By his grace we have been able to understand that Jesus Christ is the stone, precious to God and to us.

The church is built upon the sure foundation of Jesus Christ, and the gates of hell cannot prevail against it. For his people, this stone becomes a sanctuary, salvation, rest, and peace. Did not Jesus tell us, “Come unto me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest”?

God’s Other Strange Work

What, then, must we do to be saved? Simply, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Come and rest on this massive stone. It will bear you up and you will be saved, and your children.”

When God does his strange work of destruction, he will also save a remnant. Such people will not boast in themselves, for how can those who are saved by grace alone boast, except in the Lord who saves them? The Lord is our crown and our glory. The people of God can experience salvation because God has performed another strange work for our benefit, which is seen in Isaiah 53: “The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed” (v. 5). It is seen at Calvary’s cross, where God laid upon his Son all our iniquities and put him to death in our behalf. Yes, we deserved to die, but God strangely put his perfect Son to death in our place.

This is the gospel. This is the glory of Christ’s salvation. Jesus Christ cried out from the cross, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” In 2 Corinthians 5:21 we read, “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” Jesus Christ was punished in our place and now gives us rest.

The cross also is a strange work of God, and we glory in the substitutionary atonement of Christ. Jesus Christ destroyed our death penalty by his once-for-all death on the cross. And now the remnant can cry out, “‘Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:55-57).

What about You?

Are you a modernist who hates God’s word and his teaching of sin, repentance, and faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation? If so, this text says you shall be thrown to the ground, trampled upon, and swallowed up by your enemies. You shall be beaten down and terrified; you shall fall backward, be injured, snared, captured and destroyed. You shall experience the full judgment of God’s strange work. I am speaking especially to those who are born and brought up in the church.

But God is not going to destroy you now. He has enabled you to hear the word of God; therefore, there is still time to repent, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and come to him who is the living Stone. If you do so, he will make you into a living stone and build you into his spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, able to offer spiritual sacrifices to God through Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 28:22 tells us, “Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land.” God is saying, “Repent now, be saved today, and you will become a new person. Come out from your hiding place of lies to the hiding place of truth, who is Jesus Christ himself. Everyone who trusts in him will never be ashamed.”

There is no salvation among philosophers, technologists, sociologists, or the arrogant church. Salvation is found in Jesus Christ alone, who came into the world “to comfort all who mourn and to provide for those who grieve in Zion, to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor” (Isaiah 61:3). Oaks of righteousness! There will be a people so transformed that they will display God and his glory for all to see.

No minister wants anyone to experience God’s strange work; therefore, I urge you to come to him and rest on him today. If you trust in Jesus Christ alone, this stone that God laid in Zion will save you He will forgive your sins, bear you up, and give you his righteousness, clothing you with garments of praise.

May God help us that we would not experience his strange work of judgment but trust in his Son Jesus Christ and rest in him. May we repent of all our sins and begin to glory in the cross and God’s other strange work of putting to death in our behalf his Son who knew no sin. May we be clothed with humility, embrace discipleship and glory in his word so that we can hear the voice from behind telling us, “This is the way; walk ye in it.” Amen.