Isaiah 27

Isaiah 27:1-6

In this chapter the prophet goes on to flow, (1.) What great things God would do for his church and people: 1. That proud oppressors should be reckoned with, ver. 1. 2. That care should be taken of God’s vineyard, ver. 3. 3. 3. That God would be full his untremely with his people upon their return to him, ver. 4. 5. 4. That he would greatly increase them, ver. 6. 5. That as to their afflictions, they were comparatively small, ver. 7. 8. and justified, ver. 9. 6. That though their city might be laid unfit for a time, ver. 10. 11. yet it should be restored, and the featured members gathered together again, ver. 12, 13.

1. IN that day the LORD with his fore and great and strong ‘sword shall punish’ levitarian the piercing serpent, even levitarian that crooked serpent, and he shall stay the dragon that is in the sea. 2. In that day ‘sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. 3. I the LORD do keep it, I will water it every moment, lest any hurt it, ‘I will keep it night and day. 4. Fury is not in me: who would let the briars and ’thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. 5. At the time I take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with me. 6. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

3 v. 1-6. We Schoff-Clark Before Chall 718. We have here,

1. The execution of judgment on the great enemy of God’s people, called Ieriathan, the serpent, the dragon, either Nebuchadnezzar, or Antiochus, or Antichrist, Rev. xii. 3. or Satan himself. Though strong, furious, cruelty, and poisonous, God’s sword can reach him; and as he hath destroyed the perlocuting powers of old, he will as surely destroy those that still rage, by the two-edged sword of his gospel, expelling their poisonous errors, or by the sword of his judgments, punishing them with everlasting destruction, Rev. xx. 1-10.

2. In the day of vengeance on his enemies, his grace and mercy to his church will eminently appear, and the shall sing for joy over her perlocutors fallen, and her peace and comfort everlastingly restored, Rev. xx. 1-3. xix. 1-7.

(1.) The church is represented as a vineyard of red twine, a people separated by sovereign grace, secured by the wall of everlasting town, ingrained on Christ the living vine, and thence enabled to bring forth the choicest fruits of faith and business. I the Lord do keep it; though his church lies in the midst of an howling wilderness, where wicked men, more lovage than beasts of prey, roam continually, and threaten to break through and spoil, yet it is safe under his protection, and flourishing under his care: I will vester it with the dew of heavenly influences every moment, for every moment we send his gracious help; least any hurt it, or least he will it, the enemy of souls intent to deceive and destroy; I will keep it eight and day, in prosperity and adversity, at all times, amidst every danger, he that flumbered not, neither swept, will preserve his choirs. Note, The more we know of the riches and fulness of the divine promises, the more will our hearts be filled with thankfulness, and our lips with praise.

(2.) The people of God are assured of his favour. Fury is not in me; however terrible to his enemies, to his choirs God is all true, and their iniquities cancelled in conforming blood; no wrath remains against them, even their chastestments are the rod of mercy: who would set the brines and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together, or I would step into it, and burn them out of it; meaning either that should be contested with them for their sins, his own people would be but as brines and thorns before the confining fire; or rather that when hypocrites and false teachers, like brines and thorns, sprung up to trouble his people, he would step into his vineyard as a man of war, and quickly destroy and burn them up. Some render the words, who will set me as a bear or there in battle, that I should go against it, and burn it up together? What provocation should ever lead him to destroy his own people? None; for fury is not in him: though he wills their reflection with the rod, his loving-kindness will be never take from them.

(3.) God directs them how abidingly to preserve the sense of his regard to them. Or let him, which some render if he will, and O that he would take hold of my strength; to times when his corrections are on his people, they need not be terrified, but apply to that Almighty Saviour the strength of God, who is their ever-living and all-prevailing advocate; that he may make peace with me, by pleading the blood which he once died for the redemption of his people, and he shall make peace with me; God, for his sake, will be perfectly pacified toward the believing soul, and comfort him with the confidence of his mercy.

(4.) The church shall have a great increase. He shall cause them that some of Jacob, the spiritual Israel of God, to take root, to be firmly fixed, and spread their branches on every side: some read, in times to come he shall cause, &c., in the latter day of gospel-cruth, when Israel shall lead and display, and fill the face of the world with fruit, as in the days of the apostles, Col. 6. and shall, we trust, be more abundantly fulfilled hereafter.

7. ¶ Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? 8. In measure 7 when it shoveth forth, thou wilt debate with it; he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east-wind. 9. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalk-stones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. 10. Yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forlaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall be lie down, and continue the branches thereof. 11. When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off; the women come and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding; therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will have them no favour. 12. ¶ And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the chanoid of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gather-

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ed one by one, O ye children of Israel. 13. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Affyria, and the out-casts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

Isaiah 27:7-13

Though God had intimated that sometimes afflictions would fall upon his people, yet very different would his dealings with them be, from his judgments on their enemies.

1. Respecting the measure of them. Though he should smote them, yet not as he smote those that smote him, v. 7. his strokes on his people would be instigated; and however rough the wind blew for a system, he would say, Peace, he will, v. 8. But their enemies would be utterly confirmed, their fortresses destroyed, their country a wilderness, where cattle would feed, v. 10. Like a withered tree they would be condemned to the flames, and this in just judgment, because they are a people of no understanding; and being ungrateful and disobedient to their letakers, receive the reward of their deeds in utter destruction, v. 11. This may primarily refer to the Jewish nation and their sins, but it hath a more enlarged view to all the people of God and their enemies. Note, (1.) If we are God’s children, we shall, because we deserve it, feel his gracious rod. (2.) Though involved in the same outward calamities, there is at all times a wide difference between those who are corrected in mercy, and those who suffer in wrath. (3.) They who ultimately reject God’s warnings, may expect in a judgment-day no mercy.

2. The end God proposed in correcting his people, was their repentance and salvation. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; and a gracious end this, for which every faithful soul hath reason to bless God, who can say, before I was afflicted I went astray. The particular sin here to be removed is idolatry: when he maketh all the stones of the altar, erected for idol-worship, a King’s XVI. 10-12. as chalk-stones that are beaten in jowday, the groves and the images shall not stand up. And after the captivity, the Jews were so thoroughly cured of that idolatry, to which before they were so prone, that the least traces of it no longer appeared among them. Note, It is a blessed symptom for good, when our sin, our bottom sin, that did most really better us, is thus radically mortified.

3. When God hath for their good corrected his people, he will gather them together wherever dispersed, and however disbursed. It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord will beat off, and collect his choirs, as fruits to be laid up in store, or corn separated from the chaff, from the channel of the river (Euphrates) unto the river of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, with such care, and so completely, that not one shall be lost, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, which, if referred literally to the Jewish people, signifies the proclamation of Cyrus; by which they were restored to their own land from all places of their dispersion; but rather it refers to the collection of the Israel of God, by the trumpet of the everlasting gospel, recovering those who were made to perish, and the naught, like the wretched infant in Ezekiel, lying in their blood; outcasts from God’s church, and perishing in their sins, till called, quickened, and restored by the power of divine grace through the word of the gospel, and brought to join the holy worship of the saints in God’s church on earth, and to prepare for the everlasting service of God in glory. Note, (1.) Amidst all the troubles and trials of God’s Israel, not one will be lost. (2.) Whenever the gospel-trumpet is blown, they who know the joyful sound will assemble thither. (3.) When God opens the heart to bear his word, he brings the conscience to a deep and humbling sense of its misery and lost estate by reason of sin, and thereby to Christ, whose gospel is to the lost the trump of jubilee, glad tidings of great joy. (4.) It is a mercy when we have liberty to worship God, and a greater to delight in the service, and to say of God’s courts, Here would I dwell for ever.