But there is another side to this matter, which confronts us as we
begin to read chapter 63. Israel's redemption will involve drastic
judgment falling on all those who are foes of them and of God, just as
judgment fell on the Egyptians, when Israel was typically redeemed in
the bygone age. And He, who is to become Israel's Redeemer in power, is
the One who will overthrow them.
In verse 1 of our chapter, however, Edom is specially singled out as the one on whom the judgment is to fall. Now Edom is Esau.
In the Proverbs we read that, "A brother offended is harder to be
won than a strong city," (Prov. 16:19), and this has been exemplified
in the history of Esau and Jacob. The feud today is as strong as ever.
It underlies the situation of great danger that surrounds Palestine
today. It will be decisively settled at the second coming of Christ.
Some excuse might possibly be found for Edom objecting to the
reoccupation of the land by unconverted Jews, but evidently their
objection will be just as strong against any re-gathering of a
converted people. He who will re-gather Israel will destroy them.
The figure of treading "the winepress" is employed in verse 3, and
the same figure is used in the closing verses of Revelation 14. It
evidently indicates judgment of a wholesale and unsparing kind. There
is also of course judgment which discriminates between the righteous
and the wicked, but then the figure of a harvest is used, as we see in
Matthew 13: 40-43, as it also is in earlier verses of Revelation 14,
showing that judgment of both kinds will be executed in the coming day.
The whole of Obadiah's short prophecy is directed against Esau and
he makes it plain that just when, "upon mount Zion shall be
deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall
possess their possessions," the house of Esau "shall be for stubble,"
which gives us the same thought of unsparing judgment under a different
figure.
In our chapter this judgment is presented as the personal act of the
One who is called, "Mine own Arm," taking place when salvation was
accomplished on behalf of God and His people. At that solemn moment
"the day of vengeance" will be in His heart, that day spoken of in
Isaiah 61: 2, which our Saviour did not read in the synagogue at
Nazareth.
That day of vengeance will introduce the year of
redemption for God's people. Judgment being God's "strange work " (Isa.
28: 21), it will be a "short work " (Rom. 9: 28). Hence vengeance is
only for a day compared with the year of redemption. All this, be it
noted, has to do with the government of God on the earth, and not with
saints who today are being called out for a heavenly portion. As far as
we are concerned Edom is just one of the peoples amongst whom the
Gospel is to be preached, though, alas! so few from amongst them
respond to it.
Having predicted the coming day of vengeance, the mind of the
prophet turned back in verse 7 to contemplate the extraordinary
goodness of the Lord in His dealings with Israel from ancient days. It
had been a story of loving kindness and of mercies according to His own
heart. He had adopted them as His people, accredited them with
truthfulness and saved them from their oppressors. Moreover He entered
into their afflictions, granted His presence, redeemed them from Egypt
and carried and cared for them till they reached the land of promise.
In Exodus 33, we read how God promised His presence to Moses
and the people, and in the last chapter of that book it is recorded how
the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. Also we read of the Angel
of the Lord who went before them, who here is called "the Angel of His presence."
InMalachi 3: 1, the expression, "Messenger of the covenant," is really,
"Angel of the covenant," and is clearly a prediction of the coming of
the Lord Jesus; so here also we may see a reference to Him.
On God's part therefore nothing had been lacking in His dealings
with Israel; so what had been their response to all this goodness?
Verse 10 gives the sad answer, "But they rebelled, and grieved His holy
Spirit." As a result of this His holy government had to come into
action, and He became their adversary. Here we have in few words what
Stephen amplified and brought up to date, as recorded in Acts 7. Here
the prophet has to record that they vexed God's holySpirit. Many centuries after Stephen says to them, "Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost. "To grieve Him is serious indeed, but to resist Him is fatal.
As Isaiah saw it in his day, what was God's answer to this vexing?
God remembered His original doings with Moses, and therefore there was
hope in the prophet's heart, and still a basis on which he could appeal
to the Lord. Again, in verse 12, the Arm of the Lord is discerned as He
who acted at the Red Sea, and the people recognized that God had
triumphed gloriously. Hence, on this the last time that the "Arm" is
mentioned by Isaiah the adjective "glorious" isattached to His name. Glorious He is indeed.
Verses 12-14 therefore summarize the kindly dealings of God with His
people, when He brought them out of Egypt, led them through the
wilderness, and finally brought them into the land. There was the
acting of "His glorious Arm," and consequently He made for Himself "a
glorious name," as well as "an everlasting name." Nevertheless Israel
was still under the law, and hence the hand of God lay heavily on them
in judgment.
Isaiah was conscious however that he could appeal to God on another
ground than the law. So, having mentioned Moses in verse 11, in the
closing verses of the chapter, he makes a further appeal to God on the
ground of their connection with Abraham, with whom was made the
original covenant of promise. If we read Genesis 15, we see that the
covenant embraced not only Abraham personally but his seed also, that
was to include a great multitude. This covenant put his descendants
through Isaac into a place of special relationship before God, and had
no conditions attached to it.
Now Abraham, though "the friend of God," was but a man and had long
since departed, and so was ignorant of them. Israel too- the name given
by God to Jacob-might not acknowledge them. Yet Jehovah, who had
included them in His covenant, was the abiding One, and from the outset
He had been as a Father to them, for in another prophet we have Him
saying, "I am a Father to Israel" (Jer. 31: 9). Hence the appeal to Him
here on that basis.
Two things strike us as remarkable here. First, in verse 17 the
hardness of heart manifested in the people is traced back to an act of
God. "Why hast Thou made us to err. . ." Was this
justified? Clearly it was, for just that was the original message given
to Isaiah, in Isaiah 6: 9 and 10. What had happened to them was in
principle the same as had happened to Pharaoh. Long before they had
been warned, "Harden not your heart as. . . in the wilderness" (Ps. 95:
8), but to this no response had been given, and the time came in God's
holy government when He sealed home this hardness of heart upon them;
and as the result we have Isaiah's cry to God, Thou hast "hardened our
heart to Thy fear."
Has such an action on the part of God any application to us today?
Evidently it has, or we should not have found the warnings of Hebrews 3
and 4, based upon those words we have quoted from Psalm 95. In that
Epistle, Jewish believers are taken up on the ground of their
profession, and warned by the example of the Jewish people. Not all who
profess the faith possess the vital thing. Hence the warning, "Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief."
There is also the terrible working of the government of God
predicted for the end of our Gospel age, when as to those who refused
the truth, "God shall send them strong delusion, that they should
believe a lie" (2 Thess. 2: 11). This most drastic action of the
government of God will well befit the most drastic refusal of His
truth, that the world will ever witness.
In the second place it is remarkable how the prophet complains in
verse 18, not only of the brief occupation of the land of promise but
also of the treading down of the sanctuary by the adversary. At the
time of Isaiah's prophecy, as recorded in the opening of the book, this
had not actually taken place, though there had previously been defeats,
as in the days of Rehoboam. It appears that Isaiah was given to see the
end to which the people were drifting, and to appeal to God in the
light of it. That the sanctuary should be defaced by the adversary was
the crowning blow. If that was lost, all was lost. In the light of this
we can understand the touching appeal that is made, beginning and
ending with what is called, "the habitation of Thy holiness and of Thy
glory."
Now what will have to take place if this appeal of the prophet is to
be answered? Evidently that which he yearned for, as expressed in the
first verse of the next chapter. God Himself must intervene in a very
personal way. He must rend the heavens and come down. Nothing short of
this would suffice. Yes, but how should this be done?
The words that follow make very plain what Isaiah had in his mind.
He desired that God would personally intervene in power and in
judgment. He knew that God had come down at the start of their national
history, when there were thunders, lightnings, fire, and "the whole
mount quaked greatly," even if it did not actually flow down at His
presence. Now, if there were another such display of the Divine
presence, surely the effect would be great.
It was, of course, something of this kind that would break up the
Roman power, and work a visible deliverance for Israel, that the
people, even the godly ones, connected with the coming of their
Messiah, as we see so plainly manifested by the disciples, both before
Jesus died, and even after His resurrection. Something of that sort
will take place at the second coming of Christ, as Zechariah 14: 4,
testifies. And for that coming we wait.
But we today are in the happy position of knowing that this desire
for the presence of God has been answered first in another way. Earlier
Isaiah had foretold the coming of the One, whose name should be,
Immanuel, and in the opening of Matthew's Gospel we are told the
meaning of that name - God with us. The heavens were
rent upon Him just as He came forth in public service. He came amongst
us, "full of grace and truth;" not doing, "terrible things," but rather
suffering Himself the terrible things, when He died as the Sacrifice
for sin.
Compared with these prophetic desires, and even forecasts, into what "marvellous light" we have been brought!