ESOCS Devotional 20 January 2025 – Evil Will Be No More
MEMORY VERSE: “In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan the fleeing serpent; leviathan that twisting serpent; and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.” Isaiah 27:1–13
TEXT: ISAIAH 27:1–13
In that day the Lord with His severe sword, great and strong,
Will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent,
Leviathan that twisted serpent;
And He will slay the reptile that is in the sea.
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,
[c]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.
Read Other ESOCS Devotional Here
I was having a conversation this week about the evil of human trafficking, injustice and its effect on little girls and boys and people’s lives, and just the horror of it. And we’re talking about what we can do to help mobilize churches to address that injustice. That includes so many other experiences of injustice we see around us in the world. But the good news is that Isaiah 27:1 is saying that there’s a day we’re not going to be mobilizing churches and followers of Christ to address injustice in the world because injustice will be gone. Because the hard, great, strong sword of God is going to eliminate evil and injustice.
Isaiah 27:1 seems to be the conclusion of Chapter 26, which describes God’s judgment on the nations and the deliverance of His people. Isaiah 26:17–18: “As a pregnant woman about to give birth writhes and cries out in her pain, so were we in your presence, Lord. We were with child, we writhed in labour, but we gave birth to wind. We have not brought salvation to the earth, and the people of the world have not come to life.” These verses use the image of a woman giving birth to represent Israel’s condition. Despite the pain of childbirth, the mother is comforted by her new-born child. Nevertheless, the text explains that Israel’s pain and suffering at the hands of its enemies were in vain, for they “gave birth to wind”. No new era of peace was inaugurated (no child was born) because they were still suffering from the Assyrian attack. This was a lamentable situation where God allowed the wicked to discipline His people.
However, God would not leave His people without hope. Isaiah 27:1 is God’s answer to Israel’s lamentations, employing the symbol of the leviathan to illustrate the defeat of His enemies. God will triumph and those who have kept faith with Him will triumph with Him. God would defeat the enemies of His people, something Israel could not do by its means. It’s promising that there’s coming a day when the Lord with His hard, great, strong sword will punish evil and slay it. It will be gone. Isaiah’s picture is holding up the hope that one day evil and injustice will be no more.
Dearly beloved, the said day is here, God is affirming an end to evil and injustice. Today is our day of salvation.
CHALLENGES
- Be rest assured that your days of affliction and trials are ended. Just give thanks to God.
PRAYER POINT
- God, we pray that you would indeed use our lives and our churches to show your goodness across the world. Amen.
FURTHER READING: Isaiah 28:1-17; Matthew 13:1-end
ESOCS Devotional 20 January 2025
