This chapter begins with some incredible imagery, imagine a dragon. He is a fierce creature who devours and destroys. No one is brave enough or strong enough to destroy cunning and vicious beast. He fights against God’s people and flees from the LORD, but…
“In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.” (Verse 1).
The Lord will slay the dragon. All the enemies that seemed unbeatable in the past like Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh were conquered by God. And Satan will be defeated on The Day of Judgment. He will be crushed by God’s hard and great and strong sword, The Word of God, Jesus Christ!
Verses 2-3 read,
“In that day,
“A pleasant vineyard, sing of it!
3 I, the Lord, am its keeper;
every moment I water it.
Lest anyone punish it,
I keep it night and day;”
In the midst of the harsh and barren world though is a place of beautiful nurturing and protection, God’s vineyard, His children. We, His followers are His vineyard. While the world must deal with God’s wrath, we have already been justified and so He keeps us safe. He gives us value. He makes us at peace with Him. All the way up until that day God will call the lost to Him, but most will not come, and so they will not have His protection, His worth or Salvation. But some will. Some people who resisted the Lord day after day will see the redemption and deliverance He offers. Finally on that awesome day there will be no more idolatry. The only God worshipped will be The One and Only Holy LORD God Almighty. Jesus will remove their sin by His blood and every speck of idolatry will be dust.
Verse 9 reads,
“Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for,
and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin:
when he makes all the stones of the altars
like chalkstones crushed to pieces,
no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.”
Verse 13 describes the ultimate fruition of our hope in Christ,
“And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.”
Keep that imagery and hope in mind, it is very real and coming soon. Jesus will destroy Satan once and for all. We will be gathered together to worship our Lord face to face. Praise God and Halleluiah!