Precepts

Psalm 87; Isaiah 30-33; Ephesians 2

“For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.” – Isaiah 28:10

I’ve heard this verse quoted as a kind of motto for expository preaching — line by line, verse by verse, patiently explaining God’s word. And that’s a good practice. But when you read Isaiah 28 in context, that’s not what’s happening here.

Isaiah is calling out the leaders of God’s people who were arrogant, complacent, and spiritually deaf. God had been sending His word through the prophets, but the people mocked it. They heard the prophet’s message and shrugged: “All he ever says is rules, rules, rules. Just simple stuff — precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, there a little. Like he’s talking to children.”

The tragedy is that what they dismissed as childish was really the word of the living God. And Isaiah warns them: if you won’t hear God’s word clearly spoken, you’ll hear it another way — through the foreign tongue of Assyrian invaders. Judgment would become their teacher.

The real warning here isn’t about preaching style. It’s about our hearts. When God’s word feels too repetitive, too simple, or beneath us, we are in danger of treating it lightly. We shrug off what is meant to give life.

The wise response is different: to lean in, to humbly receive even what feels simple and obvious, and to trust that God gives His word “precept upon precept, line upon line” because we need to hear it that way. Repetition is grace. Simplicity is kindness.

Don’t despise the “little by little” of God’s word. Those lines and precepts are meant to build us up, steady us, and keep us walking in His ways.