WITH GOD TO THE SUMMIT
Opening Prayer
It is with thanksgiving and expectancy, Heavenly Father, that I come to your Word today. I am grateful for the ways you speak to me through it and show me who you are.
Read ISAIAH 27
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Deliverance of Israel
27 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.
2 In that day—
“Sing about a fruitful vineyard:
3 I, the Lord, watch over it;
I water it continually.
I guard it day and night
so that no one may harm it.
4 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.
5 Or else let them come to me for refuge;
let them make peace with me,
yes, let them make peace with me.”
6 In days to come Jacob will take root,
Israel will bud and blossom
and fill all the world with fruit.
7 Has the Lord struck her
as he struck down those who struck her?
Has she been killed
as those were killed who killed her?
8 By warfare[a] and exile you contend with her—
with his fierce blast he drives her out,
as on a day the east wind blows.
9 By this, then, will Jacob’s guilt be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
When he makes all the altar stones
to be like limestone crushed to pieces,
no Asherah poles[b] or incense altars
will be left standing.
10 The fortified city stands desolate,
an abandoned settlement, forsaken like the wilderness;
there the calves graze,
there they lie down;
they strip its branches bare.
11 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.
12 In that day the Lord will thresh from the flowing Euphrates to the Wadi of Egypt, and you, Israel, will be gathered up one by one. 13 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.
Footnotes
- Isaiah 27:8 See Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.
- Isaiah 27:9 That is, wooden symbols of the goddess Asherah
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
In verse 5 of today’s passage, God says, ‘…let them make peace with me.’ How should the Israelites have gone about this?Sometimes Isaiah seems to be all over the place! I mean two things. First, my modern mind likes linear outlines and logical connections: it’s challenging at times to follow Isaiah’s thinking. People saw things very differently so long ago. Secondly, the genius of Isaiah (or, should I say, of the Holy Spirit?) was to focus sharply on a
specific time and place while at the same time describing realities far beyond the struggling Israelites of the late eighth century. We are ‘in that day’ again. We might leave the question of when that day will be to God. However, Isaiah did give us various pointers as to its nature and context.
Deliverance is the central theme. First Leviathan, the representative huge, evil entity, was defeated (v. 1). Then a range of horticultural images were used to present God’s longing to save, nurture, and nourish his people. Verse 4 is a distinctive expression of God’s heart, and in verse 12 it is the Lord himself who gathers in the harvest. It is not an easy process. We sense here something of the struggle that God has set himself to bring people back to his ‘holy mountain’ (v. 13). To achieve this by force would be simple for him. He has resolved to accomplish his divine purpose through love.
Apply
Imagine yourself climbing the holy mountain. What do you pray as you climb?
Closing prayer
In the complexities of your Word, Lord God, help my eyes to see and my heart to embrace things you have for me to build my faith and change me.
Book and Author Intros
Extras
Click here to sign up to receive the EXTRAs via email each quarter.
© 2024 Scripture Union U.S.A. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission is prohibited.
Discovery is published in the USA under license from Scripture Union England and Wales, Trinity House, Opal Court, Opal Drive, Fox Milne, Milton Keynes, MK15 0DF.