Daily Devotional Friday 12th May 2023

by William Moody

Isaiah 27

The Redemption of Israel

27:1 In that day the LORD with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

  In that day,
  “A pleasant vineyard,1 sing of it!
    I, the LORD, am its keeper;
    every moment I water it.
    Lest anyone punish it,
  I keep it night and day;
    I have no wrath.
  Would that I had thorns and briers to battle!
    I would march against them,
    I would burn them up together.
  Or let them lay hold of my protection,
    let them make peace with me,
    let them make peace with me.”
  In days to come2 Jacob shall take root,
    Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots
    and fill the whole world with fruit.
  Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them?
    Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain?
  Measure by measure,3 by exile you contended with them;
    he removed them with his fierce breath4 in the day of the east wind.
  Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:5
  when he makes all the stones of the altars
    like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
    no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.
10   For the fortified city is solitary,
    a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness;
  there the calf grazes;
    there it lies down and strips its branches.
11   When its boughs are dry, they are broken;
    women come and make a fire of them.
  For this is a people without discernment;
    therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them;
    he who formed them will show them no favor.

12 In that day from the river Euphrates6 to the Brook of Egypt the LORD will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. 13 And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Footnotes

[1] 27:2 Many Hebrew manuscripts A vineyard of wine
[2] 27:6 Hebrew In those to come
[3] 27:8 Or By driving her away; the meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain
[4] 27:8 Or wind
[5] 27:9 Septuagint and this is the blessing when I take away his sin
[6] 27:12 Hebrew from the River

(ESV)

Previously in chapter 5 Israel is likened to an unfruitful vineyard that experiences God’s wrath, here the picture is of Israel as a fruitful vineyard. God’s wrath is not against the vineyard but against the briers and thorns that would spoil it (v4-5). God loves His people but He makes no treaty with sin and evil and He wants these things driven from our lives.

The Lord’s desire is for His people to blossom and to be fruitful (v6). This fruitfulness cannot happen where sin abounds in the lives of God’s people.

This brings us to God’s purpose for the exiles which is to deal with the sin that the people had (v6-7). The Asherim that would be removed from Israel, was used to worship a false goddess. In the Old Testament the greatest sin that God deplored was idolatry. This was spiritual adultery and showed a people whose hearts had gone astray. The Lord above everything else, wants from us hearts that are filled with love and faithfulness.

The exile would not end in disaster, but there is the promise of the restoration of a people who will return to worship (v12-13). God’s actions and particularly His great plan of salvation is all about creating worshippers.

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.