‘Precept Upon Precept’ is About Drunk Priests

“For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little.” (Isa. 28:10)

Seriously. This is about drunk priests.

You’ve heard the old joke about the new priest doing his first mass who was so nervous he could hardly speak. He asked the monsignor for help. The monsignor told him, “When I am worried about getting nervous on the pulpit, I put a glass of vodka next to the water glass. If I start to get nervous, I take a sip.”

The next Sunday, he took the monsignor’s advice. At the beginning of the sermon, he got nervous and took a drink. He proceeded to talk up a storm.

Afterwards, when he returned to his office, he found the following note on his door:

“Sip the Vodka. Don’t gulp. There are 10 commandments, not 12. There are 12 disciples, not 10. Jesus was consecrated, not constipated. Jacob wagered his donkey; he did not bet his ass. The Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not referred to as Daddy, Junior, and the Spook. David slew Goliath, he did not ‘kick the crap out of him.’ When David was hit by a rock and knocked off his donkey, don’t say ‘he was stoned off his ass.’ We do not refer to the cross as ‘the Big T!’ When Jesus broke the bread at the Last Supper he said, ‘Take this and eat it, for it is my body.’ He did not say, ‘Eat me.’ The recommended grace before a meal is not, ‘Rub-A-dub-dub, thanks for the grub, yay God.’ And don’t refer to Jesus Christ and the 12 disciples as ‘J.C. and the boys.’”

The priests in Israel in the days of Isaiah were actually worse than the drunk priest we just read about. In fact, Isa. 28:10 was a song the people were singing to make fun of the drunk priests and their awful teaching.

Seriously. This is about drunk priests.

Background

Long story short, Isa. 28 is the beginning of a new section of chapters that goes on until about chapter 33 that chronicles six “woes” upon Israel and by extension, Jerusalem. In this chapter, the Lord is condemning the drunkenness. Israel and Jerusalem have turned into party towns, which has become institutionalized behavior.

We’re also going to read about Ephraim, which was the name of a tribe and the name given to the ten tribes. Ephraim was the largest and a leader of the ten tribes. Ephraim would be known as Samaria in Jesus’ day.

Consider the Context

Isa 28:1 Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine! Isa 28:2 Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand. (That’s a reference to the mighty Assyrian coming to take them away in judgment.) Isa 28:3 The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet: Isa 28:4 And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.

He first says, Woe to the crown of pride. This is a Hebrew expression denoting a haughty crown – the proud leadership in the capital of the ten tribes, which is in Ephraim. Ephraim’s name meant “Fruitfulness.” Their soil was extremely fertile. Their different harvests from those fields were considered the best of its kind. Whatever grew in Ephraim was the best of the best.

Notice the references to fat valleys in vs. 1 and vs. 4. They had many fat valleys. That country was rich farmland, as the garden of the Lord, the glory of Canaan, considered the glory of all the lands. They didn’t simply grow grapes for wine. They grew the best grapes, which produced the best wines, and in their pride about all their high-quality harvests, they caved in to the flesh.

They couldn’t handle success. They got puffed up over the richness of their harvests. Rather than acknowledge the blessings God had given them, they became puffed up about themselves and the quality of their products that came out of those fields. They got drunk off their own wine and kept on drinking until they were addicted. They were conquered by their own pride in their own products and fell into a bondage to their own wine. They were broken by the wine. Their constitution was broken by the wine. Their judgment and their health were ruined by the wine. They willingly ruined themselves and their own lives for the gratification of a fleshly lust.

Isa 28:2 Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.

Just as they Assyrian was a type of the antichrist, God’s favors to His remnant in those days would foreshadow His favors to His remnant when the antichrist is actually here during the Tribulation. In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people.

Later in vs. 6, the Lord goes deeper. He says, “And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.” The Lord isn’t simply going to be the one who extends to His remnant favor and protection. He will also be their source of strength. He will be their source of wisdom in judgment. Everything the people of Ephraim lack in character, God’s remnant will have in abundance, because they will have His Word in them. The Lord will be their source of wisdom, strength, courage, righteousness, not only in the life they had on this Earth but also in the life to come in His kingdom when they occupy mighty roles of authority because of their faithfulness to Him.

In vs. 3, we read about “the crown of pride, and the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under foot.” Because they fell into pride and drunkenness, they weakened themselves, which made them easy prey to the predators. The Lord spoke of the beauty of their valleys, about which they gloried, and how those valleys will be like a fading flower. The valleys will wither away on their own because no one is tending to them. I love the harsh contrasts here befitting a tragedy – the glory of these rich fields compared to its coming ruin as a fading flower because the people had become vain and drunkards over the blessings that God had given them, and they neglected to honor God for His glory.

Isa 28:5 In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people, Isa 28:6 And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.

Notice at the end of vs. 5 He talks about the residue of his people, the remnant. In that day the LORD shall be to them a crown of glory and their diadem of beauty, which is a beautiful garland. The fields of Ephraim, which were sources of vanity and pride for the people of Ephraim, will become ruined and devastated until the Second Coming of Christ. In that day, the Lord will be the source of glory to His remnant. The Lord will be for them a diadem of beauty, their beautiful garland. Just as the fields were a source of glory for the people of Ephraim, the Lord will be the source of glory for His true remnant when He returns to the Earth.

Isa 28:7 But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.

Tragically, many of God’s people have become ensnared in this trap of wine, but in particular, the priests and the prophets have now imprisoned themselves with alcoholism. He says they are out of the way through strong drink. They have completely lost their way. He says they err in vision. The prophets cannot interpret visions anymore. And He says they stumble in judgment. They cannot judge properly because they cannot think clearly.

So now we have two camps of people who have fallen prey to alcoholism – the people of Ephraim and also God’s remnant in Judah, particularly the priests and the prophets. In Jewish society, the priests and the prophets represented the spiritual and moral health of the people. So when the priests and the prophets have become useless, their religion is dead. Their society is dead. Their nation is dead. Spiritually. Morally. And this means something else – judgment is coming.

Isa 28:8 For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.

The situation was so awful the tables in homes and in synagogues were stained from the vomit. God’s not whining about a little drinking. This was a total epidemic, especially amongst the priests. Then He says in Isa 28:9 Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

The question here is about the usefulness anymore of the priests and the prophets. They’ve become such raging alcoholics, the Lord can’t help but ask, “Who is he able to teach now? A man with that condition, who can HE help to understand doctrine?” As a teacher, he’s become so useless, he’s only good for maybe teaching babies weaned from the milk, that is to say, he’s incapable of teaching anyone anything.

And THAT sets up the famous verse.

Isa 28:10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: Isa 28:11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people. Isa 28:12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing: yet they would not hear. Isa 28:13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little (and what’s the result?); that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.

Do you see what’s happening here? Teaching that way had been a total failure. God knew this would be a failure. He allowed it to happen. Why? So they might go, fall backward, be broken, snared, and taken.

Just Like Teaching Babies

So what’s going on in these passages? Vs. 10: For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little. That is a description of what it’s like to teach babies. The context told us this. In vs. 9, the alcoholic priests were so useless, the Lord says, Whom shall he teach knowledge? and whom shall he make to understand doctrine? them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts.

Then in vs. 10, he reveals how you teach babies weaned from the milk. He starts vs. 10 by saying For precept must be upon precept. For means this is a continuation of his thought in the previous verse about teaching babies. For the teaching of babies must be precept upon precept.

I know some might say, “No, Joel, the verse says, For precept must be upon precept. He’s talking about the way it should be.” You’d be correct. That IS the way it should be… when you’re teaching babies. That IS the way it has to be… when you’re such a raging alcoholic, you’re incapable of teaching with any more depth than a parent talking to a baby. When you’re in that condition, you have no choice but to teach with extreme simplicity… just like talking to babies. You start with a basic premise. You build on that premise to teach the basics.

“This is a ball. The ball is round. See the ball bounce?” Then you move on to another teaching moment later when the baby’s ready for more.

Here a little, and there a little.

That’s how babies are taught.

This isn’t the way you teach adults. You can’t sit down with a baby and have a 45-minute discourse on substitutionary atonement. You can only teach one simple concept, another simple concept on top of that, then stop.

The point seems pretty clear: the alcoholism had caused the priest’s teaching to degenerate to a level that’s on a par with teaching babies. It’s so bad, it’s like hearing a mom with a baby – basic precept upon basic precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little.

Notice also the repetition in vs. 10. Isa 28:10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little:

Why the repetition of these expressions? Why did we have to read precept upon precept twice? Or line upon line twice?

Most commentaries on this verse, grace or non-grace, will tell you the same thing – in Hebrew, this is written out as a poem, just as you would find in the book of Psalms. In Hebrew, the words also rhyme like a song.

In fact, every commentary I read believed this was a song, but this wasn’t a happy song. This was likely a song sung by the people to ridicule the priests for their awful teaching, because the priests have become so impaired by alcoholism, they’re teaching the people like teaching babies. The repetition here is an example of parallelism that’s found in sacred Hebrew poetry and songs. In the Searchable Riches drive, under Other Authors, I have a couple of pdfs from Robert Lowth about Sacred Poetry. There’s also a pdf on Hebrew Poetry that explains parallelism. Parallelism is a structure of thought (rather than a rhyme) in which the writer balances a series of words so that patterns of deliberate contrast or intentional repetition appear. So the repetition here is a ridicule of the degenerated teaching.

Their teaching had become horribly dumbed down and repetitive… just like the song.

Precept Upon Precept.

What is a precept? Webster would tell us, “In a general sense, any commandment or order intended as an authoritative rule of action; but applied particularly to commands respecting moral conduct. The ten commandments are so many precepts for the regulation of our moral conduct.”

If a precept is “any commandment or order intended as an authoritative rule of action” then what are the precepts these priests are teaching? The law. Precept upon precept is literally commandment upon commandment and this verse was about the manner in which the law was taught to children. You start with a basic premise. You demonstrate that premise in the law. How does that work teaching the law to kids? For example, the Lord often pointed out, as He did in Matt. 22, that loving God with all your heart and loving your neighbors were the commandments upon which hang all the law. You start with that basic premise, and then move on to the basic application of that premise as exemplified in the law.

These priests, though, were so far gone, they weren’t capable of teaching anything more than the basics. And in the song, precept upon precept was a way to ridicule the priests who were so impaired in their abilities, they’re teaching the law to the adults in a manner that was only befitting babies.

Some people might be thinking, “Okay, Joel, let’s for now assume that you’re right and this is all about the people making fun of the priests for teaching them like they’re teaching babies. There’s still a grain of truth in that verse that the art of teaching is precept must be upon precept. You feed them milk until they’ve spiritual grown to a point where they can digest the meat of His Word. We still have babes in Christ. So you would still start with basics with newbies. You’d build on those basics until they’re spiritually mature enough to take in the meat. You’d start with the gospel. You get into identification, then right division, and then application, just like the structure of Romans.”

That is all true enough. I very much agree. I am not a fan of sermons in which thoughts are like pinballs bouncing around all over the place. I love sermons that stay on topic and there is a logical progression of thought. I think all teachers should aspire to do that.

This article isn’t meant to take away from anyone the idea of a logical progression of thought when teaching. We would take everyone we meet to the cross first. Then we teach fundamentals before taking them into deeper waters.

But that’s not what these verses in Isaiah are about.

These verses are about the failure of the priests. They’re only capable of teaching the people like they’re babies. Precept upon precept literally means commandment upon commandment. We are not under the law. We do not teach the law. We do not teach commandments. We have no dominion over your faith. We only teach the sound doctrines of grace.

We do not teach people here a little, there a little. We teach them fundamental doctrines and then move on into deeper things. You remember when Paul spoke to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20? He told them, For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. He didn’t parse out the truth, a little here and a little there. He made sure they were given all the counsel of God. You remember how Paul said in 1 Cor. 11:23 For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you… Everything the Lord taught him, he passed on to the people in large doses.

For us, it’s not precept upon precept. It’s doctrine upon doctrine, principle upon principle. There’s a big difference.

Plus, the point needs to be made about the repetition that’s in the song. We certainly repeat things to adults so truths will be remembered but we’d never repeat things to the degree that you would with children. Adults are capable of hearing things once or twice and retaining that information. The fact that the priests were repeating bare-bones basics over and over – THAT is being ridiculed through the repetition that’s IN the song. Precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line… They’re ridiculing the mind-numbing repetition of the basics by the priests, which had nothing to do with how dumb the people were. This had to do with how incompetent the priests had become.

Line upon Line

That was about learning to write. Learning your ABC’s. Those letters form words. Those words form sentences. Those sentences form lines – line upon line.

When a visitor starts attending your church, you don’t take them to a special class and teach them the ABC’s, do you? “Hello, visitor! Let’s go over the letters of the alphabet. Very good! Now those letters form words. Those words form sentences. Those sentences form verses. And those verses help to give us the Word of God. Okay, visitor, let’s now repeat all of this to make sure understand it. What are the letters of the alphabet? Good! Those letters form words. And those words form sentences. And those sentences form verses. And those verses help to give us the Word of God.”

You just wanna pull your hair out, right?

Hearing that the first time was annoying! To have that repeated again and again – someone shoot me, right? If we did that to adult visitors, what do you think they are going to do? They’re gonna run for the hills. Then they’re gonna to tell people about your church and make fun of you. That is exactly what was going on in Jerusalem. The people were singing this song to make fun of their priests! We don’t teach adults like this! We start with doctrine upon doctrine, principle upon principle, building them up in love, teaching them who they are in Christ!

I came across a quote by Sir Robert Anderson talking about precept upon precept. He wrote, “When we are dealing with full-grown men we declare our wishes and expect them to be observed. But we teach our children by lessons given ‘line upon line and precept upon precept,’ repeated day by day. And the Jewish cult was the divine ‘kindergarten’ of religion.”

He’s right. That, to me, is what precept upon precept, line upon line, represents. That is the dumbed-down method of teaching the divine ‘kindergarten’ of religion.

The Song Continues

Isa 28:10 For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little: Isa 28:11 For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people.

Notice the song continues in vs. 11, which starts with the word For. There’s more to this song. Now they’re ridiculing the stammering lips. They’re joking that another tongue will he speak to this people. The priests were so impaired, their speech was almost unintelligible. Now they’re joking, “Maybe he’s speaking a foreign language!”

In vs. 12, they quote what it is this priest with stammering lips said to the people. Isa 28:12 To whom he said, This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing… That is, instead of teaching the law, he’d say, “Oh, you’ll find rest and happiness obeying the law.” A total joke of a sermon!

The Inevitable Result

What was the result at the end of that verse? Yet they would not hear. The dumbing down of speech and doctrine has consequences. The people stop listening.

Isa 28:13 But the word of the LORD was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little….

Do you see what the Lord is saying here? Because the teaching was weak, the people began to view Word of God as a weak book. Because the priests were only capable of talking to the people like children, the people began to view Word of God as a children’s book. Because the priests when they taught failed to illuminate the people about the depths of the Word of God, the people began to view the Word of God as a book that had no depth. The failures of the priests subverted the way the people viewed the Word of God.

What was the outcome of all this insanity?

“…that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.”

God allowed all of this to happen, because He’s basically letting them reap what they’re sowing. When the teaching in Israel became weak, the people lost respect for the Word of God. And when the teaching became so dumbed down and so repetitive as to be downright childish and offensive to adults, the people just stopped listening.

They went to the synagogues only to keep up appearances.

The Word wasn’t having any effect on their lives anymore. They weren’t being convicted about anything. They weren’t being inspired by stories of faith. They weren’t learning about God or the law, which was important considering that they were in a covenant relationship with God under an IF/THEN principle. The priests had become so incompetent and the Word of God so stripped of all its power, the people merely showed their faces and ridiculed the priests later.

When the people stop listening to the Word of God, they’re done.

When the people have lost respect for the Word of God, the consequence is that they will all fall into sin and disobedience. They will plummet into physical, moral, and spiritual ruin, which means judgment from God will be coming to them in short order. It was nothing for God to influence the mighty Assyrians to take all these Jews captive. Their drinking and spiritual bankruptcy made them easy prey.

The message of these passages is made plain: the death of mature, Biblical exegesis is nothing less than the death of society. This is the death of a nation. And this story illustrates the principle of Prov. 14:34, “Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people.” Sin makes the people wretched and weak and easy prey to all the predators. In the OT, disobedience on this scale was the sure precursor to judgment, but in the age of grace, you can still reap what you sow both as individuals and as a nation.

Sin is a reproach to any people.

Conclusion

Should we practice today precept upon precept; line upon line, here a little, and there a little? Sure. When you’re teaching babies.

This verse has nothing to do with how God teaches you today in His Word, or how we, as adults, should teach each other. When you get saved, God views you as a full-grown adult in His family, and He treats you like an adult who is capable of being responsible about His grace and all the liberties He’s given you. Some of us may still be spiritual babes who have a lot to learn, but that doesn’t mean they should be treated like literal babies. They are taught the sound doctrines of grace like the intelligent, responsible adults that they are. You follow the structure of Romans. Gospel first, then identification, then right division, then application.

Plus, keep in mind, precept upon precept literally means commandment upon commandment. We don’t command people. We have no dominion over their faith. We do not teach the law. We teach the sound doctrines of grace. We teach fundamental doctrines and then move on into deeper topics. For us, it’s not precept upon precept. It’s doctrine upon doctrine, and principle upon principle.