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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Isaiah 63 God's
Day Of Vengeance And Redemption (ch.
63:1 6) Isaiah 63 opens with a
question. It is. "Who is coming from Concerning Edom, or Esau, they were fighting with each other from birth as the Genesis
account states. Modern day
Arabs are actually descendents from a mixture of Edomites and
Ishmaelites. Esau, the
father of the Edomites took an Ishmaelite wife, thus mixing the two
groups of people together. Bozrah was the leading
city in Edom. In Greek, it is called
Petra. It is about twenty five miles southeast of the lower part of the Dead Before I go any farther,
I want to refer you to Daniel 11:41.
This verse concerns the anti-Christ who will attempt to bring the
whole world under his control. Daniel
11:41 tells us that Ammon, Moab, and Edom
will not fall under the control of the anti-Christ.
These three nations are now what we know as modern day Jordan. This is important to know
in order to understand what is coming next in Isaiah. The final words in the
question posed in verse 1 are, "with His garments stained
crimson". There
are two questions we need to ask concerning this verse.
One, who is being talked about here.
Two, what does the words "with His garments stained
crimson" mean? Concerning who is being
talked about; there are only two possible answers according to the
context. It could be God
Himself. If it were God,
then I would suggest the language used here is symbolic.
The other answer is that the one being talked about here is
Jesus, and that is who I believe is being talked about here.
IF this is so, then the wording in this passage is not symbolic
but literal. Verse 1 continues.
"Who is it"? Isaiah
is being asked who is the one being talked about here.
The words "striding
forth in greatness and strength".
Whoever this is, has just returned from Bozrah of Edom with
garments of crimson and is marching along in greatness and strength.
He has been victorious. The
crimson garments in this verse do not express weakness. Verse 1 ends by saying,
"it is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save".
From this sentence we know for a fact that the one being spoken
of here is at least God Himself. It
is He who is speaking to Isaiah and no one else. Verse 2 and beyond helps
us clarify who this one is being spoken of here with greater clarity.
Isaiah asks, "why are you garments red
?
The answer to this question, at least in my mind, tells me
exactly who this one is. Verse 3 says, "I
have trodden down the winepresses alone, from the nations no one was
with me. I trampled them in my anger and trod them down in my wrath.
Their blood splattered my garments, and I stained my clothes". When
people work the winepresses, squeeze the juice from the grapes, often
their clothes get stained with the juices. The picture that is
painted for us here is the picture of Jesus returning from the battle of
the nations. For this
reason, I believe the one who is being spoken of here is Jesus,
returning from battle at the end of this age.
Matthew 24, Revelation
12, Micah 2, and other passages suggest that at the end of this age,
when the nations of this world come to demolish Concerning the time line.
Some people feel Jesus will come back to earth first to the Mount
of Olives, fight against the nations of the world, then go and get Note that all the nations
of the world are in the fight, that many feel is the battle of
Armageddon. The blood that is being
spoken of here is not the blood from the cross, but the blood from this
last great battle. Concerning
this blood shed, we should understand that the land promised to Israel
in the Abrahamic Covenant had now been purchase with blood.
By virtue of the fact that God is Creator, the whole earth
belongs to Him, but the Old Testament clearly states that this
particular parcel of land that God gave to Israel
belonged to God. At the end
of this present age, God will redeem the land as well as His people with
blood, but not His blood this time.
The blood of the nations who have tried to take this land from Israel
over the centuries will be the redemption price for this land. It's
important to know that not only Jews are redeemed, but their land as
well. Verse 4 doesn't sound
like the Jesus most people want to think about.
He says, "the day of vengeance" was in His heart and
that is why His clothes are
stained with blood. The day
of vengeance is that day when Jesus Himself will defeat the nations of
the world who have been in opposition to Him.
When you see the term "the nations of the world" in the
Bible, the context is always concerning them and their opposition to
Jesus, except in the new earth as seen in the book of Revelation, where
the nations of the world will bring their splendor into the New
Jerusalem. We need to realize that
the day of vengeance is first towards Throughout the Bible we
see the phrase "vengeance is mine says the Lord".
The last seven years of this age is the time when God avenges the
whole world.
This is why it is not our place to avenge our enemies.
God will do that, and He will do a much more thorough job than we
can ever do. On the other side of
vengeance is redemption. This
verse also speaks of the day
of redemption. The days of
redemption spoken of here is the redemption of Verse 5 is both
interesting and sad. Jesus
looks, but there is no one that will help Him.
He said that He was "appalled" that no one gave Him
support. The whole world,
and even His own people were against Him, just as it was when He came to
earth the first time. Some people suggest that this is a case for a
pre-tribulation rapture, since there was no one that would support Him
in this matter. If the
church was on earth, you would think it would support Him in His fight
against the nations of the world. On
the other hand, what human support could really help Jesus defeat the
nations of the world? I've
often said that the Lord can't depend on humans to really accomplish His
work so He has to do it Himself. The
cross is one clear example of this.
The thousand year rule of Christ is another.
The Jews failed prior to the cross.
The church won't do much better, so, Jesus will show both Jews
and the church how His will is to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Because there was no
support for Jesus, He says that "His own arm supported Him.
It was by His strength alone that defeated the world.
He also says that "His own wrath supported Him".
That is interesting. There
are lots of things that help support people, but we don't often think of
wrath supporting people. Not
so with Jesus at the end of the age.
One very important means of support was the wrath that was in His
heart against the nations of this world.
Wrath drove Jesus to do what needed to be done, at least in part.
At this point I need to
point out the difference between anger and wrath as seen in the Bible.
Wrath is a stronger form of anger.
It's really an explosion of anger, as if anger has been stored up
and can no longer be contained. It
just explodes out all over the place.
Actually the Hebrew word translated as "wrath" in the
Old Testament comes from the root word meaning, "to pour".
This is why you often see the words "poured out" in
relation to God's wrath. God
pours out His wrath. It
explodes all over the place. This
is what is happening here and in the book of Revelation. Verse 6 tells us that the
wrath of Jesus, or, the "wrath of the Lamb", as we see it in
the book of Revelation, trampled the world.
His wrath made them drunk and He poured the blood of the nations
on the earth. This is not
the Jesus that most people think of when thinking of Jesus.
Yes, Jesus is loving, but He is more than that.
He is just, and those who are unjust will be judged by Him.
The phrase "His
wrath made them drunk" paints the picture of the nations of the
world in that last great All this, which we would
call bad and negative, must take place before Jesus redeems His people
and the world. Before
anything can be restored, that which is old and falling apart must be
torn down. Then, and only
then, can it be rebuilt. The same applies to Israel, the nations of the world, and the earth and even the universe.
Praise
And Prayer (ch. 63:7 - 19) Verse 7 begins with the
words "I will tell of the kindness of the Lord
"
Who does the pronoun "I" refer to.
It's clearly not God. In
context, "I" refers to Verse 7 also states that Israel
will praise their God for the good deeds He has done for them.
You might ask, "what good deeds is Verse 8 speaks of the
return of Israel
to their God. God, or
Yahweh, will say once again at the end of this present age, that Israel
is His people. I don't
believe we can know just how this will make God feel when He utters
these words. When Israel
hears these words from the lips of their God, probably through Jesus,
their hearts might just well melt. What
a glorious day that will be when Israel
is reunited with their God. This
has got to be one very overwhelming experience for both God and the
remnant of Israel. Verse 8 also speaks of
sons not being false to their God any more.
All of the past falseness will be over for good.
Israel
will truly be obedient and faithful sons of God, and not just for a
while as was often the case, but for all eternity, as the Abrahamic
Covenant states. We see the heart of God
in verse 9. It reads,
"in all their distress, He was distressed".
Some people say that God
simply allows these tragedies to come on the Jews, and really, in people
in general. I don't believe
that. I think it is clear from this passage and many others that God
Himself initiates these troubles, trials, and calamities.
Another Biblical name for the Tribulation that ends this age is
called "Jacob's trials'. The
trials are meant to lead All of that being said,
there is some textual difficulties with this verse which I will not go
into at this time. I will
simply make my comment based on the NIV Bible. We also see the term
"angel of His presence" that saved Israel
in verse 9. Some scholars
feel this is an angel, possibly Michael.
Most, however, view this phrase as Messianic, meaning
pre-incarnate Jesus, who shows up quite often throughout the Old
Testament. "He lifted them up
and carried them all the days of old" is also seen in verse 9.
"All the days of old" in my thinking, would refer back
to Old Testament times. Remember,
these words are prophetic of a future time.
So when these words are actually spoken, the Old Testament days
would certainly be days of old. Throughout
the Old Testament, even when in exile, or when Verse 10 says, "yet
they rebelled and grieved the Holy Spirit".
You do not see the Holy Spirit mentioned in the Old Testament as
often as you see Him mentioned in the New Testament, but here He shows
up. As wayward Christians
grieve the Holy Spirit today, so did Israel
grieve Him in Old Testament times. God
can be grieved. Grief is not
just a human emotion. I
maintain that all emotions that humans express first can be seen in God
because we are created in His likeness and image. Verse 10 says that
because In verse 9 I noted that
the term "days of old' was in reference to the Old Testament days.
Here in verse 11 the same phrase is used which proves my point.
The days of old in this verse is explained by the days of Moses.
As I said earlier, these words will be spoken at a future date,
therefore, the Old Testament days are the days of old. In verse 11 we see
mention of the Holy Spirit again. In
this context we note that the Holy Spirit was with Moses when they were
delivered from Egypt. Even though we don't see
the Holy Spirit mentioned as often in the Old Testament as we do in the
New Testament, He was active in the nation of In verse 12 we see the
word "renown". This
is in reference to the Holy Spirit who worked along side of Moses as
they fled the Egyptians. We
see here how the Holy Spirit worked along side people in Old Testament
days. Now, in New Testament
days, He still works along side the believer, but He also works within
the believer as well. We see the term
"glorious arm" in this verse.
This phrase pots up a number of times in the Old Testament.
The Holy Spirit is seen as God's arm.
Throughout verses 10
through 14 These verses begin to
show us how Israel
is beginning to feel at the end of this age.
Because of the horrible events of the Tribulation, they are now
beginning to think of their past. They
think of their past because they are now in the beginning stages of
repentance. Note in verse 14 the
phrase, "to make for yourself a glorious name".
This is ultimately why God does all things.
We should have the same thinking concerning the name of the Lord.
We represent that name to the world and we should not
misrepresent it as we often do. How the world views our Lord is often a
result of how they view us and the way we live.
If we fail to live as Jesus wants, we do not uphold His name.
We do His name great harm. The
third commandment tells us not to take the name of the Lord in vain.
This has nothing to do with using bad language.
This has everything to do with representing the name of our Lord
as we should. In verse 15 we see God
sits on a throne, at least symbolically speaking. Jesus Himself sits on
a throne in heaven as well, but He will also sit on a throne in Verse 16 needs some
thought. All along in this
part of Isaiah 63 we have seen the many good things God did and will do
for If you study Biblical
prophecy, you will note that Jesus will return to this earth at the end
of the seven year tribulation when the Jews repent and asks Him to
return. I believe the
sentiment shown in this verse is how they will feel at the future date
when they repent and ask their Messiah to come to them. The same sentiment
carries on to verse 17. We see the words
"return for the sake of your servants".
Here are the words that Jesus has been waiting for all these
centuries, and now, He finally hears these words.
They are words of repentance, and when Jesus hears these words,
He will come immediately. How God feels about these
words cannot be understood by us. The
whole climax of Jewish history, and even world history, has now come.
His people want Him back. Wow.
That is worth thinking seriously about. Verse 18 says that
"for a little while your people possessed your holy place, but now
your enemies have trampled down your sanctuary".
If you view Isaiah 63 as in the future, then to be consistent,
you should view this verse to be futuristic as well.
Some view this as Verse 19 is an admission
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