"Chorus: Who is this, that comes from Edom? With garments deeply dyed from Botsra? This, that is magnificent in His apparel; Marching on in the greatness of His strength? messiah: I, who publish righteousness, and am mighty to save. Chorus: Wherefore is your apparel red? And your garments, as of one that treads the wine-vat? Messiah: I have trodden the vat alone: And of the peoples there was not a man with me. And I trod them in my anger; And I trampled them in my indignation: And their life-blood was sprinkled upon my garments; And I have stained all my apparel. For the day of vengeance was in my heart; And the year of my redeemed was come. And I looked, and there was no one to help; And I was astonished, that there was no one to uphold: Therefore my own arm wrought salvation for me, And my indignation itself sustained me. And I trod down the peoples in my anger; And I crushed them in my indignation; And I spilled their life-blood on the ground. The mercies of Jehovah will I record, the praise of Jehovah; According to all that Jehovah has bestowed upon us: And the greatness of His goodness to the house of Israel; Which He has bestowed upon them, through His tenderness and great kindness. For He said: Surely they are my people, children that will not prove false; And He became their Saviour in all their distress. It was not an envoy, nor an angel of His presence, that saved them; Through His love, and His indulgence, He himself redeemed them; And He took them up, and He bore them, all the days of old. But they rebelled, and grieved His Holy Spirit; So that He became their enemy; and He fought against them. And He remembered the days of old, Moses His servant; How He brought them up from the sea, with the Shepherd of His flock: How He placed in his breast His Holy Spirit: Making His glorious arm to attend Moses on his right hand in his march; Cleaving the waters before them, to make himself a name everlasting; Leading them through the abyss, like a courser in the plain, without obstacle. As the herd descends to the valley, the Spirit of Jehovah conducted them: So did You lead your people, to make yourself a name illustrious. Look down from heaven, and see, from your holy and glorious dwelling: Where is your zeal, and your mighty power; The yearning of your bowels, and your tender affections? are they restrained from us? Verily, You are our Father; for Abraham knows us not, And Israel does not acknowledge us. You, O Jehovah, are our Father: O deliver us for the sake of your name! Wherefore, O Jehovah, do You suffer us to err from your ways? To harden our hearts from the fear of You? Return for the sake of your servants; For the sake of the tribes of your inheritance. It is little, that they have taken possession of your holy mountain; That our enemies have trodden down your sanctuary: We have long been as those, whom You have not ruled; Who have not been called by your name." (Isaiah 63:1-19,Lowth)
The Angel of His Presence
The student certainly cannot fail to be struck with the life and energy of Lowth's translation of this chapter. It will be noticed that the responsive portion is made very clear by the way in which it is presented to the eye. A chorus of voices is represented as asking the questions, and that Christ is the One who answers them there cannot be the slightest doubt. "It was not an envoy, nor an angel of His presence, that saved them; through His love, and His indulgence, He himself redeemed them; and He took them up, and He bore them, all the days of old." (Isaiah 63:9,Lowth) "In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them: in His love and in His pity He redeemed them; and He bore them, and carried them all the days of old." (Isaiah 63:9,KJV)
Verse 9 is translated so entirely different from the ordinary rendering, which is so well known, and which has given so much comfort to so many, that a few words of explanation are demanded. The difference is due simply to the fact that in this instance Lowth has followed the Septuagint, and not the Hebrew. Which is more in harmony with the original text, cannot be decided; but the close student will see that the verse as here translated is no less comforting than in our ordinary English versions, and that the two amount to the same thing in the end.
The idea is that it was not to an angel standing in God's presence, no matter how near, that the salvation of Israel was committed, but that God himself took up their case, and bore them. He himself was their Saviour. This is of course Gospel truth, in perfect harmony with what is expressed in the words of Paul, spoken to the elders of Ephesus, concerning "the church of God, which He has purchased with His own blood." (Acts 20:28)
In support of the thought conveyed by the rendering of the Septuagint, it may be noted that after God had said to Moses, "Behold, I send an Angel before you, to keep you in the way, to bring you into the place which I have prepared," (Exodus 23:20) Moses said, "See, You say unto me, Bring up this people; and You have not let me know whom You will send with me," (Exodus 33:12) and God replied, "My presence [literally, "My face"] shall go with you, and I will give you rest." (Exodus 33:14)
The student will find profit and comfort in both translations, and need not trouble his mind as to which is nearest the original.
Treading the Winepress
It seems strange that there ever should have been any mistaken idea as to the time of the application of this chapter; and there could not have been if people had merely held to the text. But a well known song has either impressed a false idea upon the minds of people, or else has given voice to a common idea, to such an extent that attention must be called to it. In the song, "Mighty to Save," the idea is conveyed that this passage describes the crucifixion on Calvary, and in response to the question, "Why is your apparel red?" the writer makes the Lord reply,
With mercy fraught, mine own arm brought
Salvation in my name.
I the bloody fight have won,
Conquer'd the grave,
Now the year of joy has come,
Mighty to save.
--Robert W. Todd, Hymn: Mighty to Save.
Now it is true that "His mercy endures for ever," (Psalm 136) but the text says, "my own arm brought salvation unto me; and my fury, it upheld me. And I trod down the peoples in my anger, and made them drunk in my fury, and I poured out their lifeblood on the ground. " (Isaiah 63:5-6,RV)
How a man could read enough of this chapter to be able to write the song referred to, and yet pass by, or deliberately pervert the words just quoted, so as to write it as he did, is a mystery.
If the student will compare the 34th chapter of Isaiah and Revelation 19:11-21, especially verses 13 and 15, with the verses in our lesson, there cannot be the slightest doubt as to what is referred to: "And He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His name is called The Word of God. ... And out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations: and He shall rule them with a rod of iron: and He treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God." (Revelation 19:13,15)
It is nothing less than the Judgment of the last day--the time when the sinners who have persistently and willfully rejected the Lord meet their doom. The land of Idumea, Edom, is set as the representation of the whole earth. "The indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies: ... For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. ... It is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion." (Isaiah 34:2,6,8)
Compare with: "Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? ... For the day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is come." (Isaiah 63:1,4)
The Power of God Unto Salvation
But notwithstanding the fact that this chapter unmistakably represents Christ as returning from the destruction of the wicked, we must not lose sight of the cross. It appears here, although this chapter by no means refers to Calvary. The cross of Christ is not a thing of a day: it covers all time from Paradise lost till Paradise restored, and then its effects continue through eternity. The second coming of Christ, to Judgment, is but the consummation of the crucifixion. He comes to save His people, and it is only by the cross that anybody can be saved.
In the 3rd chapter of Habakkuk we have the picture of Christ's triumph over His enemies, when He marches through the land in indignation, and threshes the heathen in anger, (Habakkuk 3:12) and it is said, "You went forth for the salvation of your people." (Habakkuk 3:13)
But for the second coming of Christ, the cross would have been endured on Calvary in vain; it would be incomplete. Every person may now--"today"--have a complete, full, and perfect salvation; yet salvation is not complete, not merely as regards the whole body of God's people, but as concerns individuals, until Christ comes. For in the first place, it is only by His coming that the saints of all ages can be with Him. "Let not your heart be troubled: you believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there you may be also." (John 14:1-3) "But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words." (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
And in the second place the last days are to be so full of peril for God's people, that only His sudden appearance will put a stop to the purpose of a wicked world to put them all to death.
The power of Christ's second coming is the power of the cross. In Habakkuk 3:4, margin, we read that in His coming to execute vengeance, "He had bright beams coming out of His side; and there was the hiding of His power." (Habakkuk 3:4,RV,margin)
That side was pierced by the Roman spear, and from it flowed the blood and water of life; but that is His glory, and the power by which He saves His redeemed from all their foes. "Christ died for the ungodly," (Romans 5:6) because He suffered all that the stubbornly impenitent will at last suffer. He was made to be sin for us, and in the cross of Christ we see the fate of the sinner. The destruction of the wicked as well as the salvation of the righteous, is in the cross, for both are parts of one thing. All the power and glory and awful majesty of the second coming of Christ are in the cross just now, to save whoever will come to it.
Read all the references to the last Judgment, that you can find, think of the trump of God and the voice of the archangel, which shakes not only the earth so that the graves open, and the dead hear and come forth, but shakes heaven also, and then instead of trembling in terror at the thought of the future, rejoice in the knowledge that all this inconceivable power is at your disposal in the cross of Christ for present salvation.
Those who have knowledge of, and look for, the second coming of the Lord, should be, and must be, the people who, above all other professed Christians on earth, magnify and rejoice in the power of the cross. It must be their constant theme, its grandeur and glory, its infinite and all-comprehensive greatness becoming more and more apparent as they near its consummation, until it alone fills their vision and their being.
It is impossible to go through the chapter, but whoever has read the first verses with the right sense will be able to read the rest more understandingly when he comes to them.
Note that the arm of the Lord, which works so mightily in the destruction of the wicked, is that with which He gathers the lambs, and carries them. "He shall feed His flock like a shepherd: He shall gather the lambs with His arm, and carry them in His bosom, and shall gently lead those that are with young." (Isaiah 40:11)
God himself carries His people; even though they be grey-haired with age they are to Him still infants to be borne in His bosom. "Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." (Psalm 2:12)--Present Truth, June 7, 1900--Isaiah 63:1-19.