The opening section of chapter 63 picks up a theme introduced in 61:2: “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God.” Whereas chapter 62 provided a proclamation, prayer, and preparation for the “year of the Lord’s favour”, 63:1-6 speak of His “day of vengeance” (63:4). Here we see the Lord as the Divine Warrior (59:15-19; Ex.15:3); He takes unilateral action (59:16; 63:3), bringing deadly judgment on “the people” (6).
The opening verse pictures the Lord marching in from Bozrah in Edom. His garments are “crimsoned” (1), stained with the blood “(literally “juice”) of His enemies (3). Like one who had been “treading in the winepress” (2), the Lord has been trampling the nations to bring “vengeance” to His enemies and “redemption” to His people (4). Appalled that He found no one to assist Him, the Lord’s own “wrath” (5, 6) motivated Him as He executed judgment.
The mood and theme of the chapter shifts dramatically in verse 7. Here Isaiah reflects and remembers God’s past deliverance when they came out of Egypt, crossed the Red Sea, and journeyed through the desert (7-13). The Lord, in His “steadfast love” has shown His “goodness” and “compassion” to Israel before (7). Isaiah remembers Israel’s rescue from Egypt, when the Lord “became their Saviour” (8). Declaring that Israel would “not deal falsely” with Him, the Lord “redeemed them” and “lifted them up and carried them all the days of old” (9). Filled with compassion for their “affliction” in Egypt, He sent His “angel of his presence and saved them” (9).
In spite of His goodness and deliverance, Israel “rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit” (10). Although He “turned” and “fought against them” (10), He still “remembered the days of old” and continued to guide and provide (11-14). When He disciplined them for their rebellion, His people sought Him with heart-felt cries and questions: “Where is he who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds of his flock? Where is he who put in the midst of them His Holy Spirit, who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them to make for himself an everlasting name, who led them through the depths?” (11-12).
In their distress, the Israelites remembered how the Lord has kept His people from stumbling in the desert. The “Spirit of the Lord gave them rests” (14). Why did the Lord do all this for his wandering, wayward people? Isaiah gives an answer: “So you led your people to make for yourself a glorious name” (14). The Lord was moved by His steadfast love and His passion for His own reputation on the earth.
After looking back to remember God’s past goodness to His people in the past (7-14), Isaiah looks up to offer an extended plea for God’s goodness to come to His people in the present. This prayer for mercy covers the remainder of the chapter and runs seamlessly through the next (63:15-64:12).
Isaiah’s prayer on behalf of Israel spills over with emotion and passion. Isaiah pours out his heart for his demoralized, defeated people. Writing with prophetic insight, he sees Jerusalem in ruins and its temple reduced to charred rubble (64:10-11). Worse yet, he sees his fellow Israelites as hardened in heart (17) and unrighteous in deeds (64:6). Still, having recounted God’s “steadfast love” (7-13), Isaiah finds confidence to appeal for God’s mercy and might to come to their rescue.
Isaiah’s prayer begins with an appeal for the Lord to “Look down from heaven and see from your holy and beautiful habitation” (15). He asks the Lord to take note of their pitiful condition. He pleads for the Lord to show His might and stir His affections for His people once again (15).
On what basis does Isaiah appeal for the Lord’s help? “For you are our Father” (16). While Abraham and Jacob (Israel) might not recognize them as their descendants, surely the Lord will. He remains their “Redeemer from of old” (16).
Isaiah grows bolder as he prays. He asks a probing question: “O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?” While not shifting the blame to God for the waywardness of His people, Isaiah acknowledges God has done to His people what He did to Egypt’s Pharaoh: He has hardened their hearts in unbelief, calcifying their condition (17, 6:10; Exodus 9:12).
Seeing the coming destruction of the Temple and exile of the people, Isaiah laments: “Your holy people held possession for a little while; our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary” (18). As a result, Israel seems like a nation over whom the Lord had “never ruled” (19). They don’t look like a nation associated with the Most High God (“called by your name”—19). They seem like just another nation trampled under the foot of foreign oppressors with no one to deliver them.
The chapter division that follows verse 19, disrupts the flow of Isaiah’s prayer. In fact, chapter 64 is a continuation of the prayer for mercy begun in 63:15. Similar themes occurs throughout the prayer: the plea for the Lord’s attention (63:15; 64:9), the appeal to God as the “Father” of Israel (63:16; 64:8); the Lord’s judicial hardening and hiding (63:17; 64:7); the devastation of the Temple (63:18; 64:11); the appeal for the Lord to “return” and no longer “restrain” His help (63:17; 64:12). Isaiah’s prayer is an urgent and earnest cry for mercy, a call for God to relieve their misery and restore them as His people.
Behold Your God
The Lord’s lethal judgment flows out of his righteousness, salvation, and wrath. The opening scene pictures the Lord returning from trampling the nation of Edom. The blood of the people has turned his garment crimson red. Why this bloodbath? The Lord judges as an expression of his righteousness, salvation, and wrath. In righteousness, He punishes wickedness. In His salvation, the One who is “mighty to save” dispatches His enemies (1,5). In wrath, He brings vengeance on those who, like Edom, attack and oppose His people (1, 4). While this vision of God as the Warrior-Judge does not fit modern, Western sensibilities, it fits the biblical revelation of the Lord. While He maintains “steadfast love” and “compassion” (7), He does not allow sin to go unpunished. As Paul reminds us in Romans 11:22, we should pay careful attention to “the kindness and the severity of God.”
The Lord’s steadfast love and compassion give His people reason to plead for mercy. Isaiah chooses to “recount” God’s “great goodness” to Israel in “days of old” (7, 11). Remembering God’s goodness to a wayward nation in the distant past (7-14) gives him confidence to plead for God’s mercy in the present (63:14-64:12). Though He judges sinful people with vengeance (1-6, 10), the “steadfast love the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning” (Lam. 3:22-23). Great is His faithfulness!
The Lord needs no help to accomplish His will but chooses to work through human leaders. When the Lord brings judgment on Edom and salvation to His people, He acts “alone” (3-4). He needs “no one to help” (5). Still, this all-sufficient God chooses to work through Moses and other “shepherds of his flock” (11-12). He works in and through willing leaders to accomplish wondrous deeds (“divided the waters”—12). In this way, the Lord makes “for himself an everlasting name” (12) and a “glorious name” (14).
Here Am I
I must not downplay the Lord’s coming “day of vengeance.” While God is “mighty to save” (1), His salvation involves rescuing the righteous and repaying the wicked. He brings both “the year of the Lord’s favour” and the “Day of the vengeance of our God” (4, 61:2). Our culture’s view of God writes off Isaiah 63:1-6 as a barbaric, unworthy picture of God, an evidence that we’ve progressed from the primitive understandings of the ancient Israelites. Those of us who believe all Scripture is God-breathed (2 Tim. 3:16), read Isaiah 63:1-6 as part of God’s self-revelation that must not be ignored or dismissed. The book of Revelation dispels any notion that the Old Testament vision of the Lord is substantially modified and mollified in the New.
I do not want to grieve and anger the Lord through rebellion and disloyalty. The Lord expects His children to “not deal falsely” with Him (8). He gives loyal love (“steadfast love”) to His people and anticipates they will be loyal to Him. Sadly, this has not always proven to be the case: “But they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit” (10). Out of a deep love and holy fear of God, and with the help of His Holy Spirit (11), I want to stay loyal and obedient to Him.
To pray with bold faith, I must remember the Lord’s present and past goodness to His people. In verse 7, Isaiah chooses to “recount the steadfast love of the Lord” in the present (“granted us”) and past (“granted them”). Isaiah focuses on God’s compassionate love in delivering His afflicted people out of Egypt and through the “waters” of the Red Sea (11-13). The Lord redeemed His people “in his love and pity,” in spite of the fact they disappointed Him deeply: “they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit” (10). Though He “fought against them” when they rebelled, in His steadfast love, He still put His Holy Spirit “in the midst of them” (11) and “led” them into rest” (14). Remembering God’s goodness in the past, emboldens our prayers for help in the present (15-19).
Rick and Linda Reed 