All Tables Are Full of Vomit & Filth!

Yuck!  A prophecy from Isaiah for today!

“That’s a pretty disgusting title!” You bet it is! But I didn’t write it. Isaiah did. God inspired his words:

For all tables are full of vomit and filth. No place is clean (Is 28:8).

To what was God referring?! And why is He so vehement and uncompromising in His accusation? You need to take a look and see!

It is a prophecy against God’s people – the Church (Universal) – today. It is against those whom He has called, to whom He has offered His truth and His Spirit. But it is scathing condemnation!

I hope you have the stomach to look at it.

Ephraim’s Trouble

The prophecy begins with this stern warning:

Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower which is at the head of the verdant valleys ... (Is 28:1).

When woe is decreed, it denotes the most serious tragedy to befall anyone! Its impact is lost on most today, but it warns of something so ghastly you could liken it to the holocaust that the Jews suffered in World War II, or to the dreadful inhumanities that were perpetrated against Cambodians by Pol Pot’s infamous Communist oppression.

God says that such atrocities are far from over. He gave me this dream in January:

3rd Jan 2006. M. Cambodia
I saw a horrible method of punishment and execution. A family had their hands tied behind their backs. They were laid out on a wooden pallet, on their backs, lowered into a pit in the ground, and then buried alive.
Comment: Gruesome things like that have happened in the past. Although the country seemed to be Cambodia, such atrocities are not limited to that land. There are many countries where human rights abuses take place, where there is no love of God, or true respect and care for people.

Similar woe is prophesied against Ephraim – not the same atrocity, but equally horrible tragedies. Ephraim was the leading tribe of the 12 tribes of Israel. Most of Ephraim’s descendants ended up in Britain. (Ref. The Identity of Britain and America.)

Likewise, Britain became a leader on the world scene, in industry, politics, economics and trade. That is why Ephraim is depicted at the head of the verdant valleys. The imagery portrays her leading the world in wealth, commerce and the ‘good things’ people want in life.

But Ephraim didn’t realise where her wealth or power, and inventive genius came from. God gave it to her (Deut 8:17,18). He gave her the breaks, the opportunities, the connections, the influence. But she didn’t give Him glory for it. She took the credit to her- self. She repeated Israel’s former mistake of not recognising God, despite the clear warning:

Beware that you do not forget the Lord your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments and His statutes... lest, when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the Lord your God... then you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gained me this wealth.’ ...remember the Lord your God, for it is He who gives you power to get wealth... (Deut 8:11-14, 17-18).

So Ephraim will be further engulfed in woe, as a result of forgetting and disobeying God. That is why Isaiah’s words foretell of her demise:

...whose glorious beauty is a fading flower.

This is repeated (v 4), showing that it has a dual fulfilment (Israel fell to Assyria in 718 BC), and emphasising its inevitability. She is described as:

...overcome with wine! (Is 28:1)

Being intoxicated with wine is a metaphor for deception. Deception is rooted in pride, and Ephraim is loaded with that! God describes her crowned by it!

It is inevitable that she must fall:

Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one, like a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, like a flood of mighty waters overflowing, who will bring them down to the earth with His hand. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim will be trampled underfoot (Is 28:2.3).

3½ thousand years ago, God foretold of it:

Then it shall be, if you by any means forget the Lord your God, and follow other gods, and serve them and worship them, I testify against you this day that you shall surely perish... because you would not be obedient to the voice of the Lord your God (Deut 8:19,20).

Both Prophet and Priest

“I thought you said earlier that Isaiah’s words were directed to the Church? But I can only see the finger of accusation pointed at Israel and Ephraim.”

There are several reasons why the prophecy applies to Christians as well as Israel:

1) In the outworking of God’s purposes, you cannot separate Israel, (and Britain and America contain chief parts of modern Israel), and the Church.

These people were given the Bible; they were given access to God’s truth and to the true God, whereas other nations have not had such privileges in the same way. The heritage of Britain’s royal family, and some of Britain’s heraldry and traditions, go all the way back to the kingdom of Israel. Queen Elizabeth II sits on the Davidic throne (2 Sam 7:13, 16; Ps 89:36). And when Jesus comes, He will occupy that regnal position (Matt 25:31).

God has been working out His spiritual plan on earth, with Britain (and America) at the forefront. The gospel has gone out from these nations, and more Bibles produced in these lands than in any other.

2) Jesus quoted Isaiah 6:9-10 in relation to His revelation to Israel in AD 30. Matthew includes it in chapter 13:14-15. Those words in Isaiah 6 apply up until Jesus’ second coming. They are not solely for the generation alive in Isaiah’s time.

Likewise, Isaiah 28:16 is quoted in Matthew 21:42, Mark 12:10 and Luke 20:17 and other places in the NT. This prophecy clearly takes us into the Church Age, climaxing in the beginning of the Millennium, when Jesus rules and fulfils these words:

I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plummet... (Is 28:17).

Righteousness and God’s justice will cover the earth then, governing all human societies.

In that day the Lord of hosts will be for a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of His people (Is 28:5).

The Stone of 28:16, laid in Zion, is Jesus. Zion is Jerusalem in the physical, and the Church in the spiritual. So Isaiah 28 has unmistakable application in the spiritual area where the Church is involved. That is why both priest and prophet are included in verse 7. Now, in this Church Age, the prophet’s major ‘target’ is the Church. God is working more with this spiritual body than with the physical nation. And the priest’s duty was to teach God’s Word to the people, which is now the duty of ministers of God in this age. It is no longer the domain of a physical priesthood to the nation of Israel.

Isaiah’s scathing words – which were inspired by God’s Spirit – against prophet and priest, therefore apply to churchmen today. Notice what God thinks:

They also have erred through wine, and through intoxicating drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink, they are swallowed up by wine, they are out of the way through intoxicating drink. They err in vision, they stumble in judgment (Is 28:7).

Three times intoxicating drink is stated! God’s judgement against them is final and shattering! He is furious at this desecration of what should be holy, pure, and without blemish.

What has been desecrated?

All tables... (28:8).

You eat at a table. Food is spread out on it and you are able to partake of what is nourishing and good. God’s Word is our table (Ps 23:5). But so- called ‘Christian’ ministers have peddled the Word of God for monetary gain. They have pandered to people’s preferences. They preach what people want to hear (2 Tim 4:3). It brings them popularity and a better income than if they preached, like Paul did (Acts 20:27), what is unfavourable to hearers.

Instead of laying out the Word of God as they should have done, these performance artists and spiritual philanderers defile it!

Defiling The Word of God

Here is some of what they have done:

I also gave them My Sabbaths, to be a sign between them and Me, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them...  (Ezek 20:12).

...but they profaned My Sabbaths (20:21).

...because they had not executed My judgments, but had despised My statutes, profaned My Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their father’s idols. Therefore I also gave them up to statutes that were not good, and judgments by which they could not live [Gentile laws]; and I pronounced them unclean... (Ezek 20:24-26).

That was Israel. And not just the people. The leaders were very much to blame, too:

The Lord takes His place in court; He rises to judge the people. The Lord enters into judgment against the elders and leaders of His people; “It is you who have ruined My vineyard, the plunder from the poor is in your houses.” (Is 3:13,14, NIV.)

Her priests have violated My law and profaned My holy things; they have not distinguished between the holy and unholy, nor have they made known the difference between the unclean and the clean; and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them (Ezek 22:26).

That denunciation is not just for Israel at that time. It includes the Church in our day. Leaders don’t care to discern between what is true and false when it comes to the fourth commandment. They give you deceitful waffle to justify their continuation of the man-made custom of Sunday observance. The motive? “To get dishonest gain” (Ezek 22:27).

Their ‘higher criticism’ and ‘greater scholarship’ elevates them. They think they have moved on to a higher spiritual plane, than to live out such ‘legalism’.

So, God chastises them with words:

For with stammering lips and another tongue He will speak to this people, to whom He said: “This is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest.” And “This is the refreshing”; yet they would not hear (Is 28:11,12.)

No one likes to listen to a stammerer. It makes you feel uneasy. Church leaders and Christians like- wise are uneasy about those who tell them that we need to get back to the faith once delivered; that the apostolic church kept God’s Sabbaths; that Jesus set us the example, not merely because He was a Jew, but because that is the standard which the command- ment of God stipulates (Ex 20:8-11), and God’s Word is inviolable (Jn 10:35).

God does not change (Mal 3:6). Nor does His Word that was engraved in stone by the finger of God (Ex 31:18) – it was permanent!

How dare man defy God by claming it has changed!!

A literal translation says:

For with deridings of lip, and in another tongue He will speak to this people (Is 28:11, Concordant Version).

God’s prophets deride through their correction. But do the recipients understand? No. It’s like a foreign language to them. But it doesn’t alter truth.

Truth is still truth, though church leaders reject it and fail to comprehend. So:

...all tables are full of vomit and filth. No place is clean (Is 28:8).

Who Will Listen?

Whom will He teach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? (Is 28:9.) [Answer: yes.]

...Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight” (Matt 11:25,26.)

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; Line upon line, line upon line; Here a little, there a little (Is 28:10).

God cannot add more truth to those who cling stubbornly to a faulty foundation. Stubbornness and pride prevent His truth taking root in resistant minds.

But the Word of the Lord was to them, “Precept upon precept, precept upon precept; Line upon line, line upon line; Here a little, there a little,” that they might go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and caught (Is 28:13).

God is talking about church leaders here, in case you didn’t get the message. He calls them “scornful” rulers (28:14).

If you want to see them scorn, just tell them what I have mentioned above, that they should be keeping the Sabbaths holy instead of defiling them and replacing God’s holy days with the unholy substitutes of Sunday, Easter, and Christmas, etc.. You’ll soon see them scorn – if you get a reply!

They have made lies their refuge, and under falsehood they have hidden themselves (28:15). They don’t perceive it, but that is what they have done.

“We have made a covenant with death..” (28:15).

That’s what they think. They think the New Covenant covers them. But it doesn’t cover wickedness and rebellion. God declares:

Your covenant with death will be annulled... when the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it (28:18).

Did you see what the Beast power did to the Catholic Church during the Second World War? After using her for its devious political ends, it turned on her and burned her with fire. So, will the fate be of all church leaders today who defile the Word of God, make political alliances, and put loyalty to man ahead of loyalty to God.

God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap (Gal 6:7).

For the Lord will rise up as at Mount Perazim, He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon – that He may do His work, His awesome work, and bring to pass His act, His unusual act. Now therefore, do not be mockers, lest your bonds be made strong; For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts [armies], a destruction determined even upon the whole earth (Is 28:21,22).

That’s what’s coming! God help us to heed!! Because of hardness of hearts in His people, God will fight the very ones He had previously helped.

It is inevitable now, because of the way which church leaders and Christians have chosen:

For we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves (28:15).

If you choose lies – as the above strongly implies; it is a voluntary decision – you will pay the price for your choice. God doesn’t want it.

He implores:

I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live (Deut 30:19).

That you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days... (Deut 30:20).

Indeed, if only people realised that what God wants His Church to accept today IS to restore them! The Sabbath is not “bondage”, as one woman once spat the word out at me!

“This IS the refreshing”, but they would not hear! (Is 28:12).

Likewise, the gifts of the Spirit are restorative, but Sabbatarians, devoid of the Spirit, won’t hear either!

God knows how to deal with them all! He doesn’t keep ploughing continually. There is a time for ploughing and a time for sowing (28:24,25). There is a time to judge, to rebuke, and chastise. And God knows precisely what each person needs (28:27,28).

This also comes from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel and excellent in guidance (Is 28:29).

Malcolm B Heap