In chapters 26 through 28 of Isaiah, we encounter beautiful and challenging poetry that showcases both God's judgment and His mercy. Chapter 26 opens with a glorious song of the redeemed, a triumphant hymn that looks forward to the day when God's people will sing of His salvation as their strong city. The imagery is magnificent, the hope is soaring, and the promise of resurrection in verse 19 rings like a bell across the centuries. It's the kind of passage that makes your heart leap as you read it.
But then we come to chapter 27, verse 7, and suddenly we're faced with something that sounds almost comical when read aloud: "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?" Try reading that sentence to someone without any context, and they might wonder if you've lost your mind. The construction is so convoluted, so seemingly twisted, that it almost sounds like a tongue twister gone wrong.
Don't let the strangeness of this verse tempt you to hurry past it. In fact, the very awkwardness of the phrasing should make us slow down and pay closer attention. When Scripture speaks in such an unusual way, it's often because God is trying to get our attention for something particularly important. This bizarre-sounding rhetorical question is actually a stunning expression of divine mercy.
What Isaiah is asking here is whether God has afflicted Israel with the same kind of judgment He poured out on the nations that oppressed her. The implied answer is a resounding no. When God judged Egypt, He brought complete devastation - plagues that destroyed their land, death that touched every household, and finally the obliteration of their army in the Red Sea. When He judged Assyria, it was with the kind of total destruction that left nations trembling. These were enemies being crushed by the sovereign God of the universe, and His wrath against them was complete and final.
But Israel? Even when God's judgment fell upon His people, it was entirely different in character. Yes, there was exile. Yes, there was suffering. Yes, there were consequences for their rebellion and idolatry. But it was never the judgment of an enemy - it was always the discipline of a father. The difference between God's judgment on Egypt and God's judgment on Israel is the difference between a warrior destroying his foe and a parent correcting his child. Both may involve pain, but they flow from completely different relationships and aim toward completely different ends.
This distinction becomes even more remarkable when we consider that Israel was often just as wicked as the nations around her - sometimes worse. Jesus Himself testified to this reality when He declared that if the mighty works done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been done in Tyre and Sidon, those Gentile cities would have repented in sackcloth and ashes. If the works done in Capernaum had been done in Sodom, that infamous city would have remained to that day. The pattern was already clear in Isaiah's time and continued right through to the New Testament: Israel's behavior was not the distinguishing factor.
So what made the difference? Why did God respond to Israelite rebellion with corrective discipline while responding to Egyptian and Assyrian rebellion with devastating judgment? The answer cannot be found in human righteousness or merit. It can only be found in the sovereign grace of God and His covenant faithfulness. God had chosen Israel, not because they were better than other nations, but because He had set His love upon them. His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not conditional upon perfect behavior - they were grounded in His own unchanging character and His determination to accomplish His purposes through this people.
This electing grace produced something beautiful: mercy that flowed consistently toward His covenant people. Not the absence of consequences, but consequences that flow from love rather than wrath. Not immunity from judgment, but judgment that aims at restoration rather than destruction. Israel received mercy not because they deserved it, but because God had bound Himself to them in covenant relationship. They were disciplined as sons and daughters, not destroyed as enemies.
The depth of this mercy becomes even more stunning when we see how it blossomed over Israel's repeated disobedience. Despite centuries of rebellion, idolatry, and unfaithfulness, God promises in Isaiah 54: "For this is as the waters of Noah unto me: for as I have sworn that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee... my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the LORD that hath mercy on thee." Here is a nation that had acted worse than the surrounding heathen, and yet God promises that His anger is finished and His kindness will never depart. This is covenant mercy at its most breathtaking.
That same mercy now flows through Christ to anyone who will receive it. Have you made a mess of your life? Have you done things so foolish, so destructive, that it seems no one could ever accept you again? The God who promised Israel that His kindness would never depart - despite all their failures - offers that same covenant mercy to you through Jesus Christ. Those who come to God through Christ discover that they are no longer treated as enemies deserving complete judgment, but as children receiving loving discipline.
But just how far does this mercy extend? In these very chapters, Isaiah reveals something that should take our breath away completely. Even Egypt and Assyria - those same nations that received God's complete and devastating judgment, those enemies that were crushed by the sovereign God of the universe - will one day be brought into the covenant themselves. Isaiah 19 paints an astonishing picture: "In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance."
If God can extend covenant mercy to Egypt and Assyria after their complete destruction, then truly no one is beyond the reach of His grace. These were nations that stood in defiant opposition to God's purposes, that oppressed His people, that mocked His name. Their judgment was complete and final. Yet Isaiah reveals that people from these very nations - Egypt and Assyria - will one day be called God's own, will worship alongside Israel, will be blessed by the Lord of hosts. If mercy can reach that far, what could possibly place anyone beyond its bounds?
The remarkable thing is how simple it is to receive this mercy. When God gave Israel the law, He told them that if they walked away from Him and faced punishment as a result, they could simply pray toward His temple and ask for mercy - and He would give it. So straightforward! Yet they rarely took Him up on the offer. Sin blinds us to the simplicity of mercy. Pride gets in the way of such a humble request. But the offer still stands, now expanded to all nations through Christ: just cast your cares on Him and ask for His mercy, and He will grant it. What a gracious God, and how simple His invitation remains!