Promise of a Fruit Filled World • 06.30.24

Jack Flaherty   -   July 2, 2024

Promise of a Fruit-Filled World

Isaiah 27

Two responses for God’s people to the promises of ‘that day’

1. Repent in the present
2. Abide until the Advent

Good morning! My name is Jack Flaherty and I am blessed to serve as one of the pastors here and I am excited open up God’s Word this morning. Today as we warp up Missions Month I would encourage you to keep praying for our missionaries! If you want to know more please talk to a Pastor, visit our Missions page on our church website, or connect with the Missions team by emailing missions@harvestdesmoines.org. Also, though we have no missionary today we do get to conclude mission’s month by going out for 5^th Sunday! We are thankful for ministry partners locally who are doing good work in the name of Jesus. If you forgot to sign up, you can still participate! I will share how after our final worship song a bit later this morning.

As we get ready to dive into God’s Word, I first want to dismiss 4^th-5^th graders. Second, I would invite you to open up to Isaiah 27. If you need a Bible, the ushers would love to hand you one so you can follow along and see what God has for you. It’s fitting to wrap up mission’s month with Isaiah 27 as this glorious passage speaks of the surety of God reaching the globe! It also provides a fitting conclusion to the section of Isaiah we have been in over the past month.

Look with me at this Overview of Isaiah which some of you may have seen with SG pulpit curriculum. We saw ch13-23 expressing God’s judgement of specific nations, targeting Israel/Judah at the center. Then these last couple weeks ch24-26 hit on the judgement of the whole world. Thus, we’ve seen that even reflected in Pastor Nick’s and Frasier’s last two sermon titles: “Judgement of the Earth” and “World Aflame.” Today ch27 shares a worldwide promise not only of judgement but of redemption. This chapter then fittingly sets up more woes against idolatry in ch28-39 and also reminders of a promised salvation and fruitful future in ch40-66. This theme of God glorified in salvation through judgment ringing throughout these ch12-26 ends on a bit of a higher note in ch27–God will win and God will be worshipped.

Let’s read Isaiah 27.  There are some strong words and several different word pictures here! I want to point out the glorious promise right in the center in v6 “In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.” This is where our title “Promise of a Fruit Filled World” comes from. Couched in promises about God slaying sea dragons and triumphantly gathering worshippers we hear that God’s image bearers will do what he purposed for them to do since all the way back in Genesis 1–fill the world for his glory. This is awesome! Thought nations and corporations want to take over the world, as we read in Isaiah 11 and see again here the Lord is the one who will successfully fill the earth with knowledge of himself and who will make a people for himself from all nations to ends of the earth.

What a promise! This ought to trigger SOMETHING inside of us. In fact, God himself responds by singing and inviting us to sing a song of this pleasant and fruitful vineyard in v2! Indeed this text is not just sit back and enjoy the beauty of this Biblical prophecy but it is a call to action. So today we will see Two responses for God’s people to the promises of ‘that day.’

Before we get into those responses I want to address two things. First, what we does Isaiah mean by ‘that day’? Isaiah is saying though there have been days of judgment they are all point to ‘that day’ in future day when the promised Messiah, who we know to be Jesus Christ of Nazareth, returns from heaven to earth to judge mankind and to redeem his people who have put their trust in his work of atonement for sin through shedding blood and dying on the cross. So when we read and hear ‘that day’ from hereon out think of end of the world.

Secondly before we get into the two responses, I want to flesh out what I am seeing in the structure of this text because how Isaiah organizes this prophetic word, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, helps us identify our responses. Let’s look together at the Structure of Isaiah 27.

V1 YHWH wins — Leviathan is slain w/ great sword

V2-6 YWHW protects and provides for his people to bear fruit

V7-11 YWHW judges and redeems — city vs city

• city of God struck and exiled
• experience atonement and thus destroy idols
• city of world struck and forsaken
• lack discernment and thus no mercy or grace

V12 YHWH threshes and gleans his people one by one

V13 YWHW worshipped — Lost are gathered w/ great trumpet

There are four “in that day” statements which are promises of the LORD producing a bit of a sandwich with two matching bookends to the chapter. First v1 the great sword defeating and v13 the great trumpet gathering. Second, garden/fruit imagery of God’s delicate care v2-6 and then Gods bountiful harvest in v12. Then in the middle v7-11 we see this comparison of the discipline of the LORD on two different groups. Talking with Frasier about his studies last week got me thinking on Saint Augustine who in his very large work City of God says all humanity divides into either city of God OR city of earth. One loves self and glories in self. The other loves God and glorifies God. We see that here and also see that God deals with these cities differently. One was struck and their suffering actually brought repentance and forgiveness! The other was struck and wiped out as they lacked discernment, mercy, and grace!

All of this to say, it seems clear that Isaiah wants the audience to see God’s hand over all they are going through and to trust him. They are to understand that this present reality will result in their good and the that their promised future reality is glory, so respond appropriately now. In the midsts of hardship and discipline God’s people are to draw nearer to him! This is a needed reminder in a world where we are called to reject pain and suffering and discomfort of any kind. But Isaiah essentially says no pain no gain. We get this in theory. I’ve been watching Olympic trials of track and field, swimming, and gymnastics. These people work tirelessly to experience short moment of glory. We applaud them. Not just athletes but we celebrate businesspeople who sacrifice to have career a success. We celebrate those who suffer fighting for what is right and just socially. Examples could continue but suffice to say the glorious results give purpose to their pain. So why would it surprise that this is true of spiritual realities as well? In this text God’s people are reminded not to reject the hard that comes their way, but see it as training ground to draw nearer–to make Him dearer and their dependence sincerer. And ‘that day’ that is approaching will make it all the more worth it! Why endure? Because there is the promise of purpose in present suffering AND a promise of protection on the final day when Satan is defeated and saints gathered to be in the glorious presence of their Creator for eternity.

If you are not one of God’s people here today, I would encourage you to consider the reality of what you look forward to on “that day.” How you respond now impacts your forever. So listen in to what is commended in this passage. If you are one of God’s people, consider these promises and be motivated to respond rightly! Our living now shows that your hope on “that day” is sure. We are going to look at those middle verses first then and back out to the bookends as we consider our responses. I hope that will help us all stay together as we consider the responses of God’s people in light of the promises of “that day.” The first is this…

1. Repent in the present

Lets work through v7-11 a little more closely. First, the question in v7. Isaiah ask a rhetorical question with the assumed answer of “no” comparing the punishment of the Lord experience by two groups. “Them” refers back to Jacob/Israel in v6. Those refers to Assyria. And “he” is God. So it reads, “Has God struck Israel as he struck Assyria who struck Israel? Has Israel been slain as the Assyrians were slain?” No! God struck them differently! And that is what is expressed in v8-11.

In v8-9 regards Jacob/Israel who are God’s people. They have been exiled and removed by the fierce breath of God. This is not a slight thing. This is legit chastisement! The east wind from dessert in the middle east brings disaster like the dust storms in that DUNE movie. But  this punishment is measured. Measure by measure meaning not the full blast it could have been. God showed forbearance instead of wiping Israel out right then and there as he did with Assyria and later Babylon! Grace! Not to mention there is a purpose which we see in v9. This exile leads to atonement and removal of sin! More grace!

But how? Is it by their suffering they are forgiven? They did the time and now they can go free? I don’t think that is the case here. Why? Look at v9. The full fruit, the full blessing, the full evidence of the removal of sin is that they smash all their idols! They take the stones for offerings to strange god’s and don’t just put caution tape up but grind it to dust. They don’t just take these poles and repurpose them like on HGTV but they take them down!  This evidences that it’s not the suffering that atones BUT that they had a complete change of heart! suffering brings them to a place where sin is recognized and confessed so that forgiveness can happen! God will pay for the atoning like we see elsewhere in Isaiah (5:18; 6:7; 26:21; 53:5,12). And the effectiveness of understanding this promised payment is proven when the full fruitage of destroyed idols abound. These external acts signify internal change in heart devotion which can only happen by the Spirit of God.

Which contrasts what happens in v10-11. We are now looking at this fortified city of earth. Could be meant to signify a specific city, but the idea is that any place finding strength apart from God is no match for God, be it in Israel, Assyria, or the USA. This place is left deserted, and animals run the streets. I picture I AM LEGEND with grass and animals…and zombies . The calves eat the leaves clean so nothing for foragers but the sticks for firewood. BUT the problem isn’t fertility its lack of understanding! We see in v11 “FOR this is a people without discernment.” Then this final pairing provides summary of the whole prophecy—disaster has befallen the people because of its failure to see and understand God’s ways.

Unlike those who see their need and turn to God for covering, their lack of understanding leads to lack of repentances and results in no mercy and grace–only judgement. When God show himself to Moses in Exodus 33:19 he says “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious and I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.” This is what that is picking up here. Those who don’t acknowledge their Creator/Potter/Former (Gen 2:7) won’t be acknowledged by him as (Matthew 10:32). Those who lack of discernment forfeit compassion and favor. In fact, you might even say they fail to discern because they weren’t given the mercy and grace to see!

What did Israel do to deserve this pardon, this atonement, this removal of sin? Nothing! This brings us to what Frasier shared last week about the elect and the reprobate. This asymmetrical action God allows one group to continue in the idolatrous path they already chose while mercifully and graciously opening the eyes of the other to see their sin and idolatry and turn from it towards their Maker. They repent, which means change of heart leading to change of actions. The literally turn directions. And what was the mechanism? Exile. Trail. Hardship

I don’t want to be insensitive to anyone who has been or is going through something hard. While all suffering is a result of sin, not all suffering is a direct result of YOUR sin! Take Job as case and point of that. In fact I think Isaiah has similar people in mind. The faithful remnant in Israel who look around like “Hey I’ve not been worshipping idols, I’ve been listening to Isaiah’s preaching and following God, why am I getting exiled?!” No, you may not be going through this as a result of discipline personally, BUT none of us is perfect. Even the most holy among us have idols. So this hardship is nonetheless an opportunity for you to turn to your Creator! To be nearer the one who loves you enough to atone for your sins!

Isaiah could only dream of 700 years later God the Son coming to earth and taking on flesh. He suffered forsakenness and received no mercy or favor on the cross in order that these people looking forward and us people looking back might experience forgiveness of sin! Atonement which is a satisfying payment for the massive debt we owe. So it would seem at a minmum our response should be asking God for discernment. And when more appropriate acknowledging where we have contributed to our own suffering and need to repent right now! That’s the warning and action for us to take right now. To SEE what God is doing in the midst of hardship and turn from our sin and idols towards YHWH the one true God!

In his work The Problem of Pain author CS Lewis says it like this “We can ignore even pleasure. But pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” Why does God let us suffer? At least in part to repent of idols and depend on him! Recently been reading John Owen on sin and temptation and he echoes the same thing. God allows hardship as a grace to actually get to the root of the problem. Not just appease ourselves so the pain goes away but embrace the pain as his means for soul searching and sanctification.

How do you see hard things in life? If currently going through something, let the Word of God, Spirit of God, and Church of God help you to turn to and trust in the Lord! Evaluate the idolatry in your life and give it to the Lord. And even if there are no apparent idols know that mercy and grace comes to those who discern that no suffering is purposeless! God has a purpose in suffering for those who loves! We can trust that! And we can trust that hard experiences like this bitter and savage east wind are traumatic but temporary.  Because there is a day coming that turns the handle and pushes open the door to eternity. If God has given us a new heart evidenced by our turning from objects of empty worship in our lives them we have the glorious hope of the bookends of this chapter awaiting! Which brings us to a second response for God’s people to the promises of “that day.”

2. Abide until the Advent

First, what does abide mean? To live stay or remain. To dwell with. Basically, your action is to stay put and sink down deep. If vegetation doesn’t depict that IDK what does which is why Isaiah goes there in the bookends. Where else does he go? “That Day” or another way to put that is Advent. Advent means arrival. And that’s the other piece we see in these bookends is that the Lord will arrive to deal with the dragon and to gather the grain, that is, his people. So ‘that day’ doesn’t just help us turn from sin for fear of destruction. It also encourages us to look forward with assurance to the future blessings!

Let’s continue looking at these matching bookends in more dept. In v1 we see the hard, great, and strong sword of the Lord punishing Leviathan and slaying the dragon. Some very cool stuff here which some big Bible storyline implications! I am getting a chunk of this info from a book by Andy Naselli titled The Serpent and The Serpent Slayer.

• Serpent terms are used in Isaiah than any other book but Revelation
• Isaiah 27 talks about serpent/dragon only behind Numbers 21 and Revelation 12 and the same amount as Genesis 3
• Revelation 12:9 ultimately tells us that all the snake/dragon imagery is pointing back to Genesis 3 to ID Satan as the deceitful snake. As Bible progresses, he doesn’t just deceive but is a devourer/destroyer.

All that to say this chapter is an important one to the whole Bible picture regarding the return or arrival of the Messiah. Now the use of Leviathan invokes the Canaanite creation myth of a sea monster that Baal the god of weather needs to subdue to bring about dry land. Isaiah steals from the language not because the Bible lacks sufficient words or to give credence to the myth but like Paul in Acts 17 he uses the culture around him to illustrate a point: YHWH is the God of all gods and no myth at all. God not only defeats Satan but all nations animated by he and his dark forces of evil in the heavenly realms. This is an infinitely unfair battle. God crushed this monster with 3x amazing sword! This has been foreshadowed since Genesis 3, is inaugurated in the crucifixion of Jesus, and will be consummated in ‘that day’ as we read in Revelation.

As we move to  v2-6 we see the song sung by Yahweh himself which. The vineyard he has planted and lovingly tended reaches its maturity and its blessings overflow to the whole world. This singing reminds me of what we read in Zeph 3:17 that God is the Mighty Warrior who saves and takes great delight in his people, who no longer rebukes but rejoices over his people with singing. This vineyard has been completed via painful and costly disciplines that have purged it of idolatry. In contrast to the world city, which now lies desolate, the Lord’s vineyard is flourishing. I have a fresh appreciation for this gardener imagery as I spent a few hours this week outside in the heat doing yard work including pulling up hundreds of weeds one by one (yes it was a bit overdue). This is a fragment of a tiny thing compared to the work described of God.

And you may have already picked up on a connection to something. There is a direct comparison of the vineyard here in Isaiah 27 and with the one Isaiah 5 which Pastor Mark preached on earlier this year. Look at this comparison chart of the two chapters.

What a comparison! What tender love and car God offers! And in v4 punishment and discipline will end for God’s people! How? When Jesus became propitiation for our sin. He didn’t just pay the price but bore the wrath of God so that this could be true! Thank you Jesus!

Now again some logic to unpack in v4-5. God says he cares so much for his vineyard which is his people, that he would love to show his zeal for them by burning up the enemies. Somebody try him! Yet that’s not it. He even offers that we would rather his enemies make peace with him! Instead of his “hand stretched out still” as we read in Isaiah 5, and 9, and 10 we see God is ready to make peace with enemies. When he repeats the words, let them make peace with me, yes, let them make peace with me, he is declaring that he desires most willingly and earnestly to blot out all our offenses. This isn’t that we make peace ourselves but God makes peace with us! We ought to be warned if we are always at peace that we’ve never really felt the weight of sin! As I’ve heard it said before, to be at peace with you sin is to be at war with God! Rather we ought to be at war with sin and at peace with God! He offers that to his enemies! If that is you today turn to him!

And this vineyard isn’t just well kept and protected but its productive! We see v6 fruit is nonspecific so could have material, spiritual, political, or other positive impact. This shows the transforming work of God! He took this fruitless vineyard in ch5 and makes it incredible and productive to the world. What was the difference? Not man’s work but God’s loving intervention! He sovereignly allowed and provided for the destruction SO THAT they might result in a fruitful garden! The pruning lead to productivity!

Which brings us to v12-13. Again ‘in that day’ the Lord is the one doing the work. He plants and grows and gleans. From Euphrates to brook of Egypt. Here is a map of modern day middle east which gives us a bit of the idea of geography. This is the entire known world at the time! This boundary is also the land promised to Abraham in Gen 15 and spoken about throughout the OT by the likes of Solomon! Here harvest is patiently gathered ONE BY ONE to the glory of God. Singly is the most careful manner possible! Not to destroy but to refine and find. You cannot avoid the reality of that day. God will evaluate each and every one upon the Second Advent of his Son.

Then v13 the great trumpet. Lots of cool possible OT connections. Calling to battle, calling to assemble people, calling to announce king, but I think most likely it’s bringing to mind the Year of Jubilee from Leviticus 25:8. This was after 49 years of labor there was a year long sabbatical where captives set free and with no harvest prep. Totally dependance on God to supplies all! This trumpet was sounded on most important day of the year for Israel, the Day of Atonement. So essentially this trumpet means a for special event. Signals beginning of new worship opportunity!

And this trumpet is calling people from where? Two places. First as we saw those within the borders of Israel as shown in v12. But second, we now see in v13 calling from all over the world! God will call Jews and Gentiles, those who turn to and abide in him in Him all from all the earth to come worship his holy mountain! This faithful remnant which he worked hard to keep has spread to fill the world and culminates in the great harvest of the last day. Warring peoples are now reconciled and united in the worship of Yahweh on the holy mountain! Praise God!

So what does that have to do with abide? These verses say God does all the work! Our job in the midst of hard time is not to try and fix and figure things out. This isn’t do more work! This is the reality that we can’t! Depend on God to do the work. It’s to turn from sin and abide in the truthful promises of God! In fact that’s why Jesus said he is the vine and we are the branches, abide in me and I you and he it is that will bear much fruit! Yes HE calls us to be faithful to respond to his loving initiative, his caring discipline, his victorious defeating of the enemy, his triumphant blast to calling us home to worship. But its HE who does all the work here! So abiding in him means we get to rest in and trust God for everything!

What’s this look like for us? I think primarily it’s reflected in abiding in our prayer lives. We abide by asking God to help! If we compared screen time to intercession time, if we compared snap chat streaks to prayer streaks, if we looked at how many kids events your children have been to compared to times you prayed together what does that look like? Not just negative of what we lack, but consider the glorious promise of God’s caring provision in the midst of trials as well as the glorious promise of defeating sin and bringing us in when the end of the world comes! Spending time talking to God about that rather than figuring it out on our own does wonders. Like Psalm 131 says we calm and quite our noisy hearts by hoping in the Lord from this day till forevermore.

This reminds us of that part of abiding now is looking to ‘that day.’ We abide by reflecting on God’s promises. If you aren’t in the habit of reading and meditating on the promises of heaven and the warnings of hell, then I would encourage you to do so. Maybe just starting with what we read here in Isaiah 27. It puts in perspective the things we find scary and beautiful now with what God has in store and motivates our obedience today. Jesus defeats Satan and redeems people. Jesus guarantees fruitfulness of vineyard as the vine. Anger and atonement only taken by the propitiation of Jesus (Rom 3:23-25). Jesus alone brings remnant of Israel (Rom 11). Jesus alone gathers from ends of the earth

Which brings me to a final reality that we abide through proclamation.  I think this looks like fruit in our lives right now of sharing about this reality of ‘that day’ just as Isiah is. Yes in ‘that day’ is around the world but it gets there as we obey the Great Commission which Jesus gave in Matthew 28 to make disciples of all nations. God sent his Son to accomplish this defeat of Satan and sin that Isaiah looks forward too. Jesus is the one we can point back to with confidence and boldly share with others their need to repent and trust in him. God so loved the world that he gave his Son so that whoever believers in him may have eternal life. We can bring all of our idols, and suffering, and worries, and trials to him with confidence. Knowing he offers grace and mercy to all who truly seek him. Jesus is coming back! So repent in the present and abide until his second coming. In our waiting and in our ups and downs, trust God and this promise of a fruit fill world.

Let’s pray.