Two Foundations, Two Destinies Text: Isaiah 28:14-22
Introduction: The Covenant with Nothing
Every man builds his life on something. Every society, every civilization, every family, and every individual soul is built upon a foundation. There are no exceptions to this rule. The only question is what that foundation is. Is it rock, or is it sand? Is it a foundation laid by God Himself, or is it a ramshackle, self-deceived construction of our own making? In our passage today, the prophet Isaiah confronts the rulers of Jerusalem, men who should have known better, who had chosen to build on the most pathetic foundation imaginable. They had made a covenant with death, and a pact with the grave.
Now, this sounds dramatic, and it is. But we must not imagine that these rulers were cackling villains in some dark chamber, signing a literal contract with a skeletal figure. No, their covenant with death was far more ordinary, and therefore far more insidious. It was a covenant of political expediency. It was a treaty with Egypt, a trust in horses and chariots, a reliance on clever diplomacy and human strength to save them from the coming Assyrian scourge. They looked at the political realities, as they saw them, and made a calculated decision to trust in the arm of the flesh. In doing so, they made lies their refuge and falsehood their hiding place. They were the ultimate pragmatists, the ancient world's equivalent of our modern technocrats who believe that with enough data, enough experts, and enough political maneuvering, they can cheat death and hold back the consequences of their rebellion against God.
Our generation is fluent in this language. We see it everywhere. We see it in the halls of power, where men make solemn pacts based on godless ideologies, promising security and prosperity if we will only trust their systems, their science, their mandates. We see it in our own hearts, when we make private treaties with our sins, believing we can manage them, hide them, and escape the consequences. "This little lie will protect me." "This compromise will get me ahead." "This secret sin won't hurt anyone." Every time we do this, we are signing their treaty. We are making a covenant with death. We are betting our lives on a lie.
Into this world of sophisticated, self-destructive foolishness, God speaks a word of absolute, foundational reality. He declares that He is laying a different kind of foundation. He is setting a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a cornerstone. And He declares that these two foundations cannot coexist. One is a refuge of lies that will be swept away. The other is a sure foundation upon which a man can stand and not be shaken, not now, and not ever.
The Text
Therefore, hear the word of Yahweh, O scoffers, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, Because you have said, “We have cut a covenant with death, And with Sheol we have made a pact. The overflowing scourge will not reach us when it passes by, For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have hidden ourselves with lying.” Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed. I will make justice the measuring line And righteousness the level; Then hail will sweep away the refuge of falsehood, And the waters will overflow the secret place. Your covenant with death will be canceled, And your pact with Sheol will not stand; When the overflowing scourge passes through, Then you will become its trampling place. As often as it passes through, it will take you; For morning after morning it will pass through, anytime during the day or night, And it will be sheer terror to understand the report.” The bed is too short on which to stretch out, And the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. For Yahweh will rise up as at Mount Perazim; He will be stirred up as in the valley of Gibeon, To work His work, His unusual work, And to labor in His labor, His exceptional labor. So now do not carry on as scoffers, Lest your fetters be made stronger; For I have heard from Lord Yahweh of hosts Of complete destruction, one that is decreed, on all the earth.
(Isaiah 28:14-22 LSB)
The Scoffer's Delusion (vv. 14-15)
Isaiah begins with a direct address to the leadership in Jerusalem. These are not ignorant pagans; these are the rulers of God's covenant people.
"Therefore, hear the word of Yahweh, O scoffers, Who rule this people who are in Jerusalem, Because you have said, 'We have cut a covenant with death, And with Sheol we have made a pact... For we have made falsehood our refuge and we have hidden ourselves with lying.'" (Isaiah 28:14-15)
God calls them scoffers. A scoffer is not merely someone who disagrees with God. A scoffer is one who holds God's word in contempt. He has heard the truth, considered it, and then sneers at it. He believes he is smarter than God, more realistic, more in touch with how the world "really works." The rulers in Jerusalem had heard the warnings of the prophets. They knew what the law required. But they considered it naive. In their minds, trusting in Yahweh alone was foolish idealism, not a viable foreign policy.
So they made their own arrangements. They "cut a covenant with death." This is covenant language, language God uses for His relationship with His people, now twisted and perverted. They believe their political alliance with Egypt is a clever workaround. They think they have found a loophole in reality that will allow them to avoid the "overflowing scourge" of Assyria. But God sees their treaty for what it is: a pact with the grave, an alliance with nothingness.
And notice the foundation of their confidence: "we have made falsehood our refuge and we have hidden ourselves with lying." They are not just mistaken; they are committed to their mistake. They have built a shelter out of lies. A lie is an attempt to speak a reality into existence that is contrary to God's reality. They have convinced themselves that their diplomatic papers and their military alliances are more real, more substantial, than the promises and threats of the living God. This is the essence of all unbelief. It is the exchange of the truth of God for a lie, worshipping and serving the creature rather than the Creator.
The Divine Foundation (v. 16)
In stark contrast to their flimsy shelter of lies, God announces His building project. This is one of the most glorious prophecies in all of Scripture.
"Therefore thus says Lord Yahweh, 'Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a tested stone, A costly cornerstone for the foundation, firmly placed. He who believes in it will not be disturbed.'" (Isaiah 28:16)
While men are busy making covenants with death, God is busy laying a foundation for life. He is doing the work. "Behold, I am laying..." This is a sovereign, unilateral act of God. Salvation is not a cooperative venture between our cleverness and God's assistance. It is God's work from start to finish.
And what is this stone? The New Testament leaves no room for doubt. This stone is Jesus Christ. Peter quotes this very verse and applies it directly to Jesus (1 Peter 2:6). Paul does the same (Romans 9:33). Jesus Himself is the cornerstone the builders rejected (Matthew 21:42). He is the foundation of God's new creation, His new temple, the Church.
Look at the description. He is a "tested stone." Jesus was tested in the wilderness, tested in the garden, tested on the cross. He was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. He is a "costly cornerstone." The cost was the blood of God's own Son. He is "firmly placed." The resurrection and ascension are God's guarantee that this foundation cannot be moved. And the promise to those who build on Him is absolute: "He who believes in it will not be disturbed." The original Hebrew says he will not "make haste" or "be in a hurry." He will not panic. When the storms of judgment come, when the scourges of history pass through, the one who is founded on Christ is secure. He has a settled rest. He is not disturbed by the headlines, because he knows the end of the story.
The Great Demolition (vv. 17-19)
Two foundations have been presented. Now God declares what will happen to the one He did not build.
"I will make justice the measuring line And righteousness the level; Then hail will sweep away the refuge of falsehood, And the waters will overflow the secret place. Your covenant with death will be canceled..." (Isaiah 28:17-18)
God is a builder, and He builds according to a standard. His standard is not crooked; it is His own perfect character. Justice is the line, and righteousness is the level. Everything that does not conform to that perfect standard will be demolished. There is no grading on a curve. There is no appeal to mitigating circumstances. God's judgment is precise and absolute.
The "refuge of falsehood" the scoffers built will be swept away by hail. The "secret place" of their lies will be flooded. Hail and flood are images of divine judgment throughout Scripture. Think of the plagues on Egypt, or the great flood in Noah's day. These are not natural disasters; they are acts of de-creation, where God unleashes the chaos of judgment upon a rebellious world. Their covenant with death will be "canceled." The Hebrew word is kaphar, the word for atonement. Their covenant will be atoned for, wiped away, but not by a sacrifice they offer. It will be wiped away by the overwhelming force of God's judgment.
The very scourge they thought to escape will become the instrument of their destruction. "When the overflowing scourge passes through, Then you will become its trampling place." The terror will be relentless and inescapable, "morning after morning... anytime during the day or night." There will be no relief, no place to hide. The news itself will be a torment. This is what it means to be on the wrong side of God's justice.
The Fool's Inadequacy (v. 20)
Isaiah then gives a memorable proverb to describe the utter futility of their man-made solutions.
"The bed is too short on which to stretch out, And the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in." (Isaiah 28:20)
This is a picture of profound discomfort and inadequacy. Every refuge apart from Christ is like this. It promises rest but provides none. You try to settle in, but your feet are sticking out in the cold. You try to cover yourself, but you are still exposed. Think of all the secular promises of our age. The promise of fulfillment through career, the promise of security through wealth, the promise of meaning through self-expression. They are all beds too short and blankets too narrow. They cannot cover a man in the face of his own mortality. They cannot warm a soul in the cold wind of God's judgment. They are miserable comforts, and in the end, no comfort at all.
God's Strange Work (vv. 21-22)
The prophet concludes with a final, solemn warning. God is about to do something unprecedented, something strange.
"For Yahweh will rise up as at Mount Perazim; He will be stirred up as in the valley of Gibeon, To work His work, His unusual work, And to labor in His labor, His exceptional labor." (Isaiah 28:21)
Mount Perazim and the valley of Gibeon were sites of miraculous victories for Israel over her enemies. At Perazim, God "broke out" upon the Philistines for David. At Gibeon, God threw down hailstones and made the sun stand still for Joshua. These were times when God fought for His people. But now, in a shocking reversal, God is going to rise up in the same way, but this time against His people. This is His "strange work," His "exceptional labor."
Why is it strange? Because it is strange for a father to discipline his son so severely. It is strange for a husband to judge his adulterous wife. God's natural disposition, His ordinary work, is to save and to bless His covenant people. But their persistent, high-handed rebellion has forced Him to do this alien thing: to treat them as the enemy. This is a terrifying thought. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God, but it is doubly fearful for those who have known His kindness and then treated it with contempt.
Therefore, the final word is a plea: "So now do not carry on as scoffers, Lest your fetters be made stronger." To continue in mockery is to tighten your own chains. The judgment is not arbitrary; it is decreed. It is fixed. It is coming "on all the earth."
Conclusion: The Only Refuge
This passage lays before us two options, and only two. There is no third way. You are either building on the refuge of lies, or you are building on the Cornerstone God has laid in Zion. You have either made a pact with death, or you have taken refuge in the One who defeated death.
The covenant with death that the rulers of Jerusalem made was ultimately fulfilled in the covenant they made with Rome to put Jesus on the cross. They chose Caesar over Christ. They chose the refuge of political stability over the Rock of their salvation. And what was the result? The overflowing scourge of the Roman armies came in A.D. 70 and swept them all away. Their covenant with death was honored in full.
But God's strange work at the cross was even stranger than Isaiah could have imagined. For on that cross, God rose up as at Mount Perazim. He unleashed the full force of His righteous judgment, the hail and the flood of His wrath. But He did it against His own Son. The Cornerstone was struck. Jesus Christ, on the cross, became the trampling place for the scourge of our sin. He was wrapped in a blanket too narrow, the nakedness of our shame, and laid on a bed too short, the cross of our curse.
And because He endured God's strange work, we who believe in Him will not be disturbed. Because He took the full force of the demolition, we are made living stones in a temple that can never be shaken. The covenant with death has been canceled for all who are in Him, because He died our death and rose to give us His life. The choice is stark. Will you continue to patch together your flimsy shelter of lies, your self-justifications, your compromises, your secular hopes? Or will you abandon that doomed project and build your life, your family, your future, and your everything on the tested, costly, and precious Cornerstone, Jesus Christ the Lord?