Isaiah 28:21, commentary and pictures

The Lord rising up like at Mount Perazim and showing anger like in the valley of Gibeon pictures His decisive intervention to judge, and His strange work and strange act are His work of destruction, punishment and judgment. It is called strange because it is contrary to His mercy, long-suffering and delight, since He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked but delights in restoring His own image in those He made. He is slow to anger and reluctant to punish, bearing long with patience and calls to repentance and offers of pardon, yet when iniquity is complete and guilt is full His punishment is certain and terrible and He will not clear the guilty. By this act He vindicates His authority and name and His downtrodden law, brings forth judgment as the light and righteousness as the noonday, preserves the earth from ruin, and reveals where a course of sin leads. This belongs especially to the final judgments when intercession has ceased and wrath is poured out unmixed with mercy upon those who oppress His people and upon every teacher and hearer who had light yet set up their own counsel instead of building on the sure foundation.

Language and Historical Setting

The rising up as in Mount Perazim and the being wroth as in the valley of Gibeon portray the Lord rising in decisive intervention in judgment. That rising is His strange work and His strange act. It comes when human iniquity is full and divine patience has been worn out.

His work, His strange work, and His act, His strange act mean His work of destruction, punishment, and judgment. Punishing is called strange because it is contrary to mercy and long-suffering and unlike the usual work of delighting in mercy and taking no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He is slow to execute judgment and reluctant to punish, delaying punishment, yet punishment is certain and terrible when iniquity is complete. By this act He vindicates His authority and His downtrodden law. He reveals the consequences of sin so that people may see where their course leads.

The immediate context warns mockers not to mock, lest their bands or bonds be made strong. It declares a consumption, a consuming and determined judgment, upon the whole earth. That rising in wrath sweeps away the refuge of lies.

The conditions of the chapter portray the world today. The verse belongs as a warning against those who reject truth and face God's judgment. It is presented as a warning for those living at the end of the world and upon whom the ends of the world are come. It calls all connected with God's institutions to learn His word, appreciate and obey His voice, abandon human standards, and meet His standard of perfection of character.

Why Judgment Is Strange

Punishment is called strange because it is contrary to mercy, long-suffering, and delight, for there is no pleasure in the death of the wicked but delight in restoring the divine image in those who were made. Destruction is not what brings joy, and judgment is unlike the usual work of mercy. There is long bearing with patience, with calls to repentance and offers of pardon, and slowness to anger and reluctance to execute judgment. Long forbearance emboldens transgression, yet delay does not lessen certainty.

When iniquity is complete and guilt is full and choices are settled, punishment is certain and terrible. The guilty will not be cleared nor the wicked acquitted, and wrath then falls with terrible force. By this act authority and name and downtrodden law are vindicated, judgment is brought forth as the light and righteousness as the noonday, the earth is preserved from ruin, and where a course of sin leads is revealed. Reluctance to execute justice shows both the gravity of the sins that bring judgment and the severity of the retribution awaiting those who persist. This belongs to the final judgments, when intercession has ceased and the cup of wrath is drunk unmixed with mercy.

The same work was connected with the command that the Amalekites be utterly destroyed, which Saul only partly carried out when he spared Agag and the best animals. In that setting disobedience brought a sentence of judgment that was grieved over with prayer that it might be reversed. National apostasy, when rulers align with the man of sin, is the signal that the nation's guilt is full and national ruin is due, and the earth is desolated. For a people given great light and honored with connection to the sacred work, failure to increase in practical piety, mercy, long-suffering, goodness, tenderness, pity, courtesy, and Christlikeness brings condemnation in proportion to position and influence, leaving them exposed to this strange work.

Targets Warnings and Misapplications

The final punishment will fall on those who oppress and seek to destroy God's people, though execution of judgment is long delayed. That punishment is called strange because it is foreign to a merciful, gracious, long-suffering God who is abundant in goodness, forgives iniquity and transgression and sin, and takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He is slow to anger and great in power, yet He will by no means clear the guilty nor acquit the wicked, and when iniquity is complete the retribution is certain and terrible. By terrible things in righteousness He thus vindicates His authority and His downtrodden law, and the severity of the retribution may be judged by His reluctance to execute it. The nation with which He bears long, which He will not smite until it has filled up the measure of its iniquity, will finally drink the cup of wrath unmixed with mercy.

The rising up in wrath sweeps away the refuge of lies and brings judgment upon every teacher, minister, and everyone who has received the light of truth yet removes God's principles to set up their own counsel and makes finite man their dependence instead of building on the sure foundation. It warns mockers not to mock lest their bands be made strong, because a consumption is determined upon the whole earth. God will act against those who follow His guidance only so far as it agrees with their own judgment and then hold fast to their own ideas and refuse to be molded after His similitude. Everything is therefore to be viewed in the light of Christ's example, who is the truth, with learning of His word, abandonment of human standards, self-denial and self-sacrifice, living not to please self, and meeting His standard of perfection of character. This stands as admonition for those upon whom the ends of the world are come, including all connected with God's institutions.

Faithful warnings and the offer of the gospel may cease, and then judgment follows as an unusual and grievous act bringing woe upon persistent rejection, so repentance is urged while there is still time. That fierce judgment is unlike His usual purpose of bringing peace, and when holy hands no longer bear the ark the people face woe, though repentance and wholehearted belief may turn away anger. In one contrasting use, the strange work is the work of redeeming and saving people and repairing the ruin caused by sin, so that the converted flee to Christ and work with Him to repair damage done to God's law.

The phrase is also applied to taking up a task the Lord has not assigned, warning against doing such unauthorized work. It is applied to the work done amid false sentiments in the Medical Missionary Association, whose commercial spirit and Laodicean condition dishonor God and fail to prepare people for the judgment. The same language describes the enemy's strange work among medical workers and those who should have stood as standard-bearers of truth and as God's physicians and light-bearers, after they misused warnings and counsels and failed to follow counsel and were left vulnerable to perplexity and temptation. To do a strange work in this sense is to be led by Satan in false paths, for after a revival where ministering angels are present and many are converted, Satan seeks to regain control, and unless workers are guarded day by day he leads them into this work.

The verse does not mean God would bring judgment in one hour, do His strange work by cutting it short in righteousness, and seal a remnant in fifteen days with probation ending in October 1884. That time prediction is false, probation has not closed, and the saints have not yet been sealed.