INTRODUCTION:

1.     There is a technical term found frequently in the Bible, especially in the OT.  The prophet Isaiah often employs this term – “the day of the LORD” or “in that day” (Isa. 27:1, 2, 12, 13).

2.     The day of the LORD always refers to a time of judgment (cf. Isa. 2:12; 13:6, 9; 34:8).

3.     “The day of the LORD” will not be a normal 24-hour day. For example, the thousand-year reign of Christ is part of the day of the LORD.  The tribulation period preceding the second coming of Christ is also part of the day of the LORD.

4.      Therefore, the day of the LORD will extend to at least 1,007 years.

5.      The Old Testament “day of the Lord” passages often have both a near and a far fulfillment. There are times in the Old Testament that “the day of the LORD” is used to describe historical judgments that have already been fulfilled in at least some sense (cf. Isaiah 13), while at other times it refers to divine judgments that will take place towards the end of the age (cf. Isa. 26:21).

6.      However besides being a time of judgment it will also be a time of salvation as God will deliver the remnant of Israel, fulfilling His promise that “all of Israel shall be saved.” (Romans 11:26), forgiving their sins and restoring His chosen people to the land He promised to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and to their descendents (Isaiah 26:1).

7.      This is the theme of Isaiah 27 – the restoration of Israel.  Here in this chapter the restoration of Israel is pictured in three symbols – the punishment of leviathan (27:1), Israel as the Lord’s vineyard (27:2), and the blowing of the great trumpet (27:13).

I. THE PUNISHMENT OF LEVIATHAN (27:1)

1.     In the day of the LORD, the Lord will intervene to punish the wicked.  Those who have persecuted His chosen people will be judged and dealt with.

2.      The “strong sword” is often seen as a symbol of judgment.  This strong sword is associated with the second coming of Christ.  Revelation 19:15 says, “And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations” (cf. Isa. 34:5-8).

3.      The sword also represents the Word of God.  Ephesians 6:17 says “the sword of the Spirit” is the word of God.

4.      Hebrews 4:12 says, “the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword.”  The Word of God is our defense against the enemies of the Gospel.

5.      A RC relative often sends me emails loaded with RC sophistry.  In reply I send him Scripture.  He always gives up because Romanism cannot stand up to Scripture.  Neither can the JW’s, Mormonism, liberalism, or any other “ism.”

6.      “Leviathan” is identified as “the piercing serpent” and “the crooked serpent” and “the dragon that is in the sea” (27:1). These are various names for the devil himself.  Revelation 12:9 says, “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”

7.      The word “leviathan” occurs 5 times in the OT (cf. Job 41:1; Psalm 74:14; 104:26; and here in Isaiah 27:1).

8.     These Scriptures describe a huge and dangerous sea monster.  Leviathan and the dragon were the original mythical names of these ferocious sea monsters.

9.     In the Bible, these sea monsters represent Israel’s enemies (Isa. 27:1; cf. Ps. 74:10-14). 

10. Job 41:34 is very interesting.  “He (leviathan) beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride.”

11. First Timothy 3:6 and other Scriptures teach us that pride is the great crime of Satan (cf. Isa. 14:12-14).

II. ISRAEL AS GOD’S VINEYARD

1.     We saw back in Isaiah 5 that the fruitful vineyard is a picture of the nation Israel.  The Lord brought the Israelites out of Egypt and planted them in the Promised Land.

2.     The vine in Scripture is a symbol of Israel in her spiritual privileges.   Isaiah 27:2 speaks of abundant fruitfulness and joy.

3.     Symbolically, Israel is called a vine, planted by God Himself in the Promised Land to grow luxuriantly. Psalm 80:8 says, “Thou hast brought a vine out of Egypt: thou hast cast out the heathen, and planted it.”

4.     But Jeremiah 2:21 says, “Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?”

5.     In Matthew 21:33-40, our Lord told a parable of the vineyard, illustrating Israel’s rejection of their Messiah.

6.     In contrast to Isaiah 5 and Matthew 21 and Jeremiah 2:21, Isaiah 27 deals with Israel’s restoration during the millennium.  The LORD is the husbandman and He will keep and protect Israel (27:2, 3).

7.     Harry Ironside wrote that Isaiah 27 “depicts entirely different conditions from those set forth in the previous song recorded in chapter five.  We saw the Lord looking for grapes and finding only wild grapes, for Israel after the flesh bore no fruit for God.  Now all is changed, and we see vines loaded with luscious grapes, thus giving satisfaction to the heart of the Owner.  In this way the Spirit of God tells us of the joy which Jehovah will find in His people when Israel shall be restored to Himself and shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world with fruit” (Isaiah).

8.     There are Bible teachers who deny a literal restoration of Israel.  But this chapter clearly refers to the restoration of Israel (cf. 27:6).

9.     Some Bible teachers claim that these prophecies were fulfilled in the days of Nehemiah and Ezra when a remnant returned to Palestine from Babylon and rebuilt the temple and the city of Jerusalem, etc.

10. But these prophecies look beyond that return to the future restoration of Israel that will take place when the Lord returns (cf. Isa. 11:9-11).

11. God had to smite His chosen people (27:7), but not as He smote Israel’s enemies.

12. God chastened (“iniquity…purged” – 27:9) Israel, but He will restore them.  However, Israel’s enemies will be punished more severely (27:7-11).

13. Psalm 118:18 says, “The Lord hath chastened me sore: but he hath not given me over unto death.”

III. THE BLOWING OF THE GREAT TRUMPET (27:12, 13)

1.     The blowing of the trumpet is seen all throughout the Bible.  The camp of Israel was directed by the blowing of trumpets.

2.     Numbers 10:1-3 says, “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, Make thee two trumpets of silver; of a whole piece shalt thou make them: that thou mayest use them for the calling of the assembly, and for the journeying of the camps. And when they shall blow with them, all the assembly shall assemble themselves to thee at the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.”

3.     What we have here in Isaiah 27:13 is the trumpet summoning the remnant of Israel into the blessings of the millennial kingdom.

4.     The feast of trumpets took place on the first day of the seventh month, and this feast prepared Israel for the annual Day of Atonement (Lev. 23:23-25).

5.     The Scofield Bible says this “feast is a prophetical type and refers to the future regathering of long-dispersed Israel. A long interval elapses between Pentecost and Trumpets, answering to the long period occupied in the pentecostal work of the Holy Spirit in the present dispensation” (p. 157).

6.     This present dispensation will end at the rapture and then the tribulation period (“the time of Jacob’s trouble”) will follow.  “But he (Jacob or Israel) shall be saved out of it” (Jer. 30:7)

7.     Our Lord said in Matthew 24:31, “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

CONCLUSION:

1.     The Bible is a book of progressive revelation.  This term has been misused and abused by the cults, liberals and other heretics, but what I mean by “progressive revelation” is that the NT gives us more light than the OT.

2.     Everything in the OT leads to the cross.  All the OT sacrifices, prophecies, and types point to the cross.

3.     Hebrews 1:1 says, “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son.”

4.     Isaiah speaks of the punishment of leviathan.  John tells us that Satan will be locked up for 1,000 years and then cast into the lake of fire.

5.     Isaiah says that those who take hold of God’s strength shall make peace with Him (27:5).  Their iniquity shall be purged and their sin taken away (27:9).

6.     Colossians 1:20 says Christ has “made peace through the blood of His cross.” 

7.     Romans 5:1 says, “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

8.     Isaiah speaks of the resurrection and the great trumpet that shall be blown (27:13).

9.     There is another important trumpet call in the Bible (cf. I Cor. 15:51-58; I Thess. 4:13-18).  Are you ready for that trumpet call?