Isaiah 27:2-13 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Isaiah 27:2-13. Let’s go!
Isaiah 27:2-6 (NIV)
2 In that day– “Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
3 I, the LORD, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.
4 I am not angry. If only there were briers and thorns confronting me! I would march against them in battle; I would set them all on fire.
5 Or else let them come to me for refuge; let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me.”
6 In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.
On verses 2-6: Previously in Isaiah 5, Isaiah shared a song about Israel as a vineyard that was consistently unfruitful despite everything the Lord had done for it, and so God destroyed it. Now in Isaiah 27:2 we get another song about a vineyard, but the message and tone are completely different. This vineyard that Isaiah now sings about is a fruitful vineyard that God protects with a passion. God even challenges the briers and thorns [i.e. other nations] who want to try to take His vineyard away from Him (v4-5) and suggests that He makes peace with them. His promise is that this vineyard, Israel, will become so fruitful that it will fill the world with its fruit (v6).
Why the drastic change from Isaiah 5 to Isaiah 27? Are Isaiah and God just in a better mood? No. Remember that one of the big themes of Isaiah is that God cuts things down to a stump with the intention that from that stump something greater will grow. Isaiah 5 is pre-cut Israel. Isaiah 27 is post-cut Israel. Isaiah 27 is the new vineyard that rises up from the wasted old one. Isaiah 5 is the tragic middle of our story as God’s people. Isaiah 27 is how our story as God’s people ends: gloriously, fruitfully, redemptively, and victoriously with God.
Isaiah 27:7-9 (NIV)
7 Has [the LORD] struck her as he struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her?
8 By warfare and exile you contend with her– with his fierce blast he drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows.
9 By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for, and this will be the full fruitage of the removal of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones to be like chalk stones crushed to pieces, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.
On verses 7-9: When I have a tough time understanding Scripture, it helps to look at other translations. While the NIV translation is usually my go to translation, I do find that other translations for these verses like the NLT and the Message paraphrase are easier to understand.
Isaiah is saying that though God may not have treated Israel exactly like He punished other nations (v7), God will discipline Israel by allowing her to go through warfare and exile (v8). Here is Isaiah writing around 700 B.C. about how one day Israel will be sent into exile. This would happen in 586 B.C., about 100 years after Isaiah would have written down this prophecy.
Verse 9 says that Israel’s guilt will then be atoned for and that the evidence that her sin has been taken away is that Israel will remove the idols that it once worshiped. What can we learn from this? One way to tell that God is doing a saving and sanctifying work in a person’s life is that that person turns from idols that they used to worship.
Isaiah 27:10-13 (NIV)
10 The fortified city stands desolate, an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the desert; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.
11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them, and their Creator shows them no favor.
12 In that day the LORD will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, O Israelites, will be gathered up one by one.
13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.
On verses 10-13: Isaiah describes how after the exile, God will gather His people back from the places where He had scattered them such that they can worship Him together in Jerusalem again.
Once again, we see that God disciplines us not to be cruel to us, but ultimately with the vision of restoring us, building us up again, and making us stronger than we were before.
As Hebrews 12:10-11 says “…God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.” When God disciplines us, may we have a teachable attitude and seek to learn and be trained by it as much as possible.
This ends the part of Isaiah called “Isaiah’s apocalypse”, talking specifically about the end times.
Thank You Father that Your discipline is always with a good, loving, glorious purpose in mind. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
