For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 27:1-6

1 In that day,

the Lord will punish with his sword –
    his fierce, great and powerful sword –
Leviathan the gliding serpent,
    Leviathan the coiling serpent;
he will slay the monster of the sea.

2 In that day –

‘Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
3     I, the Lord, watch over it;
    I water it continually.
I guard it day and night
    so that no one may harm it.
4     I am not angry.
If only there were briers and thorns confronting me!
    I would march against them in battle;
    I would set them all on fire.
5 Or else let them come to me for refuge;
    let them make peace with me,
    yes, let them make peace with me.’

6 In days to come Jacob will take root,
    Israel will bud and blossom
    and fill all the world with fruit.

A. Find Out

1. In that day, what will the Lord do? v.1
2. Of what were they to sing? v.2
3. What does the Lord do with it? v.3
4. What two things would the Lord prefer? v.4,5
5. What will yet happen? v.6   

B. Think:

1. Where else in Scripture do you hear of a ‘serpent’?
2. What is the Lord’s intent for Israel? 
3. Yet what, at the moment at the least, is happening?

C. Comment:

Remember in these chapters we keep going backwards and forwards between judgment of the world and the blessing of God’s people. This chapter starts with a declaration of God’s intent of destroying the serpent. (v.1) Leviathan is used in different ways in Scripture to simply mean ‘a great monster’. The sea is often use allegorically to mean the peoples of the world. We suggest therefore that this is a declaration of the Lord’s intent to one day bring and end to Satan’s rule over the peoples of the earth.

This is then followed by a reference to God’s vineyard, which has got to be Israel (v.2). The Lord watches over, provides for it, and protects it (v.3). This was the declared promise for Israel when their relationship with Him was good and right. But tragically it doesn’t always work like that. This was supposed to be a two way relationship between God and Israel but in this picture there appears absence of relationship. When the Lord says He is not angry the implication is that there is emotion but it is more likely to be sorrow. The absence of briars growing appears to indicate a complete lack of life and the Lord would rather there was this that He could actually deal with, or that they would seek God in their trials, as a refuge (v.5).

It may not be like it at the present, but God’s ultimate objective with Israel is that in the days to yet come they will be established, will grow and will flourish and bless the rest of the earth. The Gospel? Or…

D. Application:

1. God does all He can for us by blessing us. We have no excuses.
2. He wants to make us a blessing to the rest of His world.

Passage: Isaiah 27:7-13

7 Has the Lord struck her
    as he struck down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
    as those were killed who killed her?
8 By warfare and exile you contend with her –
    with his fierce blast he drives her out,
    as on a day the east wind blows.
9 By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for,
    and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the altar stones
    to be like limestone crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles or incense altars
    will be left standing.
10 The fortified city stands desolate,
    an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness;
there the calves graze,
    there they lie down;
    they strip its branches bare.
11 When its twigs are dry, they are broken off
    and women come and make fires with them.
For this is a people without understanding;
    so their Maker has no compassion on them,
    and their Creator shows them no favour.

12 In that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one. 13 And in that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were perishing in Assyria and those who were exiled in Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain in Jerusalem.

A. Find Out

1. What question does the prophet ask about Israel? v.7
2. How does the Lord deal with Israel? v.8
3. What will this achieve? v.9
4. How does he see Jerusalem? v.10,11
5. How extensive will the Lord’s work be? v.12
6. And what will be the outcome? v.13

B. Think:

1. How severely will the Lord deal with Israel?
2. What will be the initial result?
3. What will be the end result?

C. Comment:

These verses are all about Israel and Jerusalem. The prophet sees that the Lord is going to do with them and asks what the extent of the Lord’s work will be. Will the Lord completely destroy Israel as he has other wayward nations? (v.7). No, but it will be through invaders coming (warfare) who will carry Israel away (exile) and by this way He will deal with them (v.8). By this way He will purge the land of all signs of idolatry so that the wrong altars and items of pagan worship will be swept away (v.9).

Isaiah looks into the future and sees Jerusalem standing empty and desolate, abandoned and stripped clean by the enemy (v.10), a dry and dead place where trees and bushes are dead and dry and any women left in this place will use them for firewood (v.11a). The reason for all this is given: this people of Israel are a people without understanding (v.11b) and so (by implication) they have carried on sinning and so the only thing left for the Lord is to move against them without favour (v.11c).

But the Lord’s work will not be limited to Israel for He will deal with the whole area from what is now Iraq right down to Egypt (v.12) and eventually He will bring back all of His scattered people, those who have either fled or been taken into exile and they will return to Jerusalem and worship the Lord there (v.13). Again disciplinary judgement is tempered by mercy and hope. There is yet a future for Israel .

D. Application:

1. When the Lord disciplines, it is to purify.   
2. If discipline seem hard, it is limited and will bring good in the end.