The day of vengeance and redemption
63
📚Who is this who comesfrom Edom,
from Bozrah,
with garments stained red?
This One who is glorious
in his apparel,
travelling in the greatness of his strength?
“I who speak in righteousness,
mighty to save”.
63:1 See Isa 34:6. Isa 34:1-8 gives a picture very similar to the first six verses of this chapter. This can refer only to the Messiah. He is pictured as coming to deliver Israel.⚜
2 📚Why is your clothing red,
and your garments like one
who treads the winepress?
3 📚“I have trodden the winepress alone,
and none of the people was
with me;
for I have trod on them in my anger,
and trampled them in my fury,
and their blood was sprinkled
on my garments,
and I have stained all my clothing.
4 📚For the day of vengeance was
in my heart,
and the year of my redeemed has come.
5 📚And I looked,
and there was no one to help;
and I wondered that there was
no one to give support;
therefore my own arm brought salvation
for me,
and my fury gave me support.
63:5 See Ezek 22:30 and note there.⚜
6 📚And I trampled the peoples
in my anger,
and made them drunk 📖 with my fury,
and I brought their strength down
to the ground”.
The praise and prayer of God’s people
7 📚I will mention the acts of loving
kindness of the LORD,
and the praises of the LORD,
according to all that the LORD
has granted to us,
and the great goodness toward
the house of Israel which he has granted
to them,
according to his mercies and according
to the multitude of his acts
of loving kindness.
8 📚For he said, “Surely they are
my people,
children who will not lie 📖”.
So he was their Saviour.
9 📚In all their affliction he was afflicted,
and the angel 📖 of his presence saved them.
In his love and in his pity he redeemed them,
and he bore them and carried 📖 them
all the days of old.
63:9 This is the nature of God as revealed in the Bible. He is not distant, uncaring, hard and cold. He feels what His people suffer. He endures it with them, in them. The word “compassion” means to suffer with. The Hebrew expression here is equally strong. In the New Testament see Matt 25:35-40; Acts 9:4.⚜
10 📚But they rebelled 📖 and grieved 📖
his Holy Spirit.
Therefore he turned to become
their enemy 📖,
and he fought against them.
11 📚Then they remembered 📖
the days of old,
Moses, and his people,
saying, “Where is the one
who brought them up out of the sea
with the shepherd of his flock?
Where is the one who put
his Holy Spirit 📖 within him,
12 📚Who led them with
his glorious arm,
by the right hand of Moses,
dividing the water before them,
to make himself an everlasting name,
13 📚Who led them through the deep,
like a horse in the wilderness,
so that they would not stumble?”
14 📚The Spirit of the LORD caused them
to rest,
like cattle going down into the valley;
so you led your people,
to make yourself a glorious name 📖.
63:7-14 A brief look at God’s great goodness toward Israel in the past, similar in tone to Psalms 105,106.⚜
15 📚Look down from heaven and see
from your holy and glorious
dwelling place.
Where is your zeal 📖 and
your strength,
the stirring of your heart and of your
mercies toward me?
Are they restrained?
63:15 Here begins a prayer of Isaiah. He represents the people of Israel. The people felt that God had completely withdrawn from earth to heaven, and was no longer active among them.⚜
16 📚Doubtless you are our father,
though Abraham was ignorant of us,
and Israel does not acknowledge us.
You, O LORD,
are our father, our redeemer;
your name is from everlasting.
63:16 See Isa 64:8; Ex 4:22; Deut 32:6; Jer 3:4; John 8:41. In Israel God was regarded as the Father of the nation. But the people of Israel had fallen so low, were so rebellious against God’s will, that if Abraham and his grandson Israel were there they would not be able to recognize them as their descendants.⚜
17 📚O LORD,
why have you caused us to stray
from your ways,
and hardened our heart
from your fear?
Return for the sake of your servants,
the tribes of your inheritance 📖.
63:17 This prayer probably has reference to Isa 6:9-10. Whatever God did to them in this way was a perfectly just punishment for their sins. Note on hardening at Ex 4:21.⚜
18 📚Your holy people have possessed
it only a little while.
Our adversaries have trampled
down your sanctuary.
63:18 See Isa 64:10-11. This had not happened in Isaiah’s day. Therefore we may judge that he is looking forward to a future time and making this prayer for a future generation.⚜
19 📚We are yours. You have never
ruled over them;
they have not been called by your name.
63:19 Here the contrast is between God’s people Israel and the enemies mentioned in v 18. This verse may possibly be translated “We are like those you have never ruled, like those never called by your name”.⚜