Chapters of His Heart: Isaiah chapter 27

Hello there. :) It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry about that, it wasn't intentional. Anyways, I'm excited to jump right back in where we left off.
As always you can read Isaiah chapter 27 here, and then come right back so we can talk about it. I'll wait here.

Isaiah is an interesting part of the Bible to read because so much of it can be connected to how we live now. We can pull truth out of prophecies that were meant for people two thousand years ago. Before we dive into the meat of this chapter I want to talk about what's going on in verse 1, it's a bit abstract so I want to separate it from our discussion about the rest of the chapter. The first verse talks about The Lord defeating Leviathan with his mighty sword. There is a lot of controversy over what (or who) "Leviathan" is but to me if you line it up with other scripture there isn't much to debate over. Lets look at what we know. First of all we know that Satan is the enemy of God and in this verse Isaiah portrayed Leviathan as being defeated by God. I don't think God is in the business of going on random harpoon hunts for sea monsters. This is not a meaningless battle. This is the defeat of Satan by God. The second thing that we know from scripture we get from Genesis 3:14-15,

So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."

Satan was cursed to crawl on his belly for the rest of his days, the very definition of a serpent. We also know from scripture that Satan has power, that's evident enough in our world as well. So who's to say that Satan didn't become Leviathan, his own version of a serpent, after the curse. It's not a stretch at all then for us to conclude that the "dragon of the sea" that The Lord will defeat with His sword, is Satan himself. 

All of that, the entire prophesy of Satan's defeat, wrapped up in one verse. 

Now that we got verse one out of the way let's talk about the rest of the chapter. We really see God's heart poured out in these next verses and what a picture of love He paints. I want you to really let the idea of the vineyard being you, God's child, sink in and read those verses again. With that perspective, this is what it looks like to Me.

V2 (paraphrased) I will sing about my precious child. 3 I, her father, watch over her, carefully tending to her needs. Day and night I watch over her so no one can harm her. 4 I am not angry any more. If I find dangerous or harmful things or people in her life I will defend my child from them. I will remove any threat, personally. 5 Let these people come to Me, let them come to Me and I will decide if they belong in my child's life. 6 I know the time is coming when my child will set roots of her own and prosper in her own life. 7 Yes, I have punished her, but never in harshness. Not like I would punish anyone else. She is my own. 8 No, I only discipline her to make her accountable. She had walked to places she didn't belong. 9 My punishment was to bring her back and purify her heart. Because of that she is pure of all sin. She is where she belongs.

Obviously I've taken some creative liberty here, I just want you to see how personal God's word can become. I didn't change any biblical truths or characteristics of God, but the text transforms from an old prophesy about an ancient culture to a very real and new and personal message from God. If we took time to let God's word speak to us, how differently would we face life? Think about it, just by letting this single passage seep into your heart I bet you have a new perspective of God as a father and protector. If we took the whole Bible personally, as it was intended, how would our lives change? Drastically? Definitely. Ask God to let His words come alive to you. When you read the Bible as a personal letter, a connection to God the father, change happens. God's heart becomes real, and your heart is never the same.