Isaiah 27:1-13
Isa 27:1
In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong
sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked
serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
Leviathan is used in the Bible five times in four verses.
In this case it is speaking about Satan who is called a serpent.
And he laid hold on the dragon,
that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,
(Revelation 20:2) Satan will be
punished on the last day as he continued to deceive the nations.
The dragon that is in the sea and the Bible describes the multitude of
people on earth as the sea.
Woe to the multitude of many people,
which make a noise like the
noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,
that make a rushing like the
rushing of mighty waters! (Isaiah 17:12)
The kingdom of Satan permeates the entire world which is why it is being
likened to a serpent in the sea.
And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword,
that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of
iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.
(Revelation 19:15) In the
temporary scheme of things concerning Judah, the leviathan would also be
pointing to Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Pharaoh, and others who had persecuted
the people of God who will be destroyed along with their earthly kingdoms.
Isa 27:2
In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
Then on the day when Judah would be freed from the
oppressive regimes that have taken them captive, there will be rejoicing in the
vineyard which at this time was still the people of God in Judah.
Many pastors have destroyed my
vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot, they have made my pleasant
portion a desolate wilderness. (Jeremiah 12:10)
It sounds just like the church today that preaches what the people want
to hear instead of what they need to hear.
The vineyard of red wine is also a reference to the body of believers.
The vineyard is where precious fruits are grown and gathered which would
be those who come to know Christ as Savior.
A vineyard was also separated from the others so there would be no
mingling of the roots. It was a
separate entity just like the church is separate from the world and religious
establishment.
I am the true vine, and my Father is the
husbandman. (John 15:1) The
true vineyard of Christ is fed by him and kept by the Father.
Isa 27:3
I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest
any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
Here we have a verse which shows that God will
continually watch over and care for his vineyard.
Then he will also water the true believers.
But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John
4:14) Not the water of the
world but the spiritual water of salvation where the true believer by means of
the indwelling Holy Spirit will continually guide and teach the Christian.
Then as a product of salvation, they in turn will be able to bring the
gospel or the water of salvation to the other elect in the world.
He that believeth on me, as the
scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (John
7:38) God watches over his
vineyard to make sure that no false gospels ever take root in a true believer
and he will keep watch over the vineyard both day and night which is through the
good times and the times of adversity.
Behold, he that keepeth Israel
shall neither slumber nor sleep. (Psalm 121:4)
God kept his eyes on national Israel and now keeps his eye on the Israel
of God which is the body of believers.
Isa 27:4
Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and
thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them
together.
Then the LORD states that he has no fury in him
concerning the vineyard of Israel in which many of them had learned their lesson
after they went to Babylon for 70 years.
The Lord had stated that if there were any briers or thorns, that is,
those who would once again lead the people astray, the Lord would root them out
and they would face the final judgment for their sins against him.
Then there will be the same situation with the church.
Those whom the LORD finds that is causing his true believers to stray
will be as the thorns and briers, they will face the fires of judgment.
11 And when the king
came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding
garment: 12 And he saith unto him, Friend, how camest thou in hither
not having a wedding garment? And he was speechless. 13 Then said the
king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast
him into outer darkness; there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 22:11-13)
Just like the parable of the wedding feast when a person came into the
feast not wearing a wedding garment, he was bound and taken out and sent to
damnation. The one without the
wedding garment would represent someone who comes into the body of Christ
unsaved and starts to spew their false gospels among God’s people with the
express purpose of drawing them away from the truth.
At judgment day, that person is going to be faced with their own lies
when the truth will be sitting before them.
A friend of mine who lived next door to a Jehovah’s Witness had witnessed
to him many times but the JW insisted there was no place called hell.
Then the JW died and my friend told me “Now he will know there is a
hell.” The JW tried to ether into
the kingdom of God without a wedding garment but he could not.
Isa 27:5
Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may
make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
Then the LORD states that there will be those who are the
briers and thorns that will become saved and they will know the truth and the
LORD would be their strength.
Making peace with God means they have become saved and the war between them and
God is over.
Therefore being justified by faith, we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: (Romans 5:1)
Notice the verse says “he shall make peace with me” which means that
salvation is sure to those who were named for salvation before the foundation of
the world.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of
the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)
The only way a person calls upon the name of the Lord is if they have
become saved already because it states they shall be saved.
People who just say some sinner’s prayer cannot have that assurance they
will be saved as many are not.
Isa 27:6
He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root:
Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.
And there shall
come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his
roots: (Isaiah 11:1) Here is
another time that the name Jacob is used for the description of the true
believers. The elect which is
of Jacob will take root in the Lord Jesus Christ who is the branch who comes
from Jesse. Then on a wider scale
we read that Israel will blossom and bud and fill the face of the earth with
fruit. This in no way is speaking
about modern Israel because they have no fruit as they are of a false gospel
called Judaism. This is speaking
about the Israel of God which is the body of believers that will eventually go
throughout the entire world bringing the true gospel of salvation and as the
elect are being saved, they are bearing fruit.
Herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. (John 15:8)
The true believer is also rooted and grounded in love which is the love
of the gospel and the LORD.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by
faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, (Ephesians 3:17)
Isa 27:7
Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him?
or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
Then the prophet declares that God never smote Israel to
the point that he smote his and Israel’s enemies such as the Assyrians,
Egyptians, and Babylon. He brought these
empires to a full end but he never dealt with Israel in such a manner although
he did chastise them and dealt with them according to their sins but he never
annihilated them. They were never
slain as they had slain their enemies like in the times of Joshua where he would
slay all the inhabitants of a city like Jericho.
Israel even under God’s judging hand were never slain in their entirety
like when Assyria invaded Judah but were divinely withheld from attacking and
sacking Jerusalem.
Isa 27:8
In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with
it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
When the LORD sends a judgment upon his people, he does
so with the intent of not destroying them or going beyond what they can bear so
this way if they debate it, they will come to the conclusion that they deserved
the judgments they received in response to their sinful ways.
The word “debate” in the Hebrew can also mean “complain or contend.”
They may reject the judgment but only for so long as God continues it
until they have returned to him.
The east wind is known as the Sirocco which has a heat to it and combined with
blowing sand can be quite oppressive and injurious to people.
Here the scripture tells us that God will withhold from his people the
destruction equal to the Sirocco.
When the east wind blows, within that east wind could be a rough wind which
could be destructive to the people but he withholds it.
This has been the history of how God dealt with Israel when they sinned
against him. The word “rough” in
the Hebrew may also be understood as “cruel or grievous.”
Isa 27:9
By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged;
and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the
stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and
images shall not stand up.
Then when the
Babylonians come in to be the instrument of judgment by God, the big sin which
caused them to be taken, which is idolatry, shall be purged from them.
They will know that it is the LORD who has sent them into captivity.
Their judgment was not to destroy them but so they would be conscious of
their sins and return unto the LORD.
Then the altars which they erected to the false gods will become as
chalkstones, that is, they will crumble as they are beaten down which is what
the invaders would do to them. Then
the other places where they worshipped the false gods were the groves in the
forest where they would erect images of the false gods.
They too would be brought down to nothing, down to the ground which means
they would be totally destroyed.
Isa 27:10
Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and
the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed,
and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.
While this can generally point to all the fenced or
fortified cities of the world which would eventually come under the judgment of
God, here it is mainly aimed at Jerusalem when the Babylonians finally come in
destroy it. The city will be
forsaken as the people will be led away to Babylon and as always when the people
are gone and the gates are opened owing to destruction then animals will
normally come in and make their home there.
They shall feed within the walls and have a sense of comfort and safety
and will be able to lie down there.
Isa 27:11
When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be
broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a
people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on
them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour.
The boughs speak of branches of trees as mentioned in the
previous verse. Once the branches
have fallen from the tree, they are severed from their source of life which is
the main tree trunk. Eventually
they will wither and lay on the ground all dried up.
Normally in the Middle East it was the job of the women to gather
firewood and here they are pictured as coming to Jerusalem to set the withered
branches on fire. It is symbolic in
that just as Jerusalem will be destroyed by the Babylonians, they are symbolized
as dead branches which have been detached from their source which would be the
LORD himself who give spiritual life and protection to his people.
So he carried me away in the
spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast,
full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. (Revelation 17:3)
The women who come to burn the branches are people of no understanding,
that is, they do not know the LORD nor anything about him which is pictured in
Revelation as the woman who rides the beast.
On the other hand the people of no understanding were the inhabitants of
Judah who forsook the LORD and departed from him and took up the worship of
false gods in the belief that nothing would happen to them.
Then the LORD who formed them and made them will not have mercy on them,
that is, they will go into captivity in Babylon because they should have known
better than to forsake the true and living God.
Therefore, their sentence of seventy years in captivity will stand
until it is completed.
Isa 27:12
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and
ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.
Then once the seventy years are done, just like the
threshing of the wheat where the chaff or tares are separated from the wheat,
the LORD will regather the people and return them to their land.
It will be a smaller remnant than what was taken because they will return
in very small numbers as evidenced by “one by one”
and it means that God is very meticulous as to not miss one who is to
return to their land. They shall be
gathered from the Medes and Persians and from Egypt where many of them lived.
Isa 27:13
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the
great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in
the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship
the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.
Then as if a great trumpet was sounded, there will be a
summoning of all the Jews which were taken to the foreign countries that they
will return to their land. Assyria
was eventually conquered by the Babylonians which was eventually conquered by
the Medes and Persians. They will
be returned to their land to rebuild the temple and await the arrival of their
Messiah which they will reject.