Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary
Isaiah 27:4

Clarke's Commentary

Verse Isaiah 27:4. Fury is not in me - "I have no wall"] For חמה chemah, anger, the Septuagint and Syriac read חומה chomah, wall. An ancient MS. has חימה cheimah. For בה bah, in her, two MSS. read בם bam, in them, plural. The vineyard wishes for a wall and a fence of thorns - human strength and protection, (as the Jews were too apt to apply to their powerful neighbours for assistance, and to trust to the shadow of Egypt:) JEHOVAH replies, that this would not avail her, nor defend her against his wrath. He counsels her, therefore, to betake herself to his protection. On which she entreats him to make peace with her.

From the above note it appears that the bishop reads, חומה chomah, wall, for חמה chemah, anger or fury, in accordance with the Syriac and Septuagint. The letter ו vau makes the only difference, which letter is frequently absent from many words where its place is supplied by the point cholem: it might have been so here formerly; and in process of time both vau and cholem might have been lost. The Syriac supports the learned bishop's criticism, as the word [Syriac] shora is there used; which word in the plural is found, Hebrews 11:30: "By faith the walls of Jericho." The bishop thinks the Septuagint is on his side: to me, it seems neither for nor against the criticism. The words in the Vatican copy are εγω πολις οχυρα, I am a fortified city; which the Arabic follows: but instead of οχυρα, the Codex Alexandrinus has ισχυρα, I am a STRONG city.

The word חומה chomah, wall, is not found in any MS. in the collections of Kennicott and De Rossi, nor in any of my own MSS.

However, one of Dr. Kennicott's MSS. has חימה cheimah; but probably that which now appears to be a י yod was formerly a ו vau, and now partially obliterated.

This song receives much light from being collated with that in chap. v.; and perhaps the bishop's criticism will find its best support from such a collation. In Isaiah 5:5 of that chapter, God threatens to take away the wall of his vineyard: this was done; and here the vineyard complains, I have no wall, and wishes for any kind of defense rather than be thus naked. This is the only natural support of the above criticism.

"About Tripoli there are abundance of vineyards and gardens, inclosed, for the most part, with hedges, which chiefly consist of the rhamnus, paliurus, oxyacantha," c. Rawolf, p. 21, 22. A fence of thorns is esteemed equal to a wall for strength, being commonly represented as impenetrable. See Micah 7:4 Hosea 2:6.

Who would set the briers and thorns against me - "O that I had a fence of the thorn and brier"] Seven MSS., (two ancient,) and one edition, with the Syriac, Vulgate, and Aquila, read ושית veshayith, with the conjunction ו vau prefixed: Who would set the briers and thorns. מי יתנני שמיר שית mi yitteneni shamir shayith, Who shall give me the brier and thorn, i.e., for a defense: but hear Kimchi: "Who (the vineyard) hath given me (Jehovah) the brier and the thorn instead of good grapes."

Bridgeway Bible Commentary

Shameful exile and glorious return (27:2-13)

From its beginning, Israel was God’s chosen people. God compares the nation to a beautiful vineyard, which he has cared for and guarded continually (2-3). Israel’s enemies are likened to thorns and briars, and unless they repent of their wrongdoing and seek God’s forgiveness, they will suffer a fiery destruction (4-5). Israel, by contrast, will flourish like a giant tree and bring blessing to the whole world (6).
Before that can happen, however, God must deal with Israel because of its sins. The nation, in both its northern and southern kingdoms, must be punished because it has turned away from the true God to serve the false gods of its neighbours. God does not punish his people as severely as he punishes his enemies. Those nations he destroys, but his own people he only sends into captivity, so that when their sins are removed they can return to their own land (7-9).
The desolation of their homeland is a just punishment that God sends upon his rebellious people (10-11). But when their punishment is ended, they will be gathered from many places back into their land, as grain is gathered together after it has been threshed (12-13).

Coffman's Commentaries on the Bible

"In that day: A vineyard of wine, sing ye unto it. I Jehovah am its keeper; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. Wrath is not in me: would that the briers and thorns were against me in battle! I would march upon them, I would burn them together. Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; yea, let him make peace with me. In days to come shall Jacob take root; Israel shall blossom and bud; and they shall fill the face of the world with fruit."

"This is a joy-song, set over against the dirge recorded in Isaiah 5:1-7."The Pulpit Commentary, p. 433. Both regard the Lord's vineyard; but the one in Isaiah 5:1-7 is the object of God's disapproval and judgment; and the one here is a vineyard approved and protected by the Lord. "The first one of these is beyond all doubt the Jewish Church in the times of Isaiah";Ibid. and the one here in this chapter is just as certainly identified with the New Israel of God, namely, the Church of Jesus Christ our Lord. "In the end of the age there will be occasion for a counterpart to the Mournful Vineyard song of Isaiah. Redeemed Israel will be the vineyard that a holy God may properly protect from its foes."Wycliffe Old Testament Commentary, p. 627. The mention of God's watering and caring for the vineyard is the same promise found in Matthew 28:18-20.

The text in this portion of the chapter has suffered somewhat, and many have pointed out that it is very difficult in places. Gleason's rendition of Isaiah 27:4 here appears to be a viable option in meaning: "The Berkeley Version translates this verse 4 thus: `There is no wrath now with Me. Should I find thorn-bushes and briers in it, I would fight them and burn them altogether.'"Ibid.

"Make peace with me; yea, let him make peace with me" Many have observed that in this verse is revealed God's purpose of converting his enemies into friends and of saving, if possible, even those who oppose his plans. "God's enemies he is willing to spare if they will surrender their hostility."Peake's Commentary Series, p. 454.

Isaiah 27:6 speaks of "filling the face of the world" with the fruit of Israel; but this is a reference to the efforts and success of Christian evangelism throughout the world. As Hailey expressed it, "The first vineyard is national Israel in the past; and the new vineyard is the spiritual Israel,"Homer Hailey, p. 220. that is, the kingdom-church of our Lord.

Isaiah 27:7-11 speak of God's judgments against his people and of desolation and captivity brought upon his people by their sins and transgression; but they also speak of God's mercy, God's partiality, and God's purpose in those privations, designed not to destroy but to redeem his people. There seems to be no well organized paragraph in this passage, so we shall note the implications one verse at a time.

Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible

Fury is not in me - That is, I am angry with it no more. He had punished his people by removing them to a distant land. But although he had corrected them for their faults, yet he had not laid aside the affection of a Father.

Who would set - Hebrew, ‘Who would give me.’ The Septuagint renders this, ‘Who would place me to keep the stubble in the field?’ Great perplexity has been felt in regard to the interpretation of this passage. Lowth translates it:

‘O that I had a fence of the thorn and the brier;’

evidently showing that he was embarrassed with it, and could not make of it consistent sense. The whole sentence must refer either to the people of God, or to his enemies. If to his people, it would be an indication that they were like briers and thorns, and that if his fury should rage they would be consumed, and hence, he calls upon them Isaiah 27:5 to seize upon his strength, and to be at peace with him. If it refers to his enemies, then it expresses a wish that his enemies were in his possession; or a purpose to go against them, as fire among thorns, and to consume them if they should presume to array themselves against his vineyard. This latter I take to be the true sense of the passage. The phrase ‘who would set me,’ or in Hebrew, ‘who will give me,’ may be expressed by “utinam,” indicating strong desire; and may be thus paraphrased: ‘I retain no anger against my people. I have indeed punished them; but my anger has ceased. I shall now defend them. If they are attacked by foes, I will guard them. When their foes approach, “I desire, I earnestly wish,” that they may be in my possession, that I may destroy them - as the fire rages through briers and thorns.’ It expresses a firm determination to defend his people and to destroy their enemies, unless Isaiah 27:5, which he would prefer, they should repent, and be at peace with him.

The briers and thorns - His enemies, and the enemies of his people (compare the notes at Isaiah 9:17; Isaiah 10:17). Perhaps the phrase is used here to denote enemies, because briers and thorns are so great enemies to a vineyard by impeding growth and fertility.

I would go through them - Or, rather, I would go against them in battle to destroy them.

I would burn them up together - As fire devours the thorns and briers; that is, I would completely destroy them.

Calvin's Commentary on the Bible

4.Fury is not in me. This verse contains excellent consolation; for it expresses the incredible warmth of love which the Lord bears towards his people, though they are of a wicked and rebellious disposition. God assumes, as we shall see, the character of a father who is grievously offended, and who, while he is offended at his son, still more pities him, and is naturally inclined to exercise compassion, because the warmth of his love rises above his anger. In short, he shews that he cannot hate his elect so as not to bear fatherly kindness towards them, even while he visits them with very severe punishments.

Scripture represents God to us in various ways. Sometimes it exhibits him as burning with indignation, and having a terrific aspect, and sometimes as shewing nothing but gentleness and mercy; and the reason of this diversity is, that we are not all capable of enjoying his goodness. Thus he is constrained to be perverse towards the perverse, and holy towards the holy, as David describes him. (Psalms 18:25.) He shews himself to us what we suffer him to be, for by our rebelliousness we drive him to severity.

Yet here the Prophet does not speak of all indiscriminately, but only of the Church, whose transgressions he chastises, and whose iniquities he punishes, in such a manner as not to lay aside a father’s affection. This statement must therefore be limited to the Church, so as to denote the relation between God and his chosen people, to whom he cannot manifest himself otherwise than as a Father, while he burns with rage against the reprobate. Thus we see how great is the consolation that is here given; for if we know that God has called us, we may justly conclude that he is not angry with us, and that, having embraced us with a firm and enduring regard, it is impossible that he shall ever deprive us of it. It is indeed certain that at that time God hated many persons who belonged to that nation; but, with respect to their adoption, he declares that he loved them. Now, the more kindly and tenderly that God loved them, so much the more they who provoked his anger by their wickedness were without excuse. This circumstance is undoubtedly intended to aggravate their guilt, that their wickedness constrains him, in some measure, to change his disposition towards them; for, having formerly spoken of his gentleness, he suddenly exclaims, —

“Who shall engage me in battle with the brier and thorn?” or, as some render it, “Who shall set me as a brier and thorn?” Yet it might not be amiss also to read, “Who shall bring against me a brier, that I may meet it as a thorn?” for there is no copulative conjunction between those two words. Yet I willingly adhere to the former opinion, that God wishes to have to deal with thistles or thorns, which he will quickly consume by the fire of his wrath. If any one choose rather to view it as a reproof of those doubts which often arise in us in consequence of unbelief, when we think that God is inflamed with wrath against us, as if he had said, “You are mistaken in comparing me to the brier and thorn,” that is, “You ascribe to me a harsh and cruel disposition,” let him enjoy his opinion, though I think that it is different from what the Prophet means. ⁽¹⁹³⁾

Others think that God assumes the character of a man who is provoking himself to rage; as if he had said, “I do not choose to be any longer so indulgent, or to exercise such forbearance as I have formerly manifested;” but this is so forced, that it does not need a lengthened refutation. It is true, indeed, that since God is gentle and merciful in his nature, and there is nothing that is more foreign to him than harshness or cruelty, he may be said to borrow a nature that does not belong to him. ⁽¹⁹⁴⁾ But the interpretation which I have given will of itself be sufficient to refute others, namely, that God complains bitterly that he will as soon fight with thorns as with his vineyard, for when he considers that it is his inheritances he is compelled to spare it.

I will pass through them in a hostile manner, and utterly consume them. These words confirm my former exposition; for the burning relates to “briers and thorns,” and he declares that, if he had to deal with them, he would burn them all up, but that he acts more gently, because it is his vineyard. Hence we infer that, if God is not enraged against us, this must be attributed, not to any merits of men, but to his election, which is of free grace. By these words, מי יתנני, (mi yittĕnēnī,) “Who shall give me?” he plainly shews that he has just cause for contending with us, and even for destroying us in a hostile manner, were he not restrained by compassion towards his Church; for we would be as thorns and briers, and would be like wicked men, if the Lord did not separate us from them, that we might not perish along with them. If the phrase במלחמה, (bămmilhāmāh,) in battle, which we have translated “in a hostile manner,” be connected with the question, “Who shall set me?” it will not ill agree with the meaning. ⁽¹⁹⁵⁾

(193) Bogus footnote

(194) Bogus footnote

(195) Bogus footnote

Smith's Bible Commentary

Chapter 27:

In that day ( Isaiah 27:1 )

Now what day? In the day in which God is bringing the Great Tribulation upon the earth.

In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent ( Isaiah 27:1 );

So Satan.

and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea ( Isaiah 27:1 ).

You saw the beast coming out of the sea in Revelation having ten horns and so forth and with a mouth of a dragon, the antichrist, Satan, the power of darkness.

In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine ( Isaiah 27:2 ).

Chapter 27 really goes back with those of twenty-six. "Now in that day sing unto her," that is, to Israel, "a vineyard of red wine."

I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together ( Isaiah 27:3-4 ).

You can't put a barbed wire to keep God out.

Or let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me; and he shall make peace with me. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit ( Isaiah 27:5-6 ).

Now here is just a neat little prophecy tucked in God's statement of how He's going to again bless the nation Israel. How He again is going to make them His vineyard. It's quite a contrast with chapter 5 where God speaks out the woes against His vineyard. How He had taken care of the vineyard and all but it didn't bring forth fruit. Brought forth just wild grapes, and so He let the vineyard go. Now God says the day is coming when He's going to take again His vineyard and watch over it and keep it and water it and dress it. And, "He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root. Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit."

Already we are seeing this prophecy fulfilled. Israel is blossoming and budding and filling the earth with fruit. Israel is the fourth largest exporter of fruit of any nation in the world. United States leads in the exporting of fruit. But Israel is the third largest fruit-exporting nation in the world. And yet it is smaller than the state of California. But not only has Israel gone into the exporting of fruit, all over Europe. Actually, there are these jumbo jets that are flying out of Tel Aviv every night to the major cities of Europe taking fruit and taking flowers.

In the wintertime you can buy fresh flowers in the flower shops throughout all of Europe. Where do they come from? They come from Israel. They grow the flowers year-round down in the Jordan Valley and they ship them out overnight on these jumbo jets to the markets of Europe. And the same with the fruit. You buy the oranges and the fruit from Israel in the markets of Europe. It is blossoming. It is budding, filling the earth with fruit and also with flowers. The interesting blossoming bud.

Hath he smitten him, as he smote those that smote him? or is he slain according to the slaughter of them that are slain by him? In measure, when it shooteth forth, thou wilt debate with it: he stayeth his rough wind in the day of the east wind. By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged; and this is all the fruit to take away his sin; when he maketh all the stones of the altar as chalkstones that are beaten in sunder, the groves and images shall not stand up. Yet the defensed city shall be desolate, and the habitation forsaken, and left like a wilderness: there shall the calf feed, and there shall he lie down, and consume the branches thereof ( Isaiah 27:7-10 ).

In other words, the bareness that would happen to the nation Israel, which did happen. The cities were destroyed and the land was a wilderness for so long.

When the boughs thereof are withered, they shall be broken off: the women come, and set them on fire: for the people of no understanding: therefore he that made them will not have mercy on them, and he that formed them will show them no favor. But it shall come to pass ( Isaiah 27:11-12 )

They went through this barren wilderness.

But it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall beat off from the channel of the river unto the stream of Egypt, and ye shall be gathered one by one, O ye children of Israel. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the great trumpet shall be blown, and they shall come which were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt, and shall worship the LORD in the holy mount at Jerusalem ( Isaiah 27:12-13 ).

God's regathering of His people back into the land. "

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

The future blessing and former discipline of Israel 27:2-11

Dr. Constable's Expository Notes

He would not be angry with Israel in that future day (cf. Romans 3:21-26; Romans 5:8-11), as He had been in the past. If enemies tried to damage His vineyard, He would destroy them (cf. Isaiah 5:6).

Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible

Fury [is] not in me,.... Against his vineyard he takes so much care of, his church and people, whom he has loved with an everlasting love; they are indeed deserving of his wrath, but he has not appointed them to it, but has appointed his Son to bear it for them, who has delivered them from wrath to come, and they being justified by his blood and righteousness, are saved from it; and though the Lord chastises them for their sins, yet not in wrath and sore displeasure; there is no wrath or fury in his heart towards them, nor any expressed in the dispensations of his providence:

who would set the briers [and] thorns against me in battle? either suggesting the weakness of his people, who, was he to deal with them as their sins and corruptions deserved, for which they may be compared to thorns and briers, they would be as unable to bear his wrath and fury as briers and thorns could to withstand a consuming fire; or rather intimating, that should such persons rise up in his vineyard, the church, as often do, comparable to briers and thorns for their unfruitfulness and unprofitableness, for the hurt and mischief they do, and the grief and trouble they give to the people of God, as hypocrites and false teachers, and all such as are of unsound principles, and bad lives and conversations, and which are very offensive to the Lord; and therefore, though there is no fury in him against his vineyard, the church, yet there is against those briers and thorns, wicked men, whom he accounts his enemies, and will fight against them in his wrath, and consume them in his fury; see 2 Samuel 23:6:

I would go through them: or, "step into it" p; the vineyard, where those briers or thorns are set and grow up; the meaning is, that he would step into the vineyard, and warily and cautiously tread there, lest he should hurt any of the vines, true believers, while he is plucking up and destroying the briers and thorns; or contending, in a warlike manner, with carnal and hypocritical professors:

I would burn them together; or, "I would burn" out of it q; that is, gather out of the vineyard the briers and thorns, and bind them up in bundles, as the tares in the parable, which signify the same as here, and burn them, or utterly destroy them; though the words may be rendered, "who will give, or set, me a brier and thorn in battle, that I should go against it, and burn it up together?", or wholly r and the meaning is, who shall irritate or provoke me to be as a brier and thorn, to hurt, grieve, and distress my people, to cause me to go into them, and against them, in a military way, in wrath and fury to consume them? no one shall. This rendering and sense well agree with the first clause of the verse. Jerom renders it thus, "who will make me an adamant stone?" as the word "shamir" is rendered in Ezekiel 3:9 Zechariah 7:12 and gives the sense, who will make me hard and cruel, so as to overcome my nature, my clemency, to go forth in a fierce and warlike manner, and walk upon my vineyard, which before I kept, and burn it, which I had hedged about?

p אפשעה בה "gradiar in eam"; so some in Vatablus; "caute ingrediar eam", Piscator. q אציתנה "succendam ex ea", Junius Tremellius "comburam [illos] ex ipsa", Piscator. r So De Dieu; and some in Vatablus; and which is approved by Noldius, who renders it in like manner, to the same sense, Ebr. Concord. Part. p. 409. No. 1671.

Henry's Complete Commentary on the Bible

      1 In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.   2 In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine.   3 I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day.   4 Fury is not in me: who would set the 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 He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root: Israel shall blossom and bud, and fill the face of the world with fruit.

      The prophet is here singing of judgment and mercy,

      I. Of judgment upon the enemies of God's church (Isaiah 27:1; Isaiah 27:1), tribulation to those that trouble it,2 Thessalonians 1:6. When the Lord comes out of his place, to punish the inhabitants of the earth (Isaiah 26:21; Isaiah 26:21), he will be sure to punish leviathan, the dragon that is in the sea, every proud oppressing tyrant, that is the terror of the mighty, and, like the leviathan, is so fierce that none dares stir him up, and his heart as hard as a stone, and when he raises up himself the mighty are afraid,Job 41:10; Job 41:24; Job 41:25. The church has many enemies, but commonly some one that is more formidable than the rest. So Sennacherib was in his day, and Nebuchadnezzar in his, and Antiochus in his; so Pharaoh had been formerly, and is called leviathan and the dragon,Isaiah 51:9; Psalms 74:13; Psalms 74:14; Ezekiel 29:3. The New-Testament church has had its leviathans; we read of a great red dragon ready to devour it, Revelation 12:3. Those malignant persecuting powers are here compared to the leviathan for bulk, and strength, and the mighty bustle they make in the world,--to dragons for their rage and fury,--to serpents, piercing serpents, penetrating in their counsels, quick in their motions, and which, if they once get in their head, will soon wind in their whole body,--crossing like a bar (so the margin), standing in the way of all their neighbours and obstructing them,--to crooked serpents, subtle and insinuating, but perverse and mischievous. Great and mighty princes, if they oppose the people of God, are in God's account as dragons and serpents, the plagues of mankind; and the Lord will punish them in due time. They are too big for men to deal with and call to an account, and therefore the great God will take the matter into his own hands. He has a sore, and great, and strong sword, wherewith to do execution upon them when the measure of their iniquity is full and their day has come to fall. It is emphatically expressed in the original: The Lord with his sword, that cruel one, and that great one, and that strong one, shall punish this unwieldy, this unruly criminal; and it shall be capital punishment: He shall slay the dragon that is in the sea; for the wages of his sin is death. This shall not only be a prevention of his doing further mischief, as the slaying of a wild beast, but a just punishment for the mischief he has done, as the putting of a traitor or rebel to death. God has a strong sword for the doing of this, variety of judgments sufficient to humble the proudest and break the most powerful of his enemies; and he will do it when the day of execution comes: In that day he will punish, his day which is coming, Psalms 37:13. This is applicable to the spiritual victories obtained by our Lord Jesus over the powers of darkness. He not only disarmed, spoiled, and cast out, the prince of this world, but with his strong sword, the virtue of his death and the preaching of his gospel, he does and will destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, that great leviathan, that old serpent, the dragon. He shall be bound, that he may not deceive the nations, and that is a punishment to him (Revelation 20:2; Revelation 20:3); and at length, for deceiving the nations, he shall be cast into the lake of fire,Revelation 20:10.

      II. Of mercy to the church. In that same day, when God is punishing the leviathan, let the church and all her friends be easy and cheerful; let those that attend her sing to her for her comfort, sing her asleep with these assurances; let it be sung in her assemblies,

      1. That she is God's vineyard, and is under his particular care, Isaiah 27:2; Isaiah 27:3. She is, in God's eye, a vineyard of red wine. The world is as a fruitless worthless wilderness; but the church is enclosed as a vineyard, a peculiar place, and of value, that has great care taken of it and great pains taken with it, and from which precious fruits are gathered, wherewith they honour God and man. It is a vineyard of red wine, yielding the best and choicest grapes, intimating the reformation of the church, that it now brings forth good fruit unto God, whereas before it brought forth fruit to itself, or brought forth wild grapes, Isaiah 5:4; Isaiah 5:4. Now God takes care, (1.) Of the safety of this vineyard: I the Lord do keep it. He speaks this as glorying in it that he is, and has undertaken to be, the keeper of Israel. Those that bring forth fruit to God are and shall be always under his protection. He speaks this as assuring us that they shall be so: I the Lord, that can do every thing, but cannot lie nor deceive, I do keep it; lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. God's vineyard in this world lies much exposed to injury; there are many that would hurt it, would tread it down and lay it waste (Psalms 80:13); but God will suffer no real hurt or damage to be done it, but what he will bring good out of. He will keep it constantly, night and day, and not without need, for the enemies are restless in their designs and attempts against it, and, both night and day, seek an opportunity to do it a mischief. God will keep it in the night of affliction and persecution, and in the day of peace and prosperity, the temptations of which are no less dangerous. God's people shall be preserved, not only from the pestilence that walketh in darkness, but from the destruction that wasteth at noon-day,Psalms 91:6. This vineyard shall be well fenced. (2.) Of the fruitfulness of this vineyard: I will water it every moment, and yet it shall not be overwatered. The still and silent dews of God's grace and blessing shall continually descend upon it, that it may bring forth much fruit. We need the constant and continual waterings of the divine grace; for, if that be at any time withdrawn, we wither, and come to nothing. God waters his vineyard by the ministry of the word by his servants the prophets, whose doctrine shall drop as the dew. Paul plants, and Apollos waters, but God gives the increase; for without him the watchman wakes and the husbandman waters in vain.

      2. That, though sometimes he contends with his people, yet, upon their submission, he will be reconciled to them, Isaiah 27:4; Isaiah 27:5. Fury is not in him towards his vineyard; though he meets with many things in it that are offensive to him, yet he does not seek advantages against it, nor is extreme to mark what is amiss in it. It is true if he find in it briers and thorns instead of vines, and they be set in battle against him (as indeed that in the vineyard which is not for him is against him), he will tread them down and burn them; but otherwise, "If I am angry with my people, they know what course to take; let them humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and so take hold of my strength with a sincere desire to make their peace with me, and I will soon be reconciled to them, and all shall be well." God sees the sins of his people and is displeased with them; but, upon their repentance, he turns away his wrath. This may very well be construed as a summary of the doctrine of the gospel, with which the church is to be watered every moment. (1.) Here is a quarrel supposed between God and man; for here is a battle fought, and peace to be made. It is an old quarrel, ever since sin first entered. It is, on God's part, a righteous quarrel, but, on man's part, most unrighteous. (2.) Here is a gracious invitation given us to make up this quarrel, and to get these matters in variance accommodated: "Let him that is desirous to be at peace with God take hold of his strength, of his strong arm, which is lifted up against the sinner to strike him dead; and let him by supplication keep back the stroke. Let him wrestle with me, as Jacob did, resolving not to let me go without a blessing; and he shall be Israel--a prince with God." Pardoning mercy is called the power of our Lord; let him take hold of that. Christ is the arm of the Lord,Isaiah 53:1; Isaiah 53:1. Christ crucified is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24); let him by a lively faith take hold of him, as a man that is sinking catches hold of a bough, or cord, or plank, that is within his reach, or as the malefactor took hold of the horns of the altar, believing that there is no other name by which he can be saved, by which he can be reconciled. (3.) Here is a threefold cord of arguments to persuade us to do this. [1.] Time and space are given us to do it in; for fury is not in God; he does not carry it towards us as great men carry it towards their inferiors, when the one is in a fault and the other in a fury. Men in a fury will not take time for consideration; it is, with them, but a word and a blow. Furious men are soon angry, and implacable when they are angry; a little thing provokes them, and no little thing will pacify them. But it is not so with God; he considers our frame, is slow to anger, does not stir up all his wrath, nor always chide. [2.] It is in vain to think of contesting with him. If we persist in our quarrel with him, and think to make our part good, it is but like setting briers and thorns before a consuming fire, which will be so far from giving check to the progress of it that they will but make it burn the more outrageously. We are not an equal match for Omnipotence. Woe unto him therefore that strives with his Maker! He knows not the power of his anger. [3.] This is the only way, and it is a sure way, to reconciliation: "Let him take this course to make peace with me, and he shall make peace; and thereby good, all good, shall come unto him." God is willing to be reconciled to us if we be but willing to be reconciled to him.

      3. That the church of God in the world shall be a growing body, and come at length to be a great body (Isaiah 27:6; Isaiah 27:6): In times to come (so some read it), in after-times, when these calamities are overpast, or in the days of the gospel, the latter days, he shall cause Jacob to take root, deeper root than ever yet; for the gospel church shall be more firmly fixed than ever the Jewish church was, and shall spread further. Or, He shall cause those of Jacob that come back out of their captivity, or (as we read it) those that come of Jacob, to take root downward, and bear fruit upward,Isaiah 37:31; Isaiah 37:31. They shall be established in a prosperous state, and then they shall blossom and bud, and give hopeful prospects of a great increase; and so it shall prove, for they shall fill the face of the world with fruit. Many shall be brought into the church, proselytes shall be numerous, some out of all the nations about that shall be to the God of Israel for a name and a praise; and the converts shall be fruitful in the fruits of righteousness. The preaching of the gospel brought forth fruit in all the world (Colossians 1:6), fruit that remains, John 15:16.