This is a hard chapter. It just is and there’s no getting around it. I think it’s important to keep in mind the holiness of God.
The chapter starts out with people asking, ‘Who is this that comes from Edom? From Bozrah (the capitol of Edom)? Magnificent and yet in robes stained with blood?’
God answers that He is the One, mighty to save. And in righteousness.
They ask where he’s been. And why his garments are stained red?
He replies that he went to seek vengeance on the enemies of Israel, the enemies of God. It was the year of His redemption. He was seeking other nations to help bring vengeance on Edom (which he had often done in the past), but there was none to be found. So he worked vengeance for himself.
He says this:
“I trampled the nations in my anger; in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground” (Is 63:6),
That’s tough to read honestly. Yet the only One who can say this is someone who is righteous and just, and only God is that. Only He has that authority.
But that is the nature of justice. It isn’t pretty for those who do evil. It’s not God’s fault they have done such profound evil. The Edomites were getting what was their due. Just as murderers (mostly) get their due on this earth.
Then the Psalm switches to the place of prayer and praise. The people are praising God for his deeds and his love for the house of Israel. But the people of Israel eventually rebelled against the LORD so the LORD “turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them” (v. 10).
Israel then remembered the goodness and kindness of God in days past, like in the days of Moses. So they ask the Lord why can’t he be like that again to them? Why doesn’t he look again upon them with tenderness and compassion?
Then in verse 17 it says “though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us” (v. 16). That’s kind of confusing honestly. But perhaps it means that they are deceased and cannot advocate for us, only God can.
But then that’s where they go victim mentality.
“Why, O LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you?” (v. 17). As if God is somehow responsible for their sin. Although we do see in the next chapter that they begin to admit their sin and take responsibility for it.
I think the challenge here is truly coming to grips with the righteousness and justice of God. It says clearly in the New Testament that the “wages of sin is death” (Rom 6:23). We like to quote that because we see death in a McDonald’s sort of way.
What do I mean by the McDonald’s way? Well we eat our hamburger and consumer chicken and do not even think twice about where the meat came from. Or how it was processed. Or that a living creature died for that meal. People in nations who butcher their meat for their dinner have a much more sacred understanding of that animal’s death, and the holiness of that meal.
But when we read Scriptures like Romans 6:23 we really don’t comprehend “death.” It’s sanitized and distant. But death is horrific. It’s what our sins deserve. And here in Isaiah 63 we get a bit more descriptive picture of what that looks like.
The truth is without Christ, we are all objects of God’s wrath because of our sin. Death is our sentence too. We don’t get the option of two ways. We are death-bound and our only option is do we want the Savior’s rescue? Or do we want the justice of God that is necessary for a righteous and holy God to dole out?
