Isaiah 27

Wesley: Leviathan—by this leviathan, serpent and dragon (for all signify the same thing) he understands some powerful enemy or enemies of God, and of his church or people, which may well be called by these names, partly for their great might, and partly for the great terror and destruction which they cause upon the earth. The piercing—which by its sting pierces deeply into mens bodies. Crooked serpent—winding and turning itself with great variety and dexterity. Whereby he seems to signify the craftiness and activity of this enemy, whose strength makes it more formidable. Both readings: the LORD’s sword on the serpent.

Enemy of the church in that age.

Calvin: in that day. Here the Prophet speaks in general of the judgment of God, and thus includes the whole of Satan’s kingdom. Having spoken of vengeance against tyrants who shed innocent blood, he now publishes this proclamation. On leviathan: a large serpent, or whales and sea-fishes, monsters for their size. The description applies to the king of any proud empire that crushed the church, and to the kingdom of Satan standing behind such tyrants. The hard, great, and strong sword is the Lord’s.

The LORD punishes leviathan, the fleeing and twisting serpent.

Wesley: In that day—when this enemy shall be destroyed. A vineyard—my church and people, of red wine, of the choicest and best wine, which in those parts was red. Sing of the vineyard when the serpent falls.

Historic church as vineyard, as in Isaiah 5, now kept.

Calvin: sing to the vineyard of redness. He now shews that all this will promote the salvation of the Church. The vineyard of red wine is the choicest. The song answers 26:1: when Leviathan is punished, the vineyard is sung.

The pleasant vineyard is still the church. Both readings hold: in that day, sing.

Wesley: I keep it—I will protect my church from all her enemies, and supply her with all necessary provisions. Both agree: keeper; water every moment; night and day.

The keep is true and constant. Vineyard: he already names the keeping.

Calvin: I Jehovah keep it. Here the Lord asserts his care and diligence in dressing and guarding this vineyard. I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. The contrast with the neglected vineyard of chapter 5 is mercy, not a change in his nature.

Night-and-day keeping is still his. Agreed: I water it every moment.

Wesley (on v. 5): if at any time fury seem to be in me against my people, let him take hold. No wrath; thorns and briers would be burned.

“I should find briers and thorns, I” is toward the vineyard, not a denial that he judges Leviathan.

Calvin: fury is not in me. This verse contains excellent consolation; he expresses the incredible forbearance of God toward the Church. Who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them and I would burn them together. Thorns that attack the vineyard are not the vine; he would rather they took hold of peace in v. 5.

No fury is still toward his own. Thorns burned.

Wesley: Or—or if at any time fury seem to be in me against my people. Let him—my people. Take hold—which he may by humble prayer not only restrain from doing him hurt, but engage to do him good. Both hear: lay hold of my protection; make peace, make peace.

They might yet take hold. Humble prayer is the hold.

Calvin: will she take hold of my strength? The particle is frequently disjunctive: or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. The doubled peace matches 26:3. Enemies or straying branches may yet seize protection instead of becoming fuel.

Doubled peace is still offered. Both see: lay hold; make peace.

Wesley: Take root—to be firmly settled in their possessions. Fruit—their posterity shall seek habitations in other countries, and replenish them with people. But this seems to be understood of the spiritual seed of Jacob. Jacob rooted; Israel filling the world with fruit.

Jacob’s blossoming points to a spiritual seed and gospel fruit.

Calvin: afterwards shall Jacob put forth roots. He now gives actual proof of that love of the vineyard. Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the surface of the world with fruit. Roots first, then a world-filling fruit: the church’s increase.

Take root, blossom, fill.

Wesley: Hath he—he hath not dealt so severely with his people, as he hath dealt with their enemies, whom he hath utterly destroyed. Of them—of those who were slain by God on the behalf of Israel. Agreed on both sides: not struck as the strikers were struck.

Measure for the vine, destruction for Leviathan.

Calvin: hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? He confirms the former statement, and shews that even in chastisements God makes a distinction. He does not deal with the Church as with enemies. Those who struck Israel are slain as enemies; Israel is struck as a son.

The unequal stroke is still mercy. Not as their slayers were slain.

Wesley: In measure—with moderation. When—when the vine shooteth forth its luxuriant branches, he cuts them off, but so as not to destroy the vine. Contend—God is said to contend with men, when he executes his judgments upon them, Amos vii, 4. Stayeth—he mitigates the severity of the judgment. In the day—in the time when he sends forth his east-wind; which he mentions because that wind in those parts was most violent and most hurtful. Measure; exile; east wind.

Exile under the east wind—Assyria’s breath—not a twenty-first-century deportation. The vine is cut, not rooted up.

Calvin: in measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. This is the second proof of the divine compassion toward all the elect. He debates in measure; even the east wind is stayed so the vine is not destroyed. Exile is contention, not annihilation.

Both traditions agree that God contends with his people in measure.

Wesley: By this—by this manner of God’s dealing with them. When—which sin of Jacob’s shall be purged, when he shall truly repent of all his sins, and especially of his idolatry. Altar—their idolatrous altars. Possibly he may say the altar, with respect to that particular altar, which Ahaz had set upon the place of God’s own altar; and this prophecy might be delivered in Ahaz’s time, while that altar stood. Chalk-stones—when he shall break all those goodly altars in pieces. Not stand—shall be thrown down with contempt. Neither side disputes this: guilt atoned; altar-stones like chalk; Asherim gone.

They might yet repent and smash Ahaz’s altar. Fruit of removed sin is smashed images.

Calvin: therefore in this manner shall the iniquity of Jacob be expiated; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. After speaking of measured strokes, he shews the fruit: idolatry crushed. The altar-stones become chalk; Asherim do not remain. Expiation here is the purging of that guilt by repentance under the rod, the same vineyard kept.

Common to both: guilt atoned by this; no incense altars standing.

Wesley: Yet—yet before this glorious promise be fulfilled, a dreadful and desolating judgment shall come. The city—Jerusalem and the rest of the defensed cities in the land. The habitation—the most inhabited and populous places. The calf—this is put for all sorts of cattle, which may securely feed there, because there shall be no men left to disturb them. No dispute here: fortified city solitary; calf grazes.

Desolation before the rooting of v. 6.

Calvin: yet the defenced city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof. Before the world-filling fruit, the fenced city lies empty. The calf in the streets is the same sign as Aroer’s flocks in 17:2: men gone, pasture left.

Both affirm: deserted habitation; calf strips branches.

Wesley: Broken—that there may be no hopes of their recovery. Women—he mentions women, because the men would be destroyed. Not understanding—they know not the things which concerns their peace, but they blindly and wilfully go on in sin. Therefore—thus he overthrows their conceit that God would never destroy the work of his own hands. Dry boughs for fire; a people without discernment; maker without compassion on that obstinacy.

Wesley calls them a people who “blindly and wilfully go on in sin.” The Maker’s refusal to pity is not arbitrary; it answers a people who had refused to understand.

Calvin: when the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for it is a people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will shew them no favour. Withered boughs feed the fire. No understanding: they know not their peace. He overthrows the conceit that the Maker will never destroy what he formed, when they refuse the peace of v. 5.

Without discernment; women burning boughs.

Wesley: Beat out—it is a metaphor from grain which was beaten out with a rod or staff, and then carefully gathered and laid up. From—from Euphrates to the Nile, which were the two borders of the land of promise. All the Israelites who are left in the land. One by one—which signifies, God’s exact care of them. Where they meet: thresh from the River to Egypt; gleaned one by one.

Exact care of Israel between those two streams, not a twenty-first-century border. The rod that beats also gathers.

Calvin: and it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. He confirms the former statement of God’s mercy. The metaphor is grain beaten out and carefully gathered. From the Euphrates to the Nile: the old bounds. One by one: so great will be the care that not one of the remnant is missed.

The LORD threshes and gathers the people of Israel one by one.

Wesley: Trumpet—God shall summon them altogether by sound of trumpet, by an eminent call of his providence. He alludes to the custom of calling the Israelites together with trumpets. Neither side disputes this: a great trumpet; lost in Assyria, driven to Egypt, worship on the holy mountain.

Scatter to Assyria and Egypt, then worship at Jerusalem. Gospel call. Wesley and Calvin share the gathering to Zion’s mountain.

Calvin: and it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. This is the explanation of the former verse. He speaks metaphorically of a trumpet, as soldiers are gathered; so great will be the power of God that he will gather his people. Lost in Assyria, driven to Egypt: the same two lands that framed the highway of 19:23 now give back worshipers to Zion.

The vineyard is kept; Leviathan does not get the last word.