The Measured Rod and the Pulverized Altar Text: Isaiah 27:7-11
Introduction: The Difference Between a Spanking and an Execution
In our therapeutic and egalitarian age, we have flattened every distinction. We have a hard time conceiving of a father who disciplines his son, and so we have an even harder time conceiving of a God who disciplines His people. We want to believe that all suffering is the same, all judgment is the same, and that if God is "nice," He must be nice in the same way to everyone. But the Bible will not have it. The Scriptures are insistent that we learn the difference between the hand of a Father and the hand of an executioner. God has two kinds of strokes. One is the stroke of a paddle on the backside of a beloved, but wayward, son. The other is the stroke of an axe on the neck of an implacable enemy. To confuse the two is to misunderstand everything about God, about His covenant, and about your own standing before Him.
The people of God in Isaiah's time were in deep trouble. They were looking at the looming threat of Assyria, a brutal and pagan empire that God was raising up as His instrument of judgment. It was easy for them to look at the coming invasion and conclude that God was done with them, that He was treating them just like He treated the Hittites or the Amorites, whom He had utterly destroyed. It is a temptation for the church in every age to look at her own sin, and at the temporal judgments that follow, and to conclude that she is no different than the world, and that God's anger burns against her in the same way it burns against Babylon.
But Isaiah here draws a sharp, bright line. He teaches us that God's dealings with His own people, even when severe, are fundamentally different from His dealings with the wicked. His anger toward His children is corrective, medicinal, and temporary. His anger toward His enemies is retributive, final, and eternal. This passage is a lesson in divine distinctions. It shows us the nature of covenant discipline, the only acceptable fruit of that discipline, and the terrible fate of those who refuse to learn from it.
The Text
Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has He struck them? Or like the slaughter of those of His who were killed, have they been killed? You contended with them by driving them away, by making them forlorn. With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind. Therefore through this, Jacob’s iniquity will be atoned for; And this will be the whole fruit of the turning away of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones, When Asherim and incense altars will not stand. For the fortified city is isolated, A haunt forlorn and forsaken like the desert; There the calf will graze, And there it will lie down and feed on its twigs. When its limbs are dry, they are broken off; Women come and light a fire with them, For they are not a people of discernment, Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them. And their Creator will not be gracious to them.
(Isaiah 27:7-11 LSB)
A Measured Judgment (v. 7-8)
The prophet begins with a series of rhetorical questions designed to force Israel to think covenantally.
"Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has He struck them? Or like the slaughter of those of His who were killed, have they been killed? You contended with them by driving them away, by making them forlorn. With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind." (Isaiah 27:7-8)
The question is about proportion. God is asking, "Have I dealt with you, Jacob, in the same way I dealt with your enemies?" He points to the pagan nations He has used to strike Israel, nations like Assyria. God struck Assyria, and He struck Israel. But was the striking the same? The implied answer is a thunderous "No!" God's striking of Assyria was a death blow. His striking of Israel was a spanking. He asks if they have been slaughtered like their enemies were slaughtered. Again, no. God preserves a remnant. He never makes a full end of His own people (Jer. 46:28).
This is the fundamental difference between chastisement and condemnation. "For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives" (Hebrews 12:6). The pain might feel the same for a moment, but the purpose is entirely different. The discipline of a son is proof of sonship. The absence of discipline is proof of illegitimacy. God was sending Israel into exile, "driving them away," making them "forlorn." He uses the metaphor of a "fierce wind," the hot east wind from the desert, to describe the severity of this judgment. It is a real and painful expulsion. But it is measured. It is a contention, a legal dispute with His covenant partner, not a war of annihilation against a foreign foe.
The Fruit of Atonement (v. 9)
This measured judgment has a stated, glorious purpose. It is not punitive for the sake of punishment; it is purgative for the sake of holiness.
"Therefore through this, Jacob’s iniquity will be atoned for; And this will be the whole fruit of the turning away of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones, When Asherim and incense altars will not stand." (Isaiah 27:9 LSB)
Here is the goal of God's severe mercy. The word "atoned for" here does not mean that the exile earns their forgiveness. We are not saved by our sufferings. Rather, it means that this is how their iniquity is dealt with, purged, and covered. The exile is the medicine that will cure their primary disease, which is idolatry. The "whole fruit" of this painful process, the sign that the sin has been turned away from, is a radical and violent hatred for their former idols.
What is the evidence of true repentance? It is not just feeling sorry. It is not just saying sorry. The fruit of repentance is iconoclasm. It is taking a sledgehammer to your idols. The Lord says the sign of their sin being dealt with is when "he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones." This is not a gentle dusting. This is total destruction. Chalk stones are soft; they are easily crushed into powder. That is what must happen to the altars of Baal and Molech. The Asherim, those cultic poles dedicated to a Canaanite goddess, and the incense altars dedicated to false gods, "will not stand."
This is a non-negotiable principle. You cannot make peace with God while keeping your idols in the basement. True atonement, which is ultimately found only in the work of Christ, always produces a hatred for the sin that made the atonement necessary. Grace does not make us tolerant of sin; it makes us intolerant of it. The exile was designed to burn the love of idolatry out of Israel's heart, and it worked. When they returned from Babylon, for all their other faults, they never again fell into that particular corporate sin of pagan idol worship. God's medicine, though bitter, was effective.
The Fate of the Undiscerning (v. 10-11)
The prophet then pivots to describe the fate of the city that will not repent, the city that clings to its idols. This applies to unfaithful Jerusalem, but it also describes the end of any civilization that rejects its Maker.
"For the fortified city is isolated, A haunt forlorn and forsaken like the desert; There the calf will graze, And there it will lie down and feed on its twigs. When its limbs are dry, they are broken off; Women come and light a fire with them, For they are not a people of discernment, Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them. And their Creator will not be gracious to them." (Isaiah 27:10-11 LSB)
The "fortified city" represents human pride and self-reliance. It is what men build to keep God out. But God says it will become "isolated," "forlorn," and "forsaken." The picture is one of utter desolation. A place of bustling commerce and military might becomes a pasture. A calf grazes where kings once held court. The branches of the trees in the city are so dead and dry that poor women can simply break them off for firewood. This is a picture of a civilization that has died from the inside out. It has no life, no sap, no fruit.
And why? The last two lines give the ultimate reason. "For they are not a people of discernment." This is the root of the problem. Discernment is the ability to make distinctions, and the most fundamental distinction is the one between the Creator and the creature. Idolatry is a failure of discernment. It is looking at a block of wood that a man carved and calling it god, while ignoring the God who made the man and the tree. A people who cannot tell the difference between their Maker and something they made is a people who have lost their minds.
And the result is terrifying. "Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them. And their Creator will not be gracious to them." Notice the titles He uses: Maker and Creator. It is precisely because He is their Maker that their failure to recognize Him is so heinous. It is a son refusing to acknowledge his own father. When a people fundamentally reject the basis of their own existence, they cut themselves off from the only source of compassion and grace. The judgment is not arbitrary; it is the natural and necessary consequence of their foundational rebellion. They have become spiritually blind, deaf, and dumb, just like the idols they worship, and so God gives them over to the desolation they have chosen.
Conclusion: Smash Your Idols
The message for us is stark and clear. God disciplines His children, and He does so in order to purge sin from them. If you are a believer, the hardships you face are not the random chaos of a meaningless universe, nor are they the vindictive wrath of a tyrant. They are the measured, loving, and purposeful chastisements of a Father who is making you holy. And the required response, the only fruit He is looking for, is for you to get the sledgehammer.
What are your altars? What are your Asherim? Is it your career? Your reputation? Your comfort? Your political tribe? Your secret sin? Whatever it is that you run to for security, meaning, or deliverance, other than Jesus Christ, is an idol. And God's grace in your life is designed to make you hate it. He will bring a fierce east wind if necessary to make you see that your fortified city is a sham and that only He is your refuge.
The fruit of the atonement of Jesus Christ is a heart that joyfully pulverizes its own idols. He did not die so that our idols could be refurbished; He died so that they could be destroyed. And in their destruction, we find our life. For the people of God, the wind of judgment is a wind of purification. But for those who lack discernment, for those who will not have Him as their Maker, that same wind is a wind of utter desolation, and there will be no grace or compassion to be found.
Therefore, look to your Creator. Discern what is holy and what is profane. And when God's chastening hand comes, ask Him to show you the altar that needs to be turned into chalk dust. For that is the path of life.