This message deals with the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah. The northern kingdom is often represented by Ephraim, and the southern kingdom by Jerusalem. In chapter twenty-eight we see that Jehovah's judgment over Ephraim's drunkards issues in Jehovah's restoration and ushers in the trustworthy Christ. In chapter twenty-nine Jehovah's judgment on the hypocrisy of Jerusalem's worshippers issues in the restoration. Before we turn to these chapters, I would like to give a word to help us to understand them.
According to the New Testament, when Christ came, He came with reality (John 1:14, 17) and wisdom (Matt. 11:19; 1 Cor. 1:24, 30). With the hypocritical worship spoken of in Isaiah 29, there is vanity but no reality, blindness but no wisdom. Through His incarnation Christ brought to us the very reality of the universe—the Triune God, the Divine Trinity, embodied in a person, Jesus Christ. If we removed the Divine Trinity from the universe, it would become nothing. In the entire universe, only the Divine Trinity is real, and the Divine Trinity has been embodied in a man named Jesus. This man came with God; thus, He is Immanuel. With this Immanuel we have the universal reality. When we have this reality, our eyes, our ears, and our understanding are opened, and we become very understanding and wise. We have wisdom. This wisdom is the embodied reality—the Divine Trinity in Christ—in our realization. When we realize the embodied Divine Trinity in Christ, this brings us wisdom. Then we have both reality and wisdom. I would ask you to keep this word in mind as we now turn to Isaiah 28 and 29.