Isaiah 27:12-13

God's Harvesting Of His Own (Isaiah 27:12).

In the day when Yahweh acts He will ‘beat out' (a harvesting term) His people from the flood of the Euphrates down to the Wadi of Egypt, gathering them one by one. A great trumpet will blow and those who were perishing in Assyria, or who were outcasts (refugees) in Egypt will come back to their land and worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Analysis.

· And it will come about in that day that Yahweh will beat out (‘his herbs' or ‘his corn' or ‘his olives' should be understood) from the flood of the River to the Wadi of Egypt (Isaiah 27:12 a).

· And you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel (Isaiah 27:12 b).

· And it will come about in that day that a great trumpet will be blown (Isaiah 27:13 a).

· And they will come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and they who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem (Isaiah 27:13 b).

Isaiah 27:12

‘And it will come about in that day that Yahweh will beat out (‘his herbs' or ‘his corn' or ‘his olives' should be understood) from the flood of the River to the Wadi of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel.'

In the day of God's working, which began at the first coming of the King and will continue through to His second coming, God's work of harvesting will go on. His people will be gathered and harvested, and it will be accomplished one by one. As Jesus Himself declared in His day, the fields were white already for harvest (John 4:35). The harvest-time had begun (compare Matthew 9:37; Luke 10:2; Matthew 13:3).

‘Thresh/beat out -'. No object is found in the Hebrew. Thus the verb refers to harvesting, but we are not told of what. See for its use in Isaiah 28:27 - of herbs; in Deuteronomy 24:20 - of olives; in Judges 6:11; Ruth 2:17 - of grain. Compare Isaiah 17:6; Isaiah 24:13, where, however, a different verb is used. Cha^bat is the word commonly applied to the knocking out of fruits with husks, which were too tender and valuable to be threshed. Such fruits, as the prophet himself affirms in Isaiah 28:7, were knocked out carefully with a stick, and would have been injured by the violence of ordinary threshing. Thus God will deal gently with them.

‘From the flood of the River to the Wadi of Egypt.' This is often the ideal description of the extent of the promised land (Genesis 15:18; Exodus 23:31), thus indicating all His true people. So God will search the land for His people, and ‘beat them out', removing the husks and making them ready for use, preparatory to summoning those in exile in Egypt and Assyria. Although the thought may be that these boundaries are intended to signify Assyria and Egypt as the place where His people are, and may simply mean ‘from north and south'. This gathering of the harvest began in the ministry of Jesus and the Apostles, whose ministry reached out over these areas. And both Assyria and Egypt were among the first to become aware of the presence of the King, and to have the opportunity to respond to His call. And from there He gathered His true people one by one, preparing them to be a holy people and a kingdom of priests to the world (Exodus 19:6). As the Apostles declared, it was the ministry of ‘the last days, the end of the ages'

(Note: We must stress again that the fact that ‘that day' and ‘the end of the ages' began at the resurrection is vital and is clearly stated in Scripture. ‘He was revealed  at the end of the times  for your sake', says Peter (1 Peter 1:20), so that he can then warn his readers ‘ the end of all things  is at hand' (1 Peter 4:7). So to Peter the first coming of Christ began the end times spoken of by the prophets. In the same way Paul says to his contemporaries ‘for our admonition, on whom  the end of the ages  has come' (1 Corinthians 10:11), and declares ‘the day is at hand' so that we are to walk ‘as in the day' (Romans 13:11). What could be clearer? The first coming of Christ was the end of the ages promised by the prophets, not the beginning of a new age. The writer to the Hebrews also tells us ‘He has  in these last days spoken to us by His Son' (Hebrews 1:1), and adds ‘once in  the end of the ages  has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself' (Hebrews 9:26). So all those early writers saw their days as ‘the last days', for they knew that they had ushered in the final activity of God before the end. End of note).

Isaiah 27:13

‘And it will come about in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and they will come who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and they who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, and they will worship Yahweh in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.'

This second illustration, following on the first, likens the gathering of God's people from abroad to the blowing of a great trumpet rallying the people (compare Numbers 10:1). Note their condition, ready to perish, outcasts. They are those who recognise their true condition and are seen by the world as nothings. But God will call them from both north and south and they will come to ‘the holy mountain at Jerusalem' to worship. They are His chosen ones, His elect.

We note that Babylon is not in mind. Assyria was still the powerful nation to the north, and was the place to which exiles have been taken, and, as ever, Egypt was the nation of the south, containing refugees.

But the overall idea is that God's people will gather from wherever they are. This occurred literally once Cyrus declared that people could go back to their homelands, and continued figuratively in the proclamation of the Gospel by Paul and others in Jewish synagogues around the world, as God's people were gathered back to their true source. The ‘holy mountain at Jerusalem' is Mount Zion, symbolic of God's heavenly dwelling-place, and ever the focal point of the worship of His people both physically and spiritually (Galatians 4:26).

Some refer the ‘great trumpet' to the trumpet of Jubile in Leviticus 25:9, the introduction of the great year of deliverance. And that is possible. But that was not said to be a ‘great trumpet', and the likelihood here therefore is that the emphasis is more on the heavenly and unique nature of the trumpet. In the end therefore this represents God's summons, the final trumpet, the ‘last trump', which will gather all His people to the heavenly Jerusalem (which was what the holy mountain at Jerusalem represented) and the everlasting kingdom (Matthew 24:31; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16) pictured in terms of the thought forms of Isaiah's day.