Isaiah 28:10-13

Translation, beginning in verse 7: “But by way of contrast these reversionists under the influence of evil also have gone astray with wine, and by imbibing in heavy alcoholic potations they stagger. The priest and prophet have gone astray by also imbibing; they are destroyed from that wine, they stagger from those heavy alcoholic potations, they go astray in the perception of doctrine, they are unstable in pronouncing judgement or communicating doctrine.”

Verse 8 — “Since all tables are filled up with vomit and excrement, there is no place to sit down and find doctrine.”

Verse 9 — “To whom shall he teach knowledge of doctrine?” If everyone is incapable of taking in doctrine, if people are past the point of no return, then who is willing to listen to the teaching of doctrine?

Principles

1. Believers do things in reversionism which make reversion recovery humanly impossible.

2. The only hope for people in the northern kingdom is to do what the Assyrians did in the days of Jonah: change their mind, change their attitude about doctrine.

3. The road back will be extra difficult because the reversionistic believers of Samaria not only have to remain positive toward doctrine on a daily basis to recover but they have to remain negative toward alcoholic beverage so they can stay dried out long enough to concentrate.

4. Once a person abuses the social function of alcohol he must constantly be negative toward alcohol for the rest of his life. (The Bible does not forbid social drinking but the Bible does warn that drunkenness is a sin)

5. Today we call those who have abused drinking alcohol alcoholics — a person addicted to the excessive use of alcohol.

6. Remember that drinking is not forbidden but drunkenness is a sin and the perpetuation of drunkenness leads to the status quo of the alcoholic.

7. As noted in the previous verses the northern kingdom was a nation of reversionists and their brand of sublimation was generally alcoholism.

8. The nature of their reversionism automatically handicapped them for the consistent function of GAP at reversion recovery.

9. The same principle is true with regard to narcotics and dope addiction.

10. Reversionism always carries its scars both physiological and psychological. These scars make reversion recovery difficult and in some cases impossible.

11. Legalism causes scars on the soul which hinder reversion recovery — he always has the wrong information which has to be removed.

12. Alcoholism causes scars on the body which hinder recovery through the function of GAP.

The reversionism which destroyed the northern kingdom was reversionism of spiritual problems. The problem was not alcoholism, far from it. The problem was negative volition toward doctrine. Alcohol merely was the manifestation of it.

Our question then: “To whom will he teach knowledge of doctrine?” Obviously, when you get into reversionism you pick up certain things and make it very difficult for recovery.

Our next question: “And whom shall he make to understand doctrine?” This is the interrogative pronoun mi, and it again asks a second question. It should be correctly translated, “and to whom” .Then we have the hiphil imperfect from the verb bin. Bin in the qal stem means to distinguish or to separate or to discern or perceive. In the niphal it means to be intelligent. In the hithpael it means to show yourself attentive, to have concentration. This concentration intensified is the piel stem. But the hiphil stem means to cause to understand, which means to teach. Therefore it is correctly translated “and to whom shall he teach” or “to whom shall he cause to understand the message of doctrine” — doctrinal instruction, the Hebrew word shemuah. It is taken from the verb shama which means to listen and to concentrate. Shemuah means not only doctrinal instruction but doctrinal inculcation under conditions of academic discipline.

Doctrine is the only hope for a nation as well as an individual in reversionism. It is the only solution and the only means of recovery. And it isn’t a one-shot thing, it is a persistent consistent thing that happens over a period of time. The laws of divine establishment are distorted in a reversionistic nation and the only doctrine which is left and the only hope for deliverance is in a small remnant of people, but there are not enough of them and that is the tragedy. Therefore God will administer the fifth cycle of discipline to this nation — the northern kingdom.

“To whom shall he teach knowledge of doctrine? And to whom shall he cause to perceive the message of doctrine?” Who is qualified? We have seen that these people are in very serious trouble.

Then a little bit of sarcasm in the midst of all this. If there is anyone who cannot understand doctrine, if there is anyone who does not belong in a church auditorium when the Word is being taught, it is a baby which has just been weaned. “The ones being weaned from milk, taken from the mother’s breasts” .The verb for “being weaned” is gamal. It is a qal participle. Are they ready to take in doctrine? Obviously a weaned baby is not ready for doctrine. Reversionists have to become like little children being weaned, and little children being weaned can’t take it in. Certain types of reversionism put you in that bracket. They make reversion recovery extremely difficult and require a tremendous amount of self-discipline that the form of reversionism has not produced. Therefore the road back is a very difficult one. Verse 9 is designed to demonstrate the fact that whenever you go into reversionism pick a system where recovery is easy.

When a person gets into reversionism and his manifestation of reversionism is the tongues movement his reversion recovery is as difficult as the alcoholic or the dope addict or the extreme legalist.

Here is the solution to alcoholic reversionism, and all kinds — alcoholic is emphasised because: “For precept upon precept, precept upon precept” .Isaiah took the actual language of drunks and gave the solution their language. He is saying in effect that to reach people you have to get down on their level when they are positive, and the only language the drunks can understand is drunken language. This doesn’t show up in the English, obviously.

The first word is “For,” the explanatory use of the conjunction ki, and that is not drunk language. This is Isaiah, stone cold sober, explaining the solution in drunk language.

The drunk language: First we have a noun, tsa [pronounced tsau]. The word is derived from the word to command, tsawah. It means command, instruction, order. It is translated “precept” and old English word for a commandment, an order. It also means “decree,” and therefore it means category of doctrine. Next we have tsa l tsa [the “l” is a preposition meaning “added to"], then it is repeated. It means category of doctrine added to category of doctrine. It tells immediately what is the answer and the solution. The answer is in doctrine. But when a drunk says it you don’t understand it. To you it is “speaking in tongues” .Isaiah is actually, in writing, mimicking a drunk and doing it for a purpose, because he is going to teach and give the only prophecy in the Word of God about tongues on the Day of Pentecost — legitimate. But he is mimicking the drunk in writing and he is doing is so that people can understand. You can’t understand a drunk. So the time is going to come when the fifth cycle of discipline is coming around again and people are going to speak in a language you cannot understand, but what they say is true. He has put words into the mouth of the drunk and the words are true — the only solution is category of doctrine added to category of doctrine, category of doctrine added to category of doctrine, but he is putting it in the mouth of a drunk.

The road to reversion recovery demands Bible doctrine resident in the soul categorically. You cannot get back, you cannot recover, you cannot grow up unless you have doctrine in the soul categorically. And another thing he is saying here is once you get that doctrine in your soul you will be like a drunk to all of your friends. They won’t understand you, they won’t like you, they will be making life rough for you. The importance of categorical presentation of doctrine, then, is the emphasis in that line which is so simply translated “precept upon precept, precept upon precept,” but by now we know it is “category added to category, category added to category” .

Next we have another set of inebriated phonetics. Now it is qaw l qaw. What is qaw? It is a rope, a cord, a ruler, a measuring line, a string that is stretched out to measure something. So “line added to line, line added to line” is a reference to exegetical analysis of scripture. This is what the Levitical priest can do — teach line after line. Doctrine must be taught exegetically as well as categorically. In the Hebrew this imitates drunken enunciation, slurred stammering of the intoxicated person. Not only are the reversionists being ridiculed but two lessons are being taught by mimicking the drunk. Lesson #1: It takes wearisome repetition of doctrine to become inculcated to the point of reversion recovery. And wearisome repetition means extended self-discipline. Therefore the type of reversionism here, which is alcoholism, is highly incompatible with self-discipline — as is the legalist. The legalist is an island to himself, he thinks about anything, any taboo or anything else, as more important than anything else in life. The legalist is always very arrogant, therefore he carries and values his, own opinion above that of anyone who can teach doctrine more interestingly or in any way that he might be inclined to concentrate. So no matter how the reversionist is recovering it takes tremendous self-discipline.

The believer, also in reversion recovery, must learn all over again endless nomenclature, technical vocabulary of Bible doctrine, and begin to learn to think Christo-centrically. Notice also that the challenge is not given in sweetness and light. What we have here is sanctified sarcasm. The broken jargon of drunkenness must become academic discipline of expository teaching, is what Isaiah is saying.

“For category added to category, category added to category; line added to line, line added to line [or, exegesis added to exegesis].”

By now the drunk has noticed that he has been insulted in a sarcastic way, so up comes something else. The drunk is now indignant. It suddenly comes through all of this alcoholic vapour that someone is making fun of him, that there is a little sarcasm in the air, and so he responds onomatopoetically. Now he tries to straighten out his jargon and not make it so static: zeer saam which means “at this time,” and if you repeat it, it means “at that time” .Zeer means a little; sam is a temporal adverb, and so he is saying “a little doctrine at this time, and a little doctrine at that time” .And it is a perfect imitation of a drunk who has been insulted. And he is saying, in effect, You mean I can’t recover by tomorrow from reversionism? You mean I’ve got to get a little doctrine today, a little doctrine tomorrow? He is insulted. Now that he sees the issue he wants to get well right now.

This phrase emphasises the importance of consistency. Self-discipline demands consistency. Reversion recovery demands a little bit of doctrine today, a little bit of doctrine tomorrow. There is no such thing as instant recovery from reversionism.

So here is the personal solution for reversionism plus the national solution for the problem of the fifth cycle of discipline. Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the believer is the only answer to the degenerate, disintegrating society of Samaria and any other society in like condition. Jesus Christ controls history and therefore nations with a remnant of mature believers are blessed and promoted, positive volition toward doctrine blesses that nation as a result. Nations with a majority of reversionistic believers are disciplined and destroyed. Negative volition toward doctrine ruins a nation, Bible doctrine is the answer, consistent positive volition is the answer.

Verse 10 is a nightmare to explain — a double entendre in a foreign language, having as a background the way a drunk sounds when he spoke Hebrew in BC 721. You know that the general characteristics of inebriation in our language is the slurring of words. But they didn’t do that in the Jewish language. In the Hebrew language of the ancient world it was a very different sound. We have in verse 10, “line upon line, precept upon precept” .Actually, what Isaiah has done is to take the actual sound of the drunk in Samaria and to use it, to imitate the sound perfectly. This is the language of the inebriate. But this person is also a reversionist and this is the manifestation of his reversionism. The problem is he is a believer who has rejected doctrine. So Isaiah takes the language of the drunk to show him the solution. The solution is in these four lines. They mean category of doctrine added to category of doctrine. Then it takes the next: exegesis of doctrine plus exegesis of doctrine. Here is the solution.

There are two factors involved. When a person starts to recover from reversionism, if he is in certain types of reversionism it is almost physically impossible to do so. There are certain types of reversionism where it is almost impossible to get back but the answer is always the same: the intake of doctrine categorically and the intake of doctrine exegetically.

The corrected translation: “For category added to category, category added to category; exegetical teaching added to exegetical teaching, exegetical teaching added to exegetical teaching.”

Then when you suddenly hit this drunk with the fact that this is his answer, “a little doctrine at this time, and a little doctrine at that time.” Once he realises that there is hope and that there is an answer he says, sure I want to recover from reversionism, I want all the doctrine I need right now. Give it to me all in one shot. So when he hears that he can’t take it all in one shot, that you can’t recover from reversionism in 24 hours then he is highly indignant because it requires a tremendous amount of discipline — a little doctrine today, a little doctrine tomorrow. Therefore it takes quite a while and this is the problem. The principle is that both the personal solution to the problem of reversionism plus the national solution to the problem of the fifth cycle of discipline are found in Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine resident in the soul of the believer is the only way to handle the problems of life for the individual believer as well as the nation. Since Jesus Christ controls history this is the only way our Lord preserves the priest nation.

Verse 11 — Because we are dealing with a double entendre and because that same drunk language is going to be turned around and used as a prophecy for tongues it becomes necessary to build up a little bit. So by way of introduction:

1. Since the reversionistic sublimation of the northern kingdom was drunkenness, alcoholic intemperance, the warning of the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline was to be the basis and annunciation of the alcoholics of Samaria.

2. The drunken speech, such as we have seen in verse 10, became the basis for the use of the gift of tongues. The gift of tongues was going to warn the southern kingdom.

3. The stuttering vocalisation of the drunks of the northern kingdom sounds very much like the use of tongues on the Day of Pentecost — Acts 2:13-15. The gift of tongues on the Day of Pentecost sounded to the ear of the sober person just like the language of the drunks in BC 721. The unbelievers were mocking and saying these people were full of new wine.

4. The first time the phenomenon of tongues occurred the crowd concluded that those speaking were drunk — Acts 2:15.

5. Drunken enunciation was the sign of the fifth cycle of discipline to the northern kingdom but tongues was the sign of the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom. In other words, northern kingdom: 721 BC; southern kingdom: 30 AD. The warning was drunkenness. The warning to the southern kingdom in AD 30 was tongues. (The sound was the sound of a drunk; the content is the solution)

This very verse is quoted in 1 Corinthians 14:21,22 — “In the law [the Torah, OT canon] it stands written” — dramatic perfect tense of grafw. The dramatic perfect is the rhetorical use of the perfect which has completed action and results go on. In other words, it has always been there since Isaiah wrote it in the canon — “With strange tongues and by lips of strangers will I speak to this people; and even so they will not listen to me, says the Lord. So then, tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe, but to those who do not believe.” The warning to the Jews at the beginning of the Church Age was to be evangelisation in a Gentile language. The evangelisation had to fulfil the concept of a miracle sign — shmeion — and the miracle sign simply meant that God the Holy Spirit gave ability to eleven disciples who were not educated Jews, and suddenly they were able to speak eloquently in many different languages, and they taught the gospel. To many Jews it sounded as though they were drunk but there were some Jews who had come to Jerusalem for the holy days and these people heard the Gospel in their own languages. This was to be a warning that a priest nation being evangelised in Gentile languages was no longer going to be a priest nation — warning of the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline. So like the miracle sign to the Ninevites or the Assyrians — Jonah both evangelised and taught doctrine to them and they survived another 142 more years — so these are signs to give people a chance to respond. The northern kingdom would not respond, the southern kingdom would, and that was going to change things.

“For with stammering lips” — Be plus laeg which actually means to speak in a barbarous or foreign language. Then we have a noun saphah meaning articulation. Translation: “For with alien articulation” .That means a Gentile language, a language not Jewish. Then we have added, “and another tongue” — be acher lashon, which means and with a foreign language. This is exactly what the legitimate gift of tongues was. it included both evangelisation and the teaching of doctrine in a Gentile language to a priest nation — Jewish. It has to be a language other than the Hebrew language — “and with a foreign language will he speak,” the piel imperfect of dabar. The piel is intensive, it means to communicate. He will communicate doctrine “to this people,” referring to Israel at a future time under the title Judea, between 30 and 70 AD. This is a prophecy of the gift of tongues which was to be used in the future as a warning of the fifth cycle of discipline. Drunken speech was the warning in BC 725, and Gentile languages was the warning in 30-70 AD.

It looks like this: 725 BC, the bi-centennial year of the northern kingdom. How were they warned? They were warned by drunken articulation. So Isaiah takes the solution, puts it into drunken articulation, and that is where you get line upon line and precept upon precept. That is the warning. In AD 30-70 again the warning comes from foreign articulation, and it sounds like drunken speech but it isn’t .So there is an analogy, drunken speech and drunken speech. Drunken speech doesn’t mean that everyone was drunk it just simply means that drunken speech represents the whole realm of reversionism.

Literally the passage says (and this is the one quoted in 1 Corinthians 14:21): “For with alien articulation and by means of a foreign language he will communicate to this people (the Jews).”

The doctrine of the gift of tongues

1. Tongues was a temporary gift, it lasted for forty years, and was used at the beginning of the Church Age to warn the priest nation of Judea of the approach of the fifth cycle of discipline. Drunken speech in the streets of Samaria was a warning of the fifth cycle of discipline in BC 725; apparent but not real drunken speech in the streets of Jerusalem in AD 30 was a warning of the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline.

2. Inasmuch as the Jews had been custodians of the canon of scripture as a priest nation and was responsible for both evangelism of the nations (Gentiles) and the teaching of doctrine, the miracle involved in the mechanics of tongues was a sign of the fifth cycle of discipline. The sign: when the Jews are evangelised in Gentile languages by a miracle from the Holy Spirit the fifth cycle of discipline is approaching. (The pseudo-tongues is the reversionism of believers or the demonism of unbelievers combined to try to set up a system of pseudo spirituality. And the people who tell us that they are speaking in tongues today are telling us that we are getting close to the fifth cycle of discipline too, because they are the biggest bunch of fakers that ever lived. The whole thing is a manifestation of religious reversionism)

3. All temporary spiritual gifts, including apostleship, prophecy, miracles, healings, were designed to take up the slack until the canon of the New Testament was completed and circulated. Tongues and the interpretation of tongues is the exception. It was designed to warn a priest nation of the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline. And that is the end of temporary gifts. No one today has the gift of apostleship or prophecy or miracles or healing. Those gifts are gone. We have instead now a greater miracle, the New Testament canon. They were simply to fulfil the dissemination of doctrine to the early church. The early church had a much more difficult time getting through doctrine than we have today because it wasn’t in writing. We have it in writing. The only exception in all the temporary the gifts was tongues and interpretation of tongues. That was not to take up the slack for anything but to warn the priest nation of Judea that they were about to go out under the fifth cycle of discipline.

4. Therefore all temporary gifts were terminated by AD 96 or shortly thereafter.

5. The exception is the temporary gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues, terminated in AD 70, the year that Jerusalem was destroyed and the fifth cycle of discipline was administered to the priest nation of Judea.

6. At that time the fifth cycle of discipline was administered and Israel remains scattered, and will remain scattered, throughout the Church Age.

7. The purpose of tongues as a warning to Israel of the fifth cycle was removed, and therefore the gift was removed. The purpose was to warn Israel. Once Israel was out and cancelled under the fifth cycle, the gift is cancelled. The only purpose of the gift was to present the solution — how to avoid the fifth cycle. Therefore the gift of tongues functioned for the first forty years of the Church Age as a bona fide spiritual activity. After that it ceased to function.

The prophecy of the gift of tongues

1. The reversionistic sublimation of the northern kingdom of Israel in 725 BC was drunkenness — Isaiah 28:1, 3, 7, 8.

2. Therefore the warning of the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline to the northern kingdom was the stuttering vocalisation of drunken speech of the reversionistic drunks of Israel.

3. From this alcoholic enunciation of the drunks of Israel comes another speech warning of the future, a warning of the fifth cycle of discipline to the priest nation of Jews called Judea.

4. Therefore just as drunken speech was a warning in BC 725, so a very similar type of enunciation would be a warning between the years 30 and 70 AD.

This prophecy is quoted as pertaining to the gift of tongues in 1 Corinthians 14:21, 22.

There are three Pentecosts. The first Pentecost we call the Jewish Pentecost. Judea was a priest nation at the time — Acts 2:1-11. “For these men are not drunk as you presume” .

Theactual enunciation that Isaiah so beautifully picked up, and showed that in this very “drunken” language what they were saying in content was the solution, has a strange sound. The Jews in their drunkenness in 721 were using this slurred language, and in AD 30 the Jews who were sober were listening to Jews who sounded like they were drunk. There is a direct historical analogy with a different background. The former were reversionistic believers; the latter were believers filled with the Holy Spirit. But the analogy of the sound is the same.

The first time the phenomenon of tongues occurred the crowd then concluded that those speaking were drunk — Acts 2:15.

Drunken enunciation was the sign of the fifth cycle of discipline to the northern kingdom, but tongues was the sign of the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom. In other words, the warning to the northern kingdom was drunkenness; the warning to the southern kingdom in AD 30 was tongues. Both get their warnings and both get their warnings on the same principle: some strange sound comes to the ear. The only difference is that the strange sound in 721 BC was a sign of reversionism, but in 30 AD the strange sound was the sign of solution — the content of the message was the solution.

Tongues is not drunkenness and it is not emotional gibberish, it is the filling of the Holy Spirit producing a miracle in the vocal cords. The mentality is not involved. These people did not know the language they were speaking. So neither the emotion nor the mind [the mentality of the soul] is involved, only the vocal cords. The vocal cords utter a foreign language not previously known to the communicator, and the content is said to be “the mighty deeds of God” .That was the Jewish Pentecost. But there were Jews related to Gentiles in other places, so we have the Gentile Pentecost in Acts chapter 10:44-46 ---

Verse 44 — “While Peter yet spoke these words, the Holy Spirit fell on all of them who heard the word.

Verse 45 — “And they [believers] of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Verse 46 — “For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God.”

Then there was a transitional Pentecost in Acts 19:2-7, the same thing again. Up until AD 70 this occurred at certain times. Principle: Old Testament believers in Acts 19 who lived long enough into the new dispensation became members of the new dispensation. Therefore, they had to have their own special Pentecost as a result.

Once the fifth cycle of discipline was administered to Israel in AD 70 the gift of tongues was discontinued and withdrawn — 1 Corinthians 13:8-10.

Verse 8 — “Love [the filling of the Spirit] never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy [temporary gifts] they shall be abolished” — future passive indicative of katargew. Katargew means that they were legitimately operative at the time but there would be a time when they would not be legitimate and be cancelled. Katargew means to cancel — “whether there are tongues, they will cease altogether” — different word here — future middle indicative of pauw — because they are going to be cut off before prophecy. The gift of prophecy will go all the way to AD 96 and even thereafter for a short time, but tongues is going to be cut of when its job is completed. The purpose of prophecy was to communicate doctrine until the canon was completed but the purpose of tongues was to communicate a warning until the warning is no longer necessary — in August of AD 70 — “whether knowledge, it shall be cancelled” — future passive indicative of katargew, reverting back again to the correct verb morphology that relates to the use of the gift.

Verse 10 — “However when the perfect [completed]” — nominative neuter singular of teleioj. In the masculine gender teleioj does mean “perfect,” but in the neuter gender it means completed. This is a neuter things and it refers to the canon of scripture, not the Lord Jesus — “has come [AD 96], the part [which has been going on before then] shall be abolished,” or literally, “that which is from that side [the other side of the canon, the period when the canon didn’t exist] shall be abolished.”

Misconceptions regarding the gift of tongues

1. Tongues are not necessary for salvation — 1 Corinthians 12:3

2. Tongues has never been a sign of spirituality — 1 Corinthians 12:11

3. Tongues must not be confused with the baptism of the Spirit, they are not the same — 1 Corinthians 12:13

4. Tongues should not cause other believers without the gift to have an inferiority complex [this is when it was legitimate]— 1 Corinthians 12:15,16.

5. Tongues should not cause the possessor of the gift to have a superiority complex or to suffer from blind arrogance — 1 Corinthians 12:21.

6. Tongues is the least of all spiritual gifts — 1 Corinthians 12:28, the last mention according to merit is the gift of tongues.

7. Tongues can only be effectively used when the believer who possesses the gift is controlled by the Spirit — 1 Corinthians 13.

8. The abuse of tongues during its tenure — between 30 and 70 AD — demanded its regulation with very strict discipline — 1 Corinthians 14. The discipline is described under three paragraphs. The first 25 verses teaches the inferiority of tongues as a gift — it is an inferior gift. The second paragraph, verses 26-35, regulates tongues under a principle of academic discipline. The third paragraph, verses 36-40, says that the most important thing in the believer’s life is to respond to doctrine, not to try to work up a case for tongues.

9. Tongues is perpetuated as a Satanic function — 2 Thessalonians 2:7-12 [especially verse 9].

10. The mechanics of tongues as a Satanic activity is found in Isaiah 8:19; 29:4 — the Obh type demon who controls the vocal cords of unbelievers — called in the Greek translation e)ggastrimuqoj, which means a ventriloquist demon. The vocal cords of the unbeliever who speaks in tongues are controlled as a Satanic operation to distract believers from doctrine. This explains tongues where unbelievers are involved. When believers are involved it is a matter of emotional reversionism.

11. Therefore pseudo-tongues is an expression of emotional reversionism — 2 Corinthians 6:11-12. Believers are commanded to separate from other believers in their emotional revolt of the soul, and this includes emotional legalists, emotional do-gooders, holy-rollers or the tongues crowd, and everyone who uses their emotion rather than doctrine as the criterion for their own life.

Isaiah mimics the drunk when giving the solution. The problem really wasn’t drinking, the problem was rejection of Bible doctrine and this is the way they were sublimating. Everyone has their own brand of expressing reversionism but these people used alcoholism, and Isaiah imitates them. In imitating them he kept repeating to show that the solution to their problem lies in repetition of doctrine. Just as the drunks’ words might be a little obscure to those who might be sober so doctrine is obscure to these people because most of these people had been drinking so long they had passed the point of no return. As a result of this we have a beautiful prophecy which says the drunken language of the northern kingdom was the sign that it was going out under the fifth cycle of discipline. The Assyrians overran the northern kingdom in 721 BC and destroyed it. This will be a warning once more to the southern kingdom when it was revised under the name of Judea as a priest nation, and there would be legitimate speaking in tongues. This would be a warning once more that Judea was going out under the fifth cycle of discipline. Then, after that, Satan would pick this up and believers in reversionism would pick it up an assimilated tongues which is really emotional revolt, and they would manifest it in this way as a means of saying that they had advanced spiritually beyond anyone else. Unbelievers would pick up tongues as a part of demonism.

Verse 12 — “To whom he said, This is the rest by which ye may cause the weary to rest” .This double entendre which represent Isaiah’s great humour is actually designed to give the solution to the drunks of Ephraim. Their only hope is Bible doctrine. They are persisting in positive volition toward alcohol and therefore negative volition toward doctrine in hopes of avoiding reality and reaching a solution to their problem, whereas what they need is positive volition toward doctrine, and since they have abused the privilege of social drinking, total negative volition toward alcohol.

“To whom he said” is actually “which he said to them” .And we start out with the qal perfect of the verb amar. We are talking about communication and the solution must be communicated. Notice something about this first phrase which we have here: “He who said to them” is the corrected translation, and all that is done is he communicates the solution through doctrine — doctrine being the solution — but he does not coerce the volition. In other words, the solution can be communicated but no one is forced. No one is forced to give up whatever it is that keeps them in reversionism and keeps them with false solutions to the problems of life. Doctrine is the true solution and these people are not being forced into any course of action.

There is a solution, says verse 12 — “He who said to them.”

1. Solutions must be communicated.

2. Solutions are communicated through doctrine. Doctrine is not only the solution it is the communication of solutions.

3. You must be free to accept or reject the solution. If you accept the solution you must be consistent — self discipline, the daily function of GAP, a constant attitude toward doctrine — because this is a part of the greater conflict in history, the unseen conflict, the angelic conflict. Your attitude toward doctrine is very important because your soul is the battlefield for the angelic conflict. Who controls your soul is the great issue. Does Satan control your soul through false doctrine? Does Satan control your soul through reversionism? Or does God control your soul through Bible doctrine?

“This is the rest whereby ye may cause the weary to rest.” We start out with the demonstrative pronoun zoth, translated correctly. “this.” The demonstrative pronoun emphasises the solution. It emphasises that Bible doctrine communicated and received in a positive manner, therefore transmitted to the souls of believers, is the only solution, and that there comes a time in history when this disaster and catastrophe is so intensified that there is no solution but the simple solution of the principle of doctrine. It must be a spiritual solution. This is what we call historical disaster, when all of man’s efforts cannot deliver a country or a people, or turn anything around.

The word for “rest” is meuchah, and it is declaring in one word “tranquillity rest” .It means maximum doctrine in the soul so that there is tranquillity of soul, there is a completely relaxed attitude in the soul. With this we have the hiphil imperative of the verb nuach. The hiphil stem is always important because it is a causative active voice, and it means to cause to rest here. Therefore it should be translated, “cause rest to” .And then we have the name put on the people in the northern kingdom — ajeph, which means those who are totally exhausted from disaster, those who have been shocked because they are beginning to see the reality of the situation. This is more than simple exhaustion or fatigue, this is shock fatigue, this is beginning to see your whole world crumble and you can do nothing about it — “Cause rest to the weary ones” .The weary ones are the ones who have now seen that their alcoholic reversionism isn’t going to help them and that there isn’t enough alcohol in al the world to avoid the reality of the Assyrian conquest. So the hiphil imperative from nuach is a command to teach doctrine to the citizens of the northern kingdom because this is till their only solution.

Translation so far: “He [God] who said to them [the Jews of the northern kingdom], This doctrine is the tranquillity rest [the cracking of the maturity barrier], therefore give rest [doctrinal teaching] to the weary [citizens of the northern kingdom in reversionism]..”

Principle

1. Doctrine was the only solution both to the individual and national problems of the northern kingdom.

2. For the northern kingdom was founded by revolution, reversionism, apostasy, and the influence of Satan’s policy of evil.

3. Revolution, then, historically has never proven helpful, and any nation involved in revolution has always been destroyed by the same ingredients. Revolution is rejection of authority and part of the policy of evil whereby the divine laws of establishment are undermined and neutralised.

4. This is to give Satan better opportunity to inflict his plans and policies on the world which he rules since the fall of man. God has set up the laws of establishment to protect us from the evil policies of Satan, to protect us from revolution. And when doctrine is rejected by believers, establishment is rejected by unbelievers. The combination of doctrine being rejected by believers and establishment being rejected by unbelievers in a nation the inevitable result is revolution. Satan then has his perfect opportunity to enforce upon any given people his own will and policies.

5. In BC 925 Jereboam revolted against the son and successor of Solomon, Reheboam. The legitimate ruler of Israel was Reheboam, son of Solomon, tribe of Judah, family of David. He was duly constituted authority. He was God’s authority. His person was not an issue, it was his authority which was the issue. His person was made an issue because revolution always does that.

6. Jereboam from the tribe of Ephraim led the revolt which split Israel into two kingdoms. He was from the jealous tribe — Ephraim was jealous of Judah. Ephraim was the double portion tribe, the tribe of Joseph. Therefore, being the double portion tribe Ephraim felt they had the right to rule the nation. But they did not have the right. God declared very clearly in the Davidic covenant that the authority of rulership would always be vested in one tribe, Judah; one family, David’s family. So this was a deliberate rejection of authority.

7. Spawned in revolution and rejection of authority it was natural for the northern kingdom to carry over this lack of discipline and rejection of Bible doctrine, and rejection of the ministry of the prophets — like Elijah, Elisha, Hosea, Jonah, Amos, Micah. Always, where the country is founded on rejection of authority the country never stays very long with anyone’s authority, unless it is evil. There never was a non-evil king in the northern kingdom. So revolution produces the environment for apostasy and reversionism.

“this is the refreshing” — literally, “this [doctrine] is them place of refreshment,” for we have the word margeah, the place of refreshment. The place of refreshment is Bible doctrine in the soul. The more doctrine in the soul the greater the refreshment. The place of refreshment finally comes to mean cracking that maturity barrier.

“yet they would not hear” — it is much stronger than that, a very strong negative plus the qal perfect from abah meaning to be willing. Abah is a very important word because it emphasises human volition, human will, human determination. The qal perfect says that not only at this time under the Assyrian attack but throughout their entire history of two hundred years they did not have free will directed toward doctrine. There were exceptions to this always. They always had a remnant according to the election of grace in every generation but generally speaking they followed the pattern of the foundation of their kingdom — revolution, rejection of authority.

“they were not willing to hear” is the qal infinitive of the verb shama. Shama means to hear, to concentrate, to listen. They were not willing to hear doctrine.

The entire verse says: “He [God] who said to them [Jews of the northern kingdom], This doctrine is the tranquillity rest [cracking the maturity barrier], therefore give rest [doctrinal teaching] to the weary ones [the fatigued citizens], this doctrine is the place of refreshment; but they [the northern kingdom] were not willing to hear doctrine.”

Verse 13 — “But the word of the Lord was to them” — Literally, “Nevertheless to them the doctrine of Jehovah became” — became like the drunken language. To those who are negative doctrine is like so much drunken language. They didn’t understand it, they couldn’t begin to comprehend it, it didn’t’ make sense to them.

Now we have for the last time the repetition of the double entendre: “Category of doctrine added to category of doctrine; category of doctrine added to category of doctrine.” Notice that there is a repetition; there is the need for repetition. Doctrine must be repeated and repeated and repeated because the objective is not to entertain but to get doctrine resident in the soul, and to give volition the chance to say yes or no.

Next is “line upon line,” and exactly the same double entendre, imitating the drunk as he would be in the northern kingdom in BC 725. Again, it means exegetical analysis added to exegetical analysis, or expository teaching added to expository teaching. Remember that Isaiah, in mimicking the language of the reversionistic drunks of Ephraim, is presenting a principle: For those who are negative toward doctrine, Bible teaching sounds to them like a drunken language. Doctrine is rejected, they have passed the point of no return. Therefore the tongues passage which we have studied and the doctrine of tongues and this passage are all related. And therefore there is one thing else said in history, a very important application of the doctrine: In 725 BC, the bi-centennial of the northern kingdom, their reversionism was manifested in alcoholism — the drunks of Ephraim. So they had drunken language, and drunken language is picked up by Isaiah to give them the solution which is found in doctrine, and they said no — negative — we will not take doctrine. So the drunken language always sounds incoherent to someone who doesn’t know the drunken language. Therefore in AD 30, the Day of Pentecost, as prophesied from this passage, the people began to speak to another priest nation. Jews, the disciples, began to speak in tongues — in foreign languages — and they started to evangelise the Jews in Gentile languages. That was legitimate from 30 to 70 AD, for as drunkenness was the warning to the northern kingdom in 725 BC, so legitimate tongues was the warning of the fifth cycle of discipline to the southern kingdom during that period of forty years. But after that there would be the false use of tongues, and false tongues then would be a sign to future nations that they are in reversionism, liable to divine discipline, fifth cycle.

The very fact that people allege to speak in tongues and the very fact that there is demonism involved, and the fact that apparently this so-called tongues movement is spreading means the more they spread the greater the cancer. For it is a warning to us and a sign to us in the day in which we live that having a maximum number of people speaking in tongues, just as they had drunks in Ephraim as a warning that they were going out, so the tongues movement today is a warning not only of evil and reversionism but the fact a thermometer of the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline. So tongues or inarticulate language, or slurred drunken language, has been a warning in three different occasions in history — the northern kingdom in BC 725; and, when tongues was used legitimately, to the unbeliever and to those who didn’t care or didn’t understand, it sounded like drunks. The use of tongues today is a manifestation of reversionism. Today the most dominant manifestation of reversionism is the tongues movement. It is evil all the way; it is rejection of Bible doctrine; it is using a substitute for doctrine in some form of pseudo or genuine ecstatic experience. The whole thing is evil, it is a form of sublimation. The holy-rollers today are using emotion the same way that the northern kingdom used alcohol to avoid reality. So today the tongues crowd are anti-doctrine.

“here a little, there a little” — a little doctrine at this time, a little doctrine at that time and, of course, ignoring the whole principle. This is the protest of the drunks. The persistence in the function of GAP is necessary, the daily function of GAP is necessary, self-discipline is necessary. It takes a little doctrine today and a little doctrine tomorrow. There is no instant recovery from reversionism. There must be many decisions to take in doctrine.

Repentance toward doctrine is a series of continuous positive decisions made over a long period of time whereby the high ground of supergrace is finally attained.

The historical interpretation of this passage

1. For two hundred years — BC 925-725 — the northern kingdom of Israel has been an independent nation.

2. When Isaiah wrote this chapter it was the bi-centennial of the northern kingdom. In effect, Isaiah 28 was the bi-centennial message of warning to that nation.

3. In three and a half years the northern kingdom would be destroyed by the overflowing scourge of Assyria.

4. In BC 721 there would no longer be the independent and free nation of Ephraim.

5. We may have as much as three and a half more years of national existence and freedom, we may have a lot longer. It depends on the daily intake of doctrine, not occasional. Our only hope is found in Bible doctrine.

6. The closing line of verse 13 matches the closing line of the previous verse in analogy. They are not the same in words. In verse 12 they were not willing to hear doctrine, and yet their solution is here a little doctrine, there a little doctrine. This is why they went down. Doctrine was still available to them right up to the very end. They said no to doctrine until they were overrun by the Assyrians.

7. So the prophets of every generation for 200 years presented doctrine to the northern kingdom. That is God’s grace. Even though they were spawned in revolution God historically gave them every chance to became a great priest nation. Isaiah presents this double entendre, mimicking the language of the drunks of Ephraim because that is their sign. The mimic language is still in operation right now. Our warning is the sound uttered by the tongues crowd.

The final phrase in this passage, “that they might go, and fall backwards, and be broken, and snared, and taken.”

“that they might go” is literally, “that they might advance” .We have first of all a preposition of purpose or intention. Why were they given doctrine right down to the end? So that they might advance. So we translate la, the preposition of direction, and maan, which always means “purpose” — “so that,” and the qal imperfect of jalak means to march, advance in ranks here. In other words, the advance demands discipline, self-discipline in which you put yourself in ranks of your own free will. That is your Bible class.

“and fall backward” is incorrect. It is “but” .it sets up a contrast between God’s purpose in providing doctrine as the solution and their negative response and reversionism. The word for “fall backward” is kashal, which is used for drunks falling backwards, staggering backwards. It merely present reversionism in the form of its manifestation. Not all reversionists manifest themselves in the same way. This was the dominant manifestation of reversionism. Instead of advancing with Bible doctrine they have staggered backwards in their negative volition.

“and be broken” — shabar, they have been shattered. The fifth cycle of discipline is the result. Why are they shattered? “Because they have been both snared and trapped by evil” .The word for snare is jaqash. A snare always involves your own volition. There is always some bait, but you go for the bait from your own free will. They rejected doctrine. saw the bait, and went for it of their own free will. The final word is the niphal perfect of lakach means to be captured, taken prisoner, to be seized and made a prisoner by evil.

“They have been both snared and imprisoned by evil”.

“Nevertheless, to them the doctrine of Jehovah became precept [category of doctrine] added to category of doctrine, category of doctrine added to category of doctrine; exegesis added to exegesis, exegesis added to exegesis; a little [doctrine] at this time, a little [doctrine] at that time, so that they might advance [spiritually], but they have staggered backwards [into reversionism], they have been both snared and trapped by evil.”

Doctrine of the fifth cycle of discipline

1. The cycles of discipline are based on the fact that Jesus Christ controls history; a) directly through the function of His divine essence or attributes; b) indirectly through the laws of divine establishment; c) permissively through the policy of permitting human volition as described in this verse — permissively through the policy of permitting the angelic conflict to be perpetuated and to allow people to choose evil rather than doctrine or to choose doctrine as over against evil.

2. Under this principle Jesus Christ judges nations with the administration of five cycles of discipline.

3. These cycles of discipline are punitive measures against apostasy, reversionism and evil.