Two Things You Can Expect from the Lord – Isaiah 26:20-27:13
26 (20) Come, my people, enter into your rooms and shut the doors behind you. Hide yourselves for a little while, until his indignation has passed over. (21) Look! Jehovah is coming out of his dwelling place in order to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth shall uncover the blood it has absorbed, and shall no longer conceal its slain.
27 On that day Jehovah with his fierce and great and mighty sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the coiled serpent. Jehovah will slay the monster that is in the sea. (2) On that day there shall be a vineyard that produces wine—sing about it! (3) I, Jehovah, am its caretaker; I will water it continually. I will guard it day and night so that no one can harm it. (4) I am not angry. I wish that the briers and thorns would confront me in battle! I would march against them; I would burn them all up. (5) If they will not confront me in battle, then let them come to me for refuge. Let them make peace with me; yes, let them make peace with me! (6) In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall bud and blossom; and they will fill the whole world with fruit.
(7) Has Jehovah struck them the way he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain to the same extent that those whom they slew have been slaughtered? (8) With carefully measured blows you drive them away, and so you contend with them—with his fierce blast he drives them out, like a day when the east wind blows. (9) Therefore, by these measures shall the iniquity of Jacob be removed and this shall be the abundant fruit when his sin is taken away, namely, he will make all the stones of the altar to become like chalk stones that have been crushed to pieces. No Asherah poles or sun images will be left standing. (10) The once fortified city now stands empty, a dwelling place that is now desolate and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calves will graze there; they will lie down there and feed on its branches. (11) When its limbs become dry, they will be broken off; women will come and use them for firewood. This will be their fate because they are a people who have no understanding. Therefore, he who made them will have no compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor. (12) On that day Jehovah will do his threshing from the overflowing Euphrates River to the Wadi of Egypt; and you, O children of Israel, shall be gathered up one by one. (13) On that day a great trumpet will sound. Those who were about to perish in Assyria and those who were exiles in the land of Egypt shall come and shall worship Jehovah in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.
Now proceed to the next section of this study, entitled, Exploring the Passage.
