Isa 27:7-13 By This Shall The Iniquity of Jacob Be Purged - Discussion

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Isa 27: 7-13 By This Shall The Iniquity of Jacob Be Purged

Isa 27:7  Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?
Isa 27:8  In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
Isa 27:9  By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; 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.
Isa 27:10  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.
Isa 27:11  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.
Isa 27:12  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.
Isa 27:13  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.

Notice the change in tone from last week's very positive and upbeat words toward the Lord's elect. Why the sudden change in tone from:

Isa 27:2  In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.
Isa 27:3  I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.

To:

Isa 27:7  Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

When we accept the revealed knowledge that all in Adam will be made alive, and that all mankind must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, then we will have no problem understanding why the tone of the scriptures change when the discussion goes from the Lord's work with our new man, and the blessings of that fiery work, to His fiery work in our old man where He speaks only in terms of the destruction and judgment of the kingdom of our old man. This dichotomy pervades all scripture, and it baffles and confuses the carnal mind, while at the same time shining like a bright light upon the hidden truths being revealed to our new spiritually minded man, as we are clearly told in:

1Co 2:4  And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
1Co 2:5  That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
1Co 2:6  Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect [mature]: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
1Co 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
1Co 2:8  Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1Co 2:9  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
1Co 2:10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

Our old man is "the princes of this world", who are simply us in our first stage of the work He is working within us. The new man is the same person but in another form and with another mind, a new and better spiritual mind, hoping for a new and much superior spiritual form.

Rom 8:24  For we are saved [G4982, sozo {G5681, Aorist}] by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

It is of this saving process that the Lord poses these questions:

Isa 27:7  Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him?

The first question is:  Has the Lord smitten His elect in the same manner in which He has smitten those who have "touched the apple of His eye"? The second question is:  Are the Lord's elect slain to the same extent as those the Lord has slain for touching and persecuting His elect? What do the scriptures teach us of the Lord's protection of His elect, His Israel (Gal 6:15-16)?

1Ch 16:21  He suffered no man to do them wrong: yea, he reproved kings for their sakes,
1Ch 16:22  Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.

Posing this question in another way we could ask, "Does our new man suffer the loss our old man must suffer?"

Here is the Lord's answer to His own questions here in Isa 27:7:

Isa 57:15  For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Isa 57:16  For I will not contend for ever, neither will I be always wroth: for the spirit should fail before me, and the souls which I have made.
Isa 57:17  For the iniquity of his covetousness was I wroth, and smote him: I hid me, and was wroth, and he went on frowardly in the way of his heart.
Isa 57:18  I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him also, and restore comforts unto him and to his mourners.
Isa 57:19  I create the fruit of the lips; Peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near, saith the LORD; and I will heal him.

"I have seen his ways, and will heal him: I will lead him... and restore comforts unto him..." is telling us that anyone who is of a humble spirit and of a contrite heart was not born that way. To get to a humble and contrite spirit, we first must be 'healed' of our carnal pride, and we must be cleansed of that pride and be led of "the [humble, contrite] mind of the spirit".

Rom 8:27  And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

We are all born spiritually blind and of a proud, rebellious, carnal mind, which must begin to be crushed to death and burned out of us before we become humble of spirit and of a contrite heart. The process of bringing us to that point requires "much tribulation" and many "fiery trials... dying daily [and being] crucified with Christ", by all of which the Lord is destroying the kingdom of our "old man" while simultaneously bringing forth a far more glorious "new man" who is humble of spirit and of a contrite heart, with whom the Lord will entrust His words and His spirit, as we are told:

Isa 66:2  For all those things hath mine hand made, and all those things have been, saith the LORD: but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word.

"This man", the one to whom the Lord will look, is the subject of the questions posed in:

Isa 27:7  Hath he [the Lord] smitten him [our new man], as he [the Lord] smote those that smote him [our new man]? or is he [our new man] slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him [the Lord]?

The answer is, "Definitely not!" Our new man is not 'plan B'. Our new man is not being made to  be destroyed. Our old man is not 'plan B' either,  but he was made "marred" for the specific purpose of being destroyed:

Jer 18:4  And the vessel that he made of clay was marred [H7843: shachath - destroyed] in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it.

Both our old man and our new man had, have, and will have their own predestined place in the work of "the Potter", Who is our Lord. However, our first "old man" was created in a ruined condition and of a corruptible "earthy" composition for the express purpose of being deceived and needing to be destroyed.

Joh 12:24 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.

Rom 6:6  Knowing this, that our old man is [being] crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

It is the flesh, the old man, whom the Lord uses to smite us and to destroy our old man, but through the process of the death and destruction of our old man, a new man is being created. He is coming forth out of the death and destruction of our old man's kingdom and into the glorious light of the sons of God.

Rom 8:20 For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
Rom 8:21 Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.
Rom 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Rom 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

Php 3:21  Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.

Replacing the physical realm with the spiritual realm was all planned by our heavenly Father before He had even created Christ, who we are told is "the beginning of the creation of God":

Rev 3:14  And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God;

This is all explicitly so stated in:

Eph 1:3  Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
Eph 1:4  According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Eph 1:5  Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will,
Eph 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Eph 1:7  In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Eph 1:8  Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence;
Eph 1:9  Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself:
Eph 1:10  That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him:
Eph 1:11  In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

The spirit goes on to explain that we are merely the first to trust in Christ as He carries out His work of "gathering together in one all things in Christ":

Eph 1:12  That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.

Those "who first trust in Christ" are even called His "firstfruits", and we are told they will be the first to be raised up from among the dead to become the instruments of the Lord to bring all the rest of mankind into the Christ. This is the goal of the universe and it is laid out for us in:

Col 1:16  For by him [Christ] were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18  And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19  For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;
Col 1:20  And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven.

"All things [are] reconciled to [God]; by [Christ], but that is "speaking of things that are not as though they were" (Rom 4:17). The fact is, as the spirit goes on to explain, even the firstfruits of God and of the Lamb must first endure fiery trials and much tribulation and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ.

Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:
Col 1:23  If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;
Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body's sake, which is the church:

Act 14:22  Confirming the souls of the disciples, and exhorting them to continue in the faith, and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God.

1Pe 4:12  Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
1Pe 4:13  But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.

We do not come to God as purified mature spiritual adults. Rather it is through "the afflictions of Christ in my body" that we experience the same fiery words of God, which condemn everything for which the kingdom of our old man stands.

That is the meaning of our next verse. The Lord deals with all the wood, hay and stubble within us (1Co 3:12-16) as we are able to bear that surgery and the dying of the self-centered, God-condemning, rebellious, carnal mind within each of us.

Isa 27:8  In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind.
Isa 27:9  By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; 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.

It was "the east wind" which brought seven years of famine on Egypt in the days of Joseph, and it was the east wind that brought the locusts which devoured Egypt in the days of Moses:

Gen 41:27  And the seven thin and ill favoured kine that came up after them are seven years; and the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.

Exo 10:13  And Moses stretched forth his rod over the land of Egypt, and the LORD brought an east wind upon the land all that day, and all that night; and when it was morning, the east wind brought the locusts.

Clearly 'the east wind' brings God's judgments upon the kingdom of our old man as He grinds us to powder. Here now is the message of "stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder" in the New Testament:

Mat 21:44  And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

Once again, we must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God (Mat 4:4). Being broken and ground to powder therefore are not mutually exclusive. We are first broken, and then we are ground to powder:

Lev 2:1  And when any will offer a meat offering unto the LORD, his offering shall be of fine [ground] flour; and he shall pour oil upon it, and put frankincense thereon:

Then it must go through the fire:

Lev 2:4  And when thou offer an oblation of a meal-offering baked in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil.
Lev 2:5  And if thy oblation be a meal-offering of the baking-pan, it shall be of fine flour unleavened, mingled with oil.

The Lord is in the process of grinding us into "fine flour". He will not have an offering of lumpy inconsistent flour. It will all be finely ground and mixed with the 'oil' of His spirit, baked in the oven of "fiery trials" (1Pe 4:12), or it will not be brought into His temple.

Here again is this same message in the New Testament:

1Co 3:11  For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
1Co 3:12  Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

"Every man" has first been guilty of building upon the foundation of Christ with wood, hay and stubble, because we are told of the Lord's elect:

Col 1:21  And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
Col 1:22  In the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight:

Now we come to the part so very few understand in this permissive world. The fact is that being reconciled does not exclude justice and judgment. Those two works of God are not mutually exclusive. The fact is that reconciliation is the fruit of justice and judgment, because as we learned in chapter 26:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

When we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, and the desolation of the cities of the kingdom of our old man pictures what must be destroyed "in that day":

Isa 27:10  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.
Isa 27:11  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.

That these words are for us cannot be denied because we are told:

Isa 63:17  O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

The boughs of the defensed city are set on fire by those who have the words of God. They are burned up, and that city suffers loss because they "have no understanding" of the Truths coming from the mouth of the True Shepherd, and the Lord will have no mercy on the doctrines of the kingdom of our old man. Nevertheless, "[we ourselves] shall be saved, yet so as by fire":

1Co 3:13  Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
1Co 3:14  If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
1Co 3:15  If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

That is how this 27th chapter of Isaiah ends:

Isa 27:12  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.
Isa 27:13  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.

Once again we see the phrase "in that day" in both of these verses. This is speaking of the day of judgment in every generation of mankind.

The words "beat out" are translated from:

H2251
חבט
châbaṭ

And this is how it is variously translated:

beat, 2
Rth_2:17, Isa_27:12
beaten, 1
Isa_28:27
beatest, 1
Deu_24:20
threshed, 1
Jdg_6:11

Ruth "beat out" the grain she had gleaned from the fields of Boaz, and Gideon threshed grain by the wine press to hide it from the Midianites. So when we read:

"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," what we are being told is that the Lord will thresh and judge His people from the Euphrates to the River of Egypt. It is just another way of saying "from Dan to Beersheba" meaning the whole of Israel.

It is when the Lord does all of this, when the Lord's judgments are in the earth that all of mankind will "be gathered one by one", and all mankind will learn righteousness, and it is only "judgment is upon the house of God" (1Pe 4:17) that we will be saved from the condemnation of the lake of fire at the white throne judgment, which immediately follows the rebellion of all flesh against Christ and His Christ, which rebellion follows the thousand-year reign of Christ and His Christ over the kingdoms of this world:

Isa 26:8  Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O LORD, have we waited for thee; the desire of our soul is to thy name, and to the remembrance of thee.
Isa 26:9  With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

1Co 11:32  But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.

1Pe 4:17  For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Rev 20:11  And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them.
Rev 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.
Rev 20:13  And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works.

This concludes our studies in Isaiah 27. In the next chapter, we will learn the principle of handling the Word of God just as the Old Testament prophets and the New Testament writers handle it, line upon line and precept upon precept. We will also see that Christ was prophesied to be a stone of stumbling to His own people.

The first eight verses will be yet another demonstration of this dichotomy between how the Lord speaks of our old man and our new man, which we see throughout scripture. As always our new man appears only "in that day [when] judgment begins at the house of God":

Here are the verses for our next study:

Isa 28:1  Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which are on the head of the fat valleys of them that are overcome with wine!
Isa 28:2  Behold, the Lord hath a mighty and strong one, which as a tempest of hail and a destroying storm, as a flood of mighty waters overflowing, shall cast down to the earth with the hand.
Isa 28:3  The crown of pride, the drunkards of Ephraim, shall be trodden under feet:
Isa 28:4  And the glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fat valley, shall be a fading flower, and as the hasty fruit before the summer; which when he that looketh upon it seeth, while it is yet in his hand he eateth it up.
Isa 28:5  In that day shall the LORD of hosts be for a crown of glory, and for a diadem of beauty, unto the residue of his people,
Isa 28:6  And for a spirit of judgment to him that sitteth in judgment, and for strength to them that turn the battle to the gate.
Isa 28:7  But they also have erred through wine, and through strong drink are out of the way; the priest and the prophet have erred through strong drink, they are swallowed up of wine, they are out of the way through strong drink; they err in vision, they stumble in judgment.
Isa 28:8  For all tables are full of vomit and filthiness, so that there is no place clean.