Scripture Daily

Context No. 2097 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 27:6-13: in context

6In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit. 7Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed? 8In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind. 9Therefore by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherah poles and the incense altars shall rise no more. 10For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches. 11When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor. 12It will happen in that day that the LORD will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel. 13It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Amid Isaiah's prophecies comes a promise of gathering. In days to come, Jacob will take root and blossom and fill the world with fruit. And at the end, a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, will come and worship the LORD on his holy mountain. God foresees a day when he gathers his scattered people, even those who were ready to perish and those cast out and lost, bringing them home to worship him.

The hope in this promise is that God gathers the scattered, the perishing, and the outcast. Those Isaiah names are not the secure and the near, but the ones who were ready to perish, lost in Assyria, and the outcasts, driven into Egypt, the scattered and the seemingly lost. And the promise is that a great trumpet will sound and these will be gathered home, brought to worship God on his holy mountain. None of them was too scattered, too far, too lost to be gathered; the trumpet calls them all home. This is a hope for all who feel scattered, lost, or cast out. We can feel ourselves among the perishing and the outcast, far from God, driven away, seemingly beyond gathering. And this promise says that God gathers exactly such people, that the perishing and the outcast are the ones the trumpet calls home, that none is too far or too lost for him to gather. God does not gather only the near and the secure; he gathers the scattered, seeks the outcast, brings home those who seemed ready to perish. And this gathering reaches its fullness in Christ, who came to seek and gather the lost. I have other sheep, Jesus says, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also. He will send out his angels, he says, with a great trumpet, and gather his chosen ones from the four winds. The God of Isaiah's promise is the God who gathers his scattered people, and in Christ he gathers the lost from every place. This comforts the scattered and calls us to hope. If we feel lost, far off, among the perishing and the outcast, this promise assures us that God gathers exactly such, that the trumpet calls the outcast home, that none is beyond his gathering. And it assures us for those we love who seem far off and lost, that God gathers the scattered, that the perishing and the outcast are the ones he brings home. A great trumpet will sound, and those who were ready to perish and those who were outcasts will come and worship the LORD; and the God who gathers the scattered and the lost is gathering still, calling home the perishing and the outcast to himself.

When I feel scattered, lost, or cast out, far from God and seemingly beyond gathering, can Isaiah's promise that a great trumpet will gather even those who were ready to perish and those who were outcasts assure me that God gathers exactly such people, that none is too far or too lost for him to bring home, and can it give me hope both for myself and for those I love who seem far off, that the God who gathers the scattered is gathering still?

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