The Book Of Isaiah. Day 118, A Storm Is Coming

Chapter 28 in the NIV is titled "Woe To The Leaders Of Ephraim And Judah". The word "Ephraim" is being used here for "Israel". In Isaiah's day the kingdom was divided, with the northern kingdom retaining the name of "Israel" and the southern kingdom going by the name of "Judah".

The first segment regards the coming fall of Israel, whose leaders and whose citizens are living carnal lives of sin and idolatry. "Woe to that wreath, the pride of Ephraim's drunkards, set on the head of a fertile valley---to that city, the pride of those laid low by wine!" (Isaiah 28:1)

The city mentioned here is Israel's capital city of Samaria. On the pages of the Bible we often find the word "Samaria" used synonymously with "Israel" after the kingdom split and the capital of the northern kingdom was located at Samaria.

The citizens of the northern kingdom are looking at Samaria as a great city, as a beautiful city, as a prosperous city. They make toasts to it and sing songs about it during their drunken feasts. But the Lord is about to send a great enemy against it: the Assyrian Empire. As Isaiah continues predicting the fall of the northern kingdom, he compares the Assyrian army to destructive forces of nature. Just as human beings are unable to control the forces of nature, the northern kingdom will be unable to protect itself from the forces of this enemy empire.

"See, the Lord has one who is powerful and strong. Like a hailstorm and a destructive wind, like a driving rain and a flooding downpour, he will throw it forcefully to the ground. That wreath, the pride of Ephraim's drunkards, will be trampled underfoot. That fading flower, his glorious beauty, set on the head of a fertile valley, will be like figs ripe before harvest---as soon as the people see them and take them in hand, they swallow them." (Isaiah 28:2-4)

Assyria will covet Samaria. Assyria will invade and capture it. Assyria will take captive many of the citizens of the northern kingdom, deporting them to other lands and settling other conquered peoples in their place. Like one who grabs a ripe fig and eats it, the Assyrians will grab hold of the nation and "swallow it up": take it for themselves. 

Why is this going to happen? Because of idolatry. Because of living for decades in unrepentant sin, despite the numerous prophets the Lord has sent to them with words of warning. However, as we have previously studied, the Lord will not make an end of the people of Israel. He will disperse them to other lands but He will not make an end of any tribe of Israel or of Judah. The Assyrian Empire will be used to discipline the people for their sin and idolatry but the Assyrian Empire will not be allowed to thoroughly wipe out any tribe of Israel.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 117, The Ingathering

This final passage of Isaiah 27 is believed by many mainstream scholars to be about the collapse of the world system of the end times and about the ingathering of Israel and about Israel's eternal security. At that time the things of this world will have proven futile and impermanent, whereas the things of God will have proven firm and everlasting.

The Coffman commentary on the Bible interprets our next segment of Scripture like this: "This is a reference to that time period mentioned in Revelation 16, near the close of the dispensation of the grace of God, when the cities of the nations shall fall. This will occur at a time when Adam's race shall have almost run its course, and when, due to rampant wickedness, God will have no moral choice available except to destroy the sinful world." Revelation 16 has to do with the pouring out of the Lord's wrath upon the earth during the Great Tribulation. 

Of the downfall of the final corrupt system of the world, before the Messiah comes to reign over a restored earth forever, Isaiah says: "The fortified city stands desolate, forsaken like the wilderness; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare. 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 favor." (Isaiah 27:10-11)

Wickedness will be at an all-time high in the last days. Rejection of the Lord will be at an all-time high leading up to the final judgment. (2 Timothy 3:1-9) The world system will be at its most corrupt in that era and we will be taking an in-depth look at that world system when we arrive at the book of Revelation and study the "kingdom" of the Antichrist. 

This is the era the prophet Daniel foresaw when he spoke of the final kingdom on earth that would be crushed when the King of kings comes to establish His kingdom forever. (See Daniel 7 for an overview of the world kingdoms that would rise and fall between Daniel's day and the day when the Messiah takes the throne.) Because wickedness will abound as never before, and because so many people on the earth in those days will repudiate and curse the Lord to their dying breath, and because the Lord knows who will reject Him right up to the end, He can say that He will have no compassion or favor upon them. This does not mean that He doesn't offer mercy to everyone, but it means that He knows who will accept or reject His mercy. And about those who reject His mercy up to the point where they have no more opportunities left, He can say that no compassion or favor is given because they wanted no compassion or favor from Him.

In the day when He has put all of His enemies under His feet, and when He has put all the enemies of the Jews and the Christians under His feet, He will gather in the descendants of Jacob from every corner of the earth. No tribe of Israel is lost to the Lord. An ingathering of sorts has happened in several stages already; for example, when Jews returned from the places their enemies took them captive, such as when Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon and told them they could go home. But an ingathering will occur on a massive worldwide scale when it is time for the Messiah to take His throne at Jerusalem.

"In that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered one by one. 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." (Isaiah 27:12-13) Many Jews fled to Egypt from the northern kingdom of Israel when it appeared that a fall to the Assyrian army was imminent. Many more were captured and taken captive by Assyria. A great number of them and their descendants never returned to the land of Israel but they will in the future. There will be more Jews in Israel in that day than there ever have been since the nation was first founded in the Old Testament. 

When we arrive at the book of Revelation we will talk more about this massive ingathering. But for now we will close by keeping in mind that the Lord knows the location of every single descendant of Jacob. It doesn't matter how many were dispersed in antiquity or in more modern times; not one of them is lost to the Lord. We may refer to some of the tribes as being "lost" because we don't know where everyone was dispersed but the Lord knows exactly who they are and He knows exactly where they are.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 116, The Only Name

As we concluded yesterday's study we found Isaiah predicting a day in which Israel would be the crown jewel of the whole world. The prophet foresaw the eternal reign of the King of kings and the eternal peace of Israel. 

In our next segment of text we find the Lord asking Israel whether He was as harsh with her as He was with the heathen nations. (He was not.) We find Isaiah speaking of a time when idolatry will exist no more---a day in which the name of the Lord will be the only name upon which anyone will call. 

"Has the Lord struck her as He struck down those who struck her? Has she been killed as those were killed who killed her?" (Isaiah 27:7) The Lord has not dealt with Israel the way He has dealt with her enemies. In our study of the prophets we have already looked at several predictions involving the downfall of various enemies of Israel. A number of those fell never to rise again in any form; they ceased to exist as a nation and as a distinct people in the world. Yet the Lord has continued to preserve Israel, though on several occasions He allowed enemy armies to invade, plunder, conquer, and take captives. But at no time has He ever wiped out a tribe of Israel and there is no time when He ever will wipe out a tribe of Israel.

The prophet continues: "By warfare and exile You contend with her---with His fierce blast He drives her out, as on a day the east wind blows." (Isaiah 27:8) Scholars are in disagreement over what this verse means. Some believe it's a reference only to Israel, whereas some believe it's a reference to Israel and other nations to whom the Lord sent judgment. I personally feel that the "her" in this passage is Israel and that it's a reference to how, as we mentioned above, the Lord disciplined her for her idolatry with warfare and exile in the past. 

I feel that this next passage reinforces that opinion because, after the northern kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyria and many of her citizens taken captive and after the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by Babylon and many of her citizens taken captive, we do not find the descendants of Jacob falling into heathen idolatry again. There were still spiritual issues in Jesus' day, as we mentioned in yesterday's study, but we don't find the people building pagan altars and making sacrifices on them anymore.

From the time of their return from exile, we don't see the people clinging to heathen gods, but we also don't see the complete fulfillment of our next segment at that time. When they returned they were more concerned with rebuilding their cities and city walls than with tearing down old altars, so I assume many remained in ancient times. But there is coming an era---an eternal era---when the name of no god but will ever cross their lips except the name of the Lord. There will be no idolatry in any form, not the common form of ancient times (in which images were used) and not the modern form of putting prestige and prosperity and other things in place of God.

"By this, then, will Jacob's guilt be atoned for, and this will be the fruit of the full 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." (Isaiah 27:9) I am not clear whether Jacob (Israel) is the one being talked about when Isaiah says "he" will crush the altars or whether "he" is the Lord. Both may be the case since only the Lord can atone for anyone's sins and because, when all the people give their hearts fully to Him and He forgives their sins, they produce the fruit of repentance and remove all types of idolatry from their lives. The same can be said of anyone who repents and turns to the Lord for salvation: He is the one who does the forgiving and the atoning and the justifying, then once we have been saved our lives produce good and worthwhile fruit. But even then we cannot take credit for the fruit! We could produce nothing of value without Him.

The day Isaiah foresees is the day the prophet Zechariah foresaw when he said, "The Lord will be king over the whole earth. On that day there will be one Lord, and His name the only name." (Zechariah 14:9) Amen! What a glorious day that will be!

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 115, Israel: The Lord's Vineyard

In today's segment of Chapter 27 the Lord speaks of Israel as His vineyard. This is not the only time in the Bible where we find Israel referred to as a vineyard and the Lord referred to as its husbandman: the One who planted it, the One who feeds it, the One who prunes it, the One who protects it. The Lord Jesus used this analogy in one of His parables, and that particular parable painted the vineyard in a bad light, for it was being unproductive. But Isaiah's vision of Israel as the Lord's vineyard looks ahead to a later time than the era of Jesus Christ. 

In Jesus' day the comparison of the nation to a vineyard was an indictment against the people's unbelief, since so many rejected Him and His message. But Isaiah foresees a day when no one in the nation will be spiritually unproductive again. He is speaking of the eternal era of the Lord's reign over the earth, which is a subject he spoke about at great length in our previous chapter.

We know this because our text begins with the phrase "in that day", which is a reference back to yesterday's text in which the Lord forever abolished upon the earth all temptation and all sin and rebellion. In our last study session the Lord put Satan and his minions in prison forever and He put death to death. When the Lord has done that, no one will ever reject Him again, and all who are upon the earth are those who love and serve Him, and they will enjoy peace and joy forevermore in His presence.

"In that day---'Sing about a fruitful vineyard: I, the Lord, watch over it; I water it continually. I guard it day and night so that no one may harm it.'" (Isaiah 27:2-3) The Lord is the Founder, Protector, and Defender of Israel. He always has been and He always will be. While it's true that on the pages of the Bible He did at times allow enemies to trouble or defeat the nation, (due to idolatry), He never allowed anyone to make an end of the descendants of Jacob and He never will. The day Isaiah foresees is the day which the Apostle Paul also foresaw when he said, "All Israel will be saved." (Romans 11:26) 

Isaiah and Paul both envisioned Israel becoming a spiritually fruitful nation in every way. The Lord Jesus spoke of the nation as being unfruitful in His day; Isaiah could have said the same about the northern kingdom of Israel in his day and about many in the southern kingdom of Judah as well. But a day is coming when the Lord will sing for joy about this vineyard and its fruitfulness.

We must not take on a judgmental attitude about the idolatry that took place in the Old Testament (when people rejected God the Father in favor of pagan gods) or about the rejection of God the Son that took place in the New Testament. We cannot be judgmental unless we have never sinned---and we all know we have sinned. Anytime we've placed someone or something ahead of the Lord, we have been operating in a spirit of idolatry. And during the years before we were saved, were we not rejecting the Lord? We cannot look down on anyone for their sins since we are not sinless ourselves. I am of Gentile heritage and there is absolutely no doubt that my ancestors were spiritually unfruitful. They bowed to images and made sacrifices and offerings to deities that don't exist. I can't brag about them or about my own past, much less look back at the sins that took place in Israel and Judah and shake my head over them.

No enemy will ever confront Israel again in the everlasting era Isaiah foresees. If any enemy existed, the Lord would trample it fiercely under His feet. He is no longer angry with any of the sin or idolatry that took place in Israel. Those things no longer exists and He has put those things out of His mind forever. This is why He declares to them that if anyone or anything existed that wished them harm, He would destroy that person or thing. "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. Or else let them come to Me for refuge; let them make peace with Me, yes, let them make peace with Me." (Isaiah 27:4-5)

There are no enemies of Israel in the world in that day and there never will be again, but the Lord paints a colorful picture of exactly what He would do to defend the nation if He had to. He also paints a picture of the salvation of the Gentiles when He says, "Let them come to Me for refuge; let them make peace with Me." Gentile nations were the enemies of ancient Israel. Gentiles are the people who have persecuted the Jews throughout the eras. But in the eternal reign of the Lord over the earth, the Gentile believers and the people of Israel will be at peace with each other. They will be at peace with each other because so many Gentiles will have made peace with God and will consider themselves the brothers and sisters of those of Jewish heritage, for all believers will be the children of God and will be of one united family.

Israel will be the crown jewel of the world---the capitol of the world---and will be a blessing to the entire world. Today's passage closes like this: "In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom, and fill all the world with fruit." (Isaiah 27:6)

Right now we are hearing alarming stories in the news about the angry and sometimes violent demonstrations of anti-Semitism in the United States and in other countries. The spirit of anti-Semitism has existed for many ages past and has reared its ugly head in particularly atrocious ways a number of times. But a day will come in which the Lord judges all such attitudes and actions against the descendants of Jacob. And after that judgment, no spirit of anti-Semitism will ever exist in the world again. Instead, the nation of Israel will be admired above all others. 

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 114, Judging The Serpent

Chapter 27 is titled in the NIV as "Deliverance Of Israel". A big part of that deliverance is not only the Lord's judging of Israel's enemies but His judging (doing away with, putting an end to) mankind's enemies of sin and death---and also our enemy, Satan.

This first portion of Chapter 27 deals with the judging of a great serpent. We will talk about how the term "Leviathan" is used both literally and figuratively in the Bible.

Isaiah has been prophesying about the end times, about the final judgment, about the resurrection of the dead, and about believers' eternal destiny with the Lord. Chapter 27 picks up where Chapter 26 left off, which ended with Isaiah predicting a time of distress before the day of resurrection and the eternal kingdom. That is why Chapter 27 begins with the words "in that day" because it is a continuation of the same theme.

"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." (Isaiah 27:1) Before the day of eternal peace can dawn when believers will live on the restored earth in the presence of the Savior forever in immortal bodies like His, the Lord must banish all that is wicked. He must judge sin and the source of sin.

There are places in the Bible where "Leviathan" appears to be a reference to a literal sea creature. Many scholars think it was the great white whale, a prehistoric whale which was the "giant of the sea" or "Goliath of the sea" or "dragon of the sea". Others think Leviathan may have instead been a large sea serpent which, like the great white whale, is extinct in our day. We don't know exactly what it was in reality but there was a great deal of ancient mythology regarding sea serpents. It has been theorized that Leviathan represented a Ugaritic sea god that was the pagan god of chaos. In my opinion, this is a valid theory for why Isaiah is using the word "Leviathan" here, for it is certain that the world is filled with chaos due to sin and it is well known that ancient peoples often symbolized chaos with images of the sea or of waves.

The Lord is going to do away with the chaos of this world. He will put an end to rebellion. He will put an end to sin and, in putting sin to death, He will put death to death. He will forever imprison Satan and the angels who rebelled with him, according to Revelation, in a place called the "lake of fire". This brings me to another point regarding Leviathan, which Isaiah calls a "serpent": Satan first appears in the Scriptures in the form of a serpent. Satan also appears in the final book of the Bible as a serpent, for when he is cast into his eternal place of imprisonment in the book of Revelation, he is called "that ancient serpent" and "the dragon". 

I believe a number of things are being judged here in Isaiah's vision of the future. I believe the enemies of Israel are being judged and eradicated from the earth. I believe the enemies of Christ's church are being judged and eradicated from the earth. I believe sin is being judged and being eradicated from the earth. I believe death is being judged and being eradicated from the earth. I believe Satan and all his minions are being judged and are being eradicated from the earth. 

What do we have left when all chaos is gone? We have peace! We have the eternal, peaceful reign of the Lord over all who are His! No temptation will ever befall mankind again. No accuser will ever accuse us before God again. No one will ever persecute us again. Never again will anyone be sick or injured. Never again will anyone die. It would be worth giving our allegiance to the Lord for all this, would it not? Eternity in the joy of His presence, where no sorrow will ever overcome us again, is better than anything sin could ever offer us. The pleasures of sin are only "for a season", as the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:25---and we will pay dearly for those pleasures if we do not repent of them and accept the offer of salvation from the Redeemer. But the joys of the Lord are eternal. Nothing worldly that we will ever possess could ever begin to compare with what He offers us. As Isaiah will later say and as the Apostle Paul will later say, the things the Lord has in store for His people are so good that no human mind can begin to imagine them. (Isaiah 64:4, 1 Corinthians 2:9) 

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 113, The Resurrection Of The Dead

Chapter 26 closes with a prophecy regarding the resurrection of the dead---specifically those who died in faith. Previously in the book of Isaiah we talked about the fate of those who rejected the Lord all their lives long but the remainder of our chapter is about the glorious future of those who made God the Lord of their lives.

Salvation and the eternal joy of those who are saved is nothing that human beings can boast of having accomplished for themselves. It is entirely the work of the Lord. Isaiah reminds us that salvation is by faith and not by works, for the works of mortal creatures are not powerful enough or perfect enough to earn salvation. This next segment paints a portrait of those who realized they could never be perfect and sinless, so they came to the Lord for Him to do what they could not do for themselves.

"Lord, they came to you in their distress; when You disciplined them, they could barely whisper a prayer. As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in Your presence, Lord. We were with child, we writhed in labor, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation on the earth, and the people of the world have not come to life." (Isaiah 26:16-18) We must trust in the Holy One to make us holy. We cannot do it ourselves. It is a painful thing when we realize we are lost in our sins. We may wrestle with this knowledge for a while, tossing and turning through many sleepless nights, until we surrender and lift our hands to the God who already has His hands outstretched toward us. Without Him, all our works are in vain because imperfection cannot bring about perfection.

But when we accept Him as our Savior and when we trust in Him to perfect that which is lacking in us, we receive the salvation of our souls. We receive the promise of a resurrected body like Christ's, and although in Isaiah's day the advent of the Messiah was still far off and the prophet did not clearly understand when and how the Lord was going to bring all these things about, he believed. He believed and he looked forward to the day when the saved of the Lord would be raised from the dead in incorruptible bodies.

Of that day he said, "But Your dead will live, Lord; their bodies will rise---let those who dwell in the dust wake up and shout for joy---Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the earth will give birth to her dead." (Isaiah 26:19) The Old Testament saints absolutely believed in and taught of a bodily resurrection from the dead. This is not new ideology that emerged in the Christian era. The belief in a bodily resurrection existed long before the church was born. This is clearly demonstrated throughout the Old Testament and also during the lifetime of Jesus before He ever went to the cross; Martha the sister of Lazarus proclaimed to Him that she believed her brother would rise from the dead in the resurrection. So we see that ever since the Lord created man and ever since man fell from grace and became subject to death, a bodily resurrection from the dead in an immortal body has been promised.

We previously discussed the fact that all who have ever lived will be resurrected, but that those who rejected the Lord will spend their eternity separated from His presence, so we will not delve back into that subject again at this time. Instead we will conclude our chapter with verses which demonstrate that Isaiah was aware that the resurrection was not about to occur very soon. He did not know when or how the Redeemer would come or in what manner the Redeemer would save mankind from sin. He did not know when or how the resurrection would take place, but the Lord had already revealed to him that the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah would endure hard times due to the widespread idolatry going on in those nations. Isaiah knows his people will fall to the enemy and be taken captive to foreign lands. By this he knows that the end of days is not yet, and that the final judgment is not yet, and that the resurrection of the dead is not at hand.

Knowing that hardships will come before the day dawns when believers will enjoy a glorious eternity with the Lord, Isaiah encourages his people to endure. Someday all evil will be judged. Someday God's people will be vindicated. "Go, my people, enter your rooms and shut the doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until His wrath has passed by. See, the Lord is coming out of His dwelling to punish the people of the earth for their sins. The earth will disclose the blood shed on it; the earth will conceal its slain no longer." (Isaiah 26:20-21)

The Lord Jesus said something similar: "For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open." (Luke 8:17) All wrongs will be righted someday. No crimes are hidden from God and no one will get away with the wrongs they have done to His children. When we begin our next chapter we find Isaiah speaking of the deliverance of his own people and of the way the Lord will judge all who have persecuted them.

The Book Of Isaiah. Day 112, The Lord Is The Source Of Goodness

In today's text the prophet Isaiah credits the Lord as the source of all good things. He acknowledges that he and his people could have accomplished nothing without the Lord. This is the attitude every person should have because we would not even exist if He had not created us. We could accomplish nothing unless He had given us the health and intelligence and talent to accomplish it. On a personal level, nothing is worthwhile without the Lord. On a national level, nothing is worthwhile without the Lord, because unless we place our trust in Him to protect us, all our precautions are in vain. He is our Defender.

"Lord, You establish peace for us; all that we have accomplished You have done for us." (Isaiah 26:12) The nation would not be standing firm if the Lord were not protecting it. The strength of the nation is not its leaders. "Lord our God, other lords besides You have ruled over us, but Your name alone do we honor. They are now dead, they live no more; their spirits do not rise." (Isaiah 26:13-14a)

Most of the kings of the northern kingdom of Israel were bad kings. Some were "mildly" idolatrous, if there is such a thing, for they worshiped the Lord but in a manner that went against His commandments. They constructed unauthorized altars and areas of worship, using the golden calf idols to represent the Lord, all of which things were sins. But some of the kings of Israel went even further and forsook the Lord entirely in favor of pagan gods. Many of the kings of the southern kingdom of Judah were godly but there were also some exceedingly wicked ones. 

I believe the wicked kings of Israel and Judah are the ones Isaiah speaks of when he says they are dead and their spirits do not rise. They are in their graves with nothing of eternal significance to show for their lives. They are in their graves and their souls which rejected the Lord will be eternally separated from Him. Isaiah cannot be talking about the kings who were godly because this next segment says, "You punished them and brought them to ruin; You wiped out all memory of them." (Isaiah 26:14b) It's quite possible Isaiah is also talking about the kings of other nations who will conquer Israel and Judah. Those kings were idolaters and a succession of them subjugated Israel and Judah for several centuries. The works of those kings will come to nothing as well; they will go down to the grave and spend eternity separated from the Lord whose goodness they rejected.

But the people who love and serve the Lord will be the beneficiaries of His goodness: both in this life and in the life to come. The nation that serves the Lord will be preserved by the Lord, so Isaiah says, "You have enlarged the nation, Lord; You have enlarged the nation. You have gained glory for Yourself; You have extended all the borders of the land." (Isaiah 26:15) 

Isaiah is speaking of his own nation, of course, but the blessings of God will fall upon any nation that honors Him. If not for the Lord, the descendants of Jacob would never have become a nation. If not for the Lord, those people could never have conquered the tribes of Canaan in order to inhabit the land of Canaan. If not for the Lord, those people would not have been protected time and again from their enemies. While it's true that the Lord allowed them to fall (because of idolatry) to several enemies over the centuries, He never allowed any enemy to make an end of them. He has kept the promise He made that Israel would never cease to be a nation in His eyes (Jeremiah 31:36) because although He did allow them to be conquered and although He did allow them to be taken captive to foreign lands, He preserved people from every tribe of Israel. This is why Israel is a sovereign nation in the world again in our times. This is why Israel will always be a nation. 

But any nation can receive the blessings and protection of the Lord and we would do well to pray for our own nation that a great revival would break out in it, with a widescale turning to the Lord. I think we have a duty and an obligation to do just that. If we want to live in peace, we must have citizens who love and honor and worship the God who gave us our nation in the first place.