This is the last in our series from Isaiah 28: disciple-making according to Isaiah, using a farming metaphor.
He opened with an observation I interpreted to mean: repentance: required, yes; never-ending, no.
Give ear, and hear my voice; give attention, and hear my speech. Does he who plows for sowing plow continually? Does he continually open and harrow his ground? (Isaiah 28.23, 24, ESV)
If we want fruit, we must sow seed. It’s not enough just to clear out the ground.
When he has leveled its surface, does he not scatter dill, sow cumin, and put in wheat in rows and barley in its proper place, and emmer as the border? (Isaiah 28.25, ESV)
Different seeds, individual differences, and this brings us to our final lesson: there are differences in bringing people to maturity, as with sowing seed, and there is an end to the process, as with repentance.
Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge, nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin, but dill is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod. Does one crush grain for bread? No, he does not thresh it forever; when he drives his cart wheel over it with his horses, he does not crush it. (Isaiah 28.27, 28, ESV)
Sometimes, we are tempted to treat everyone the same. Everyone takes the same course in the same amount of time. Everyone I disciple goes through my favorite tool. Nope. I don’t do it that way. I have my favorite discipleship tools, but not every tool is a fit. So I change!
A more typical scenario is that everyone stays in training indefinitely. After all, it’s been often said, “Sunday School is the one school from which there is no graduation.”
Really? Why? “He does not thresh it forever” is good counsel. Colleges and trade schools don’t keep students forever, they get them to a level of competence and launch them. Why can’t individual disciple-makers and churches do the same?
These are simple concepts, often ignored. Let’s look one more time at the whole passage:
Isaiah 28:23-29 (ESV)
23 Give ear, and hear my voice;
give attention, and hear my speech.
24 Does he who plows for sowing plow continually?
Does he continually open and harrow his ground?
Repentance is important, but it’s not ongoing.
25 When he has leveled its surface,
does he not scatter dill, sow cumin,
and put in wheat in rows
and barley in its proper place,
and emmer as the border?
26 For he is rightly instructed;
his God teaches him.
We sow different kinds of seed according to individual differences, led by the Holy Spirit.
27 Dill is not threshed with a threshing sledge,
nor is a cart wheel rolled over cumin,
but dill is beaten out with a stick,
and cumin with a rod.
28 Does one crush grain for bread?
No, he does not thresh it forever;
when he drives his cart wheel over it
with his horses, he does not crush it.
29 This also comes from the LORD of hosts;
he is wonderful in counsel
and excellent in wisdom.
There are individual differences in bringing people to maturity also, and God is standing by to lead us in this area, too.
Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. (Colossians 1.28, ESV)