Isaiah 27:7-13

2. JOINED BY DIVINE PURGING

TEXT: Isaiah 27:7-13

7

Hath he smitten them as he smote those that smote them? or are they slain according to the slaughter of them that were slain by them?

8

In measure, when thou sendest them away, thou dost contend with them; he hath removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.

9

Therefore by this shall the iniquity of Jacob be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, so that the Asherim and the sun-images shall rise no more.

10

For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof.

11

When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off; the women shall come, and set them on fire; for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have compassion upon them, and he that formed them will show them no favor.

12

And it shall come to pass in that day, that Jehovah will beat off his fruit from the flood of the River unto the brook of Egypt; and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel.

13

And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great trumpet shall be blown; and they shall come that were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and they that were outcasts in the land of Egypt; and they shall worship Jehovah in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

QUERIES

a.

How does taking them away forgive the sin of Jacob?

b.

Why does Jehovah not have compassion on them?

c.

What is the trumpet that is to be blown?

PARAPHRASE

Has Jehovah stricken His own people as severely as He has stricken their oppressors? Have His people known death as those who killed them have known it? No! He has dealt with His own people by driving them from their land and dispersing them. He has driven them by His fierce blast, it is true; like the scorching wind from the desert He has come upon them. Yet only in this purging shall the guilt of His people be removed. Only in this way can the people's forgiveness be accomplishedif they smash their pagan altars into pounded chalk, and leave no idols standing. Look at most of the fortified cities of Israel to the north; they are desolate like a deserted house and as forsaken as the desert. Calves graze there; animals make them their habitations and feeding grounds. The limbs of the trees of these cities wither, dry up and break off and women come and use them for firewood. These northern neighbors of yours are foolish, stupid and rebellious people. This is the reason their Creator cannot have pity upon them or show them His favorthey do not want it. In that day when Jehovah begins to make His feast and remove the covering spread over all nations and swallows up death forever, He will gather His chosen together one by one like hand-picked grain, selecting them from the far reaches of the worldfrom Mesopotamia and from Egypt. In that same day a great beckoning shall be made like a trumpet blast and those who were lost in the far reaches of the world will come and worship the Lord in Zion.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 27:7-11 CALL TO REPENTANCE: In view of that day (Isaiah 25:6-9, etc.) and all Jehovah proposes to do with His people, the Lord now calls Judah, through Isaiah, to repent. First the Lord reminds His people that He has dealt with them mercifully. God has not smitten His own people as He has others. It is true He has handled them roughly, but this was for their good, that they might repent. Others (like the Canaanites and Amalekites) were extinguished as a race by the sovereign permission of God working through secondary agents. But He would not allow the covenant people to suffer extinction. He purposed to bring redemption to the whole world through them. However, He cannot work through any people unless they are willing. His firm, often severe, chastening hand rested upon them and will again rest upon them in exile to bring them to repentance. The Hebrew word for measure is saah which means a third part of an ephah. This enforces the idea that God does not extinguish Judah but only carries them away into exile, purifying for Himself a remnant through which He will yet work His redemption.

Isaiah 27:9 shows that the effect of the exile will be the expiation of Judah's sin. The captivity was the means by which the nation was brought to repentancenot the grounds of their forgiveness. There was no merit in their suffering. The suffering was a means to bring them to repentance. Only when they repented and turned to God could they be forgiven. The fruit worthy of repentance in their case was to be the breaking asunder of their idols and pagan altars and grinding them into chalky obliteration.

Secondly, the Lord directs the attention of Judah to most of the now desolate and ruined cities of Israel, the northern kingdom. The Assyrians have overrun and destroyed most of Israelonly the capital Samaria is left, and it is under siege. Assyrian armies now appear headed for Judah. To refer to a future desolate Jerusalem would have little impact on Isaiah's audience. But to point to most of Israel already lying in desolate ruins where dead trees and grazing animals are the only inhabitants of its cities would serve as a graphic warning. The accusation that the people of these deserted cities are without understanding fits very well the description of the people of the northern kingdom as Hosea pictured them (Hosea 4:1-6, etc.).

Isaiah 27:12-13 CALL TO RESTORATION: The predicted exile will have its effect in producing repentance and turning from idolatry back to Jehovahat least in a faithful remnant. Out of, and through, that remnant restored to Palestine in the days of Ezra, Nehemiah and Zerubbabel will come the fulfillment of the Messianic order idealized and symbolized in this section. That day of Isaiah 27:12-13 are obviously still integral parts of the whole context of this section (ch. 24-27) and refer directly back to the day when the feast is made, the covering is removed and death is swallowed up forever.

Jehovah will have fruit (Hebrew, parah; produce, offspring) from the far reaches of the world as a result of the exiled penitent, restored remnant. The Hebrew word translated gathered is lakat which means literally, collect, pick up, the same word as is used in Exodus 16:5; Exodus 16:16; Exodus 16:26-27, to describe the Israelites collecting manna and quail. He will collect His own one by one, selectively. As Leupold says, The point is, God's fatherly care for His own will appear in this that the scattered ones will be most faithfully gathered and made a unit again. Their unity however will express itself in their united worship at the sanctuary.

If our interpretation is correct and that day refers back to the messianic program predicted in chapter 25, then the great trumpet to be sounded on that day must be the gospel proclamation which gathered (and is still gathering, collecting, picking) the true Israel of God from the far reaches of the world and uniting them in the worship of Jehovah in Zion, the real and abiding Zion (the church), not the earthly and passing Jerusalem, (see our comments on Isaiah 19:16-25, Volume I, College Press).

Thus closes a very significant section of Isaiah's message. It is a message to the last, remaining segment of the covenant nation. They are to be judged for their sin and idolatry. But it is the judgment of a merciful and sovereign Lord. He is judging for a purpose. That purpose is to purge the covenant people of their sin in order that they may progress toward the goal Jehovah has for them. That goal is the redemption of all mankind through their Messiah and through them as a messianic people.

QUIZ

1.

Why ask if He has smitten his own people as He has others?

2.

How does their removal relate to their being forgiven?

3.

What does the fortified city have to do with their forgiveness?

4.

What day is referred to in Isaiah 27:12-13?

5.

How is God going to gather them?

6.

Where are they going to worship?

7.

Summarize this entire section.