Chapter 63
We switch from the triumph of Zion to God's vengeance described.
Then we get the passage from which the song "Battle Hymn of the Republic..." comes. This verse starts it off:
3 "I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. 4 For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come. [Isa 63:3-4 ESV]
vs 5 says this was done because there was no one to help. I believe this is God talking to Jesus in these verses, and it is Jesus alone who wreaks vengeance on the world. He was, after all, given all things after His resurrection. In 2020, I still think this is about the Tribulation period. The storm before the calm. The restoration of the earth before the Millennial reign.
Then history is recounted. How God loved Abraham and his descendants, made them His own people. But they rebelled, and for that they went into bondage. But he still remembered them, and led them out of Egypt through Moses, and He was in the midst of them as they went through the desert. The summary verse, the reason behind all this history, is here:
14 Like livestock that go down into the valley, the Spirit of the LORD gave them rest. So you led your people, to make for yourself a glorious name. [Isa 63:14 ESV]
God helps Israel to glorify His name. They are so impossibly stiff-necked that not even a mother could love them for long. Yet God does, and because He declared them His, he makes this unknown, stubborn, rebellious, impossible nation the source of all the good in the world, forever and ever. Only God could do something like that.
vss 15-19 are a prayer, as from a nation in captivity, asking God for mercy. Asking for the judgment to end, and for restoration of the nation of Israel as God's people, as His children. vs 17 is representative:
17 O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. [Isa 63:17 ESV]
This implies that God was behind their sin, though they admit their own guilt. As in Romans 1, because of their sin, their rebellion, their lack of fear, God had let the consequences of sin run free among them. They were treated as a Godless nation, and He did not help them. So they were overcome, as a tiny helpless nation with no internal resources, would always be overcome. They want this to end. They want God's hand on them once again. (some of these thoughts from MSB.)
2024 - Looking at these two verses though:
16 For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. 17 O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. [Isa 63:16-17 ESV],
Is this not the current state of Israel? We all know that Israel, that the Jews, are God's chosen people, with a Holy Inheritance due them that God will make sure they receive. But where are they today? They are instead on the receiving end of double punishment. God doesn't know them right now, but for a remnant. Right now they wander and their hearts are hard. Israel is like 90% secular. They have pride in themselves - and for good reason - but not in God. Is this passage in Isaiah perhaps a description of Israel during the church age? I think this is unlikely, but it does describe the state of Jerusalem when Jesus arrived, and it is how Israel will be when the SoP arrives, and after the rapture takes place. They are not in a good place right now, and I think that is really what Isaiah was talking about.