By Eugene Garner

ISAIAH - 27

PUNISHMENT AND PRESERVATION

   In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day. 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. Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. He shall cause them that come to Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with twit.

    1. Here Israel, the vineyard of the Lord (condemned and judged in chapter 5), is restored and blessed by her divine Planter and Keeper, (vs. 2-3a; Psalm 80:8-9).
    2. He waters the vineyard constantly (comp. 58:11), and, lest anything hurt it, keeps it constantly, (vs. 3; comp. 31:5; I Sam. 2:9; Jn. 10:28).
    3. His wrath toward Israel is spent, but if briars and thorns attempt to hinder them He will trample and burn them, (vs. 4:10:17; 2 Sam. 23:6; Isa. 33:12; Matt. 3:12; Heb. 6:8).
    4. Yet, He invites them to make peace with Him; it is possible for Israel's foes to make peace with Israel's God, (vs. 5; 26:3; Job 22:21; Jer. 9:24; 2 Cor. 5:20).
    5. In generations to come (after Leviathan has been destroyed), Jacob will take root (vs. 6; 37:31), Israel will blossom and bud (35:1-2; Hos. 14:4-7), and they will fill the earth with fruit, (4:2-3).

   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? In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. 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. 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. 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 show them no favour.

    1. Israel's punishment, tempered with mercy, is not as severe as that of her enemies, (vs. 7; comp. 30:31-33; 31:8-9; 37:36-38).
    2. Her punishment is carefully measured - the Lord sending her into exile (to purge her sin), rather than putting her to death as an adulteress, (vs. 8-9; 48:9-11; 50:1; 54:7; 1:25; Hos. 10:8); she must forever abandon her idols, (17:8; Ex. 34:13; Deut. 12:3; Rom. 11:27).
    3. Before this comes to pass Jerusalem must be destroyed; only through humiliation can her rebel heart ever know the real blessing of Jehovah, (vs. 10-11; Rom. 11:17, 19-20; Deut. 32:28-29; Jer. 5:21; Hos. 4:6).

   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, 0 ye children of Israel. 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.

    1. The restoration of Israel is likened unto the beating of olives from the trees, (vs. 12; 11:11-12; 17:6; 24:13; 56:6-8).
    2. At the sound of a great trumpet they which were ready to perish will come to worship the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem, (vs. 13; Matt. 24:31; Isa. 19:21-25; 49:7; 66:23; Zech. 14:16-17).