Isaiah 27: Deliverance of Israel

The overview of Chapter 27 declares God's care of and for His people (verses 1-5), and a promise of their recall to Divine favour (verses 6-13). The prophecy is understood clearly in the light of the knowledge of the New Testament, and the coming of Jesus Christ, God's chosen Messiah. Christ will come, and "in that day" He will destroy the devil who has the power of death. Whilst the world is a fruitless wilderness the church, the 'Bride of Christ', is a vineyard. Just as vineyards have tremendous care taken of them, so will God's vineyard, and the precious fruit contained within it.
      The context of the term 'That day' is a reference to the end of the world as we know it, and an end to the evil contained within it. Leviathan, according to ancient Aramaic legend, was a seven-headed sea monster which was the sworn enemy of God's created order, and by his reference to the monster, Isaiah compares the destruction of the wicked to the conquering of a great enemy. Despite the great power that evil exerts, God will crush it underfoot and banish it from the earth forever.
      The trampled vineyard referred to in Isaiah 5, (The Song of the Vineyard), will be restored in God's new earth ('There will be a new haven and a new earth' see Isaiah 65:17). God will protect and care for the new vineyard, and His people will no longer produce fruit that is worthless, but rather good fruit for the whole world. The Gentiles will benefit and will come to know God through Israel. God will drive sin from the land in order to purify His people (vse 9). 
      Isaiah compares the state of Israel's spiritual life with dry twigs that are broken from the branch and used to make a fire. In this he continues the Scriptural context of drawing an analogy between trees and spiritual life. The trunk is the channel of strength from God; the branches are the people who serve Him. Sometimes branches sway in the wind, wavering from their position for a time. Tree branches may dry up as a result of inner rottenness, and they are then useless for anything other than providing fuel for a fire. 
      Continuing with the analogy, what kind of branch are you? Are you firmly attached to God or are you perhaps withering spiritually? We need the watering of divine grace if we are to grow to bear fruit as God wants us to, so that when the last trumpet sounds we will be gathered into the joyous harvest of the saints.


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.
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.