God’s correction, though painful at times, is never without purpose and never beyond reckoning.
When the prophet Isaiah writes, “Grain for bread is crushed, indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever. Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it, he does not thresh it longer” (v.28), he paints a vivid picture of a farmer who understands that grain must be threshed, but only so far. Just as the farmer knows when to stop pounding the grain, Isaiah’s message to the people of Judah (who lived in and around Jerusalem in the late 8th century BC, during the reigns of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah) is that God’s discipline has limits. It will crush only what needs to be separated or removed, and no more.
Isaiah, serving from about 740 to 681 BC, uses this agricultural metaphor to show how the Lord’s correction is carefully measured and never intended to destroy His people completely. Threshing in the Scriptures often involves separating the useful from the useless, and God promises that He will not thresh His children beyond endurance. Elsewhere, we see the act of threshing employed as an image of judgment (Amos 1:3), yet the constant refrain of God’s mercy runs through every depiction of His discipline.
From a broader biblical perspective, Jesus also employed agricultural images to reveal aspects of the kingdom of God (Matthew 13:3-8). Here in Isaiah, the prophet reminds the faithful that just as a wise farmer does not ruin the crop by excessive milling, so too does God ensure that His people are refined but not ruined, protected by His sovereign hand.
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Isaiah 28:28 meaning
When the prophet Isaiah writes, “Grain for bread is crushed, indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever. Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it, he does not thresh it longer” (v.28), he paints a vivid picture of a farmer who understands that grain must be threshed, but only so far. Just as the farmer knows when to stop pounding the grain, Isaiah’s message to the people of Judah (who lived in and around Jerusalem in the late 8th century BC, during the reigns of Kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah) is that God’s discipline has limits. It will crush only what needs to be separated or removed, and no more.
Isaiah, serving from about 740 to 681 BC, uses this agricultural metaphor to show how the Lord’s correction is carefully measured and never intended to destroy His people completely. Threshing in the Scriptures often involves separating the useful from the useless, and God promises that He will not thresh His children beyond endurance. Elsewhere, we see the act of threshing employed as an image of judgment (Amos 1:3), yet the constant refrain of God’s mercy runs through every depiction of His discipline.
From a broader biblical perspective, Jesus also employed agricultural images to reveal aspects of the kingdom of God (Matthew 13:3-8). Here in Isaiah, the prophet reminds the faithful that just as a wise farmer does not ruin the crop by excessive milling, so too does God ensure that His people are refined but not ruined, protected by His sovereign hand.