In this chapter, we read that God punishes Israel’s enemies and blesses Israel. In that day God will smite Babylon, Isaiah 27:1. The sword is tempered for strength and it’s grim because of the destruction it can do, Isaiah 27:1. God’s sword is sweeping in that it cuts a wide strip, Isaiah 27:1. The enemy or enemies are set forth under the figure of the sea-serpent, leviathan, Isaiah 27:1. The Leviathan, Job 3:8 / Job 41:1, is probably like a crocodile, the Leviathan was the coiled serpent, Job 26:13.
We read of God’s tender care in delivering His people. God has kept His holy people and protected them throughout the centuries. The prosperity of the Lord’s people is represented by the ‘fruitful vineyard’, Isaiah 27:2, which brings forth a new song of praise. God kept His vineyard and watered it, Isaiah 27:3 / Matthew 28:18-20.
He has been the eternal gardener who has continually watered His vineyard. In other words, there is never a time when God doesn’t watch over His children, Isaiah 27:3 / Psalm 121:3-5. He has consumed the briers and thorns, Isaiah 27:4-5 / Isaiah 9:17 / Isaiah 10:17, in order that Jacob take root and bud forth throughout the world, Isaiah 27:6 / Psalm 92:13-14.
Here we read of the punishment of Israel because of their sin and that God’s people shall no more be idolaters. Israel, though captive, will not be smitten as their captors are smitten, Isaiah 27:7-8 / Ezekiel 16:47, and it appears that Israel’s captivity destroyed their desire for idols, Isaiah 27:9.
His punishment was to purge them of their sin and in doing so, His people had to purge themselves of idolatry, Isaiah 27:9 / Isaiah 1:25, as well as cut down the Asherah poles, Isaiah 27:9 / Isaiah 17:8, where they committed their spiritual adultery by bowing down to foreign gods. The stones of idolatrous altars were to be beaten as fine as chalkstones and idol groves were to be destroyed, Isaiah 27:10. The overall purpose of the captivity was to cleanse Israel of idolatry.
Israel’s captors received no compassion and the man who builds up his defences against God will finally come to destruction, Isaiah 27:11. In other words, if His people tried to build a fortified city against God’s chastisement, then they would have no understanding of His work, Proverbs 6:32 / Proverbs 18:2 / Jeremiah 5:21.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘The scarcity of fuel, especially wood, in most parts of the east is so great, that they supply it with everything capable of burning; cow-dung dried, roots, parings of fruit, withered stalks of herbs and flowers, Matthew 6:21-30. Vine twigs are particularly mentioned as used for fuel in dressing their food. Ezekiel says, in his parable of the vine, used figuratively for the people of God, as the vineyard is here, ‘Shall wood be taken thereof to do any work? or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon? Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel,’ Ezekiel 15:3-4. ‘If a man abide not in one,’ saith our Lord, ‘he is cast forth as a branch of the vine and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned’, John 15:6. They employed women and children to gather these things, and they laid them up in store for use. The dressing and pruning their vines afforded a good supply of the last sort of fuel but the prophet says that the vines themselves of the beloved vineyard shall be blasted, withered, and broken, and the women shall come and gather them up, and carry away the whole of them to make their fires for domestic uses.’
These verses speak of the restoration of Israel. God would thresh out the grain from the chaff and bring the devoted again into the land, Isaiah 27:12. Cyrus issued a decree, Ezra 1:1, allowing each Jew to go back but many stayed and didn’t return.
God will call His people out of those places where they had been captive, Isaiah 27:12. They will be ‘gathered up one by one’, Isaiah 27:12, which implies it was up to the individual Jew whether he would stay or return. This is the same as in the Gospel system, some accept and some reject the Gospel.
From the dispersed children of the twelve tribes of Israel that were scattered throughout the former Assyrian Empire, and as far south as Egypt, Jeremiah 41:17-18 / Jeremiah 42:15-22, the remnant would be brought back into the land of promise, Isaiah 27:13.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Their temple shall be rebuilt, their city shall be restored, and in the place where their fathers worshipped shall they also again adore the living God. This closes the prophecy which was commenced in Isaiah 24, and the design of the whole is to comfort the Jews with the assurance, that though they were to be made captive in a distant land, yet they would be again restored to the land of their fathers, and again worship God there. It is almost needless to say that this prediction was completely fulfilled by the return of the Jews to their own country under the decree of Cyrus.’