Deeper Commentary
Isaiah 63:1 Who is this who comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? This one who is glorious in his clothing, marching in the greatness of his strength?-
An enquiry "Who is this who comes...?" is the language of watchmen, as in "Who goes there!?". We have just read in Is. 62 of the watchmen on Zion's walls, eagerly looking for the coming of a Messiah to establish the Kingdom of God. We can take it that this is the answer to their prayers. "Who is this?" means what kind of person. The answer is not in a name; but that He is mighty to save through speaking righteousness. Edom [Esau] is the epitome of the enemies of God, a representative nation [see on :4]. There's clearly a word play going on- "red" is adom, the same consonants as Edom / Esau, the red one. Likewise the root 'bzr', Bozrah, is connected to bazir, "vintage". The 'red one' is however now the Messiah, empowered to judge men because He is the Son of Man, red as Edom is red; and perhaps hinting at His final identity with Esau in order to save him through judgment. The watchmen however see a King, dressed in royal red clothing, not clothing merely spattered with blood. Hence GNB "splendidly dressed in red". The language is rather more than meaning 'blood stained'. Royal robes were dyed red, and He is wearing a splendid red robe, as if coming to His own wedding. Zion likewise has been asked to dress in her beautiful wedding garments: "Put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem" (Is. 52:1). And the bridegroom has "put on the garments of vengeance for clothing" (Is. 59:17). But the Messianic Saviour wearing blood stained clothing clearly sends our minds to the Lord's sufferings on the cross. It is a kaleidoscope of images. The blood stained saviour sums up those different images- the blood of His enemies whom He has slain, and His own blood resultant from His death to save. Clearly the prophecy of Judah is in view: "He has washed his garments in wine, his robes in the blood of grapes" (Gen. 49:11). So the red garment of the bridegroom is also the sign of victory over enemies, stained with their blood. The judgment of the enemies, initially the fall of Babylon and Persia, was required to prepare the groom for the wedding with his bride. Thus indeed, the wrath of God is the love of God. His wrath and His love are two sides of the same coin. Isaiah 63 is a classic exemplification of this- Yahweh's wrathful judgment of His enemies is praised as His love for His people (:7).
The blood stained garments of the Lord Jesus clearly also refer to His death. His clothing was literally blood stained. But through a kaleidoscope of images, the figure is also used here of His latter day judgments. To save us requires Him to judge and destroy the present system of man. The Lord said as much, in describing His death on the cross, in blood stained garments, as "the judgment of this world" (Jn. 12:31). Likewise Lot was saved by the destruction of Sodom. Noah and his family were saved by the water of destruction of their surrounding world. And as the world was destroyed by water, so baptism in water saves us, Peter argues. Perhaps the implication is that the world will suck God's people into it unless it is destroyed. This perhaps is what Paul was driving at in his otherwise enigmatic words in Gal. 6:14. He argues that the Lord's cross means that the world is crucified to me, and I am crucified to the world. We are no longer part of the world, because of the cross- because there was the judgment of this world, there the world was crucified: "far be it for me to boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world" (Gal. 6:14). All this explains why the response to the gory description of bloody judgments on the world... is praise and thanksgiving that God has saved His people (Is. 63:7 "I will make mention of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh and the praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the house of Israel which He has bestowed on them according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His grace"). This is why Is. 63:1 LXX opens this section by describing the Lord as "I that speak of righteousness and saving judgment". The judgment of the world saves His people. "The day of recompense" for the world is "the year of redemption" for God's people (:4). All this points up the colossal, radical division between God's people and the world. In no way can they have a foot in both camps.
The warrior Messiah will come having judged all Judah's enemies and not just Babylon. This was the initial intention- that the exiles would flee Babylon before Babylon and the nations were judged. They didn't, and so Babylon wasn't judged as planned. We note the parallel between Edom and Babylon in Ps. 137:7,8: "Remember, Yahweh, against the children of Edom, the day of Jerusalem; who said, Raze it! Raze it even to its foundation! Daughter of Babylon, doomed to destruction, he will be happy who rewards you as you have served us". But the essence will come true, in the return of the Lord Jesus to save His people, having judged all Israel's enemies and not just Babylon. Babylon is called "Edom" here because the final fulfilment of all this will be in God's judgment of all nations [playing on Edom = Adam], and Edom being associated in the prophets with "all nations". And He will specifically judge 'Esau', the Arab nations surrounding Israel, in the last days. His blood stained clothing is here linked with His having judged His enemies, but it also speaks of His death, which was "the judgment of this world" (Jn. 12:31; 16:11). The language is picked up in Rev. 14:19 [the treading of the winepress of God's wrath] and Rev. 19:13 [the Lord dressed in a garment dipped in blood, enabling His followers to follow Him in white clothing, righteousness achieved by His sacrifice]. The winepress will only be trodden when it is full, which is in the last days (Joel 3:13). So Is. 63 is thus applied to the latter day judgments of the Lord Jesus in the land. The Lord coming from Edom is perhaps used in a general sense for being victorious in judgment, based on the victory song of Jud. 5:4: "Yahweh, when You went forth out of Seir, when You marched out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled".
The usage of 'Edom' is perhaps because in the final latter day fulfilment, the Lord Jesus will judge Israel's historical enemies. In Dt. 33 and Hab. 3, we have the latter day picture of "God" coming from Seir, which is Edom, from Teman, Sinai, Midian and other territories surrounding Israel, inhabited by her Arab enemies. And in Ez. 35 we have a horrendous picture of the latter day judgment of Edom, clearly in the last days. For it is a time when the rest of the earth rejoices, and finally Edom comes to know Yahweh. Revelation has similar scenarios, where the earth / land promised to Abraham is pictured full of the bloody judgments of the Lord Jesus in the last days. And yet 'Edom' is similar to 'Adam'; this is also the final judgment of man.
These verses appear to be the Divine fantasy, a potential prophecy, about the Messiah saviour judging Babylon and then also Edom on His way to Zion along with the repentant remnant of both Jews and Gentiles. This is a repeated theme in the prophets- that Babylon was to fall and the nations judged, and thereby both elicit repentance from a Gentile minority and also release the Jews. These things didn't happen as they could have done at the time of the restoration of the exiles. But they will in essence be fulfilled in the future work of the Lord Jesus.
According to Jewish tradition, Nehemiah’s real name was Zerubbabel, the
branch (Sanhedrin 38a)- perhaps the same Zerubbabel as mentioned
in Haggai and Zechariah. The Hippolytus Chronicle 7:3:37 even claims
Nehemiah was a direct descendant of David and in the direct kingly line.
His name, ‘comfort of Yahweh’, invites us to see him as the potential
fulfilment of the Is. 40:1,2 prophecy about a Messiah figure arising to
the exiles, giving them God’s comfort. At the time of Judah's redemption,
while the temple had been trodden down by her enemies, the promised
Messiah figure of Is. 63:1-3,18 was to come from Edom and Bozrah - both
code names for Babylon. The words "Bozrah" and "Babylon" have similar root
meanings ('high / fortified place'). And he was to lament how the people
of Judah were not with him- "of the people there was none with me". But
this is the very spirit of Nehemiah, when he returns to Jerusalem from
Babylon and looks around the 'trodden down' city at night, not telling the
people of the Jews about his inspection- i.e. the people were not with him
(Neh. 2:11-16).
Isaiah 63:2 Why are you red in your clothing-
In
the context of the answer in :3, we could assume that the force of the
question is "Why are you alone red...?".
And your garments like him who treads in the wine vat?- Is. 63:2,3 explains how in the process of obtaining salvation, the Lord’s clothing would be made red. Red clothes in Isaiah suggest sinfulness that needs cleansing (Is. 1:18). He was completely identified with us, to the point of feeling a sinner even although He never sinned. "Treads" is the same Hebrew word used in Num. 24:17 of how the Messianic star out of Jacob would tread down Israel's historical enemies, who would be as it were reincarnated in the last days. This is the time of the 'treading down' of all the peoples of the eretz who were against Israel (s.w. Jer. 25:30), the 'treading down' of the daughter of Babylon (Jer. 51:33 s.w.). But it was not just Gentiles whom the Messianic figure was to tread down; "the Lord has trodden the virgin daughter of Judah as in a winepress" (Lam. 1:15; Mic. 1:3 s.w.). The judgment of Babylon and her supporters, epitomized by Edom (:1), was to be at the same time as the judgment of the apostate people of God. And out of a trodden down wine vat there comes wine- the symbol of blessing and the new covenant.
Isaiah 63:3 I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the peoples there
was no man with Me: yes, I trod them in My anger, and trampled them in My
wrath-
The spirit of Christ was in the prophets (1 Pet. 1:11). So often we read of His sense of loneliness, and surprise and disappointment that there were none to help, and He had to do His work "alone". Consider the emphasis: "I have trodden the wine press alone; and of the peoples there was no man with Me" (Is. 63:3); "I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that there was none to uphold: therefore My own arm brought salvation to Me" (Is. 63:5); "He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor: therefore His own arm brought salvation to Him" (Is. 59:16); "Why, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer?" (Is. 50:2); "When I look, there is no man; even among them there is no counsellor" (Is. 41:28). And surely the Lord alluded to this in observing, as He faced the cross: "you shall be scattered, every man to his own home, and you shall leave me alone; and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me" (Jn. 16:32). It explains His inability to hide His disappointment that in Gethsemane, the disciples fell asleep: "Could you not watch with Me one hour?" (Mk. 14:37). All the disciples forsook Him, fled and left Him alone (Mk. 14:50). Likewise from the cross He looked for comforters, for some human to pity Him, and found none: "I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; for comforters, but I found none" (Ps. 69:20). He was left like a solitary bird in a ruined building: "I am like a desert owl, like an owl among the ruins..." (Ps. 102:6,7). Several times Job says the same things. "My God, why have You forsaken Me?" (Mt. 27:46) is to be read in the context of feeling forsaken by all men. The Lord was human, and so He felt strongly the need for social support from others. For this is natural to all psychologically healthy people. But He didn't find it. And neither, finally, do all those in Him. We walk alone with the Lord, and face our deepest crises, and death itself, with Him alone. Regardless of how apparently well connected we are with support groups. This is the nature of what it is to be "in Christ". It explains why all in Christ have our support groups removed, in essence. That we might say with Paul "But the Lord stood with me", even though all others forsook him. The existential loneliness of the cross, and the Lord's entire ministry, is in fact programmatic for all those individuals in Him. All His people in some way have the same experience. Only someone within a tight religious bubble, who has not received His Spirit, would find what I am saying here somehow strange and not understandable. Surely Paul alludes to these things in saying that when on trial for his life, "No man stood with me, but all forsook me" (2 Tim. 4:16).
The way the Saviour is "alone" would allude to the way that no other man rose up to the call to be the prophesied servant of the Messianic prophecies (Is. 59:16). The judgments are likewise performed by Him "alone" in the sense that the judgments upon the nations will be supernatural and only later will a repentant remnant be used as Yahweh's "weapons of war".
And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, and I have stained
all My clothing- There is
a
connection between the Lord's death and the judgment of the world; "now is
the judgment of this world" He commented, with reference to His upcoming
crucifixion (Jn. 12:31). He alone has the right to judge, because He alone
had our nature and never sinned. The Lord having
His own clothes put back on Him meant that He would have been dressed in
blood sprinkled garments for the walk to Golgotha. His holy mind
would have been on these Messianic prophecies of Is. 63:3 about a Messiah
with blood sprinkled garments lifted up in glorious victory. Or perhaps He
saw the connection to Lev. 8:30, where the priests had to have blood
sprinkled garments in order to begin their priestly work. This would have
sent His mind to us, for whom He was interceding. Likewise when He
perceived that His garment would not be rent, He would have joyfully
perceived that He was indeed as the High Priest whose garment was not to
be rent (Ex. 39:23).
The kaleidoscope of images continues, in that "stained" is the word for defilement. Blood defiled. It is the word used for how the exiles were "defiled": "Your hands are defiled with blood" (Is. 59:3), and for how the priests of the time were likewise polluted / defiled with blood (Neh. 7:64; Lam. 4:14; Mal. 1:7). Through the unique achievement and nature of the cross, the Lord identified even with the condemned; just as God was afflicted in all the afflictions of judgment He brought upon His people. But He was dressed in glorious red clothing. It was through being made a curse for us on the cross that the Lord judged the world, and was dressed in glorious clothing. And all these images will be brought together at His return.
Isaiah 63:4 For the day of vengeance was in My heart, and the year of My
redeemed has come- This is the very
phrase used about the final judgment upon Edom in Is. 34:8: "Yahweh has a
day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause [legal case] of
Zion". But the judgment upon Edom in Is. 34 appears to also be upon all
nations: "For Yahweh is enraged against all the nations and angry with all
their armies" (Is. 34:2). There is a clear similarity between the Hebrew
words for 'Edom' and 'Adam', mankind. Edom is a representative nation, as
in Ez. 36:5 ["against the rest of the nations and against all Edom, who
gave my land to themselves as a possession"]; Am. 9:12 [ESV "that they may
possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations"]; Obadiah 15 [the
judgments upon Edom are "For the day of Yahweh is nearly upon all the
nations!"]. We note the contrast between the "day" of
judgment, and the "year" of redemption. Which is interpreted by Paul as the
period of salvation we now live in. God's focus is far more upon our
salvation than upon judgment. Heb. "the year of My redemption", alluding
to the Jubilee year. The
exiles refused that redemption at the end of the 70 years, and so as
explained on Is. 61:2, the time of redemption has become the age of
redemption. Open to all, Gentiles or Jews, from then onwards. See on Ex. 2:11,12. This is the year of
Jubilee pronounced in Is. 61. We note the difference between the single
"day" of vengeance compared to the whole "year" of redemption. Saving is
by far God's preferred activity. Those to be redeemed are not simply
"Israel", but those of them who want the redemption which will come about
through the "vengeance" of the judgments. For as explained on :2, the Jews
are to be judged along with the Gentiles.
This chapter was quoted by Judas Maccabeus, who killed 20,000 from Edom in his campaigns against the Idumeans (:1); and John Hyrcanus, his brother Simon's son and successor, also defeated the Edomites and forced them to become proselytes to the Jewish religion, and to be circumcised. At best it could be argued that the Maccabees were potential fulfillments of the prophecies, but they failed to do so. And so the final fulfilment will be in the Lord Jesus in the last days.
Isaiah 63:5 I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered that
there was none to uphold: therefore My own arm brought salvation to Me;
and My wrath, it upheld Me-
Just as the Lord was alone in judging the nations, so He was alone in redeeming His people. LXX brings this out: "I looked, and there was no helper; and I observed, and none upheld: therefore my arm delivered them, and mine anger drew nigh". See on :3. The salvation of God's people is related to His wrath on the nations. It is that wrath on the world which saves His people. The initial intention was that God would destroy Babylon and bring His people to salvation; indeed, this was why He appealed for them to leave Babylon lest they be destroyed along with Babylon. Most of them remained, and so God reapplied and rescheduled this great salvation. This is why the blood stained saviour sums up different images- the blood of His enemies whom He has slain, and His own blood resultant from His death to save.
The arm of Yahweh, the practical articulation of His power, is ultimately the Lord Jesus. The way the Saviour is "alone", as in :3, would allude to the way that no other man rose up to the call to be the prophesied servant of the Messianic prophecies (Is. 59:16). None of the potential Messiah figures worked out; and it seems about nobody responded to the prophetic call for the exiles to repent. God was 'desolated' ["wondered"]about this, so great were His hopes for some response. And yet God wished to try to save them anyway by His dramatic intervention, which was to come to full term in the person and work of His own son.
God sent His prophets to appeal to Israel for repentance. They
could have lead to repentance. But Israel would not. The
marriage feast was totally ready and waiting for the Jewish people; they
could have had it. But they didn’t want it, and so the course of human
history was extended. Therefore finally God sent His Son. The Lord Jesus
Himself was amazed that no other man had achieved the work which He had
to; and therefore He clad Himself with zeal and performed it (Is. 41:28;
50:2; 59:16 cp. Rev. 5:3,4). God knew that salvation in the end would have
to be through the death of His Son. But there were other possible
scenarios for the repentance and salvation of mankind, which no man
achieved. And so, as in the parable of the servants sent to get fruit from
the vineyard, there was left no other way but the death of God’s only Son.
We may well enquire as to the sense in which Yahweh apparently saved Himself. Possibly the idea is that His purpose with His people was failing, not one had responded. The gracious offer of the new covenant had been spurned. And so He worked out His purpose through the work of His Son [His "arm"] to at least save some, and thus saved His entire project with man from failure. He upheld His saving purpose, His desire to have a people. His "arm" is the Lord Jesus; it cannot be that the idea is that the "arm" saved Himself. The arm saved Yahweh. "The year of My redeemed has come" meant that the 70 years had ended and salvation was now possible. But the exiles didn't want it. The idea of Yahweh using His hand and arm to save is in Dt. 32:36-41; He uses His own arm to save when His people are as it were finished, at the end, from their own sins: "Yahweh will judge His people and have compassion on His servants when He sees that their power is gone, that there is none remaining, shut up or left at large... See now that I, even I, am He... There is no one who can deliver out of My hand. For I lift up My hand to heaven and say, as surely as I live forever... My hand takes hold on judgment".
Isaiah 63:6 I trod down the peoples in My anger, and made them drunk in My
wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth-
Blood from the
sacrifices was poured out on the earth to symbolize that life is God's
alone. This is the scene of Is. 34:6, where Yahweh has a great sacrifice
to make in Bozrah and Idumea, which is the context here too (:1). The
implication could be that through their heavy judgment, they would become
an acceptable sacrifice to Him; see on Is. 34:2,6.
Isaiah 63:7 I will make mention of the loving kindnesses of Yahweh and the
praises of Yahweh, according to all that Yahweh has bestowed on us, and
the great goodness toward the house of Israel which He has bestowed on
them according to His mercies, and according to the multitude of His
grace- This song of praise to God is thanking Him for the
amazing destruction of His enemies in :1-6.
The same words would be said by the Gentiles; they would proclaim Yahweh's praise just as the
Israelites themselves would (Is. 60:6). The Gentiles would now
identify themselves with the Israelites in forming the new multiethnic
people of God which was to be formed on the basis of repentance and
acceptance of the new covenant. This praise is to be the result of His
judgments upon the wicked, both of Israel and the Gentiles. Hence LXX "The Lord is a good judge to the house of
Israel; he deals with us according to his mercy, and according to the
abundance of his righteousness". The term "the house of Israel"
suggests that both Judah and the ten tribe kingdom would be united by the
experience of grace; and that is indeed the basis for unity amongst God's
people to this day.
Isaiah 63:8 For He said, Surely, they are My people, children who will not
deal falsely: so He was their Saviour-
The idea is "He had said", in His heart, at the
time when He entered covenant relationship with them. He said in His heart
that "surely" they would be faithful to Him as they promised. But He was
to be bitterly disappointed. His love was such, and the hope that goes
with love, that God as it were limited His omniscience to have such
feelings. LXX "and he became to
them deliverance", a profound prophecy of how God was in Christ,
reconciling the world unto Himself. The eagerness of the God who was in love with His woman Israel is quite
something. "Surely they are my people, children that will not lie!" (Is.
63:8), He triumphed. But this was because of His mercy and love to them
(:7). That love as it were blinded His eyes to their sin. And this is the
basis of our being counted righteous if we are in His beloved Son. But
with Israel, "then I saw that she was defiled...
then my
mind was alienated" (Ez. 23:13,18). How does this square with the
omniscience of God? He stopped restraining His omniscience. He saw them
for who they were, unfaithful, and reacted. He did everything He could for
His vineyard, and was then so bitterly disappointed when it brought forth
wild grapes (Is. 5:4).
The Father is ever seeking for some positive response, and is highly sensitive to it. He told Moses: “If they will not believe… neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign [but] if they will not believe also these two signs…” (Ex. 4:8). The God who knows the end from the beginning gives the impression that He is sure they will believe- even though they didn’t. He is so seeking for faith in His creatures (cp. “surely they will reverence my son”, Mt. 21:37, and Ex. 19:21 cp. 20:18). In this, Isaiah says, He shows His matchless grace: “For He said, Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so [therefore] He was their Saviour… but they rebelled, and vexed His holy [gracious] spirit” (Is. 63:8,10). Our tendency is to notice the negative in others, and let it outweigh the positive. God works quite the other way. He hopes for positive response, and even speaks as if He will get it when He knows He won’t.
Isaiah 63:9 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-
LXX and GNB stress how this salvation was personally a result of God's deep intense involvement: "out of all their affliction: not an ambassador, nor a messenger, but himself saved them, because he loved them and spared them: he himself redeemed them, and took them up, and lifted them up all the days of old".
If we stick with the Masoretic Text, the Angel of God's face ["presence"] could refer to the Angel with whom Moses spoke face to face, and possibly the one who passed before Moses and allowed Moses to only see his back parts. Judaism speaks of this Angel who so intensely manifests God as Metatron. The same grace shown in saving Israel from Egypt, despite them still carrying the idols of Egypt with them and the tabernacle of Remphan, was to be shown in redeeming the exiles from Babylon. Just as God in love and pity carried them through the wilderness despite their unfaithfulness. And it will again be shown in the final salvation of God's people. "The angel of His presence" was the same Angel which went with Israel through the wilderness, fulfilling the promise that "My presence shall go with you" (Ex. 33:14). But that Angel was intensely representative of God; to the point that the LXX offers: "not an ambassador, nor a messenger, but Himself saved them". Thereby in all their affliction, He was afflicted; and He achieves an even more powerful identity with our experiences through the work and nature of His Son, who is far greater and more effective than the ministry of Angels. "Afflicted" is the word used in :18 of the Babylonian "adversaries" who destroyed Jerusalem. Whilst this was an act of Divine judgment, God still felt for His people all through it. Jeremiah's laments in Lamentations that God had somehow switched off from feeling for His people were therefore simply stating things as they seemed to him at the time. For in reality, in their affliction He was afflicted. The word for "afflictions" is frequently used of Israel's sufferings for their sins (Dt. 31:17,21; Neh. 9:27,37; Jer. 4:32; 6:24). It is the word used for the time of Jacob's "trouble" / affliction (Jer. 30:7). But God was Himself afflicted in the afflictions He brought upon His people.
Isaiah 63:10 But they rebelled and grieved His holy spirit: therefore He
was turned to be their enemy, and He Himself fought against them- see on Jn. 14:26,30; Gen. 8:1; Josh. 24:17.
"His holy spirit" refers initially to the Angel of His presence (:9), for
God makes His angels spirits (Ps. 104:4). They refused to follow the
leadership of the Angel; for many of the exiles remained in Babylon /
Persia, as the book of Esther makes clear. Likewise Israel had "rebelled"
in not following God's saving plan in the wilderness and wanting to return
to Egypt rather than go forward to the promised land (s.w. Dt. 9:23).
And
it grieved the spirit / Angel, representative of God Himself (:9). This describes the work of the Holy Spirit Angel with regard to punishing Israel in language which hints at the flood: "It repented the Lord that He had made man on the earth (land), and it grieved Him at His heart" (Gen. 6:6) connects with "They rebelled, and vexed His Holy Spirit (cp. grieved at the heart): therefore He was turned to be their enemy (cp. "repented"), and He fought against them". 2 Peter 3:6,7; Mt. 24:37 and Dan. 9:26 (an impressive trio) say that the flood is a type of God's judgement of the earth at the second coming- and we know that Jesus will come with His Angels with Him to do this, in the same way as the Angels were prominent in this earlier "coming" of the Lord at the flood.
God (in the Angel of the presence) "was turned to be (Israel's) enemy" because of their sin (Is. 63:10)- likewise Job complains that his satan-Angel has "turned to be cruel to me" (Job 30:21 AVmg.).
The gift of the Spirit, a new heart and opened
eyes, was to be part of the new covenant deal offered to the exiles. They
refused it, and so in a different form it is now offered to all who are
baptized into Christ. The same gift of the Spirit is now available to us-
but we are not forced to follow where we are led, towards salvation in the
same reestablished Kingdom of God on earth. Thus
Eph. 4:30 is a
quotation from Is. 63:10- a lament about how Israel in the wilderness
"vexed His holy spirit" with their continued provocations. Ps. 78:40 says
the same: "How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve
Him in the desert!". Putting these verses together, we see that to provoke
God, to grieve Him, is the same as vexing or grieving His spirit. Paul's
point was that the Ephesian believers had likewise been redeemed from
'Egypt' and had been sealed by God "with that holy spirit of promise"
(Eph. 1:13). I understand this to mean that God's spirit works upon and
merges with the human spirit in the heart and life of the baptized
believer in Christ. But by turning away from that leading, we are vexing
or grieving God through frustrating the way of His spirit which He has put
within us. Clearly it was God whom Israel grieved in the
wilderness, and it is God whom we grieve by provoking and
frustrating His spirit in us.
Isaiah 63:11 Then He remembered the days of old, Moses and His people,
saying, Where is He who brought them up out of the sea with the shepherds
of His flock? Where is He who put His holy spirit in their midst?-
It is hard to decide who is speaking here. It is hard to avoid the
conclusion that this is a wonderful insight into the internal thoughts of
God [as we have just had in :8], as He as it were rebuked His own anger- something we read of Him
doing in Ps. 78:38 [see notes there]: "many times He turned His anger
away, and didn’t stir up all His wrath". The same idea of Him "many times"
relenting is found in Ps. 106:43-45: "Many times He delivered them, but
they were rebellious... Nevertheless He regarded their distress... He
remembered for them His covenant, and relented according to the multitude
of His graces". See on Ex. 34:27.
It could be argued that this is the same "Spirit of the Lord [which] caused him (Moses) to rest: so didst Thou lead Thy people" (by
an Angel in the wilderness, :14), the Spirit-Angel of :9,10. This shows
God as it were looking back to the days when He led them through the wilderness
by the Angel, and in wrath remembering mercy. "Where is He that brought them up... " He asked
Himself.
We have here an insight into the thought processes of God Almighty,
recalling, as it were, how He had been with them at the exodus. Although
the pole of His love and grace wins out within His personality over the
pole of judgment, a struggle is involved; and the summary conclusion that
"God is love" is not arrived at without appreciating this tension and
struggle within Him.
Yahweh had promised that He would lead His people on that wilderness
journey from Babylon to Zion just as He had earlier led His people from
Egypt to the same promised land. Jer. 31:2 had encouraged them that Israel
“found grace in the wilderness” before, and they would do again, “When I
go to cause [Israel] to go to their place of rest” (RV). God had promised
in Jer. 31:9 that He would bring Israel on their journey from Babylon to
Judah along the fertile crescent- He would “cause them to walk by the
rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble”. This
is why Isaiah’s prophecies of the restoration from Babylon are shot
through with allusion to the exodus and wilderness journey (e.g. Is. 43:2;
51:10; 63:11). The tragedy of it
all is that God had earlier lamented that the Jews did not say "Where is
the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt?" (Jer. 2:6). He
remembered it, but they didn't- at least, not on the level of conviction,
but at best, as merely historical and cultural memory.
Isaiah 63:12 Who caused His glorious arm to go at the right hand of Moses?
Who divided the waters before them, to make Himself an everlasting name?-
Israel were led by God’s hand (Heb. 8:9; Is. 63:13); but in practice by Moses’ hand (Ps. 77:20; Is. 63:12).
The Name of Yahweh is not simply a word, a lexical item, pronounced
something like Yahoovah or Yahweh. His Name is His character and
personality, which has been developed and exhibited historically. His
salvation of His sinful, idol worshipping people from Egypt exhibited and
exemplified His saving grace; and He wished again to show that same "arm"
and "Name" in saving the exiles and bringing them to the Kingdom of God.
They too frustrated His saving plans; and so that same mighty arm is
outstretched in redeeming a new people, who are to leave the things of
this world and likewise allow themselves to be led on a spiritual journey
towards God's Kingdom.
Isaiah 63:13 Who led them through the depths, as a horse in the
wilderness, so that they didn’t stumble?-
The idea is as in Ps. 106:9: “He led
them through the depths as through a pasture-land”. 'Wilderness' isn't a
good translation here because it gives the idea of scrub land with bushes.
The idea rather is of a horse galloping unimpeded in vast, empty plains.
That was the spirit in which God sought to lead them through the
constrictions of the Red Sea.
Jer. 31:9 had prophesied of the restoration: “They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will I lead them: I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way, wherein they shall not stumble”. Likewise Is. 63:13 reminded the returnees that when they had been led through the wilderness to Canaan under Moses, they did not stumble [s.w.]. But both Ezra and Nehemiah wanted to have a Babylonian military escort on the journey back; they weren’t sure that they would be given “a straight way” with Yahweh’s protection. Neh. 4:10 records that “Judah said, The strength of the bearers of burdens is decayed [s.w. “stumble”, Jer. 31:9], and there is much rubbish; so that we are not able to build the wall”. They were easily discouraged by the words of the surrounding world, by the apparent hopelessness of their task; and thus they stumbled. Ezra 8:21 LXX describes how Ezra fasted for them to be given a “straight way”, as Jeremiah had foretold they could have. He saw the need for them to make the effort to fulfill the prophecy. Note how Ezekiel’s vision of the cherubim featured “straight” progress; the wheels on earth surely connect with how Israel should have been, moving in a straight way back to the land, in harmony with the Angel-cherubim above them likewise moving in a straight way. But they failed to “keep in step with the Spirit”... They were to walk “each one straight before him” (Is. 57:2 RVmg.), as each of the cherubim went straight ahead (Ez. 1:12). Ps. 107:2,7 RV speak of Israel being gathered out of the nations and being led in a “straight way” to Zion, as they had [potentially] been enabled to do on their departure from Egypt. Yet then they spent 38 years walking a distance coverable in just 11 days- because they did not walk in the “straight way”.
Isaiah 63:14 As the cattle that go down into the valley, the spirit of
Yahweh caused them to rest; so You led Your people- see on Dt. 34:5,6.
The "rest" was the promised land
as in Ex. 33:14 (also Dt. 12:9; Josh. 1:13): "My
presence shall go with you and I will give you rest".
And it was that same land to which Yahweh was willing to lead Israel from
Babylon; but it was a redemption refused. We too as a new Israel are being
led toward the "rest" of the Kingdom (Heb. 4:9). If we follow AV "the
spirit of the Lord caused him to rest", we could make the referent of
"him" to be Moses, who was led to his rest in death by an Angel, the
"spirit of Yahweh" of :9-11. But more essentially the reference is to God
leading His people as a shepherd, into the valley of rest.
To make Yourself a glorious name- See on :12. If God has been speaking previously, then this is the comment of Isaiah or the one praying the prayer. For the rest of the chapter records his prayer. Again we have 'voices' appearing in Isaiah, sometimes mid verse. And as seen in the Psalms and our own prayers, human words can suddenly be met by Divine responses.
Isaiah 63:15 Look down from heaven, and see from the habitation of Your
holiness and of Your glory: where are Your zeal and Your mighty acts? The
yearning of Your heart and Your compassion is restrained toward me-
The request for God to behold from His habitation ignores what He has said in Is. 57:15: "For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite". He does and will observe the humble from His habitation. But the demand is that God forgets that requirement and just looks upon His people favourably, humble or not.
Isaiah, or the faithful remnant, seek to remind God of His compassion shown at the exodus to an equally apostate people who took the idols of Egypt with them through the Red Sea. He Himself had this memory within Him (:11), and they are appealing for Him to recall that and act with a similar saving grace. Or it could be that here we are being told how the situation in :11 came about. Why did God recall His previous acts of saving grace toward sinful Israel? Because He had been 'reminded' of it by this prayer of the faithful. They were His rememberancers, the watchmen on Zion's walls reminding Him, as it were, of His previous saving actions and grace towards His very immature and faithless people. The tension within His heart we commented upon on :11 had been provoked by this prayerful appeal to recall the yearning of His heart toward His people. God had earlier accepted that throughout the captivity He had been "restrained toward" Israel, but now He would be restrained no longer (s.w. Is. 42:14). But He did so because of the prayer of the faithful not to restrain Himself longer (Is. 63:15; 64:12). The tragedy is that His unrestrained desire to save and redeem the exiles was still refused by them; and perhaps there were few who really begged Him to no longer restrain Himself. For they were quite happy with their prosperous lives in Babylon and Persia. And so the events of the last days will elicit this more intense prayer, and Yahweh will finally act unrestrainedly in this earth.
The restraint of God, now removed in the announcements of restoration, had already been explained in Is. 42:14: "For a long time I have held my peace; I have kept still and restrained myself; now I will cry out like a woman in labor; I will gasp and pant". See notes there. Those praying this prayer were wilfully ignorant of God's wonderful assurance of activity for them.
Isaiah 63:16 For You are our Father, though Abraham doesn’t know us, and
Israel does not acknowledge us: You, Yahweh, are our Father-
Abraham and the promises to him have often been alluded to so far in Isaiah. And that is because God was offering the exiles a new covenant, which was based upon the promises to Abraham rather than the law of Moses. The exiles are therefore wrong at this point to appeal for a relationship with God somehow separate to Abraham and Jacob, to whom the promises were given which form the basis of the new covenant. They are also ignoring the encouragement of Is. 51:2, that as Abraham was revived from a hopeless situation and given a seed, so could they be. If they walked in his steps and faith.
The idea may be that even if [NEV "though"] Abraham and their fathers had disowned them, then God was their father- by adoption. Abraham had been promised to be father of a great nation (Gen. 12:2; 13:16; 15:5 etc.). They felt both Abraham and Jacob had disowned them. And so they are tacitly appealing to God to still be their Father- for the promises to Abraham to be reapplied to them, somehow. Those promises are the basis of the new covenant. And that was exactly what God was offering to them. A father could disown his son, although he could not disown an adopted son. Galatians 4 plays on this theme- that as God's adopted sons, we can never be disowned by Him. We would have to renounce Him. And only a real fool would do that. God presents Himself as the adopter of those thus disowned, in Ps. 68:6, where God is described as father of the fatherless.
However Is. 64:8 predicates God's Fatherhood on the fact He is their creator: "But now, Yahweh, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and we all are the work of Your hand". Is. 45:9-11 has likewise paralleled the idea of God as Father and creator with being our potter: "Woe to him who strives with his Maker... Shall the clay ask Him who fashions it, ‘What are you making?’ or your work, ‘He has no hands?’. Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What have you become the father of?’ or to a mother, ‘To what have you given birth?’. Thus says Yahweh the Maker and Holy One of Israel: You can ask Me about the things that are to come, concerning My sons, and you command Me concerning the work of My hands!". Likewise Mal. 2:10: "Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us?". God's answer to their feeling that Abraham has disowned them is not to correct them[for Abraham was dead and had not consciously done this]. Rather He reminds them that He as their creator and potter is eternally their Father, and will always have a desire to the work of His hands. The connection between creation and being a potter of clay alludes to God's creation of Adam, by molding clay into the form of a man and energizing it. But the creation and 'pottering' in view is not simply the natural creation which all men have experienced. Being Father, potter and creator is paralleled later in :16 with being redeemer. And a redeemer redeemed his blood relatives. Mal. 2:10 has the exiles lamenting that although they have broken the covenant with God, He is still their creator. We conclude therefore that the 'creation' in view is specifically that of Israel as God's people. Is. 63:8 has the same idea- "Surely they are My people, children who will not deal falsely". We each can likewise safely conclude that Yahweh chose us to be His people, and began His creative work in us. Is. 64:1 implies a new Sinai- which was the moment when God declared Israel to be His people. This was to happen again, with God re-accepting the Jews as His people and creating a new people once again. The argument here is adopted by the Lord in Jn. 8, where He argues that the Jews of His day may be the physical descendants of Abraham, they had Abraham as their father, but in fact they were not at all "of" Abraham. Just as Paul will argue that "they are not all Israel / Jacob who are of Israel".
This statement that Yahweh is their father is, however, problematic. Because they were calling Yahweh "Father" without accepting the responsibilities of being God's children: "And I thought you would call me, my Father" (Jer. 3:19). The returned exiles however had done this just as a formality, for "If then I am a father, where is the honour due Me?" (Mal. 1:6). This prayer labours the point, twice in one verse, that the exiles did claim Yahweh as their father. That would imply that they had ditched all other spiritual fathers and gods. Which Is. 58 and Zechariah make clear they didn't. And so we could well wonder whether this prayer from the exiles fits the pattern of Mal. 1:6, calling Yahweh "Father" without honouring Him. And we recall how Isaiah began in Is. 1:2-4: "I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against Me... offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly". See on :17; Is. 64:5.
Although I argue on Is. 63:17; 64:5 that this prayer is inadequate as a confession of sin, this is also a prayer of penitence, recognizing that although Yahweh is their Father, they have not acted as the seed of Abraham and Jacob. It is such penitence from God's people which is required for His saving arm to be fully revealed in the last days.
Our Redeemer from everlasting is Your name- God's essential preference for saving grace rather than judgment is an essential part of His character; see on :11. That Name or personality was eternal and didn't change, and it is this which is being appealed to through the recollection of how He had historically articulated that grace within His Name. And His imputation of righteousness, the things of His Name placed upon His people, may be in view if we follow the LXX: "Thy name has been upon us from the beginning".
As Hosea ‘redeemed’ Gomer in His attempt to force through His fantasy for her (Hos. 3:1), so Yahweh is repeatedly described in Isaiah as Israel’s go’el , redeemer (Is. 41:14; Is. 43:14; Is. 44:6,24; Is. 47:4; Is. 48:17; Is. 49:7,26; Is. 54:5,8). The redeemer could redeem a close relative from slavery or repurchase property lost during hard times (Lev. 25:25,26, 47-55; Ruth 2:20; Ruth 3:9,12). The redeemer was also the avenger of blood (Num. 35:9-28; Josh. 20:3,9). All these ideas were relevant to Yahweh’s relationship to Judah in captivity. But the promised freedom didn’t come- even under Nehemiah, Judah was still a province within the Persian empire. And those who returned complained: “We are slaves this day in the land you gave…” (Neh. 9:36). The wonderful prophecies of freedom and redemption from slavery weren’t realized in practice, because of the selfishness of the more wealthy Jews. And how often is it that the freedom potentially enabled for those redeemed in Christ is in practice denied them by their autocratic and abusive brethren
Isaiah 63:17 O Yahweh, why do You make us to err from Your ways, and
harden our heart from Your fear? Return for Your servants’ sake, the
tribes of Your inheritance-
As will be discussed on Is. 64:5, this prayer continually more
than hints that God is at fault. It is more of a lament, complaint and
appeal, than the required total, abject confession of sin. It admits
Israel's sin but attempts to blame it on God. Isaiah has stressed that God
has prepared a way in the desert for them to walk, setting up signs and
waymarks; not making them err from His way (Is. 48:20, 50:10, 55:1–5,
57:14, 58:1–59:15). And Is. 53:6; 56:11 have been clear enough that it was
Judah's choice to turn to a wrong way: "All we like sheep have gone
astray; each one has turned to his own way... they have each turned
to their own way, each one to his gain". The Divine solution was for them
to accept the work of the suffering servant to return them to the right
way. But here, the blame for being on the wrong way is placed on God.
Asking God to "return" to them is inappropriate, given the huge play on this word shub. God originally said that if they returned to Him, He would return to them, and would return them to Judah from Babylon. They didn't return / repent to Him, but He decided to return them to the land anyway. But for the most part they refused to respond to Cyrus' decree to return. Isaiah had been commissioned in Is. 6:10 "Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed". It is quite possible that Isaiah is now complaining, as Jeremiah did similarly. His complaint is that indeed he has hardened Judah's heart, on God's behalf. And so God shouldn't complain that Judah had a hard heart. But that is to ignore the context of the command to harden their hearts; it was a confirmation of their sin. Isaiah had then asked: "Then I said, Lord, how long?" (Is. 6:11). The reply was basically "Until there is repentance". And there hadn't been. It is however quite possible that the author [or the person praying] in Is. 63,64 is Jeremiah; because the language and style is so similar to Lamentations. There too we have accusations of Yahweh's betrayal of His people mixed alongside wonderful spiritual insights and confessions of faith, e.g. that His mercies are new every morning. Lamentations and this prayer share lots of similar language- calling Yahweh God's "enemy", calling the temple a "treasure", common use of the word "compassion" etc.
God does in fact lead men in a downward spiral as well as in an upward spiral of relationship with Him – Pharaoh would be the classic example. It is perhaps this situation more than any which we should fear – being hardened in sin, drawing ever closer to the waterfall of destruction, until we come to the point that the forces behind us are now too strong to resist... Saul lying face down in the dirt of ancient Palestine the night before his death would be the classic visual image of it. And the Lord urges us to pray earnestly that we are not led in that downward spiral of temptation. This recognition that they have been hardened in their ways can be read as part of the confession of sin in :16. The request to restore all the tribes suggests that those praying this prayer have moved on from the sectarian division between Israel and Judah. Again, it is the experience of repentance and receipt of restoring grace which is the ultimate basis for unity between God's people. And yet it could be argued that :16-19 is the cynical complaint of a sector within Jewish society who accepted that they had not been as Abraham and Jacob (:16), but still lamented all the judgment which had come upon them without specifically joining the dots and realizing it was their lack of repentance which was responsible for the situation.
Isaiah 63:18 Your holy people possessed it but a little while: our
adversaries have trodden down Your sanctuary- Eternal inheritance had
been promised, and compared to eternity, Judah had possessed the land only
a little while before being driven out. Or as LXX "that we may inherit a
small part of thy holy mountain". The mountain or Kingdom of Yahweh was
envisaged as filling the entire eretz promised to Abraham, and
only a small part of it, Palestine, was being possessed by Judah. The hope
and prayer was therefore, in this case, that the entire land would be
possessed. "Afflicted" in :9 is the word used here in :18 of the
Babylonian "adversaries" who destroyed Jerusalem. Whilst this was an act
of Divine judgment, God still felt for His people all through it.
Jeremiah's laments in Lamentations that God had somehow switched off from
feeling for His people were therefore simply stating things as they seemed
to him at the time. For in reality, in their affliction He was afflicted
(:9).
The complaint that Jerusalem was now in ruins, repeated in Is. 64:10,11, is all rather ignoring the repeated promises thus far in Isaiah. Multiple times the people have been assured that Jerusalem shall become the eternal city, an eternal "crown of glory" (Is. 62:3). But the exiles had refused that possibility, and remained in Babylon for the most part. And those who did return, were more focused on building up their own houses than God's house. So it was quite wrong of them to lament that Jerusalem was still in ruins and to ask God to do something about it. As if they expected some miraculous change overnight, regardless of their effort or spiritual state. This is the mentality of so many, whose spiritual vision is merely of whatever is immediately in front of their eyes. Likewise the complaint that the sanctuary had been trodden down is wilfully ignorant of the reason why this had happened- it was because they themselves had so despised Yahweh's sanctuary by performing idolatry there, as Ezekiel had clearly pointed out. Is. 57:13 had clearly promised them eternal possession- if they wanted to accept God's terms: "But he who takes refuge in Me shall possess the land and shall inherit My holy mountain". But they weren't interested in the conditions.
Isaiah 63:19 We have become as they over whom You never bear rule, as those who were not called by Your name-
As discussed on :17 and Is. 64:5, this prayer verges on falsely accusing God. He has specifically stated that His grace in seeking to save them from Babylon was because they carried His Name: "For My own sake, will I do it; for how should My name be profaned?" (Is. 48:11). Is. 43:6,7 is clear: "I will tell the north, ‘Give them up!’... each one who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory". For other examples of blatantly false statements about God, ignoring what He has been saying all along, see on Is. 64:9,12.
LXX "We are become as at the beginning, when thou didst not rule over us, and thy name was not called upon us". This is a request, therefore, to start over with Israel, giving them a new covenant and a new land inheritance, but for ever. I suggested on :16,17 that we have here a confession of sin; and this involves here recognizing that they are no better than Gentiles.
Or we can read with AVmg.:
"We are thine: thou never barest rule over them; thy name was not called
upon them". God's Name was called upon us at baptism into the Name.
This bearing of His Name means that the principles of that Name bear rule
over us in our lives. The Name is called upon us;
and therefore and thereby we are Yahweh's servants, dominated by His
principles and character. Because the Name was called upon the temple,
therefore it was simply impossible that those who realized this could
worship idols in it (2 Kings 21:4,7); whatever has God's Name called upon
it, whatever bears His image, must be devoted to Him alone. The Lord
pointed out that this applies to our very bodies, which being in God's
image should be given over to Him.
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