“The
Day of Vengeance”
Isaiah
63:1-6
July
2, 2023 YouTube; St. Luke’s REC
We will remember that Jesus began His public ministry with
a text from Isaiah – as Luke records:
“And
he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he
went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the
scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found
the place where it was written, ‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim
liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty
those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” (Luke 4:16-19,
ESV), And Jesus tells them that this prophecy has been fulfilled in their
hearing.
Jesus
is quoting a section from Isaiah 61, but He stops short of finishing the couplet. Isaiah 61:2 reads “to proclaim the year of
the LORD’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God;” (Isaiah 61:2ab, ESV).
Why did He stop? Because
Jesus came to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and He will return with
the day of vengeance of our God.
Beginning in chapter 60, we see the fulness of the year of
the Lord’s favor – the year of Jubilee – the exaltation of Zion – with Jewish
and Gentile believers being received into the fulness of the Kingdom.
In our text this morning, Isaiah asks questions of the
Anointed One – the Messiah – about what he sees on the day of the vengeance of
our God.
Isaiah asks, “Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned
garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the
greatness of his strength?”
Isaiah does not initially know Who is coming from
Edom. He sees this Person is wearing
crimson garments and coming from Bozrah – the capital of Edom. His apparel is splendid, and He is marching
in great strength.
Remember that Edom is the nation that Esau – Jacob’s
brother – founds. Esau’s name means
“red,” because he was red all over.
“Edom” means “red,” the nation of Esau. Bozrah is the capital of Edom,
and it is the wine-bearing district of the nation.
The Person responds, “’It is I, speaking in righteousness,
mighty to save.’”
He is the Savior, the Anointed One, the Messiah. He is “I am Who I am,” the Word of Truth, the
One mighty enough to save His remnant – the people God promises to bring back
to Israel throughout the book of Isaiah – the remnant that He will bring into
the New Jerusalem.
Isaiah asks another question: “Why is your apparel red, and
your garments like his who treads in the winepress?” Why are your splendid garments
splattered and splashed as though You have been treading in a wine press?
“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.”
The
Anointed One explains that He has been treading the winepress – and He was
treading it alone. There was no one who
could help Him. He, alone, completed the
work of treading the winepress. Only the Anointed One alone has the ability to
be the One Who treads the winepress.
What
is different from the usual treading of the winepress is that this treading is
a picture of God giving justice to those who never believe in the Savior. The day of God’s Wrath comes down upon all
those who never believe. The debt for
sin has to be paid – and the unbeliever takes it upon himself and finds himself
in the winepress where the Anointed One tramples him in anger and wrath for his
sin until his blood stains the Saviors robes. And the word “tread” is in the
present tense – indicating that his destruction is utterly determined.
This
imagery is carried into the book of Revelation where we read of the same event,
as John records:
“Then
I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and seated on the cloud one like a son of
man, with a golden crown on his head, and a sharp sickle in his hand. And
another angel came out of the temple, calling with a loud voice to him who sat
on the cloud, ‘Put in your sickle, and reap, for the hour to reap has come, for
the harvest of the earth is fully ripe.’ So he who sat on the cloud swung his
sickle across the earth, and the earth was reaped.
“Then
another angel came out of the temple in heaven, and he too had a sharp sickle.
And another angel came out from the altar, the angel who has authority over the
fire, and he called with a loud voice to the one who had the sharp sickle, ‘Put
in your sickle and gather the clusters from the vine of the earth, for its
grapes are ripe.’ So the angel swung his sickle across the earth and gathered
the grape harvest of the earth and threw it into the great winepress of the
wrath of God. And the winepress was trodden outside the city, and blood flowed
from the winepress, as high as a horse’s bridle, for 1,600 stadia” (Revelation
14:14-20, ESV).
And:
“Then
I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are
like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name
written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood,
and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of
heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white
horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the
nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress
of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he
has a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords” (Revelation 19:11-16, ESV).
The
Anointed One continues, “For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year
of redemption had come.”
The Savior distinguishes between two groups – those who are
set for the year of redemption – and those who are set for the day of vengeance. The year of redemption is the merciful gift
of God through Jesus Christ that our sins are forgiven, and we will be received
into the fulness of the Kingdom. The day
of vengeance is the day of justice when those who never believe receive what they
are due for their sin.
God is Just and every mere human born after the sin of Adam
is only worthy of being trampled by God in His vengeance – sent off to eternal
suffering. But God in His Mercy chose to
save a remnant out of all of humanity – as we see in Isaiah.
You may have heard people say it is unjust for God to only
choose some out of humanity. Justice
would be for God to choose none – all have sinned – but God has mercifully
chosen some to be His Son’s. The rest
will suffer the vengeance of Jesus.
The
Savior continues, “I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but
there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath
upheld me.”
The
Messiah replies in shock that there is no one to help Him tread the wicked in
the winepress. He is appalled that no
one has upheld God’s Law – there is no one righteous. So, the Messiah and He alone brings salvation
to the remnant, and His wrath upholds Him in His wrath against those who never
repent and believe.
Now,
the Messiah is not really shocked – He is the Almighty and Omniscient God –
what we are seeing here is His disgust – making this point to us – that none of
us should feel worthy or better than anyone else, because none of us can stand
before the Holiness of the Triune God. And it should also stir in us the desire
to tell our neighbors Who Jesus is and what He has done that the Holy Spirit
might save them from being trampled in the winepress.
The
Anointed One concludes our text saying:
“I
trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I
poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”
Here we see the fulness – the completeness – of the Justice
of God. In the Savior’s anger He
tramples down people from all the peoples – there will be people from every
people that will ever exist that never believe.
Just as God has chosen a remnant out of every people to save.
He causes them to become drunk in His wrath – they are
overwhelmed – unstable – unable to get up in their drunken stupor.
And He pours out their lifeblood – as we saw earlier in
Revelation – God pours out their blood – they will be kept from everlasting
life in the Kingdom because they have rejected the Anointed One.
Julia
Ward Howe was an abolitionist, and in 1862 she wrote “The Battle Hymn of the
Republic.” She uses the imagery Isaiah
has recorded, though she meant it as a call to the rightness of the victory of
the Union army.
Let
me read the original lyrics and think about what Isaiah tells us about the Vengeance
of the Anointed One and the Justice of God.
(I won’t read the chorus.)
Mine eyes have seen the
glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the
vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the
fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:
His truth is marching on.
I have seen Him in the
watch-fires of a hundred circling camps,
They have builded Him an
altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read His righteous
sentence by the dim and flaring lamps:
His day is marching on.
I have read a fiery
gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my
contemners, so with you my grace shall deal";
Let the Hero, born of
woman, crush the serpent with his heel,
Since God is marching on.
He has sounded forth the
trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the
hearts of men before His judgment-seat;
Oh, be swift, my soul, to
answer Him! Be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.
In the beauty of the
lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom
that transfigures you and me.
As He died to make men
holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.
He is coming like the
glory of the morning on the wave,
He is Wisdom to the
mighty, He is Succour to the brave,
So the world shall be His
footstool, and the soul of Time His slave,
Our God is marching on. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_Hymn_of_the_Republic)
The Savior, the Anointed One, came to earth for the
salvation of His people – the remnant out of the world. They are saved and will be brought into the
fullness of the Kingdom on the last day.
This is an act of the Mercy of God.
He will return again – in wrath, with vengeance – to mete
out His justice on the rest of the world.
They will not have eternal life, but eternal death. They will be trampled until their life blood
covers the ground.
The remnant of God’s Mercy will not change, nor the number
of the remnant of justice and vengeance. Even so, God uses us to glorify
Himself through the preaching of the Gospel that the Holy Spirit would apply it
as it has been forever determined.
How shall we respond to these things? Shall we be thankful for the Mercy of God
that has saved we who believe? Shall we
recognize the depths of our sin and what justice was endured by Jesus for our
sake? Shall we pray and speak the Gospel
in obedience before the day of Vengeance and the fall of the Justice of God as
we have been commanded?
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for the witness of the Scripture. We thank You for assuring us that You have
chosen a remnant who will be received into the fullness of the Kingdom and Your
everlasting joy. We thank You for the horrifying vision of the Day of Vengeance
and the trampling of the unbelievers.
Help us to take Your Justice seriously and may the Holy Spirit work
through our lives and words to bring the remnant Jesus died for to You. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
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