The Lord—a Warrior and Vinekeeper—Saves His Sinful People

Verses 2-6 depict the nation of Israel (Jacob) as an abundantly fruitful vineyard. In contrast to the disappointing vineyard of Isaiah 5:1-7, this time the vineyard of the Lord will be worthy of a sweet song of celebration. The Lord will protect it and water it continually (v. 3). He is done being angry at his people and now speaks a word of comfort and blessing to a people formerly under his judgment. He will purge the vineyard of thorns and briers (symbols of the curse—Gen 3:18), guaranteeing its fruitfulness. Even though formerly his enemies, he urges his people to take hold of him for strength and make peace with him (vv. 4-5). As a result, Jacob will take root in the rich soil of God’s grace and “fill the whole world with fruit” (v. 6).

Isaiah 27:7-11

These verses depict the good effects of God’s stern punishments of Israel. God decrees a bitter exile under the domination of Gentile nations, but even this punishment is measured. God did not punish Israel as he punished the nations that punished Israel. Those nations God eventually gave over to total extinction—not a remnant was left. But God preserved a remnant among the Jews (Isa 1:9), which he did not do among the Assyrians and Babylonians. The purpose of this punishment was to create a heart separation between the people and their idols. By exile, the people would learn to hate the pagan altars and Asherah poles that had caused God’s wrath; they would purge the land of those wicked emblems of paganism, crushing the altar stones like chalk with a fiery zeal. Exile would result in the cities of Israel and Judah (including Jerusalem) being completely deserted. But even in the severest judgments, God still remembered mercy.

Isaiah 27:12-13

“In that day,” when God is dealing so directly with Israel, he will thresh his people throughout the promised land (from the northern to the southern boundaries). Threshing involves separating the wheat from the chaff, and God would “clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn. But the chaff he will burn with fire that never goes out” (Matt 3:12). The Israelites will be tested and threshed “one by one,” and no one will escape the careful judgment of God. When the people of God are threshed, he will then send out a trumpet call (Num 10:3) to assemble the remnant that is left from Assyria and Egypt to gather at the holy mountain in Jerusalem to worship the Lord.

So many of the themes of Isaiah 27 prefigure the saving work of Jesus Christ. It was Christ whose death destroyed Satan, “that ancient serpent,” and freed his people from death (Heb 2:14-15; Rev 20:2). It was Christ’s resurrection and the irresistible power of the advancing kingdom of Christ that continues to crush Satan under our “beautiful feet” (Rom 10:15; 16:20). At his second coming Jesus will crush the final pagan empire of the antichrist and consign both the beast and the devil to the lake of fire, triumphing over them both by the harsh, powerful sword that comes from his mouth—his word (2 Thess 2:8; Rev 19:15; 20:10). It is Christ who guarantees the fruitfulness of God’s vineyard by being the vine, and we are the branches (John 15:1-8). God says in Isaiah 27:4, “I am not angry.” But only in Christ’s work of propitiation is the wrath of God finally averted from the people of God (Rom 3:25). In Christ alone are the remnant of Israel, chosen by grace, finally saved (Rom 11:5). And in Christ alone are the scattered people of God gathered together with the trumpet call of the gospel, assembled to worship God in the new Jerusalem (John 11:51-52; also Matt 24:31).

We should understand and celebrate each detail of the way Christ has defeated Satan, is defeating him, and will continue to defeat him. We should seek to bear fruit for the glory of God through abiding in Jesus (John 15:1-8). The fruit of our lives should extend to the ends of the earth, especially in our zealous efforts to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ to unreached people groups. We should also be zealous to crush the idolatry in our lives—worldliness, sexual immorality, greed, etc. Finally, we should be part of God’s clear “trumpet blast” to the nations, calling the elect from every tribe to faith in Christ, for that great day of assembly, for the worship of God and of the Lamb in the new Jerusalem.