Isaiah 27:8 Study Bible: In 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.

◄ Isaiah 27:8 ►

By warfare and exile You contended with her and removed her with a fierce wind, as on the day the east wind blows.

By warfare and exile
This phrase reflects God's judgment upon Israel due to their disobedience and idolatry. Warfare and exile were common methods of divine discipline in the Old Testament, as seen in the Babylonian captivity (2 Kings 24:10-16). The exile served as a means to purify and restore the people to a right relationship with God. It also foreshadows the ultimate deliverance and restoration through Christ, who brings spiritual freedom from sin.

You contended with her
God's contention with Israel is a recurring theme, highlighting His role as both judge and redeemer. This contention is not out of malice but out of a desire for Israel to return to Him. The prophets often spoke of God's grievances with Israel (Isaiah 1:18), emphasizing His righteousness and justice. This contention points to the need for repentance and the hope of reconciliation through the Messiah.

and removed her with a fierce wind
The imagery of a fierce wind signifies God's powerful and decisive action. In the ancient Near East, winds were often seen as instruments of divine intervention. This phrase can be connected to the idea of God using natural elements to accomplish His purposes, as seen in the parting of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21). The fierce wind symbolizes the severity of God's judgment but also His control over creation.

as on the day the east wind blows
The east wind in biblical literature often represents destruction and desolation (Exodus 10:13; Jonah 4:8). It is a hot, dry wind that can devastate crops and landscapes, symbolizing the harshness of God's judgment. This phrase underscores the seriousness of Israel's situation and the need for divine intervention. It also serves as a reminder of God's sovereignty and the ultimate hope of restoration through His promises.

Persons / Places / Events

1. God
The divine being who is actively involved in the judgment and restoration of His people.

2. Israel
The nation being addressed, often symbolized as a vineyard in Isaiah, undergoing discipline and eventual restoration.

3. East Wind
A metaphorical representation of God's judgment, often associated with harshness and destruction in the Bible.

4. Warfare and Exile
The means by which God disciplines His people, leading to their purification and eventual return.

5. Isaiah
The prophet through whom God delivers this message, providing insight into God's plans for His people.

Teaching Points

God's Sovereignty in Discipline
God uses various means, including difficult circumstances, to discipline and refine His people.

Purpose of Divine Judgment
The ultimate goal of God's judgment is not destruction but purification and restoration.

Symbolism of the East Wind
Understanding biblical metaphors like the east wind can deepen our comprehension of God's actions and intentions.

Hope in Restoration
Even in the midst of judgment, God promises eventual restoration and renewal for His people.

Responding to God's Discipline
Believers are called to respond to God's discipline with repentance and faith, trusting in His ultimate plan for good.

Bible Study Questions

1. How does the imagery of the "east wind" in Isaiah 27:8 help us understand God's methods of discipline?

2. In what ways can we see God's sovereignty at work in the discipline and restoration of His people, both in biblical times and today?

3. How can the concept of divine judgment leading to purification be applied to personal spiritual growth?

4. What parallels can be drawn between the discipline described in Isaiah 27:8 and the teachings on discipline in Hebrews 12:5-11?

5. How can we find hope and encouragement in the promise of restoration, even when facing difficult circumstances or divine discipline?

Connections to Other Scriptures

Isaiah 10:5-6
This passage discusses God's use of Assyria as an instrument of judgment against Israel, similar to the "east wind" in Isaiah 27:8.

Jeremiah 18:7-10
Highlights God's sovereignty in dealing with nations, including the possibility of relenting from judgment if they repent.

Hosea 13:15
Describes the east wind as a force of destruction, reinforcing the imagery used in Isaiah 27:8.

Hebrews 12:5-11
Discusses God's discipline as a sign of His love, paralleling the purpose of the exile and warfare in Isaiah 27:8.

Sermons

A Grand Symbolic Picture of the World	W. L. Watkinson.	Isaiah 27:8
Compensations	W. L. Watkinson.	Isaiah 27:8
God's Angels -- Judgment and Mercy	W. L. Watkinson.	Isaiah 27:8
God's Thoughtfulness in Imposing Burdens	W. L. Watkinson.	Isaiah 27:8
Life's Roses and Life's Thorns	W. L. Watkinson.	Isaiah 27:8
More Affliction, More Grace	W. L. Watkinson.	Isaiah 27:8
Sorrows as Winds	S. Martin.	Isaiah 27:8
The Adaptation of Trial to the State of the Afflicted	S. Martin.	Isaiah 27:8
The Compensatory Element in Life	W. L. Watkinson.	Isaiah 27:8
The Rough Wind Stayed	W. J. Brock, B. A.	Isaiah 27:8
Troubles as Storms	S. Martin.	Isaiah 27:8
God's Treatment of the Rebellious and the Righteous	W. Clarkson	Isaiah 27:1-11
In that Day	E. Johnson	Isaiah 27:1-13
Judgments and Chastisements	W. Clarkson	Isaiah 27:7-9

People

Isaiah, Israelites, Jacob

Places

Assyria, Brook of Egypt, Egypt, Euphrates River, Jerusalem

Topics

Anger, Banishing, Blast, Blows, Clear, Contend, Contended, Content, Debate, Drives, Driving, East, Exile, Expelled, Fierce, Forth, Full, Measure, Removed, Rough, Sendest, Sending, Sharp, Shooteth, Stayeth, Storm-wind, Strivest, Wilt, Wind

Dictionary of Bible Themes

Isaiah 27:8

4821 east

Library

The Grasp that Brings Peace
'Let him take hold of My strength, that he may make peace with Me; yea, let him make peace with Me.'--ISAIAH xxvii. 5. Lyrical emotion makes the prophet's language obscure by reason of its swift transitions from one mood of feeling to another. But the main drift here is discernible. God is guarding Israel, His vineyard, and before Him its foes are weak as 'thorns and briers,' whose end is to be burned. With daring anthropomorphism, the prophet puts into God's mouth a longing for the enemies to measure …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Twelfth Day for the Spirit to Convince the World of Sin
WHAT TO PRAY.--For the Spirit to convince the World of Sin "I will send the Comforter to you. And He, when He is come, will convict the world in respect of sin."--JOHN xvi. 7, 8. God's one desire, the one object of Christ's being manifested, is to take away sin. The first work of the Spirit on the world is conviction of sin. Without that, no deep or abiding revival, no powerful conversion. Pray for it, that the gospel may be preached in such power of the Spirit, that men may see that they have …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Come and Welcome to Jesus Christ;
OR, A PLAIN AND PROFITABLE DISCOURSE ON JOHN 6:37 SHOWING THE CAUSE, TRUTH, AND MANNER OF THE COMING OF A SINNER TO JESUS CHRIST; WITH HIS HAPPY RECEPTION AND BLESSED ENTERTAINMENT. WRITTEN BY JOHN BUNYAN, AUTHOR OF "THE PILGRIM'S PROGRESS." "And they shall come which were ready to perish."--Isaiah 27:13. London, 1681. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR. "Come and welcome to Jesus Christ," is a subject peculiarly fitted to the deep and searching experience of John Bunyan. He knew all the wiles of sin and …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

The Desire of the Righteous Granted;
OR, A DISCOURSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS MAN'S DESIRES. ADVERTISEMENT BY THE EDITOR As the tree is known by its fruit, so is the state of a man's heart known by his desires. The desires of the righteous are the touchstone or standard of Christian sincerity--the evidence of the new birth--the spiritual barometer of faith and grace--and the springs of obedience. Christ and him crucified is the ground of all our hopes--the foundation upon which all our desires after God and holiness are built--and the root …
John Bunyan—The Works of John Bunyan Volumes 1-3

How Shall one Make Use of Christ as the Life, when Wrestling with an Angry God Because of Sin?
That we may give some satisfaction to this question, we shall, 1. Shew what are the ingredients in this case, or what useth to concur in this distemper. 2. Shew some reasons why the Lord is pleased to dispense thus with his people. 3. Shew how Christ is life to the soul in this case. 4. Shew the believer's duty for a recovery; and, 5. Add a word or two of caution. As to the first, There may be those parts of, or ingredients in this distemper: 1. God presenting their sins unto their view, so as …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

"But we are all as an Unclean Thing, and all Our Righteousnesses are as Filthy Rags,"
Isaiah lxiv 6, 7.--"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags," &c. This people's condition agreeth well with ours, though the Lord's dealing be very different. The confessory part of this prayer belongeth to us now; and strange it is, that there is such odds of the Lord's dispensations, when there is no difference in our conditions; always we know not how soon the complaint may be ours also. This prayer was prayed long before the judgment and captivity came …
Hugh Binning—The Works of the Rev. Hugh Binning

Covenanting Confers Obligation.
As it has been shown that all duty, and that alone, ought to be vowed to God in covenant, it is manifest that what is lawfully engaged to in swearing by the name of God is enjoined in the moral law, and, because of the authority of that law, ought to be performed as a duty. But it is now to be proved that what is promised to God by vow or oath, ought to be performed also because of the act of Covenanting. The performance of that exercise is commanded, and the same law which enjoins that the duties …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting

The Mercy of God
The next attribute is God's goodness or mercy. Mercy is the result and effect of God's goodness. Psa 33:5. So then this is the next attribute, God's goodness or mercy. The most learned of the heathens thought they gave their god Jupiter two golden characters when they styled him good and great. Both these meet in God, goodness and greatness, majesty and mercy. God is essentially good in himself and relatively good to us. They are both put together in Psa 119:98. Thou art good, and doest good.' This …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity

The River of Egypt, Rhinocorura. The Lake of Sirbon.
Pliny writes, "From Pelusium are the intrenchments of Chabrias: mount Casius: the temple of Jupiter Casius: the tomb of Pompey the Great: Ostracine: Arabia is bounded sixty-five miles from Pelusium: soon after begins Idumea and Palestine from the rising up of the Sirbon lake." Either my eyes deceive me, while I read these things,--or mount Casius lies nearer Pelusium, than the lake of Sirbon. The maps have ill placed the Sirbon between mount Casius and Pelusium. Sirbon implies burning; the name of …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

The Worst Things Work for Good to the Godly
DO not mistake me, I do not say that of their own nature the worst things are good, for they are a fruit of the curse; but though they are naturally evil, yet the wise overruling hand of God disposing and sanctifying them, they are morally good. As the elements, though of contrary qualities, yet God has so tempered them, that they all work in a harmonious manner for the good of the universe. Or as in a watch, the wheels seem to move contrary one to another, but all carry on the motions of the watch: …
Thomas Watson—A Divine Cordial

What Messiah did the Jews Expect?
1. The most important point here is to keep in mind the organic unity of the Old Testament. Its predictions are not isolated, but features of one grand prophetic picture; its ritual and institutions parts of one great system; its history, not loosely connected events, but an organic development tending towards a definite end. Viewed in its innermost substance, the history of the Old Testament is not different from its typical institutions, nor yet these two from its predictions. The idea, underlying …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah

The Great Shepherd
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd; He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young. I t is not easy for those, whose habits of life are insensibly formed by the customs of modern times, to conceive any adequate idea of the pastoral life, as obtained in the eastern countries, before that simplicity of manners, which characterized the early ages, was corrupted, by the artificial and false refinements of luxury. Wealth, in those …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1

Isaiah
CHAPTERS I-XXXIX Isaiah is the most regal of the prophets. His words and thoughts are those of a man whose eyes had seen the King, vi. 5. The times in which he lived were big with political problems, which he met as a statesman who saw the large meaning of events, and as a prophet who read a divine purpose in history. Unlike his younger contemporary Micah, he was, in all probability, an aristocrat; and during his long ministry (740-701 B.C., possibly, but not probably later) he bore testimony, as …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament

Links

Isaiah 27:8 NIV
Isaiah 27:8 NLT
Isaiah 27:8 ESV
Isaiah 27:8 NASB
Isaiah 27:8 KJV

Isaiah 27:8 Commentaries

Bible Hub