ISAIAH - Chapter 27 - the Lord's Sword
ISAIAH 27- The Lord’s Sword
Tuesday, February 25, 2014, the Year of Our Lord
Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Through power of the Lord’s sword, we see the punishment of Israel’s enemies and the triumph of the Kingdom of God.
Bet Amante published a poem yesterday, “The Two Edged Sword”. See below.
God’s sword is strong, unbreakable, grievous, hard, long, mighty, invincible, unmerciful, and far reaching. It is pictured here as “Sore”, “Great” and “Strong” (three adjectives for three enemies of Israel).
“In that day the Lord with his sore, and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.
Three great aquatic animals are here mentioned: probably referring to Israel’s three great enemies---Assyria and with Nineveh, on the Tigris; Babylon on the Euphrates; and Egypt on the Nile; with satan himself behind them all, as their great instigator:
- The piercing serpent (“fleeing or fugitive” –like the Tigris)
- Leviathan the crooked serpent (tortuous” – like the winding Euphrates)
- The dragon (the crocodile of the Nile) that is in the sea.
This implies a triple judgment upon the supernatural powers of darkness, with clear reference to the beast, the false prophet, and Satan (Rev. 19:20; 20: 1-3).
Leviathan is the well-known mythological serpent Lotan, known from extra-biblical literature which has seven heads (source Wikipedia). (Rev. 12:3) “And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.”
LEVIATHAN;(Job 41) satan; antichrist (son of satan); the lie; kingdom of darkness; unrighteousness; death; king over the children of pride (41:34); wild (41:1); Destructive (41:19); ( specifics: scales, neesings, eyes, mouth, nostrils, breath, neck, flesh heart). Mouth spews out death (41:19); strength in his neck (41:22); Covered with scales and flakes of flesh; heart of stone (41:24); Sons of perdition; creeping thing; His fraud (41:1-22); His Features (41: 13-24); His fearlessness (41: 25-34).
I feel this king of pride is the spirit oppressing not only Israel, but our national government and is responsible for the “seething pot of caldron” and “chaos”. Job 41:34: “He beholds all high things; he is a king over all the children of pride.
The evil dragon is also described in Job 41: 19-21: “Out of his mouth go burning lamps, and sparks of fire leap out. Out of his nostrils goes smoke and out of a seething pot or caldron, his breath kindles coals, and a flame goes out of his mouth.”
Rev. 13 “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea (mass of humanity), having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority. And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed; and the entire world wondered after the beast. And they worshipped the dragon which gave power unto the beast; and they worshipped the beast, saying who is like unto the beast? Who is able to make war with him? And there was given unto him a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies; and power was given unto him to continue forty and two month.
11 Thess. 2: 4-12 describes the time of the revealing of all who oppose and exalt themselves (King of pride) above all that is called God, or that is worshiped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God…for the mystery of iniquity does already work; only he who now lets will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Even him who’s coming is after the working of satan with all power and signs and lying wonder; ad with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.”
Job 40:19: The sword of the Lord is identified with Behemoth (see sermon notes – Behemoth vs. Leviathan). Eph. 6:17: “and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.” Heb. 4:12: “For the word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
Just as Pharaoh was the god and king of Egypt. Pharaoh, like satan is called “the great dragon.” (Ez. 29:3) As this is figurative of the natural or carnal mind (a worldly mind); this gives us some insight to the metaphorical dragon of scripture.
Ez. 29:2-5: Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt: Speak, and say, thus says the Lord God; ‘Behold I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lies in the midst of his rivers, which has said, My river is my own, and I have it for myself. But I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will cause the fish of your rivers to stick unto your scales, and I will bring you up out of the midst of your rivers; you shall fall upon the open fields; you shall not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given you for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heavens.”
It is the Lord’s Sword that will bring the judgment by the Lord Himself.
Rev. 19: 11-21: And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he does judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called, THE WORD OF GOD. AND OUT OF HIS MOUTH GOES A SHARP SWORD, THAT WITH IT HE SHOULD SMITE THE NATIONS…”
The next oracle in Isaiah 27 is the good news. We note God’s care for His vineyard manifested in the protection and establishment of His people.
Isa 27:2-5: “In that day sing to her, a Vineyard of red wine. I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; less any hurt it. I will keep it night and day. Fury is not in Me; who would set the briers and thorns against Me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together. Or let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; and He shall make peace with Me.”
In Isaiah 5:1-7, Isaiah sang the funeral dirge of God’s vineyard. Here it is a joy-song of the Vineyard coming to life again! We can see Christianity in power coming forth out of Judaism, as well as the restoration taking place in the earth. The way to restoration is the way of judgment. The first issue of this will be the restoring of the vineyard. It is kept by Him, and watered every moment. The plant of His choice shall fill the face of the world with fruit!
Isa. 27: 5-8: “He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root; Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit. Has 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? In measure, when it shoots forth, You will debate with it; He stays His rough wind the day of the east wind.”
I have shared often with you my vision of the Holy Wind of God that touched every corner of my life and when it was all over, the only things left standing was that which was of God. The open-eye vision of the Holy Wind came in through a South/east window of my home in Baton Rouge. The East Wind (Euroclydon) is symbolic of the operation of God’s spirit in trials, tribulations, and testing. It is the wind of the wilderness. This violent desert wind scorched the grain, brought the locusts, withered the vine, parched the fruit, and dried up the springs of water.
Every house---life, family, ministry, or nation---is tested by the wind of the Spirit (Lk. 6: 46-49). Each of us must face our own personal “Euroclydon” and be brought to the end of mere human wisdom and strength (Acts 27: 14-15). This “great wind from the wilderness” smote Job’s house (Job 1:19). The east wind will break us, but it will also deliver us (Ps. 48:7; Ezek. 27:26). In my vision, the Holiness was beautiful beyond comparison. As with ancient Israel, when our backs are against the wall in rough times, the Lord will make a way through the waters. The prophet Jonah learned that God will deal with comfort zones and biased attitudes by the power of the east wind (Jon. 4:8).
Throughout the Scriptures, the moving of the spirit of God is pictured as wind on water (Gen. 1:2). Jesus walked on the stormy waters, having overcome all things, passing every test. Jesus commanded the winds and the water, and they obeyed Him (Lk. 8: 22-25).
Here in Isa. 27, we hear the promise that the Lord will stay His rough wind in the day of the east wind. As one who has experienced this, my cry to the Lord for myself, my family and each person in our church is “O Lord according to your word deal with us in mercy, “even the sure mercies of David.”
Isa. 27: 7-9: (From the Message Bible) “Has God knocked them to the ground as he knocked down those who hit them? Oh no. Were they killed as their killers were killed? Again, no. He was hard on them all right. The exile was a harsh sentence. He blew them away on a fierce blast of wind. But the good news is that through this experience Jacob’s guilt was taken away. the evidence that his sins is removed will be this: He will tear down the alien altars, take them apart stone by stone and then crush the stones into gravel. No Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing.”
God tends His vineyard with every care, and pleads with His people to respond to Him. God’s severe affliction is not so much a punishment as with purpose---the end of idolatry. God’s punishment of His enemies in verses 10-11 is recognizable of a different order from His disciplining of His own people.
10-11: “The fortified city stands desolate, as abandoned settlement, forsaken like the desert; there the calves graze, there they lie down; they strip its branches bare. When its twigs are dry, they are broken off and women come and make fires with them. For this is a people without understanding; so their Maker has no compassion on them; and their Creator shows them no favor.”
The last note is one of hope. The broken and scattered people are to be brought back at the sound of the trumpet, and are to realize their highest vocation, which is to worship the Lord in the heights of Zion at Jerusalem.
12-13: “It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall beat off from the channel of the river to the stream of Egypt, and you shall be gathered one by one, O you children of Israel. 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.”
Here Isaiah uses two different metaphors predicting the return of the land of Palestine of those who had gone to Assyria as deportees and to Egypt as refuges when the northern kingdom fell in 722 B.C. However, I believe a dualistic interpretation pre-figures the glory of the Gospel Church with the theme of the purified, unified and glorified worship of God, centered on Mount Zion.
Zion is known, not traced out with a boundary. Zion is a place of being in God. Zion is the Most Holy Place. Heb. 12;22-24: “You have come to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect.”
Taught by: Pastor Carolyn Sissom
Scripture from K.J.V. and the Message Bible, as indicated. I quoted from sermon notes of Pastor Carolyn Sissom, “Lotan (leviathan), posted on www.eastgateministries.com April 2010 (Bible Studies). To go deeper, see Bible Teaching of Behemoth vs Leviathan, www.eastgateministries.com. I entered into the labors of F. F. Bruce Bible Commentary and Principles of Present Truth by Kelly Varner. Comments and conclusions are my own and not meant to reflect the views of those who I enter into their labors.
The Two Edged Sword
By: Bet Amante
The two-edged sword they could not wield
‘Twas for them but excess weight
They had no use for blade nor shield
Alas, until it was too late
Fierce was the enemy and wise
In battle strategy and plan
Wolves were they in sheep’s disguise
By nature, enemies of man
Divide and conquer whispered they
Beneath their cold and lifeless breath
We shall divide the saints today
And scatter them with words of death
Quietly the ravening wolves did creep
Into the pews of the congregation
Who neither shield nor weapons keep
Nor helmets of salvation
Demonic doctrines they did weave
Strongholds of doubt and fear
Twisting scriptures to deceive
Unsuspecting eyes and ears
Undone by sudden loss of sight
They had no strength to stand
Blind were they without the light
Snared by the enemy’s cunning hand
The war is over, don’t you see?
You cannot hope to win
Forget your plans of victory
You are all slaves to your sin
You are but fodder for hell’s flames
And we shall surely pierce your hearts
Because you bear no shield of faith
You shall not quench our fiery darts
Then came forth a mighty sound
A the Lion of Judah roared
And He put the enemy to flight
With his mighty two edged sword
Then said He to the captives freed,
"You are loosed from the bondage of fear
The enemy shall not succeed
And He bid them all draw near
“Long have I waited patiently
For you, dear saints , to realize
The power of My word, said he
To put to naught the serpent’s lies
The shield of faith you have refused
Your robes are stained with pride and torn
The sword of the Spirit you have not used
.Salvation’s helmet you’ve not worn
Will you not take the gifts I give
To overcome the world at length
To die to self that you might live
By faith and supernatural strength
I tell you dear ones if you reject
That which I offer you today
I can neither shelter nor protect
Those who choose another way.
I shall leave you now to make the choice
Your decision determines you fate
But those who choose to hear my voice
True victory shall celebrate
I stood and watched some walk away
And cried for their terrible loss
Wolves disguised as sheep were they.
Despising the way of the cross