Isaiah 28:17
 17 I will make justice the measuring line
      and righteousness the plumb line;
      hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie,
      and water will overflow your hiding place.
Before the great famine, Joseph had two sons.  In Genesis 41:52, Joseph named the second of those sons Ephraim and said, “It is because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering.” Well, quite frequently one sees the children of prosperous parents become spoiled and ungrateful, and the tribe of Ephraim would be no different, even as those who love them continue to give them everything. It starts in Genesis 48, when Jacob (Joseph’s father) reckoned Manasseh and Ephraim as his own, for purposes of blessing and inheritance. In other words Ephraim would not be sharing in the inheritance of the tribe of “Joseph”, but would get its own inheritance as its own tribe, and so Ephraim would be one of the 12 tribes of the Israel. In Joshua 16, the land of Ephraim’s inheritance is described in detail. However, the spoiled tribe “did not dislodge the Canaanites living in Gazer; to this day the Canaanites live among the people of Ephraim but are required to do forced labor.” This would get them into trouble later.
In fact, after making servants of the people they were supposed to drive out, Ephraim complained about the land being too small!
Joshua 17
 14 The people of Joseph said to Joshua, “Why have you given us only one allotment and one portion for an inheritance? We are a numerous people and the LORD has blessed us abundantly.”
 15 “If you are so numerous,” Joshua answered, “and if the hill country of Ephraim is too small for you, go up into the forest and clear land for yourselves there in the land of the Perizzites and Rephaites.”
 16 The people of Joseph replied, “The hill country is not enough for us, and all the Canaanites who live in the plain have iron chariots, both those in Beth Shan and its settlements and those in the Valley of Jezreel.”
 17 But Joshua said to the house of Joseph—to Ephraim and Manasseh-”You are numerous and very powerful. You will have not only one allotment 18 but the forested hill country as well. Clear it, and its farthest limits will be yours; though the Canaanites have iron chariots and though they are strong, you can drive them out.”
But alas, that did not make them grateful for what they had. They remained spoiled. In Judges 7, Gideon called on the tribe Ephraim (as well as all of the other tribes) to drive the Midianites out of their land, a call which the Lord had already blessed for success. At first, Ephraim listened:
24 Gideon sent messengers throughout the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against the Midianites and seize the waters of the Jordan ahead of them as far as Beth Barah.”
      So all the men of Ephraim were called out and they took the waters of the Jordan as far as Beth Barah. 25 They also captured two of the Midianite leaders, Oreb and Zeeb. They killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and Zeeb at the winepress of Zeeb. They pursued the Midianites and brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon, who was by the Jordan.
But simple victory in the Lord was not enough for them. They wanted glory as well, and without earning it! Thankfully, in Judges 8, Gideon diffused the situation…
 1 Now the Ephraimites asked Gideon, “Why have you treated us like this? Why didn’t you call us when you went to fight Midian?” And they criticized him sharply.
 2 But he answered them, “What have I accomplished compared to you? Aren’t the gleanings of Ephraim’s grapes better than the full grape harvest of Abiezer? 3 God gave Oreb and Zeeb, the Midianite leaders, into your hands. What was I able to do compared to you?” At this, their resentment against him subsided.
But their spoiled attitude endured. In Judges 10:9, the Ammonites “crossed the Jordan to fight against Judah, Benjamin and the house of Ephraim; and Israel was in great distress.” As God often does however, he rescued Israel without the help of the spoiled and arrogant, showing that He alone is sufficient for victory, and that God’s victories leave no room for self-centered posturing. Joshua 12…
 1 The men of Ephraim called out their forces, crossed over to Zaphon and said to Jephthah, “Why did you go to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We’re going to burn down your house over your head.”
 2 Jephthah answered, “I and my people were engaged in a great struggle with the Ammonites, and although I called, you didn’t save me out of their hands. 3 When I saw that you wouldn’t help, I took my life in my hands and crossed over to fight the Ammonites, and the LORD gave me the victory over them. Now why have you come up today to fight me?”
 4 Jephthah then called together the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. The Gileadites struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are renegades from Ephraim and Manasseh.” 5 The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a survivor of Ephraim said, “Let me cross over,” the men of Gilead asked him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he replied, “No,” 6 they said, “All right, say ‘Shibboleth.’ ” He said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce the word correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. Forty-two thousand Ephraimites were killed at that time.
In Judges 17, Micah, from the land of Ephraim would make for himself an idol (with the help of his mother no less! Talk about spoiled!) and would install a Levite as his own priest! The priest would however was an opportunist himself, and turned against Micah, telling a group of Danites to attach a small and unsuspecting village called Laish. They did so, and installed the priest as their own… who took all of the Micah’s idols, leaving him with nothing. Judges 18…
 27 Then they took what Micah had made, and his priest, and went on to Laish, against a peaceful and unsuspecting people. They attacked them with the sword and burned down their city. 28 There was no one to rescue them because they lived a long way from Sidon and had no relationship with anyone else. The city was in a valley near Beth Rehob.
      The Danites rebuilt the city and settled there. 29 They named it Dan after their forefather Dan, who was born to Israel—though the city used to be called Laish. 30 There the Danites set up for themselves the idols, and Jonathan son of Gershom, the son of Moses, and his sons were priests for the tribe of Dan until the time of the captivity of the land. 31 They continued to use the idols Micah had made, all the time the house of God was in Shiloh.
And so it continued.
Eventually, when kings were installed over Israel, a wall was built around Jerusalem, part of which when through the land of Ephraim (2 Kings 14:13). But even under the kingship of Israel, their seeming obedience would not keep them centered. Despite several records of their mighty warriors, God would not bless them when fighting for Him, just as we saw with Gideon. 2 Chronicles 25…
 7 But a man of God came to him and said, “O king, these troops from Israel must not march with you, for the LORD is not with Israel—not with any of the people of Ephraim. 8 Even if you go and fight courageously in battle, God will overthrow you before the enemy, for God has the power to help or to overthrow.”
 9 Amaziah asked the man of God, “But what about the hundred talents I paid for these Israelite troops?”
      The man of God replied, “The LORD can give you much more than that.” 10 So Amaziah dismissed the troops who had come to him from Ephraim and sent them home. They were furious with Judah and left for home in a great rage.
And just as with Gideon, the people of Ephraim respond with anger and indignation, instead of changing and turning toward God. And so it continued. Even when invited to the temple to worship in peace, ”the people scorned and ridiculed them.” (2 Chronicles 30:10) And so we come to Isaiah 28, where God says to them in part:
 15 You boast, “We have entered into a covenant with death,
      with the grave we have made an agreement.
      When an overwhelming scourge sweeps by,
      it cannot touch us,
      for we have made a lie our refuge
      and falsehood our hiding place.” 16 So this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
      “See, I lay a stone in Zion,
      a tested stone,
      a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation;
      the one who trusts will never be dismayed. 17 I will make justice the measuring line
      and righteousness the plumb line;
      hail will sweep away your refuge, the lie,
      and water will overflow your hiding place. 18 Your covenant with death will be annulled;
      your agreement with the grave will not stand.
      When the overwhelming scourge sweeps by,
      you will be beaten down by it. 19 As often as it comes it will carry you away;
      morning after morning, by day and by night,
      it will sweep through.”
      The understanding of this message
      will bring sheer terror.
And so the tribe of Ephraim would receive the perfect judgement of their God… and it would not be pretty. And so, what is this to do with righteousness? Well, Jesus is the chief cornerstone. Yet again, when Isaiah is writing of righteousness he is writing of Jesus, and look at the nature of the cornerstone as a symbol of Christ.
First of all, it is a tested stone. Tested? When? Well, if you’ll think 4th dimensionally for a moment, and allow for the fact that God ultimately transcends time, then you can look at Jesus’ victory over temptation by Satan. You can look at His victory over death. If you cannot get your arms around Christ’s future actions being referred to in the past tense, then look at His participation in Proverbs 8 as Wisdom, where He was present at the formation of the world… He served as the cornerstone of the world, measuring perfectly the circle on the deep (the separation between night and day upon the world). Nothing that was made was made without Him.
Next, He was precious… at the beckoned call of the Father during creation, and at the right hand of the Father in Heaven right now. God even proclaimed after His baptism, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” Precious indeed!
Next, this stone was measured with justice. Jesus’ judgement was perfect, striking a sure balance between the letter of the law and the spirit. When He healed on the sabbath or ate with sinners, Jesus was living out the Law as it was intended to be used… as a measurement for what is right and what is wrong, as opposed to a blind standard unto itself, with no eyes or ears for context.
Finally, this stone was made perfectly level with the plumb line of righteousness. Jesus was perfectly positioned, and perfectly level, made so by His righteousness. In His belief and obedience to the father, and His reverence for the purity of His father’s name, Jesus was perfectly positioned beneath the Father at all times. And remaining just in all things, He had no blemish, fearlessly and wonderfully made, as are we all… but unmarred by sin, in contrast to us all.Â
No other blocks are as perfectly shaped or as perfectly positioned as Jesus. Consider yourself. Being righteous, perhaps you cannot be moved, but your fit is not as tight as it might be… because your sin has skewed your measurements. A child might start out perfectly measured, but a child cannot be righteous… no ability yet to believe God or obey, no appreciation of God’s name or purity. And so Jesus is the chief cornerstone, and the only one who can stand in judgement of the house of Ephraim.