Isaiah 28:27
Surely caraway is not threshed with a sledge, and the wheel of a cart is not rolled over the cumin. But caraway is beaten out with a stick, and cumin with a rod.
For caraway is not threshed with a sledge
The word "caraway" refers to a small, aromatic seed used in ancient times for flavoring. In Hebrew, the term is "ketsach," which is believed to be a reference to a plant similar to dill or fennel. The phrase "is not threshed with a sledge" indicates a gentle process. Threshing with a sledge was a method used for more robust grains, implying that caraway requires a more delicate approach. This highlights God's wisdom in dealing with His people, using methods appropriate to their nature and needs.

and the wheel of a cart is not rolled over the cumin
"Cumin" is another spice, known for its distinctive flavor, and in Hebrew, it is "kammon." The imagery of a "wheel of a cart" suggests a heavy, crushing force, which is unsuitable for cumin. This phrase emphasizes the care and precision God uses in His judgments and teachings. Just as a farmer knows the right tools for each crop, God knows the right approach for each individual and situation.

but caraway is beaten out with a stick
The "stick" represents a lighter, more controlled tool, signifying the careful handling required for caraway. This reflects the idea that God’s discipline is measured and appropriate, tailored to the needs of His people. It reassures believers that God’s correction is never more than they can bear and is always for their ultimate good.

and cumin with a rod
The "rod" is slightly more forceful than a stick but still indicates a level of care and precision. This suggests that while some situations may require firmer discipline, it is always administered with love and purpose. The use of a rod for cumin illustrates the balance between justice and mercy in God’s dealings with humanity.

Persons / Places / Events
1. Isaiah
The prophet who conveyed God's messages to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. He is known for his prophecies concerning judgment and redemption.

2. Judah and Jerusalem
The primary audience of Isaiah's prophecies, representing the Southern Kingdom of Israel during a time of moral and spiritual decline.

3. Agricultural Practices
The verse uses imagery from ancient agricultural practices to convey spiritual truths. Caraway and cumin are spices that require careful handling during the threshing process.
Teaching Points
Discernment in God's Discipline
Just as different crops require different methods of threshing, God uses various methods to discipline and refine His people. We must trust His wisdom in knowing what is best for us.

The Importance of Precision in Spiritual Growth
The careful handling of caraway and cumin illustrates the need for precision in our spiritual lives. We should be attentive to God's specific instructions and guidance.

God's Gentle Correction
The imagery of using a stick or rod rather than a sledge or cart wheel suggests that God's correction is measured and appropriate to our needs. We should be receptive to His gentle guidance.

Understanding God's Methods
Recognizing that God uses different methods for different people and situations can help us appreciate His unique work in our lives and the lives of others.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does the imagery of threshing in Isaiah 28:27 help us understand God's approach to discipline and correction?

2. In what ways can we apply the principle of discernment in our daily spiritual practices?

3. How does understanding the specific needs of different crops relate to understanding the specific needs of individuals in a community of faith?

4. Reflect on a time when you experienced God's gentle correction. How did it differ from a more severe form of discipline?

5. How can we ensure that we are receptive to God's precise and gentle guidance in our lives, as illustrated by the careful threshing of caraway and cumin?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Proverbs 20:26
This verse speaks about the wisdom of a king in separating the wicked, similar to the careful separation of grain from chaff, which connects to the idea of discernment in Isaiah 28:27.

Matthew 13:24-30
The Parable of the Weeds, where Jesus speaks about the careful separation of wheat and weeds, reflects the theme of discernment and appropriate action.

Hebrews 12:11
Discusses the discipline of the Lord, which, like the careful threshing of spices, is intended for our good and growth.
God in Material Things Illustrates God in Moral ThingsR. Tuck Isaiah 28:27
AgricultureF. Standfast.Isaiah 28:23-29
Beneficent PloughingJ. Parker, D. D.Isaiah 28:23-29
Breaking ClodsD. Macaulay, M. A.Isaiah 28:23-29
Divine DiscriminationW. Clarkson Isaiah 28:23-29
God's Processes of Moral and Spiritual HusbandryE. Medley, B. A.Isaiah 28:23-29
Inspiration in Common LifeW. L. Watkinson.Isaiah 28:23-29
Interdependence of the Man of Leisure and the Son of ToilF. Standfast.Isaiah 28:23-29
Physical Husbandry the Effect and Emblem of Divine TeachingHomilistIsaiah 28:23-29
Proverbial LoreE. Johnson Isaiah 28:23-29
Spiritual HusbandryF. Standfast.Isaiah 28:23-29
The Discreet PloughmanIsaiah 28:23-29
The Parable of the Ploughman and the ThresherS. Cox, D. D.Isaiah 28:23-29
The PloughmanIsaiah 28:23-29
The Principal WheatIsaiah 28:23-29
The Spiritual PowerA. Gray, M. A.Isaiah 28:23-29
The Value of Agricultural LabourF. Standfast.Isaiah 28:23-29
The Voice of God in the Tillage of the FieldE. Medley, B. A.Isaiah 28:23-29
Chastisement not PleasantIsaiah 28:26-29
Chastising with JudgmentR. H. Roberts, B. A.Isaiah 28:26-29
How the Lord Threshes UsT. De Witt Talmage, D. D.Isaiah 28:26-29
Moral ThreshingT. De Witt Talmage, D. D.Isaiah 28:26-29
The Higher Nature Requires the More ForceF. Standfast.Isaiah 28:26-29
The Need and Measure of Afflictive DispensationsB. P. Buddicom, M. A.Isaiah 28:26-29
The Wisdom of God in DisciplineJ. Parker, D. D.Isaiah 28:26-29
The, Ploughman Taught of GodF. Standfast.Isaiah 28:26-29
ThreshingIsaiah 28:26-29
TribulationR. H. Robert, B. A.Isaiah 28:26-29
TribulationJ. Parker, D. D.Isaiah 28:26-29
People
Gibeon, Isaiah
Places
Assyria, Jerusalem, Mount Perazim, Valley of Gibeon, Zion
Topics
Beaten, Caraway, Cart, Cartwheel, Cumin, Cummin, Dill, Fitches, Instrument, Rod, Rolled, Sharp, Sledge, Stick, Threshed, Wheel
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Isaiah 28:27

     4466   herbs and spices
     4514   stick

Isaiah 28:23-29

     4510   sowing and reaping

Isaiah 28:24-29

     1180   God, wisdom of

Isaiah 28:27-28

     4522   threshing
     5248   cart
     5621   wheel

Library
June 8. "Bread Corn is Bruised" (Isa. xxviii. 28).
"Bread corn is bruised" (Isa. xxviii. 28). The farmer does not gather timothy and blue grass, and break it with a heavy machine. But he takes great pains with the wheat. So God takes great pains with those who are to be of much use to Him. There is a nature in them that needs this discipline. Don't wonder if the bread corn is treated with the wise, discriminating care that will fit it for food. He knows the way He is taking, and there is infinite tenderness in the oversight He gives. He is watching
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth

The Foundation of God
'Therefore thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 16. 'Therefore thus saith the Lord.' Then these great words are God's answer to something. And that something is the scornful defiance by the rulers of Israel of the prophet's threatenings. By their deeds, whether by their words or no, they said that they had made friends of their enemies, and that
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

God's Strange Work
'That He may do His work, His strange work; and bring to pass His act, His strange act.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 21. How the great events of one generation fall dead to another! There is something very pathetic in the oblivion that swallows up world- resounding deeds. Here the prophet selects two instances which to him are solemn and singular examples of divine judgment, and we have difficulty in finding out to what he refers. To him they seemed the most luminous illustrations he could find of the principle
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Man's Crown and God's
'In that day shall the Lord of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 5. 'Thou shall also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord.'--ISAIAH lxii 3. Connection of first prophecy--destruction of Samaria. Its situation, crowning the hill with its walls and towers, its fertile 'fat valley,' the flagrant immorality and drunkenness of its inhabitants, and its final ruin, are all presented in the highly imaginative picture of its fall as being like the trampling
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Judgment of Drunkards and Mockers
'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! 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. 3. The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet: 4. And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Husbandman and his Operations
'Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech. 24. Doth the plowman plow all day to sow? doth he open and break the clods of his ground! 25. When lie hath made plain the face thereof, doth he not cast abroad the fitches, and scatter the cummin, and cast in the principal wheat and the appointed barley and the rie in their place? 26. For his God doth instruct him to discretion, and doth teach him. 27. For the fitches are not threshed with a threshing instrument, neither is a cart wheel
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Crown Op Pride or a Crown of Glory
'The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet; 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. 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.'--ISAIAH xxviii. 3-5. The reference is probably to Samaria as a chief city of
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Bed and Its Covering
Now, I think it may be readily granted, that man's body is, after all, only a picture of his inner being: just what the body needs materially, that the soul needs spiritually. The soul, then, needs two things. It requires rest, which is pictured to us in sleep. The soul needs a bed upon which it may repose quietly and take its ease. And, again, the soul needs covering, for as a naked body would be both uncomfortable, unseemly, and dangerous; much more would the naked soul be unhappy, noxious to the
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 5: 1859

The Extent of Messiah's Spiritual Kingdom
The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever! T he Kingdom of our Lord in the heart, and in the world, is frequently compared to a building or house, of which He Himself is both the Foundation and the Architect (Isaiah 28:16 and 54:11, 12) . A building advances by degrees (I Corinthians 3:9; Ephesians 2:20-22) , and while it is in an unfinished state, a stranger cannot, by viewing its present appearance, form an accurate judgment
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

Of Predestination
Eph. i. 11.--"In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will."--Rom. ix. 22, 23.--"What if God, willing to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had afore prepared unto glory." In the creation of the world, it pleased the Lord,
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Samaria. Sychem.
"The country of Samaria lies in the middle, between Judea and Galilee. For it begins at a town called Ginea, lying in the Great plain, and ends at the Toparchy of the Acrabateni: the nature of it nothing differing from Judea," &c. [Acrabata was distant from Jerusalem, the space of a day's journey northwards.] Samaria, under the first Temple, was the name of a city,--under the second, of a country. Its metropolis at that time was Sychem; "A place destined to revenges": and which the Jews, as it seems,
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Self-Righteousness Insufficient.
1 "Where are the mourners, [1] (saith the Lord) "That wait and tremble at my word, "That walk in darkness all the day? "Come, make my name your trust and stay. 2 ["No works nor duties of your own "Can for the smallest sin atone; "The robes [2] that nature may provide "Will not your least pollutions hide. 3 "The softest couch that nature knows "Can give the conscience no repose: "Look to my righteousness, and live; "Comfort and peace are mine to give.] 4 "Ye sons of pride that kindle coals "With your
Isaac Watts—Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Letter xxxvi (Circa A. D. 1131) to the Same Hildebert, who had not yet Acknowledged the Lord Innocent as Pope.
To the Same Hildebert, Who Had Not Yet Acknowledged the Lord Innocent as Pope. He exhorts him to recognise Innocent, now an exile in France, owing to the schism of Peter Leonis, as the rightful Pontiff. To the great prelate, most exalted in renown, Hildebert, by the grace of God Archbishop of Tours, Bernard, called Abbot of Clairvaux, sends greeting, and prays that he may walk in the Spirit, and spiritually discern all things. 1. To address you in the words of the prophet, Consolation is hid from
Saint Bernard of Clairvaux—Some Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux

Of the Scriptures
Eph. ii. 20.--"And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone." Believers are "the temple of the living God," in which he dwells and walks, 2 Cor. vi. 16. Every one of them is a little sanctuary and temple to his Majesty, "sanctify the Lord of hosts in your hearts." Though he be "the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity," yet he is pleased to come down to this poor cottage of a creature's heart, and dwell in it. Is not this
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

He Does Battle for the Faith; He Restores Peace among those who were at Variance; He Takes in Hand to Build a Stone Church.
57. (32). There was a certain clerk in Lismore whose life, as it is said, was good, but his faith not so. He was a man of some knowledge in his own eyes, and dared to say that in the Eucharist there is only a sacrament and not the fact[718] of the sacrament, that is, mere sanctification and not the truth of the Body. On this subject he was often addressed by Malachy in secret, but in vain; and finally he was called before a public assembly, the laity however being excluded, in order that if it were
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

How to Make Use of Christ for Steadfastness, in a Time when Truth is Oppressed and Borne Down.
When enemies are prevailing, and the way of truth is evil spoken of, many faint, and many turn aside, and do not plead for truth, nor stand up for the interest of Christ, in their hour and power of darkness: many are overcome with base fear, and either side with the workers of iniquity, or are not valiant for the truth, but being faint-hearted, turn back. Now the thoughts of this may put some who desire to stand fast, and to own him and his cause in a day of trial, to enquire how they shall make
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

Of Orders.
Of this sacrament the Church of Christ knows nothing; it was invented by the church of the Pope. It not only has no promise of grace, anywhere declared, but not a word is said about it in the whole of the New Testament. Now it is ridiculous to set up as a sacrament of God that which can nowhere be proved to have been instituted by God. Not that I consider that a rite practised for so many ages is to be condemned; but I would not have human inventions established in sacred things, nor should it be
Martin Luther—First Principles of the Reformation

The Knowledge that God Is, Combined with the Knowledge that He is to be Worshipped.
John iv. 24.--"God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." There are two common notions engraven on the hearts of all men by nature,--that God is, and that he must be worshipped, and these two live and die together, they are clear, or blotted together. According as the apprehension of God is clear, and distinct, and more deeply engraven on the soul, so is this notion of man's duty of worshipping God clear and imprinted on the soul, and whenever the actions
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

"Come unto Me, all Ye that Labour, and are Wearied," &C.
Matth. xi. 28.--"Come unto me, all ye that labour, and are wearied," &c. It is the great misery of Christians in this life, that they have such poor, narrow, and limited spirits, that are not fit to receive the truth of the gospel in its full comprehension; from whence manifold misapprehensions in judgment, and stumbling in practice proceed. The beauty and life of things consist in their entire union with one another, and in the conjunction of all their parts. Therefore it would not be a fit way
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

An Address to the Regenerate, Founded on the Preceding Discourses.
James I. 18. James I. 18. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. I INTEND the words which I have now been reading, only as an introduction to that address to the sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty, with which I am now to conclude these lectures; and therefore shall not enter into any critical discussion, either of them, or of the context. I hope God has made the series of these discourses, in some measure, useful to those
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

Of the Necessity of Divine Influences to Produce Regeneration in the Soul.
Titus iii. 5, 6. Titus iii. 5, 6. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour. IF my business were to explain and illustrate this scripture at large, it would yield an ample field for accurate criticism and useful discourse, and more especially would lead us into a variety of practical remarks, on which it would be pleasant
Philip Doddridge—Practical Discourses on Regeneration

The Justice of God
The next attribute is God's justice. All God's attributes are identical, and are the same with his essence. Though he has several attributes whereby he is made known to us, yet he has but one essence. A cedar tree may have several branches, yet it is but one cedar. So there are several attributes of God whereby we conceive of him, but only one entire essence. Well, then, concerning God's justice. Deut 32:4. Just and right is he.' Job 37:23. Touching the Almighty, we cannot find him out: he is excellent
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Mercy of God
The next attribute is God's goodness or mercy. Mercy is the result and effect of God's goodness. Psa 33:5. So then this is the next attribute, God's goodness or mercy. The most learned of the heathens thought they gave their god Jupiter two golden characters when they styled him good and great. Both these meet in God, goodness and greatness, majesty and mercy. God is essentially good in himself and relatively good to us. They are both put together in Psa 119:98. Thou art good, and doest good.' This
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The Knowledge of God
'The Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.' I Sam 2:2. Glorious things are spoken of God; he transcends our thoughts, and the praises of angels. God's glory lies chiefly in his attributes, which are the several beams by which the divine nature shines forth. Among other of his orient excellencies, this is not the least, The Lord is a God of knowledge; or as the Hebrew word is, A God of knowledges.' Through the bright mirror of his own essence, he has a full idea and cognisance
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

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