Isaiah 27:3
Read Isaiah 27:3 Using Other Translations
What does Isaiah 27:3 mean?
I the Lord do keep it
The vineyard, the church, not only by his ministers, called the
keepers of it, ( Song of Solomon
8:12 ) but by himself, by his own power; for unless he keeps
it, who is Israel's keeper, the watchmen wake in vain; he keeps
his church and people from sin, that it does not reign over them;
and from Satan's temptations, that they are not destroyed by
them; and from the malice of the world, and the poison of false
teachers, that they are not ruined thereby; and from a final and
total falling away; the Lord's preservation of his church and
people will be very manifest in the latter day: I will
water it every moment;
both more immediately with the dews of his grace, and the
discoveries of his love; that being like dew, it comes from
above, is according to the sovereign will of God, without the
desert of man falls in the night, silently, gently, and
insensibly, and greatly refreshes and makes fruitful, ( Hosea
14:5-7 ) and more immediately by the ministry of the word and
ordinances, by his ministers, the preachers of the Gospel, who
water as well as plant, ( 1
Corinthians 3:6-8 ) these are the clouds he sends about to
let down the rain of the Gospel upon his church and people, by
which they are revived, refreshed, and made fruitful, ( Isaiah 5:6 ) ( Isaiah 55:10
Isaiah
55:11 ) and this being done "every moment", shows, as the
care of God, and his constant regard to his people, so that
without the frequent communications of his grace, and the
constant ministration of his word and ordinances, they would
wither and become fruitless; but, by means of these, they are as
a watered garden, whose springs fail not, ( Isaiah 58:11
) : lest [any] hurt it;
as would Satan, who goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he
may devour; and the men of the world, who are the boar out of the
wood, and the wild beast out of the field, that would waste and
destroy the vineyard; and false teachers, who are the foxes that
would spoil the vines, ( 1 Peter 5:8 ) (
Psalms
80:13 ) ( Song of Solomon
2:15 ) but, to prevent any such hurt and damage, the Lord
undertakes to keep the church, his vineyard, himself, which he
repeats with some addition, to declare the certainty of it; or,
"lest he visit it" F13; that is, an enemy, as some
F14 supply it; lest he should break
down the hedge, and push into it, and waste it; or Jehovah
himself, that is, as Gussetius
F15 interprets it, while Jehovah the Father, ( Isaiah 27:1 ) , is striking leviathan, or inflicting his judgments upon his enemies, Jehovah the Son promises to take care of his vineyard, the church, that the visitation does not affect them, and they are not hurt by it, but are safe and secure from it; which is a much better sense than that of Kimchi mentioned by him, I will water it every moment, "that not one leaf of it should fail"; the same is observed by Ben Melech, as the sense given by Donesh Ben Labrat: I will keep it night and day;
that is, continually, for he never slumbers nor sleeps; he has kept, and will keep, his church and people, through all the vicissitudes of night and day, of adversity and prosperity, they come into: how great is the condescension of the Lord to take upon him the irrigation and preservation of his people! how dear and precious must they be to him! and what a privilege is it to be in such a plantation as this, watered and defended by the Lord himself!
F13 (hyle dwqpy Np) "ne forte visitet eum", Munster, Pagninus, Tigurine version.
F14 So Munster, Pagninus, Vatablus, and Ben Melech.
F15 Comment. Ebr. p. 668, 669.
