The Hope of Restoration

Isaiah 27:2-13 

2 In that day sing to her,
"A vineyard of red wine!
3 I, the LORD, keep it,
I water it every moment;
Lest any hurt it,
I keep it night and day.

4 Fury is not in Me.
Who would set briers and thorns
Against Me in battle?
I would go through them,
I would burn them together.
5 Or let him take hold of My strength,
That he may make peace with Me;
And he shall make peace with Me."

6 Those who come He shall cause to take root in Jacob;
Israel shall blossom and bud,
And fill the face of the world with fruit.

7 Has He struck Israel as He struck those who struck him?
Or has He been slain according to the slaughter of those who were slain by Him?
8 In measure, by sending it away,
You contended with it.
He removes it by His rough wind
In the day of the east wind.

9 Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be covered;
And this is all the fruit of taking away his sin:
When he makes all the stones of the altar
Like chalkstones that are beaten to dust,
Wooden images and incense altars shall not stand.

10 Yet the fortified city will be desolate,
The habitation forsaken and left like a wilderness;
There the calf will feed, and there it will lie down
And consume its branches.

11 When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off;
The women come and set them on fire.
For it is a people of no understanding;
Therefore He who made them will not have mercy on them,
And He who formed them will show them no favor.

12 And it shall come to pass in that day
That the LORD will thresh,
From the channel of the River to the Brook of Egypt;
And you will be gathered one by one,
O you children of Israel.

13 So it shall be in that day:
The great trumpet will be blown;
They will come, who are about to perish in the land of Assyria,
And they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt,
And shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem.

The restoration of the people of the LORD is spoken of here. God kept His people even through their failure of unfaithfulness, watering and protecting them as a vineyard for His refined wine over time.  He likewise keeps us in Christ to persevere to the end as His people also, natively or grafted in (Romans 11:17).  He is the true vine and we are the branches to hear much fruit even though we also stumble and fail as sinners redeemed by grace in His righteousness.  We also then hold onto His strength in our weakness (Romans 8:26, Hebrews 4:15, 2 Corinthians 12:10) and have peace with God through the sacrificial blood shedding of the Messiah Jesus.  Our root is in Jacob called Israel and not outside of that spiritual lineage in Christ.  Just as other nations were accepted into Israel took root there, we also do to hear fruit and fill the earth as we multiply according to His word to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob through all nations.  The Lord continues to protect His chosen people who now include the promised ones from other nations who have been and are still being grafted in.  Jacob’s sin was covered as they crushed false gods and their idols and incense of false worship.  Their sin was covered and they were justified just as all are in the covering of Christ’s blood of His sacrifice once made for all He calls.  We can all take comfort and hope in this.  Contrariwise, the enemies who refuse the Lord and His people will eventually be defeated and desolate as were the cities of old because of a lack of understanding with deaf ears and blinded eyes and hard hearts.  There is no mercy or grace for those rejecting Him.  This is a difficult truth to take in as He threshes out the grain and burns the chaff (Luke 3:17).  There is no limit to the final judgment; only those trusting His word, living and written, will find joy at the final trumpet when the dead are raised (1 Corinthians 15:52, 1 Thessalonians 4:16) to join Him.  We who are outcasts of the world will then all worship together as one in the New Jerusalem come down out of heaven where God will finally live with us forever!  Such is the hope of the restoration of God’s people in Christ.