Isaiah 27:1-13
1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercinga serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.
4 Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would gob through them, I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me.
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.
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?
8 In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
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 imagesc shall not stand up.
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.
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.
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.
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.
God's Care for His Vineyard
Throughout these Chapter s we must remember that the doom of Babylon and the restoration of God's people are symbolical of other events, for which the world is preparing. Then Babylon the Great shall give place to the Holy City, which comes down out of heaven from God. Egypt and Babylon are represented by the leviathan, a general term applicable to any great water animal. The one had its Nile, the other its Euphrates.
Parallel with the destruction of our foes is God's care of His own people. The Church is His vineyard. We do not keep Him, but He, us. Not for a moment does He relax His care. Those who oppose His purposes are trampled down as briars beneath the booted foot. In Isaiah 5:6 we have a prevision of the ultimate mission of the Hebrew race.
Note the difference in Isaiah 27:7-11 between punishment and chastisement. The former is irremediable and destructive, the latter is always in measure. The rough wind is stayed in the day of the east wind. Its object is to purge away our sins. After the captivity idolatry ceased out of Israel. How tenderly God gathers His wanderers-one by one as hand-picked fruit; even those who had wandered farthest and were ready to perish!