Our text from Isaiah 28 regards work the Lord is going to perform which He refers to as "strange work" and as an "alien task". The reason this work feels strange and alien to Him is because it involves fighting against the descendants of Jacob. He is not fighting against the enemies of Israel and Judah; He is fighting against Israel and Judah.
"The Lord will rise up as He did at Mount Perazim, He will rouse Himself as in the Valley of Gibeon---to do His work, His strange work, and perform His task, His alien task." (Isaiah 28:21) Mount Perazim and the Valley of Gibeon are places where the Lord worked on behalf of the descendants of Jacob. These are places where He won great victories for them.
But now He is preparing to win a great victory against them. This is a victory for holiness. This is a victory for righteous living. In Isaiah's day a large number of the people of the northern kingdom of Israel have been living in idolatry for a very long time. In his nation of Judah the people have dabbled with idolatry off and on; some of their kings have been blatant idolaters, though the current king is not. The Lord fought on the side of the people while they were on His side but as more and more are fighting against Him, He will fight against them. But we must keep in mind that He does not intend to make a permanent end of them as a nation, never to rise again, as He intends to destroy some of the pagan nations around them. He will fight against them not to put an end to them but to heal them.
This fight is intended for discipline. The discipline will be as light or as harsh as it needs to be to turn them around, so He informs them through the prophet Isaiah that the severity of the discipline is up to them. "Now stop your mocking, or your chains will become heavier; the Lord, the Lord Almighty, has told me of the destruction decreed against the whole land." (Isaiah 28:22)
The coming discipline is a done deal, for the Lord knows that's what it is going to take to cause the people to forsake their useless idols and turn back to him. Nothing short of enemy invasion and captivity is going to bring about repentance. But the sooner the people start turning back to Him, the lighter the yoke will be. The sooner the people start turning back to Him, the shorter the captivity will be.
Later in the Bible, when we find the people turning back to Him and when we find them returning to rebuild the land, the Lord will fight on their side again against those who don't want them to rebuild. Enemies around them will attempt to prevent them from rises from the ashes but the Lord will enable them to rise.
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