23 Let your ears be open to my voice; give attention to what I say. 24 Is the ploughman for ever ploughing? does he not get the earth ready and broken up for the seed? 25 When the face of the earth has been levelled, does he not put in the different sorts of seed, and the grain in lines, and the barley in its place, and the spelt at the edge? 26 For his God is his teacher, giving him the knowledge of these things. 27 For the fitches are not crushed with a sharp instrument, and a cart-wheel is not rolled over the cummin; but the grain of the fitches is hammered out with a stick, and of the cummin with a rod. 28 Is the grain for bread crushed? He does not go on crushing it for ever, but he lets his cart-wheels and his horses go over it without crushing it. 29 This comes from the Lord of armies, purposing wonders, and wise in all his acts.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Isaiah 28:23-29
Commentary on Isaiah 28:23-29
(Read Isaiah 28:23-29)
The husbandman applies to his calling with pains and prudence, in all the works of it according to their nature. Thus the Lord, who has given men this wisdom, is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in his working. As the occasion requires, he threatens, corrects, spares, shows mercy, or executes vengeance. Afflictions are God's threshing instruments, to loosen us from the world, to part between us and our chaff, and to prepare us for use. God will proportion them to our strength; they shall be no heavier than there is need. When his end is answered, the trials and sufferings of his people shall cease; his wheat shall be gathered into the garner, but the chaff shall be burned with unquenchable fire.