Isaiah 26-27

I. Context and Background

The Isaiah Apocalypse (Ch. 24–27)

Eschatological section focused on God’s judgment and redemption

Repeated phrase: “In that day” signals divine intervention

Purpose of Isaiah 26–27:

Hope and restoration for God’s people

Judgment and exposure for the wicked

II. Isaiah 26 – Faith in the Midst of Suffering

A. Song of Salvation (26:1–6)

“We have a strong city…” – a call to trust

Key Verse: “You keep him in perfect peace…” (26:3)

Point: Trust brings peace—not perfect conditions

Isaiah 26:1–6 ESV

1 In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; he sets up salvation as walls and bulwarks. 2 Open the gates, that the righteous nation that keeps faith may enter in. 3 You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. 4 Trust in the Lord forever, for the Lord God is an everlasting rock. 5 For he has humbled the inhabitants of the height, the lofty city. He lays it low, lays it low to the ground, casts it to the dust. 6 The foot tramples it, the feet of the poor, the steps of the needy.”

B. Righteous Longing (26:7–10)

The faithful wait for justice

The wicked reject correction

Point: God’s justice educates the world, even when delayed

Isaiah 26:7–10 ESV

7 The path of the righteous is level; you make level the way of the righteous. 8 In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul. 9 My soul yearns for you in the night; my spirit within me earnestly seeks you. For when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. 10 If favor is shown to the wicked, he does not learn righteousness; in the land of uprightness he deals corruptly and does not see the majesty of the Lord.

C. Confession and Zeal (26:11–15)

Recognition of false “lords” of the past

God's zeal is the source of peace

Point: God alone is worthy of remembrance

Isaiah 26:11–15 ESV

11 O Lord, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people, and be ashamed. Let the fire for your adversaries consume them. 12 O Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have indeed done for us all our works. 13 O Lord our God, other lords besides you have ruled over us, but your name alone we bring to remembrance. 14 They are dead, they will not live; they are shades, they will not arise; to that end you have visited them with destruction and wiped out all remembrance of them. 15 But you have increased the nation, O Lord, you have increased the nation; you are glorified; you have enlarged all the borders of the land.

D. Futility Without God (26:16–18)

Labor pains without birth = fruitless efforts

Point: Only God can bring true deliverance

Isaiah 26:16–18 ESV

16 O Lord, in distress they sought you; they poured out a whispered prayer when your discipline was upon them. 17 Like a pregnant woman who writhes and cries out in her pangs when she is near to giving birth, so were we because of you, O Lord; 18 we were pregnant, we writhed, but we have given birth to wind. We have accomplished no deliverance in the earth, and the inhabitants of the world have not fallen.

E. Hope of Resurrection (26:19–21)

Promise of bodily resurrection

Call to hide during divine judgment

Point: God’s justice includes renewal and protection

Isaiah 26:19–21 ESV

19 Your dead shall live; their bodies shall rise. You who dwell in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and the earth will give birth to the dead. 20 Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by. 21 For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain.

III. Isaiah 27 – Restoration and Universal Worship

A. Leviathan Defeated (27:1)

Symbol of chaos, spiritual evil

Point: God has power over even the ancient enemy

Isaiah 27:1 ESV

1 In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

B. A Restored Vineyard (27:2–5)

God tends, waters, and protects His vineyard

Contrast: Isaiah 5’s judgment vs. Isaiah 27’s restoration

Point: God is no longer angry—He invites peace

Isaiah 27:2–5 ESV

2 In that day, “A pleasant vineyard, sing of it! 3 I, the Lord, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day; 4 I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to battle! I would march against them, I would burn them up together. 5 Or let them lay hold of my protection, let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me.”

C. Cleansing Through Discipline (27:6–11)

Sin is atoned for through exile and repentance

Idolatry must be destroyed

Point: Discipline is a means to restoration

Isaiah 27:6–11 ESV

6 In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit. 7 Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain? 8 Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them; he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind. 9 Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing. 10 For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; there the calf grazes; there it lies down and strips its branches. 11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them; he who formed them will show them no favor.

D. Global Gathering (27:12–13)

One-by-one gathering from Assyria and Egypt

Point: Restoration is personal, spiritual, and global

Isaiah 27:12–13 ESV

12 In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. 13 And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

IV. Key Theological Themes

Peace through Trust: “Perfect peace… mind stayed on you” (26:3)

God’s Sovereignty: He humbles the proud, exalts the lowly

Hope in Resurrection: (26:19) – One of the clearest OT declarations

God’s Loving Discipline: Purifies, not destroys (27:9)

Final Restoration and Worship: Ends in global worship on Mt. Zion

V. Intertextual Connection: Revelation 12

Revelation 12 ESV

1 And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. 2 She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. 3 And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems. 4 His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child he might devour it. 5 She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, 6 and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days. 7 Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, 8 but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. 9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. 10 And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. 11 And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. 12 Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!” 13 And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the earth, he pursued the woman who had given birth to the male child. 14 But the woman was given the two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly from the serpent into the wilderness, to the place where she is to be nourished for a time, and times, and half a time. 15 The serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, to sweep her away with a flood. 16 But the earth came to the help of the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed the river that the dragon had poured from his mouth. 17 Then the dragon became furious with the woman and went off to make war on the rest of her offspring, on those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus. And he stood on the sand of the sea.

Comparison Table:

Isaiah 26–27 vs. Revelation 12

Leviathan (27:1) defeated ⇄ Dragon/Satan cast down

Hide from wrath (26:20) ⇄ Woman protected in wilderness

Resurrection hope (26:19) ⇄ Martyrs overcome through sacrifice

Gathering the remnant (27:13) ⇄ Woman’s faithful offspring remain

VI. Reflection Questions

What does “perfect peace” mean in your life today? (26:3)

Why do the righteous sometimes wait long for justice?

What does this text say about trusting God during discipline?

How does Isaiah 26:19 shape your view of resurrection in the Old Testament?

Where do you see signs of God “gathering His remnant” in our time?