Year 3, Day 11: Isaiah 27

The Leviathan Interlude

Isaiah 27 starts off on a rather strange note.  We have a single verse from Isaiah about punishing Leviathan and slaying the dragon.  For anyone curious, yes, it does sound like the author of Revelation 13 was aware of this verse in Isaiah 27.  But what is the point of this verse?

In Ugaritic literature – that is, literature found in Ugarit, Syria – we have references to a many-headed serpent as the evil nemesis of creation.  Specifically, Leviathan was the enemy of “order” in creation.  In other words, Leviathan was about the task of spreading chaos among creation.  Leviathan is the one that tells creation to do whatever it pleases, when it pleases, and to not worry about following any kind of created order or design.

Of course, we should realize that the Ugaritic literature is not ultimately of the Hebrew or Christian faith – so I don’t mean to imply any kind of divine truth to the idea of the Leviathan.  However, Isaiah would have likely known of this symbol as well as its usage in Psalm 74:13-14.  It is not unthinkable for Isaiah to have borrowed this Ugaritic symbol of the opposition to a created order and put it in here to symbolically demonstrate that in the days of God’s righteous judgment God will put an end to chaos and finally establish His order in a permanent fashion.  For me, that is a pretty significant point to come out of this first verse.  When God says enough to this world and returns, the ever-present chaos that resists His order and design will be dealt with.  Amen!

Vineyard

As we move along in Isaiah 27, we get to another vineyard passage.  Remember the vineyard passage from Isaiah 5?  That passage talked about God’s frustration with His people.  That passage talked about the looming judgment.  That passage talked about the wrath of God in the coming judgment.  This vineyard passage is different.  This vineyard passage is post-judgment.  This is a passage in which the vineyard is not dug up and rejected but rather protected and celebrated.  This vineyard passage is a passage where God claims to be the keeper and He seems to relish the task!

What is the effect of the protection and care of God?  Look at verse 6.  When God is the one who cares, we fruit.  When God is the one who nourishes, we take root.  When God is our protector, we blossom.  Think of those images: taking root, blossoming, providing fruit.  Is there anything more that anyone of us could want as an epitaph?  If we get to the end of our life and people can say, “This person took root, blossomed, and gave fruit where God planted them,” would there be any higher praise? 

So how do we get there?  We live our life according to the Lord and abide within His protection.

The question is, how do we get even to that point?  Is not each of us born into sin?  Are our hearts not by default rebellious against God?  Do we not easily seek our own desires?  How do we move from the natural and original sin that rests within us to the wonderful relationship with God as our protector and nurturer?

These are the questions that are the heart of the rest of Isaiah 27.  Look at what Isaiah says.  By exile God contended with them.  With His fierce breath God removed them.  Because of the rebelliousness of the people in following false gods, God withheld compassion until they learned to return to Him.

Dealing With Consequences

The second half of Isaiah 27 really speaks truth into our pattern of life.  Most of the time, we get into a good relationship with God by suffering through the consequences of our sin.  Why do you think that Psalm 23 – Yea though I walk through the shadow of death, You are with me – is such a popular psalm?  We walk through the shadow of death every single time we err.  We walk through the shadow of death every single time that sin rears its ugly head in our life.  We recognize the closeness of God when we brush up against and have to deal with the consequences of our sinful nature.

We’re talking fundamentally about the ignorance of humanity versus the patience of God.  It is passages like the second half of Isaiah 27 that remind me to focus on the patience of God – and His mercy!  God has absolutely every right to abandon us to the grave, but He walks with us instead.  He calls us to Him even in the midst of our sinfulness.  He is indeed a great and mighty God.  He takes us and as He did with the Hebrew people He turns us from a vineyard that deserved to be abandoned and into a vineyard that is protected and loved and cherished.  Thanks be to God!

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