John Calvin Commentary Isaiah 28:23

"Give ye ear, and hear my voice; hearken, and hear my speech." — Isaiah 28:23 (ASV)

Give ear and hear my voice. Isaiah uses a preface, as if he were about to speak of something important and very weighty; for we are not accustomed to demand attention from our hearers unless we are about to say what is very important.

And yet he seems here to speak of common and ordinary subjects, such as agriculture, sowing, threshing, and similar operations. But the Prophet intended to direct the minds of his hearers to higher matters. When he speaks about the judgments of God and shows with what wisdom God governs the world—though wicked men think that everything moves by chance and at random—he intended to set forth and explain a difficult subject in a plain style, using metaphors drawn from objects that are well known and understood.

We often complain that God seems to overlook the crimes of wicked men because He does not immediately punish them according to our wishes; but the Prophet shows that God appoints nothing but what is just and proper.

The purpose of this preface, therefore, is that people may perceive their stupidity in criticizing the judgments of God and misconstruing them, while even in the ordinary course of nature they have a very bright mirror in which they may see them plainly.

There is an implied challenge to those who shut their eyes amid such clear light. He shows that they are dull and stupid in not understanding the works of God that are so manifest, and yet are so rash and daring that they presume to judge and censure what is hidden.

Similarly, Paul, when speaking of the resurrection, declares that those who do not perceive the power of God in the seeds that are sown in the earth are fools.

“You fool, that which you sow does not grow or vegetate until it has rotted” (1 Corinthians 15:36).

Thus Isaiah here declares that those who do not see the wisdom of God in such obvious things are stupid; in short, that people are blind and dull in observing the works of God.