Judgment Leads to Salvation, Isaiah 27

How Do We Bear Fruit

I have just finished re-reading Andrew Root’s Book Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry

In the book Andrew is re considering the purpose of the church in the 21st Century.

Christians are relational

Individualistic

Anti structural

Ministry, then, is not about "using" relationships to get individuals to accept a "third thing," whether that be conservative politics, moral behaviors iors or even the gospel message. Rather, ministry is about connection, one to another, about sharing in suffering and joy, about persons meeting persons sons with no pretense or secret motives. It is about shared life, confessing Christ not outside the relationship but within it. This, I learned, was living the gospel.

Andrew Root. Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation (Kindle Locations 112-113). Kindle Edition.

Andrew Root. Revisiting Relational Youth Ministry: From a Strategy of Influence to a Theology of Incarnation (Kindle Locations 111-112). Kindle Edition. He gets this idea from the famous German Theologian D Bonhoffer life together

sharing spaces gives us the opp to minister. What does it mean to minister

The Climax of the Story

This chapter finishes the section that started from chapter 13.

This is the climax, all of Gods enemies are summed up in one frightening image. Will God defeat Israel’s enemies? Yes. not only that

Isaiah shows us a glorious future. God has a plan which will see all the nations saved, and Israel is destined to play a central role in that plan.

There is an image of Isreal being whole again and like a vinyard that bears fruit

Key verse:

Isaiah 27:6 NIV

6 In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

But before it can fulfil its calling it must be cleansed.

Let’s start by looking again at the problem that Juda has many enemies

What is a Leviathan?

Isaiah 27:1 NIV

1 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.

1. What is Leviathan? (verse 1) It represents all of the world’s evil o Satan in the garden of Eden o Satan is also referred to as a dragon and serpent in Revelation 20:1-3

Revelation 20:1–3 NIV

1 And I saw an angel coming down out of heaven, having the key to the Abyss and holding in his hand a great chain. 2 He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil, or Satan, and bound him for a thousand years. 3 He threw him into the Abyss, and locked and sealed it over him, to keep him from deceiving the nations anymore until the thousand years were ended. After that, he must be set free for a short time.

God will destroy all evil so that God can truly protect His vineyard (Israel – God’s people) The threefold description of Leviathan o Gliding serpent, coiling serpent, and monster of the sea The threefold description of the sword of the Lord o His fierce, great and powerful sword

The serpent or the leviathan will be defeated just as Genesis 3:15 promises where God defeats Satan (the serpent)

Genesis 3:15 NIV

15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

God, is a great warrior, he battles against the most monstrous evil enemy Satan and he will defeat him

God will Defeat the Leviathon and There will be Peace

This is described in 2 poems in Isaiah

There are two songs about the Vineyard (Israel) in Isaiah. The first is in chapter 5 and the second in chapter 27. These songs have a number of contrasts: Chapter 5 Bad fruit (v2, 4) No rain (v6) Abandoned (wall removed) – (v5) Thorns and briers (v6) Trampled/Overrun (v5) Chapter 27 Good Fruit (v6) Rain (v3) Guarded (v3) No thorns and briers (v4) Spreads out (v6)

chapter 27 shows us that some day the judgement proclaimed in the first song will be totally reversed The time will come when God’s wrath is over (v4) Isaiah 27 is a picture of New Creation

This brings us back to verse 6 in 27

The Fruitful Vineyard

Isaiah 27:6 NIV

6 In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

• Once the nations invaded the vineyard, now the vineyard will invade the nations, filling it with fruit

o This second ‘invasion’ will be a positive thing

• God has a plan which embraces all nations, and Israel is destined to play a central role in that plan o This was promised to Abraham See Genesis 12:1-3

But before Israel can fulfil its calling it must be cleansed and then there will be a new eden

There also seems to be a link with the Garden of Eden and in Revelation 21-22 the New Jerusalem is described as a Garden City

Here Isaiah uses the terms Jacob and Israel, not Judah, implying the whole people of God But in Isaiah’s day, Israel (represented, after the fall of the northern kingdom in 722 BC, by Judah and Jerusalem) was very far removed from the ideal situation envisaged in verses 1-5. She is in the midst of a cleansing process.

The Lord’s Judgement

Isaiah 27:7–9 NIV

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 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 or incense altars will be left standing.

It is less severe than Judah’s enemies (v7) It is controlled – God knows what He is doing (v8) It has a goal – atonement (v8) o The removal of what is offensive to God (sin and idolatry) so that forgiveness can become possible (v9) o His purpose is not annihilation – exile is punishment tempered by mercy because they are not destroyed

Chastisement a Hard Route to Fruitfulness

Isaiah 27:11 NIV

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.

•The people of Judah were without understanding

o Recall Isaiah 1:2-3 – they rebelled against God

Chastisement is the hard route to fruitfulness And even still some will reject what God is offering (vv10-11)

The Final Destiny of God’s People

Isaiah 27:12–13 NIV

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.

• When the threshing is over, the precious grains will be gathered one by one o We are each of great individual importance to God

Jesus talks about this in: Matthew 13:24–43

• The great trumpet proclaims both liberty and a call to worship the Lord o Just as freed captives in Exodus assembled at Mount Sinai to worship the Lord, so will those saved in the future assemble at the holy mountain in Jerusalem for the same purpose o This is the same as at the ending of the book in Isaiah 66:18-23 o The Year of Jubilee, another foreshadowing of heaven, was pronounced on the Day of Atonement in Leviticus 25:8-12 by a great trumpet ▪ The Year of Jubilee was a time where debts were forgiven, a time of new beginnings, of freedom

Leviticus 25:8–12 NIV

8 “ ‘Count off seven sabbath years—seven times seven years—so that the seven sabbath years amount to a period of forty-nine years. 9 Then have the trumpet sounded everywhere on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the Day of Atonement sound the trumpet throughout your land. 10 Consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you; each of you is to return to your family property and to your own clan. 11 The fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you; do not sow and do not reap what grows of itself or harvest the untended vines. 12 For it is a jubilee and is to be holy for you; eat only what is taken directly from the fields.

o God’s People will be set free by God’s grace and will respond with renewed obedience to the covenant. Jesus achieves this by dying on the cross and rising again and Isaiah predicts this hundreds of years before it happens.

Word Ministry or Social Justice?

So how should we then live as we await the year of Jubellie

Some preach this as social justice that

The Message of Isaiah describes the Lord’s Judgmengt and mercy.

His Chastisment causes us to repent.

In John 15:5

John 15:5 NIV

5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Galatians 2:10 NIV

10 All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I had been eager to do all along.

Space sharing

1 Thessalonians 2:8 NIV

8 so we cared for you. Because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God but our lives as well.