Mockers Bound: The Folly of Dismissing God's Word

Isaiah 28:22 demands a piercing question: "Be ye not mockers." Exell's 1887 exposition reveals that mockery of Scripture manifests in four distinct ways within our assemblies.

First, when God's threatenings produce no alarm in us—when warnings of wrath fail to compel flight—we prove ourselves mockers. Faith invariably produces effects matching the truth received; an alarming word should birth dread.

Second, when grace's joyful tidings are heard with indifference, when no hunger for the Saviour stirs within us, we mock His promises.

Third, when we cherish selfish hardness while claiming to reverence Scripture's precepts—when fraud, extortion, and fleshly lust define our living—we mock the very Book we profess.

Fourth, when we make light of sin itself, that malignant force which cast angels from Heaven, expelled Adam from paradise, and kindles hell's flames, we commit egregious folly.

Yet the text's warning carries teeth: "lest your bands be made strong." Mockers are already bound—chained by their own contempt. This is no arbitrary punishment but the natural slavery that follows when one dismisses the Redeemer's sorrow and suffering.

The compassionate Elohim offers both threatenings and promises, precepts and censure—all designed for our redemption. To mock them is to mock our own deliverance.