Chapter 27 concludes the section (Chapters 24 – 27) known as “The Little Apocalypse of Judgment and Restoration”. This prophecy is a song about the Lord’s restoration of His vineyard, Israel.
Outline.
Verse 1 describes Adonai’s wrath being poured out.
Verses 2 – 6, Adonai rejoices over His redeemed people. His anger with His people is over. He will guard Israel. In the millennial kingdom, Israel shall bloom and flourish and fill the face of the earth with fruit.
Verses 7 – 9. Adonai has not dealt with Israel as with their Gentile overlords. His chastisement of Israel has been measured and limited. He drove them off into exile to purge them of the sin of idolatry. His objective will be achieved when Israel destroys every vestige of pagan images.
Verses 10 and 11 describes the annihilation of Israel’s oppressors.
Verses 12 and 13 describe the promise that the exiles will be regathered back to Mount Zion. Back in the land, they (and others) will come to Jerusalem to worship the Lord.
Chapter 27 verse 1.
“In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent. Leviathan that twisted serpent; and He will slay the reptile that is in the sea.”
This verse clearly links to Chapters 24 – 26 and is the climax of the outpouring of Adonai’s wrath described there.
We should try to address the conundrum of “Leviathan” and the “reptile that is in the sea”. Some argue that Leviathan is some sort of sea-going dinosaur or even a crocodile. I think it is best to think of these two as mythical creatures (perhaps based on “Lotan” in Ugarite mythology). This would represent a dragon-like creature which symbolises chaos; something which man cannot overcome, but Adonai can and does.
The idea of Leviathan may be used symbolically to represent Satan or certain mighty, earthly powers such as Egypt, Assyria or Babylon. Here the Leviathan myth is used to teach that Adonai will triumph over all who oppose Him.
Psalm 93:4.
“The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, than the mighty waves of the sea.”
Psalm 74: 13, 14.
“You divided the sea by Your strength; You broke heads of the sea serpents in the waters. You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces and gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.”
Isaiah 51: 9.
“Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord! Awake as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Are you not the arm that cut Rahab apart, and wounded the serpent?”
“Rahab” was another mythical serpent.
Chapter 27 verse 2.
“In that day sing to her, a vineyard of red wine!”
The rest of the chapter concerns the restoration of Israel. Verses 2 – 6 reveal Adonai’s joy over His redeemed people and His protection of them.
The Lord’s vineyard is Israel.
Isaiah 5:7.
“For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His pleasant plant.”
Adonai rejoices over the new “red wine” which contrasts greatly with the “wild grapes” of Chapter 5:2; “… He expected it to bring forth good grapes, but it brought forth wild grapes.”
Verse 2 of Chapter 27 represents Adonai’s intention for HIs people; that they would be a delectable wine.
Psalm 80:8.
“You have brought a vine out of Egypt; you have cast out the nations and planted it.”
His previous disappointment is also noted in Jeremiah 2:21;
“Yet I had planted you a noble vine, a seed of highest quality. How then have you turned before Me into the degenerate plant of an alien vine?”
Chapter 27 verse 3.
“I, the Lord, keep it, I water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I keep it day and night.”
This passage is a complete reversal of what we found in Chater 5 concerning unrepentant Israel.
Chapter 5 Verse 6, “I will lay it waste.” Compare with, “I will keep it.”
Chapter 5 verse 5. “I will take away its hedge, and it shall be burned.” Compare with, “Lest any hurt it.”
Chapter 5 verse 6, “no rain on it.” Compare with, “water it every moment.”
Adonai is promising provision and protection.
Psalm 121: 4,5.
“Behold, He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade at your right hand.”
Isaiah 31:5.
“Like birds flying about, so will the Lord of hosts defend Jerusalem. Defending. He will also deliver it; passing over, He will preserve it”.
Adonai’s care of Israel contrasts with His treatment of her enemies which we saw in verse 1.
Chapter 27 verse 4.
“Fury is not in Me. Who would set briers and thorns against Me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together.”
Again, we can contrast this verse with Chapter 5; 5:25, “For all this His anger is not turned way.” Compare with, “Fury is not in Me.”
Adonai has no more anger against His people. The time of Israel’s punishment by Adonai is over.
Chapter 5:6 states “… there shall come up briers and thorns.” this speaks of Israel’s enemies. But there shall be no more threat to Israel. If any hostile force should come against Israel Adonai would “burn them together.”
2 Samuel 23:6.
“… the sons of rebellion shall be as thorns thrust away …”
Isaiah 9:18.
“For wickedness burns as a fire; it shall devour the briers and thorns, and kindle in the thickets of the forest: they shall mount up like rising smoke.”
Chapter 27 verse 5.
“Or let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and He shall make peace with Me.”
It would be better for the enemies of Israel if they made peace with Adonai. This they will do. They will turn to the Lord for His protection and peace.
Isaiah 25:4.
“For You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat; for the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall.”
Job 22:21.
“Now acquaint yourself with Him and be at peace …”
Isaiah 26: 3,4.
“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because He trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength.”
Chapter 27 verse 6.
“Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.”
In the future millennial kingdom of Messiah, restored Israel will rule with the Lord and provide the earth with the fruit of righteousness and the necessities of life. At this time there will be the fulfilment of one of the purposes of the Tribulation; to put an end to sin. In the kingdom there will be no sin in Israel. The fulfilment of the New Covenant will see all Israel’s sin removed.
“Those who come” may refer to the regathered exiles coming from Assyria and Egypt who are referred to in verse 13 of this chapter.
Isaiah 37:31.
“And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward.”
Hosea 14:5,6.
“I will be like the dew to Israel; he shall grow like the lily, and lengthen his roots like Lebanon. His branches shall spread; his beauty shall be like an olive tree, and his fragrance like Lebanon.”
Chapter 27 verse 7.
“Has He struck Israel as He struck those who struck him? Or has He been slain according to the slaughter those who were slain by Him?”
These two questions are posed in such a manner that a negative reply is clearly expected. Adonai has tempered His dealings with Israel but not so with those He used to punish Israel. His chastening of Israel has been measured and limited but HIs compassion for the other nations has come to an end.
Isaiah 10:24 – 26. Concerning Israel:
“O My people, who dwell in Zion, do not be afraid of the Assyrian. He shall strike you with a rod and lift up his staff against you, in the manner of Egypt. For yet a little while and the indignation will cease, as will My anger in their destruction. And the Lord of hosts will stir up a scourge for him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; as the rod was on the sea, so He will lift up in the manner of Egypt.”
Compare the treatment of Israel with her enemies.
Isaiah 14: 22.
“For I will rise up against them”, says the Lord of hosts, “And cut off from Babylon the name and remnant, and offspring and posterity,” says the Lord of hosts.”
Isaiah 14:30. Concerning Philistia.
“I will kill your roots with famine, and I will slay your remnant.”
Chapter 27 verse 8.
“In measure by sending it away, You contended with it. He removes it by His rough wind in the day of the east wind.”
Isaiah foresees the Babylonian exile. Adonai will send Judah into exile and captivity to purge them of the sin of idolatry and to awake the nation to their need to trust in Him.
Psalm 78:38.
“But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity, and did not destroy them. Yes, many a time He turned away His anger, and did not stir up all His wrath.”
Jeremiah 30:11,
“For I am with you, says the Lord, to save you; though I make a full end to all nations where I have scattered you, yet I will not make a complete end of you. But I will correct you in justice, and I will not let you go altogether unpunished.”
Chapter 27 verse 9.
“Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered; and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altar like chalkstones that are beaten to dust, wooden images and incense altars shall not stand.”
Jacob atoned for the iniquity of his idolatry by undergoing punishment by Adonai. He will be completely purged of his sin when all vestiges of pagan worship have been destroyed, and they call on the Lord Yeshua.
Isaiah 40:2.
“Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her, that her warfare is ended, and her iniquity is pardoned; for she has received from the Lord’s hand double for all her sins.”
Isaiah 17: 8.
“He will not look to the altars, the work of his hands; he will not respect what his fingers have made, nor the wooden images nor the incense altars.”
In the millennial kingdom, the New Covenant will remove all sin from Israel. There will be sin among the Gentiles but not in Israel.
Chapter 27 verses 10 and 11.
“Yet the fortified city will be desolate, the inhabitant forsaken and left like a wilderness; there the calf will feed, and there it will lie down and consume its branches. When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off; the women come and set them on fire. For it is a people of no understanding; therefore He who made them will have no mercy on them, and He who formed them will show them no favour.”
“The city” may symbolise Judah’s enemies and could refer to any proud city of the Gentile nations. In contrast to Adonai’s treatment of Israel, He will deal a fatal blow to her enemies.
Isaiah 25:2.
“For You have made a city a ruin, a fortified city a ruin, a palace of foreigners to be a city no more; it will never be rebuilt.”
Isaiah 26:5.
“For He brings down those who dwell on high, the loft city; He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He brings it down to the dust.”
Isaiah 32:14.
“Because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted. The forts and towers will become lairs forever, a joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks …”
Chapter 27 verse 12.
“And it will come to pass in that day that the Lord will thresh, from the channel of the River to the Brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel.”
To “thresh” refers to harvesting a crop by flailing such as beating an olive tree. The picture is of the regathering Israel – those who were dispersed into such nations as Assyria and Egypt. They will be brought back into the land.
Here we see the full and proper boundaries of Israel (Genesis 15:18, “On the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram saying: “To your descendants I have given this land, from the river of Egypt to the great River Euphrates …”). Israel will be settled in all the Promised Land (“the Brook of Egypt” may be the Wadi-el-Arish which is halfway down the Sinai Peninsula).
Clearly, we see here the national salvation and national restoration of Israel. This verse emphasises the totality of the regathering; all Israel will be brought back into the land. In the Tribulation, Israel will have suffered in neighbouring Middle East lands; these are the ones who will return.
After the judgment of her enemies, the faithful remnant of Israel will return to the land.
Isaiah 11:11.
“It shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set His hand again a second time to recover the remnant of His people who are left, from Assyria and Egypt, from Pathros and Cush, from Elam and Shinar, from Hamath and the islands of the sea.”
Chapter 27 verse 13.
“So it shall be in that day; the great trumpet will be blown; they will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, and they who are the outcast in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the Holy Mount at Jerusalem.”
Matthew 24:31.
“And He will send His angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”
Revelation 11:15.
“Then the seventh angel sounded: and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign for ever and ever!”
Those rescued from places like Egypt and Assyria will return to the land. The prophet here reiterates one of his great themes; the future worship of regathered Israel on Mount Zion.
Isaiah 24: 23.
“Then the moon will be disgraced and the sun ashamed; for the Lord of hosts will reign on Mount Zion in Jerusalem and before his elders, gloriously.”
Isaiah 2: 3.
“Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us to up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem”.