The Book of Isaiah

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The chapter opens like a scene from a watchtower. A figure approaches from Edom (with its capital Bozrah), a traditional enemy of God's people, and His clothing is stained red. A watchman cries, "Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments?" The Warrior answers with majestic self-identification: "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save." He is a Savior, yet His garments are red. Why? "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me." The red is not wine but blood, the blood of His enemies, crushed like grapes in a winepress of judgment. The imagery is of decisive victory over evil: "the day of vengeance is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." Judgment on the wicked and redemption for God's people arrive together. And, echoing chapter 59, the Warrior acts entirely alone: "I looked, and there was none to help... therefore mine own arm brought salvation unto me." No human ally, no helper, God Himself wins the victory single-handedly.

Gospel Focus

This vision of the bloodstained Warrior who treads the winepress alone is taken up directly at the climax of the Bible. In Revelation, the returning Christ appears "clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God," and "he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God" (Revelation 19:13-15). The Warrior of Isaiah 63 is Jesus at His second coming, executing final judgment on evil and bringing the "year of my redeemed." There is a profound truth in "I have trodden the winepress alone... none with me." At the cross, Jesus bore the wrath alone; His disciples fled, and even the Father's face was hidden. And in final judgment He alone has the right to execute justice. "Mine own arm brought salvation" is the Oneness gospel: God did not delegate salvation to another; He accomplished it Himself, in the person of Jesus, "mighty to save." The One whose very name means "the LORD saves" is both the Redeemer of His people and the Judge of the wicked. He is coming again, and both His mercy and His justice will be complete.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

From the warrior scene the tone softens into worship. "I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD... according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses." The prophet resolves to remember and recount God's abundant mercy. He recalls how God embraced His people: "Surely they are my people, children that will not lie: so he was their Saviour." God took them as His own and saved them. Then comes one of the most tender statements about God in all of Scripture: "In all their affliction he was afflicted." God did not watch His people suffer from a cold distance; their pain was His pain. "The angel of his presence saved them", God's own presence, not a mere messenger, was their rescuer, "and in his love and in his pity he redeemed them." And the image of His care is gentle and personal: "he bare them, and carried them all the days of old," like a parent carrying a child, or a shepherd carrying a lamb. God's dealings with His people were marked by love, pity, sympathy, and tender carrying.

Gospel Focus

"In all their affliction he was afflicted." This is the sympathy of God, and it reaches its fullness in the incarnation. When God took flesh in Jesus, He did more than pity our affliction from heaven; He entered it. Jesus is the God who was "afflicted" with us, "touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15), "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). "The angel of his presence" who "saved them" is God's own saving presence, and that presence walked among us in Christ, "Immanuel... God with us" (Matthew 1:23). And the picture of God who "bare them, and carried them" is the Good Shepherd who lays the lost sheep "on his shoulders, rejoicing" (Luke 15:5), and who says, "even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you" (Isaiah 46:4). Your God is not distant from your affliction; in Christ He entered it, and He carries you still. Whatever you are suffering, remember the multitude of His lovingkindnesses, and know that in all your affliction, He is afflicted with you.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The grateful memory turns to grief. "But they rebelled, and vexed his holy Spirit." The people whom God carried so tenderly turned against Him, and their rebellion grieved God's own Spirit. The consequence was severe: "therefore he was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them." The God who fought for them now, because of their sin, fought against them. Yet even in judgment, memory stirs longing. "Then he remembered the days of old, Moses, and his people." The people (or the prophet) look back with yearning to the Exodus: "Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? where is he that put his holy Spirit within him?" They recall God parting the sea "by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm," leading them safely "through the deep... that they should not stumble," and giving them rest by "the Spirit of the LORD." The whole point of that great deliverance was God's glory, "to make himself an everlasting name." The memory of past grace becomes the ground for the prayer that follows: the God who did all this, will He not act again?

Gospel Focus

This passage is precious for understanding the Holy Spirit rightly. Notice the language: it is God's "holy Spirit" (verse 10), "his holy Spirit" (verse 11), "the Spirit of the LORD" (verse 14). The Spirit is not a separate person alongside God but God's own Spirit, the LORD Himself present and active, just as your spirit is not another person beside you but you yourself. This is the Apostolic, Oneness understanding: "the Spirit of God" is God (1 Corinthians 2:11), the one God at work in His people. And that Spirit can be "vexed", grieved, when we rebel. Paul draws the very lesson: "grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption" (Ephesians 4:30). The God who "put his holy Spirit within" Israel is the God who pours out His Spirit on us, "I will put my spirit within you" (Ezekiel 36:27), fulfilled at Pentecost. The same Spirit who led Israel through the sea leads and gives rest to God's people today. Do not grieve Him; walk in step with Him, and let the Spirit of the LORD lead you to rest.

Hebrew Study

Explanation

The remembered mercies of the past give way to earnest prayer. "Look down from heaven, and behold." The people ask God to gaze on their plight from His holy dwelling and to release His compassion: "where is thy zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies toward me? are they restrained?" They wonder if God's tender feelings have been held back. Then they anchor their appeal in God's fatherhood, twice: "Doubtless thou art our father... thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting." Even if their human ancestors Abraham and Israel could not recognize them in their present state, God still knows them as His children. They pray honestly, even confessing their hardness, "why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear?", a cry acknowledging how far they have drifted. And they plead for God's return: "Return for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance." They lament that enemies "have trodden down thy sanctuary," and they close by clinging to their belonging: "We are thine." Whatever else is true, they belong to God.

Gospel Focus

This prayer's great anchor is the fatherhood of God: "thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer." What was a rare and bold appeal in the Old Testament becomes the everyday privilege of every believer through Christ. Jesus taught us to pray, "Our Father which art in heaven" (Matthew 6:9), and through the Spirit we "cry, Abba, Father" (Romans 8:15). The One who is "our father" is also "our redeemer", and in Christ these are one, the God who made us is the God who bought us back. Notice how the prayer clings to relationship even in failure: they confess their drifting, yet say, "We are thine." That is the heart of faith when we have sinned, not to run from God but to run to Him as Father, "if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). And the plea "Return... behold... are thy mercies restrained?" is answered forever in the gospel: God's mercies are not restrained; He looked down, and He came down, in Jesus. When you have wandered, pray this prayer: You are my Father, my Redeemer; I am yours; return to me. He will not turn away His own child.