Isaiah Chapter 27

GOD’S PEOPLE COME HOME

If you recall, when we let off in Isaiah 26, somewhere in the time-frame of 700 B.C., we were talking about songs Isaiah was including among his prophecies. We found, especially in chapters 23-26, that at times Isaiah was so overwhelmed with what God was doing and was going to do that he just had to break out into song:

Isaiah 25:1, NIV:
O LORD, you are my God;
 I will exalt you and praise your name,
 for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things,
 things planned long ago.

Isaiah 26:3, 4, ESV:
3 You keep him in perfect peace
  whose mind is stayed on you,
  because he trusts in you.
4 Trust in the LORD forever,
  for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock.

Keep in mind that the people Isaiah was writing to were struggling with sin and idolatry. He was warning them that if they didn’t get their act together there would be judgment, and they would be taken captive by an oppressive nation and carried away from their beloved homeland. Isaiah therefore had to write of some dark and heavy things, but in the midst of that he could find reasons to praise God and call on the people to put their trust in the Lord.

So let’s dig in to Isaiah 27.

Isaiah 27:1 NLT:
1 In that day the Lord will take his terrible, swift sword and punish Leviathan, the swiftly moving serpent, the coiling, writhing serpent, the dragon of the sea.

Again we see the phrase “In that Day” which clues us this pertains to the end times. So this verse, referring to the culmination of God’s judgment on the world, ties in with the judgment mentioned in 26:21. With a sword the Lord will cut up a great serpent called Leviathan. This swiftly moving serpent is the many-headed sea dragon mentioned in Psalm 74:13-14. In Ugaritic literature ( Ugarit being a city-state in North Syria) reference is made to a similar seven-headed creature. Isaiah, though not believing this ancient Semitic myth, simply referred to Leviathan to convey his point. This creature is also mentioned in Job 3:8. Leviathan, the twisting monster of the sea, was viewed in Ugaritic literature as an enemy of order in creation. But God can and will stop this chaotic state and establish order on the earth and in people’s hearts. When God’s judgment comes in that day, when He slays the wicked at the end of the Tribulation,[fn] it will be like His slaying the menacing dragon Leviathan.

This verse is loaded with symbolism. Leviathan—the dragon, the serpent—clearly makes us think of Satan who entered the serpent so he could tempt Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3). Ever since, we have associated the serpent with Satan. In Revelation 12, Satan is pictured as a dragon, who tries to kill the baby of the woman. The woman represents the nation of Israel and the baby represents Christ. The term “sea” in verse 1 is sometimes used in the Bible to symbolize “nations”[fn] or “people.”[fn] So you can get a picture from verse one of God punishing Satan (Leviathan), the dragon, who has been roaming the earth seeking to devour whomever he can (1 Peter 5:8).

Isaiah 27:2-6 NLT:
2 “In that day we will sing of the pleasant vineyard.
3 I, the Lord, will watch over it and tend its fruitful vines. Each day I will water them; day and night I will watch to keep enemies away.
4 My anger against Israel will be gone. If I find briers and thorns bothering her, I will burn them up.
5 These enemies will be spared only if they surrender and beg for peace and protection.”
6 The time is coming when my people will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole earth with her fruit!

Starting with verses 2-11 we encounter another hymn; this one gives us God’s point of view. Again we find symbolism. The vineyard symbolizes Israel (see Isaiah 5:7). In the song of the vineyard in Isaiah 5:1-7 destruction was emphasized; in the song of the vineyard here in Isaiah 27:2-6 the promise of protection is the primary theme. In the first song the vineyard was to be made a wasteland because of the people’s sinful condition. In the second song the vineyard, Israel, is to be made fruitful. After God judges Israel in verse 1, the nation will be spiritually fruitful. This fruitfulness comes because of the Lord’s constant protection and care in verse 3. If the vineyard (Israel) does not please the Lord, He must judge it, verse 4; but He much prefers that they turn to Him in repentance as their Refuge, verse 5. This desire that Israel be in the proper covenant relationship with Him is born out by the comment,  “These enemies will be spared only if they surrender and beg for peace and protection.” When the Kingdom Age arrives, Israel will be productive again[fn] and will be the nation through which God will bless the world (Genesis 12:3).

Isaiah 27:7-8 NLT:
7 Has the Lord punished Israel in the same way he has punished her enemies? No, for he devastated her enemies,
8 but he has punished Israel only a little. He has exiled her from her land as though blown away in a storm from the east.

Because God cares for His people He will judge them and purify them so they can be fruitful. Isaiah foretold that judgment would come on Israel. But He will not treat her the way He treats her enemies. Even in chastening or discipline God’s love and care for His people is evident. He will judge Israel by warfare and exile (Deuteronomy 28:64-68). The east wind in verse 8 may refer figuratively to Babylon, east of Israel, which took Judah into captivity. The Exile would help purify Judah so that she would not worship foreign gods and goddesses. From the time Israel returned from exile in Babylon she never again worshipped any false gods.

Isaiah 27:9-11 NLT:
9 The Lord did this to purge away Israel’s sin. When he has finished, all the pagan altars will be crushed to dust. There won’t be an Asherah pole or incense altar left standing.
10 Israel’s fortified cities will be silent and empty, the houses abandoned, the streets covered with grass. Cattle will graze there, chewing on twigs and branches.
11 The people are like the dead branches of a tree, broken off and used for kindling beneath the cooking pots. Israel is a foolish and stupid nation, for its people have turned away from God. Therefore, the one who made them will show them no pity or mercy.

The sin of the nation of Judah had to be atoned for. Of course atonement for all sin is through the death of Jesus Christ. But in view of Israel’s covenant relationship with God, she had to be driven out of the land because of her disobedience to the Law (Deuteronomy 28:49-52, 64). Evidence of that atonement would be her pulverizing her altar stones dedicated to idolatrous gods, and removing the Asherah poles, wooden symbols of the Canaanite pagan goddess of fertility.

Because of Judah’s sin, her city, Jerusalem, would be destroyed and its people removed. Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 b.c. and was left desolate. Isaiah said calves would graze in Jerusalem’s ruins and being hungry would strip tree branches of their bark. Women then would cut off the branches and use them for firewood. In judging His senseless people, God, their Maker and Creator, temporarily withdrew His compassion on them.

Isaiah 27:12-13 NLT:
12 Yet the time will come when the Lord will gather them together one by one like handpicked grain. He will bring them to his great threshing floor—from the Euphrates River in the east to the brook of Egypt in the west.
13 In that day the great trumpet will sound. Many who were dying in exile in Assyria and Egypt will return to Jerusalem to worship the Lord on his holy mountain.

The Lord promised that in that day He will thresh, that is He will judge, a large area from the Euphrates River to the Wadi of Egypt. In other words the Lord will judge this large area of land for the purpose of bringing His people back to Jerusalem. The Wadi of Egypt may be the stream that marks the southwest border of Canaan (Numbers 34:4-5; 1 Kings 8:65). Or perhaps it refers to the Nile, since the point of Isaiah 27:13 is that the Lord will re-gather His people from both Assyria and Egypt, two great enemies of Israel throughout most of her history up to Assyria’s fall in 609 b.c. The people will be re-gathered to the holy mountain in Jerusalem, that is, the temple mount where the Messiah will reign (Isaiah 24:23). In God’s kingdom on earth Israel will dwell in the land of Palestine as believers.

Truly the people of Judah would have much to sing about after God brought them out of the dark night of captivity back to their homeland, and from the darkness of being scattered among the nations into eternal redemption.

What about you? Can you lift your voice in songs of praise to God even when you are going through a dark place? Job spoke of “God my Maker, who gives songs in the night” (Job 35:10). The psalmists also referred to the song God gives in the night.

Psalm 77:6, NAS:
I will remember my song in the night; I will meditate with my heart; and my spirit ponders.

Psalm 42:8, NAS:
The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; and His song will be with me in the night, a prayer to the God of my life.

From these verses we learn several things: God is the One who gives songs in the night; we can’t summon them up ourselves. We are to remember God’s songs during our long dark nights, and even to use them as a prayer to God. Isaiah’s songs burst forth as he thought about who God is and what He was doing.

When you are walking in close intimacy with God, He gives you the song of praise to Him, even when your current circumstances seem as dark as night. Then you can know with certainty that the night is short and it will be done away with by the light of the Holy One, by Jesus Christ.