Context for Isaiah 28
The tribe of Ephraim was among the chief rebels that eventually led to the split between Judah and the ten northern tribes of Israel. In that split, Ephraim and those who followed that tribe defied God and turned away from the path He had established for Israel. The path they followed instead, lead to their eventual ruin and virtual disbandment as tribes of Israel.
There are certain human behaviors that have always been a part of human nature. Chief among those behaviors is pride, and pride is what the people of Ephraim showed most of all in their rebellion against God and Jerusalem. In their pride, these people established their own faith, one separate from the faith in the One, True God. In doing so, they cut themselves off from their God.
That same pride is really no different today than it was 2600 years ago during the time Isaiah prophesied. Today, too many Christians seek to pridefully replace God’s free gift of grace through faith with a rote of regulations and rules that seek to make the individual’s actions paramount to God’s gift.
Make no mistake: Christians are only saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ crucified and resurrected. There is no other way to heaven, in this time or any other. Certainly, from faith grows the actions of a Christian, but these are actions that follow faith and do not precede it.
DLH
I’m proud of my humility.
No, wait — I’m humbled by my pridefulness.