Seeznak

Pondering Isaiah 63 (II)

How is God saving (v. 1) or redeeming (v. 4) in Isaiah 63:1-4?

The only answer I can find is in 63:5-

“I [God] 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.”

Both the answer and the mystery of this passage is that God is bringing salvation to Himself! Read the last two lines of v. 5 again- So my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me. What is in need of saving is God’s purity and holiness. God has been violated by His own chosen people, who give verbal assent to God while speeding down a freeway of desolation. God cannot stand by while evil reigns; His anger is aroused and He rises up to defend that which is most precious in the cosmos: His own majesty.

These verses demand every reader to stand in awe of God’s holiness, but there is more to it than a defensive judgment of sin. Trampling the people’s lifeblood in the winepress of God’s wrath produces something, and that something, curiously enough, is something often associated with a blessing- wine.

Since there was no one else to defend God’s holiness, God Himself came forward to save, and in this we find echoes of the Cross, wherein God became both just and the justifier, producing an overflow of blessing which we, through faith, receive.

The connection between God saving His own holiness and thereby saving His people is confirmed by verses 7-14, in which a song is sung of God’s great compassion toward Israel.

Rejoice, O Rejoice, that God despises sin; for if He didn’t, we would have never seen a Saviour.