Isaiah 27:1 - Meaning and Application

The prophet here sings of both judgment and mercy. First, he speaks of judgment against the enemies of God’s church (Isaiah 27:1), trouble for those who trouble it (2 Thessalonians 1:6). When the Lord comes out of his place to punish the people of the earth (Isaiah 26:21), he will surely punish Leviathan, the dragon in the sea.

This points to every proud and oppressive tyrant, one who strikes fear into others and is hard to deal with. In Job, Leviathan is pictured as so fierce that no one dares challenge him, with a heart hard as stone (Job 41:10, Job 41:24, Job 41:25). The church has had many enemies, but often one rises above the rest in power and danger. Sennacherib was such a ruler in his day, Nebuchadnezzar in his, and Antiochus in his. Pharaoh had also been like this before, and is called Leviathan and the dragon (Isaiah 51:9; Psalm 74:13, Psalm 74:14; Ezekiel 29:3).

The New Testament church has also faced its Leviathans. We read of a great red dragon ready to devour it (Revelation 12:3). These hostile persecuting powers are compared to Leviathan for their size, strength, and the great stir they make in the world. They are called dragons for their rage and fury, and serpents for their craft, quick movement, and piercing plans. If a serpent gets its head in, the whole body soon follows.

They are also like crossing, or blocking, serpents, standing in the way of their neighbors. They are crooked serpents too, sly and persuasive, yet harmful and bent on evil. Great princes, when they oppose God’s people, are counted by God as dragons and serpents, the plague of mankind. The Lord will punish them in his own time, because they are too great for human power to handle.

God has a strong and terrible sword to deal with them when their guilt is full and their time to fall has come. The Hebrew wording is very strong, saying that the Lord will punish with his sword, the cruel and great and strong one, this stubborn and unruly criminal. It will be capital punishment: he will slay the dragon in the sea, because the wages of sin is death. This is not only to stop further harm, as when a wild beast is killed, but also to punish past evil, as when a rebel or traitor is executed.

God has many judgments in his hand, enough to humble the proudest and break the strongest of his enemies. He will act when the day of execution arrives, his own appointed day (Psalm 37:13). This also points to the spiritual victories our Lord Jesus wins over the powers of darkness. He did not only disarm, strip, and cast out the ruler of this world, but by the power of his death and the preaching of his gospel he destroys the one who had the power of death, that is, the devil, that great Leviathan, the old serpent, the dragon. Satan is bound so that he cannot deceive the nations, and that binding is itself a punishment (Revelation 20:2, Revelation 20:3). At last, because he deceived the nations, he will be thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:10).

Second, the prophet speaks of mercy toward the church. In that same day, when God is judging Leviathan, let the church and all her friends be calm and glad. Let those who serve her sing to her for comfort, and sing her to rest with these assurances. Let it be sung in her gatherings that she is God’s vineyard and under his special care (Isaiah 27:2, Isaiah 27:3).

In God’s eyes, she is a vineyard of red wine. The world is like a barren wilderness, but the church is enclosed like a vineyard, a special and valuable place. Great care is taken with it, much labor is spent on it, and precious fruit is gathered from it to honor God and man. It is a vineyard of red wine, meaning it yields the best grapes, and this pictures the church’s changed life, now bringing forth good fruit to God instead of fruit only for itself, or wild grapes (Isaiah 5:4).

God takes care of this vineyard in two ways. First, he guards its safety: “I, the Lord, keep it.” He says this as one who takes glory in being, and in having undertaken to be, the keeper of Israel. Those who bring forth fruit to God are, and will remain, under his protection. He also says it to assure us: I, the Lord, who can do all things, and cannot lie or deceive, keep it. To keep it from being harmed, I guard it night and day. God's vineyard in this world is exposed to danger. Many would hurt it, trample it down, and lay it waste (Psalm 80:13). Yet God will allow no true harm or loss to come to it except what he will turn to good. He will guard it constantly, day and night, because the enemies never stop planning and looking for a chance to do evil.

He will keep it in the night of trouble and persecution, and in the day of peace and success, when temptations are no less dangerous. God’s people will be preserved not only from the pestilence that walks in darkness, but also from the destruction that wastes at noon-day (Psalm 91:6). This vineyard will be well fenced.

Second, God will keep it fruitful: “I will water it every moment.” Yet it will not be overwatered. The quiet dew of God’s grace and blessing will keep falling on it so it may bear much fruit. We need God’s constant watering, because if he withdraws his grace for a time, we dry up and come to nothing. God waters his vineyard through the ministry of the word by his servants the prophets, whose teaching will drop like dew. Paul plants, and Apollos waters, but God gives the increase. Without him, the watchman stays awake and the farmer waters in vain.

Third, though God sometimes contends with his people, he will be reconciled to them when they humble themselves, if they submit, and if they seek peace with him (Isaiah 27:4, Isaiah 27:5). Fury is not in him against his vineyard. Though he sees many things in it that offend him, he does not look for reasons to destroy it, nor does he press every fault to the full. It is true that if he finds briers and thorns instead of vines, and if they stand against him in battle, he will trample and burn them. But otherwise, if he is angry with his people, they know the way back. Let them humble themselves, pray, seek his face, and take hold of his strength with a sincere desire to make peace with him, and he will soon be reconciled to them, and all will be well.

God sees his people’s sins and is displeased with them, but when they repent, he turns away his wrath. This can rightly be taken as a summary of the gospel teaching, with which the church is to be watered every moment. Here we have a quarrel between God and man, for there is a battle to be fought and peace to be made.

It is an old quarrel, going back to the first entrance of sin. On God’s side, it is a righteous quarrel, but on man’s side it is deeply wrong. God is justly offended, and we are the ones who have broken peace.

Here is also a kind and gracious invitation for us to end this quarrel and settle the matter. “Let the one who wants peace with God take hold of his strength,” that is, of God’s mighty arm, which is lifted up against the sinner to strike him down, and let that person hold back the blow by prayer. Let him wrestle with God, as Jacob did, and refuse to let him go without a blessing. Then he will be called Israel, a prince with God.

This pardoning mercy is called the power of our Lord, so let the sinner take hold of that. Christ is the arm of the Lord (Isaiah 53:1). Christ crucified is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). By living faith, let a person cling to him, as someone sinking grabs a branch, rope, or plank within reach. Or think of the criminal who grasped the horns of the altar, believing there was no other name by which he could be saved and made right with God.

There are three strong reasons to persuade us to do this. First, God gives us time and room to turn back, for fury is not in God. He does not act toward us the way proud people act toward those below them when anger takes over. Angry people do not pause to think. With them, it is often just one word and one blow. They are quick-tempered and hard to calm, but it is not that way with God. He understands our frame, is slow to anger, does not stir up all his wrath, and does not always keep accusing.

Second, it is useless to think we can fight with him. If we keep up our quarrel with God and try to hold our ground, it is like putting briers and thorns before a burning fire. They will not stop the fire, but only make it rage more. We are no equal match for Almighty power. So woe to the person who argues against his Maker. He does not know the force of God’s anger.

Third, this is the only way, and it is a sure way, to be reconciled. Let a person take this path to make peace with God, and peace will come. Along with that peace, all good will come to him. God is willing to be reconciled to us if we are willing to be reconciled to him.

The church of God in the world will also grow into a larger and stronger body (Isaiah 27:6). Some understand this as speaking of later times, after these troubles are past, or of the days of the gospel, the last days. Then God will cause Jacob to take root more deeply than ever before. The gospel church will be more firmly established than the Jewish church was, and it will spread farther.

Or the meaning may be that God will cause those of Jacob who return from captivity, or those who come from Jacob, to take root downward and bear fruit upward (Isaiah 37:31). They will be settled in a prosperous state, then they will blossom and bud, and they will give hopeful signs of a great increase. And so it will be, for they will fill the face of the world with fruit. Many will be brought into the church. Converts will be numerous, some from all the nations around them, and they will be to the God of Israel for a name and a praise. Those who come to faith will bear the fruit of righteousness. The preaching of the gospel brought forth fruit throughout the whole world (Colossians 1:6), fruit that remains (John 15:16).