63:1 Who is this coming from Edom in red-stained garments? Who is this from Bozrah, arrayed in majesty, pressing forward in the strength of his power? It is I, who am mighty to save, announcing righteousness! While on the subject of the coming of the Lord, in chapter sixty-two, verse eleven, where he comes with salvation, his salvation is for the elect, or for the righteous, for those who repent, who are holy, the holy and valiant ones who escape destruction. But his coming also portends the destruction of the wicked, and punishment for them. Edom, in chapter sixty-three here, in verse one, is also mentioned in chapter thirty-four. There, in chapter thirty-four, verse five, it talks about the slaughter of the nations, "like the slaughter of the beasts of Edom. The sword that drinks its fill in the heavens, it shall comes down on Edom in judgment, on the people I have sentenced to damnation." The Lord's rage is upon all nations, upon all their hosts. He has doomed them, consigned them to the slaughter. The Lord has a sword that shall engorge with blood. The Lord has a sword that shall engorge with blood and glut itself with fat—the blood of lambs and he-goats, the kidney fat of rams. For the Lord will hold a slaughter in Bozrah, an immense massacre in the land of Edom; for it is the Lord's day of vengeance, the year of retribution on behalf of Zion." That same idea is here. Look in chapter sixty-three, verse four, where it says, "for I had resolved on a day of vengeance, and the year of my redeemed had come." It's the same day of vengeance that is mentioned in chapter thirty-four, verse eight. It is the same day of vengeance that is mentioned in chapter sixty-one, which is the part Jesus didn't say in the synagogue: "to herald the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God." (verse 2) So the coming of the Lord has a two-fold aspect: salvation on the one hand for the elect, or the righteous, for Zion, and vengeance upon the wicked, as signified by the red-stained garments. Because when you hold a slaughter you're going to get blood splattered on you. And that slaughter is of the wicked. And that's part of the Lord's coming. Don't make any mistake. He's not just going to come and make everything rosy for everybody. He's going to demand justice for all the injustices they have done. "Who is this coming from Edom in red-stained garments?" Edom, in chapter thirty-four, Idumea, in the Latin, is there synonymous with those who sell their birthright for a mess of pottage like Esau did. His name is called "Edom." Edom means "red," going back to the red pottage, the lentil soup or whatever it was that he ate when he was so hungry, that Jacob had made. He had failed on the hunt, he had caught nothing, and Jacob offered him this mess of pottage, but wanted the birthright from him in exchange. Esau, in his weakness, agreed, and then later became angry when it actually happened. And, in the book of Isaiah, Edom is like the term Babylon; it's a code name that covers the wicked of the world, Babylon. It's a code name that covers like Babylon does the centers of the wicked world, and the world at large. But in a specific sense, of those who broke the covenant, and gave up their birthright, or their spiritual heritage, the blessings they could have had, those who are covenant breakers who sell their birthright for a mess of pottage, or something equivalent. And the Lord has come from there because he has just slaughtered them all. Actually, the king of Assyria does the slaughter; the Lord uses him as his instrument. "Who is this, coming from Edom in red-stained garments? Who is this from Bozrah, arrayed in majesty, pressing forward in the strength of his power?" That's the Lord himself. That is his Second coming. Remember, in his First coming, he himself was slain like a lamb. He went like a lamb to the slaughter. And do you think that somebody could slaughter somebody else if he didn't know what it was all about? He himself was slaughtered like a lamb, unrighteously, unjustly. And now he has authority to slaughter them, justly, righteously, because they have been oppressing his people, and those who oppress them have refused to repent; they have not cleaned up their act. Time has run out. It's time for the earth to change. It's time for the elect to be redeemed from this situation. It's a mercy to them, to make an end of their oppressors because they would perpetuate the iniquity down the generations, so the rising generation has no hope, to born into such a situation. They perpetuate it, too. The Lord makes an end of that whole, sinful generation. Like the time before the Flood. It's a huge slaughter. "Who is this, coming from Edom in red-stained garments? Who is this from Bozrah, arrayed in majesty, pressing forward in strength of his power? It is I who am might to save." Mighty to save those who repent. But those who don't repent, sorry. "Announcing righteousness--" It is the Lord who announces righteousness. What does that mean? Well, he raises up his Servant who personifies righteousness. The Servant preaches what it means to be righteous. The Servant renews the covenant of the Lord with his people. He spells out the terms of the covenant. Which, if you follow them and fulfill them, that constitutes righteousness. Then you are righteous by the Lord's standard. If you're righteous then he'll save you, and he's Mighty to save you. And if you're not, he's under constraint not to save you. It's as simple as that. The Lord announces righteousness. This means that he is witness and testimony to the legitimacy of the Servant. Remember all those chapters in the forties where it talks about the Lord as Creator, and what he's done to create the heavens and the earth and all their bodies and so forth, he says something about his Servant. It is the creative God who legitimizes his Servant. And so he does here. He attests to the legitimacy of the Servant's mission. He does it over and over again, because he has to, because the Servant is meeting with so much opposition. It implies, between the lines, that there are those who are saying the Servant is not legit, that he's just coming on his own bat. And the Lord says no, I, the Creator God, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob am the God who testifies of him. Similar to when Christ came. The Father testified of him. And the Holy Ghost testified of him. There were those who saw it and heard it, both by the still, small voice and also by great calamities that came upon those who rejected Christ. The Roman destruction of Jerusalem, for example The mighty miracles that the Lord did attested to his Divinity, his being sent of God. And so the Lord sustains and supports his Servant. We saw that in chapter fifty-one. The Lord sustains him in the midst of adversity. The Servant, himself, suffers horrendously. The plucking of the beard, the smiting of the cheek. Chapter fifty, verses five through nine says, "I rebel not, nor back away. I offer my back to smiters, my cheek to those who plucked off the beard. I hid not my face from insult and spitting. Because Jehovah my Lord helps me I shall not be disgraced. I have set my face like flint, knowing I shall not be confounded. He who vindicates me is near. He who has a dispute with me let us confront one another. Who will bring charges against me, let him confront me with them. See, Jehovah my Lord sustains me. Who then will incriminate me?" 63:2 Why are you clothed in red, your garments like those who tread grapes in the winepress? 63:3 Alone I have trodden out a vatful; of the nations no one was with me. I trod them down in my anger; in my wrath I trampled them. Their lifeblood spattered my garments, and I have stained my whole attire. He who paid for the sins of all mankind will, himself, suffer the wrath, suffer the justice of God on behalf of all men and will now meet out justice for all men. He's in the position to meet out justice on those who don't repent, who don't come under the law of mercy. He whose clothes were made red when he sweat blood at every pore now has their blood spattered in his garments when he treads them down in his anger and in his wrath. But like I've said, God is not vengeful himself, but he uses the king of Assyria to do that work of destruction, to destroy the wicked. Anciently, the flood came and destroyed the wicked of the world. In the book of Isaiah the king of Assyria is likened to a new Flood, as we saw in chapters seven and eight, and chapter twenty-eight. And he personifies God's anger and wrath, in chapter ten, and many other places. He is God's anger. He is God's wrath. He personifies those attributes. So when he says "I trod them down in my anger, in my wrath I trampled them, " he's saying that he trod them down through the instrumentality of the king of Assyria, with his anger, or by his anger. The word "in" and "by," in Hebrew is the same word, or the same letter "b." "I trod them down in my anger," or "by my anger, or by my wrath I trample them. That word, trample, as well as anger and wrath, are all word links to the king of Assyria. Like chapter fourteen, verse six says: "He struck down the nations, in anger, He subdued peoples in his wrath by relentless oppression. Chapter ten calls the king of Assyria the rod of his anger. He's the staff, "my wrath in their hand." He is the wrath. And his job is to plunder for plunder and spoliate for spoil, to tread underfoot, like mud in the streets." He's the one who tramples the Lord's people; he's the one who treads them down. It says, "alone I have trodden out a vatful." It also means that he paid the price for our spiritual salvation. He was alone in doing so, in working out the atonement. And now, he has the authority to bring this kind of judgment upon the people. The winepress is also an allusion to the day of judgment. In chapter twenty-seven it says, "the Lord will thresh out his harvest. from the torrent of the river to the streams of Egypt, but you shall be gleaned, one by one." There, the day of judgment is likened to a harvest of the wicked, from which the righteous are saved. There's another place--in Isaiah twenty-four, verse thirteen –that mentions "vintage:" " So shall it happen in the earth among the nations as when an olive tree is beaten, or as grapes are gleaned when the vintage is ended." Then it talks about those who survive the destruction, or like the ones who are gleaned, when the main vintage is over. 63:4 For I had resolved on a day of vengeance, and the year of my redeemed had come. This is the two-fold nature of the day of judgment—vengeance upon the wicked, and redemption for the righteous—the one being momentary, and the year being longer than a day, alluding to a prolonged period of redemption, the Day of Salvation, or year of Salvation, the Millennium of the earth. 63:5 I glanced around, but none would lend help; I glared, but no one would assist. So my own arm brought about salvation for me, and my wrath, it assisted me. This is something similar to what we read a moment ago, in chapter fifty-nine, verse fifteen: "When integrity is lacking, they who shun evil become a prey. The Lord saw that there was no justice, and it displeased him. When he saw it he wondered why no one. Not one would intervene." And so it is here, in chapter sixty-three, verse five. When there is exceedingly great oppression in the society, like Sodom and Gomorrah type of society, and someone's in trouble, people are afraid to help because they, too, will become victims. If you see a guy with a gun, or a knife, threatening someone, or a guy lying in the street, what do you do? You walk by. Because if you help, you might get shot, or might get knifed. This is what happens in a Sodom type of society. The Lord is not pleased with that, because it's a test. It's a test of your love of God and of your fellow man, your fellow creature to help. And when no one lends help, then charity is lost, the covenant is broken. Here, in chapter sixty-three, verse five, the Lord is putting himself in a situation where he's one of the ones being oppressed. Of course he was; he was betrayed by Caiphas, he was judged guilty and crucified, and nobody rescued him from that plight. But he's also saying that he puts himself in the position of anyone who suffers unjustly. Any innocent victim to a crime, a robbery, or something like that, or who is subjected to violence by another, and nobody's there to lend a helping hand because they're all just concerned for themselves or they're into their own thing, or they don't have time to stop the car and lend help. Everyone is hedonistic. And he glares and looks around for help and nobody would even look at him. They just pass on by. In the situation like that, when things get that bad—just like a moment ago when we were reading about the oppressive society where people are extorting and ripping each other off and manipulating and injurious dealing—when things get that bad the Lord intervenes and does something about it. He doesn't just let a society like that go on and on and on. He brings it to an end, just like he did Sodom and Gomorrah. "So my own arm brought about salvation for me, and my wrath, it assisted me." The "arm" signifies intervention. He's going to save the innocent victims out of it. When there is that much injustice God is going to do something about it. "My own arm brought about salvation," because the arm, there, is the arm of Righteousness which prepares the way for Salvation to come, the Lord himself. It's the mission of the Lord's Servant, in other words, that this is alluding to. The Lord's Servant comes; he's one of the ways that God intervenes, by raising up his Servant and sending him to set things right, to restore justice among the nations, as it says in chapter forty-two where the Lord commissions him. He says, "him I have endowed with my spirit; he will dispense justice to the nations." Justice where there was no justice. He comes into a situation of no justice, or injustice. And that enables those who repent, or those who renew their covenants and allegiance with Lord, and enables them to inherit salvation. On the other hand, those who reject the Servant's mission become subject to the Lord's wrath. He says, "so my own arm brought about salvation for me, and my wrath , it assisted me." Because, "my wrath," the king of Assyria, took care of the wicked. 63:6 I trod nations underfoot in my anger; I made them drunk by my rage when I cast their glory to the ground. All those nations who reject the Servant's mission become subject to the anger and rage of the Lord which is king of Assyria. He is the anger; he is the rage. He's an angry person, too. He's a wrathful, raging person. And when he comes along you'll see that. There'll be huge speeches like those of Hitler, where he'll rage and vent his anger and fury upon the covenant people of the Lord. But he's the one who takes care of the wicked. The Lord commissions him against them. He's the one who treads the nations underfoot, or the wicked of the Lord's people underfoot, as we just read a moment ago in chapter ten. He's the one who makes them drunk so they stagger around, not knowing what hit them. "When I cast their glory to the ground--" this alludes to the reversal of their circumstances: their glory is cast to the ground. And not just the nations at large, like here, where he trod the nations underfoot, but also the Lord's covenant people. Their glory is cast to the ground in the same way, by the king of Assyria, like in chapter twenty-eight: "My Lord has in store one mighty and strong. Like a ravaging hailstorm weeping down. Like an inundating flood, a deluge of mighty waters he will hurl them to the ground with his hand. The proud garlands of the drunkards of Ephraim shall be trodden under foot," by this one mighty and strong, this king of Assyria, this overflooding scourge, this torrent, this new flood, this anger, this rage. Their glory is going to be cast to the ground. And the Lord's people are going to be lifted up from the ground, and the glory of the Lord will cover them. They're going to be glorified at the time the others are humiliated. Those who have been humiliated unjustly are now going to be exalted. When that happens people praise God. Those whom he saves and exalts praise him and thank him. 63:7 I will recount in praise of the Lord the Lord's loving favors, according to all that the Lord has done for us, according to the great kindness he has mercifully and most graciously rendered the house of Israel. "I will recount in praise," again, individualized not everybody across the board, but individuals. "I will recount in praise of the Lord the Lord's loving favors, according to all that the Lord has done for us, according to the great kindness he has mercifully and most graciously rendered the house of Israel." He didn't have to do that. All we did was repent of our sins and try to do a little bit of good. But it was really him; he lifted us up from the ground. He did these things for us who are unworthy. It's like a song of salvation or praise of God, like the earlier songs of salvation that we've seen. "I will recount in praise of the Lord the Lord's loving favors, according to all that the Lord has done for us, according to the great kindness he has mercifully and most graciously rendered the house of Israel." These terms kind, and grace, and mercy are also synonyms of covenant, which alludes to the fact that the Lord here is fulfilling his covenant, or the terms of the covenant of this people. He's blessing them because they keep the covenant's terms. 63:8 For he thought, Surely they are my people, sons who will not play false; and so he became their Savior: Surely they are my people--" that is my covenant people, of the covenant formula, possessive-- "sons who will not play false--" vassals, those who covenant with their emperor, suzerain. "And so he became their Savior; with all their troubles he troubled himself, the angel of his presence delivering them. In his love and compassion he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old." How did he become their Savior? He took their sins up himself, as he says in chapter fifty-three. 63:9 with all their troubles he troubled himself, the angel of his presence delivering them. In his love and compassion he himself redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. He took their burdens upon him. Remember where it says, "you have burdened me with your sins?" He really did take that burden upon himself. "The angel of his presence delivering them." In the book of Isaiah there are two who save. One saves spiritually, the other saves physically. One is the Lord himself who redeems them spiritually, delivers them from their sins. And the other one delivers them temporally, like Moses delivered Israel from the Egyptians, the bondage of the Egyptian army, Pharaoh's armies, from the armies of the Amalekites, the Canaanites. The angel of his presence went before the camp of Israel and led them and guided them. Here the angel of the Lord's presence is another description of the Lord's Servant. The Servant is the one who delivers them. The term, deliver, there, in chapter sixty-two, verse nine is a word link to chapter nineteen, where the Lord sends them a Savior, or Deliverer, who delivers them when they call upon him. When they cry out to the Lord because of their oppressors, he will send them a savior who will take up their cause, and deliver them. In chapter nineteen, verse twenty, the delivering, there, is a word link to the Servant, or that savior, that temporal savior. It's not the Lord himself, it's the angel of the Lord's presence, the one on the seraph level of the spiritual ladder in the book of Isaiah. So their salvation is two-fold. It has spiritual aspect, and a temporal, or physical aspect. In the Hebrew prophets they don't distinguish, or separate the two. If you qualify spiritually you are physically delivered. "In his love and compassion" are also covenantal terms, meaning "covenant love," according to the terms of the covenant. He, himself, redeemed them. That's not the angel of his presence. That is his own, personal redemption of his people from their sins. Now, you take the word, redeemed, all the way through the book of Isaiah it links by way of word link to parts of Isaiah where the Lord, himself, does the redeeming. No one else can do that. The Servant can't do it. The Servant, himself, is dependent upon the Lord for that kind of redemption, redemption from sin, and from the effects of sin. "He himself redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old." We also see the angle of the Lord smiting the Assyrian host, in the cross reference there in chapter thirty-seven, verse thirty-six. It's an example of what the angel of the Lord's presence does, in physically delivering them. Chapter forty-six, verse three through four is cross referenced there, and it says: " Hear me, O house of Jacob, and all you remnant of the House of Israel who have been a load on me since birth, born up by me from the womb. Even to your old age I am present until you turn grey. It is I who sustain you. It is I who made you and I who will bear you up; it is I who rescue you." 63:10 Yet they rebelled and grieved his holy Spirit, till he became their enemy and himself fought against them. Of course we've read about people's rebellion against the Lord, that here is paralleled with them grieving his holy spirit. They may rebel, but the Spirit of the Lord will strive with them, to try to get them back, and to get them to repent. When they keep on rebelling, the Spirit is grieved and withdraws. Then God becomes their enemy instead of their helper. He himself fights against them. In chapter one verses two through twenty-four which is a cross reference there, the wicked people of God, themselves, become his enemies, and he becomes their enemy. They become subject to the king of Assyria, also. God's spirit ceases to strive with them and he basically hands them over to power of the king of Assyria. That's how God fights against them. And when he fights against them and his covenant curses come upon them, then what do they do? They begin to realize the enormity of their transgression. Like those people we read about a little while ago, who said, "Our transgressions before thee have multiplied. Our sins testify against us. Our offenses are evident. We perceive our iniquities, willfully denying the Lord, backing away from following our God," and so forth. A redress, and back to God, hopefully. Not all of them do, but some do. And that's what happens here. 63:11 Then his people recalled the days of Moses of old: Where is he who brought them up out of the Sea with the shepherd of his flock? When? When they were in bondage to the Egyptians, remember? They were slaves. They had brought that upon themselves. Because that was a covenant curse. If they had never fallen away they wouldn't have come into bondage. Bondage is a covenant curse. When they become subject to covenant curses, that, hopefully, will bring them back to remembrance of God and the former time of blessing. 63:11–13 Where is he who put into him his holy Spirit, who made his glorious arm proceed at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them, making an everlasting name for himself when he led them through the deep? So they're beginning to talk to the Lord, in their cursed condition. They're beginning to remember the miracles he did for their forefathers. And, of course, what the Lord do, when they turn to him with all their hearts? What did he promise Moses? If they seek him with all their heart he will remember them and bring them back from their scattered condition, and he will repeat that miracle of the Exodus for them, in the latter days. This Exodus of old becomes a type for a latter-day Exodus, as in chapter eleven and in many other places in Isaiah. Whenever a name, like Moses, is mentioned it implies a type. Moses set a precedent for what? For an exodus from bondage, back to the Promised Land. And that's what's going to happen now. These people who have rebelled-- some of them, anyway-- will repent, remember God, and he will bring them up on an exodus. "Where is he who brought them up out of the Sea?" The Sea, in Isaiah, is a metaphor describing the king of Assyria. He's the sea and the river, the powers of chaos which overwhelm the wicked. But if he brings them up out of the Sea it means that God delivers them from the power of the king of Assyria. "Where is he who brought them up out of the Sea with the shepherd of his flock?" The shepherd was Moses. Chapter forty, verse eleven talks about that : "Like a shepherd he pastures his flock. The lambs he gathers up with his arm and carries in his bosom. The ewes that give milk he leads gently along," on the exodus. Moses leads the exodus. In the last days the Servant leads the exodus. He will be the shepherd we've spoken of. Those ideas are also in chapter forty-four, verses twenty-seven and twenty-eight, where he says to the deep: "Become dry; I am drying up your currents, who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd; he will do whatever I will." There is the political aspect of the Servant where he is described as a shepherd. Shepherd is a word link to the Servant. "Where is he who put into him his Holy Spirit?" Well, we know that the Servant is endowed by the spirit of the Lord. We've seen that in several places. He like Moses was. Verse twelve, thirteen: " Who made his glorious arm proceed at the right hand of Moses." Now the angel of the Lord's presence led the exodus out of Egypt and the wandering through the wilderness. Here it says that "the arm of the Lord proceeded at the right hand of Moses." It's like saying Moses was helped by an angel of the Lord or by some power at Moses' right hand to help Moses lead Israel. It implies, in fact, that this same angel, maybe this same Servant, or that this Servant was that same angel, assisted in the exodus, anciently, who now comes and does these same things in his mortal state as in his immortal condition. It also implies, again, intervention by the Lord. God intervened in peoples' affairs in bringing Israel out of Egypt. He sent Moses to them. God intervenes in the latter days to bring his people in an exodus out of an oppressed condition, from exile among the nations of the world, not just one nation, not just Egypt. He brings them in an exodus from all nations. "Arm" and "right hand" are also there in parallel, to indicate that they're one and the same thing. The arm of the Lord, the Lord's Servant, is also the right hand of the Lord which is the Lord's Servant. "Who divided the waters before them, making an everlasting name for himself when he led them through the deep?" That's the coming of Israel through the Red Sea. But in Isaiah, in the latter-day exodus, they come not only through the waters, but also through the fire. Chapter forty-three says, "when you cross the waters I will be with you. When you traverse the rivers you shall not be overwhelmed. Though you walk through the fire you shall not be burned. Its flames shall not consume you." In this new exodus they will also walk through the waters; the waters will divide before them, wherever they come from, not just through the Red Sea. But it will be more glorious than the ancient exodus because it's a much larger exodus. Many more people will be coming. They'll be coming from all over the world. And not just the waters will be subject to them but so will the fire and all the other elements. 63:13–14 Like the horse of the desert, they stumbled not; like cattle descending the slopes of ravines, it was the Spirit of the Lord that guided them. So thou didst lead thy people, O Lord, acquiring illustrious renown. Here's another allegory, using the imagery of animals to describe people. So it was the Spirit of the Lord that guided them. Because the Spirit of the Lord guides animals; it guides them to water. It guides birds; they all fly. And fish are guided. They are all much more subject to guidance by the Spirit than we are. We see it in their behavior, right? A flock of birds will suddenly all change direction at one time, or the same with fish. What kind of intuitive sense causes them all to do the same thing at the same time? Some higher guidance, some higher power than just the creature. "So thou didst lead thy people, O Lord, acquiring illustrious renown." Because when he led them out of Egypt in that wonderful exodus and divided the waters he made a name for himself among all the nations that heard about it. So he's going to do again. People remember those days. That want those things back. He's going to again what he did for their ancestors. 63:15 O look down from heaven, from thy holy and glorious celestial abode, and behold! Where now are thy zeal and thy might? The yearnings of thy bosom and thy compassion are withheld from us! You're way up there, God, and we're way down here. We're pretty helpless. So would you help us? Because you have all this power. Look way down at us in our weakness. "Where now are thy zeal and thy might?" Which you had then, in the days of Moses. You were zealous for your people, and you displayed your power to them. "The yearnings of thy bosom and thy compassion are withheld from us!" For them and not for us. That's not fair, God. But, of course, it is fair, because God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and he's no respecter of persons and not partial to anybody. If they will put themselves into the same condition, by repenting, then he will do for them what he did for their ancestors. Or if there will be saviors, like Moses, come up and intercede on their behalf ,they will do for them also what he did for their ancestors. Are these people saying the truth? "The yearnings of thy bosom and thy compassion are withheld from us." They're a little bit like the people we saw earlier. Remember? They were blaming God for things that were not true. What does that show? It shows a little bit of a lack of honesty. It shows that they're still not totally repentant, doesn't it? They haven't quite got it right. Just as long as they don't, what happens? Nothing. So long as they're not being honest it means they haven't fully repented. And if they haven't fully repented God can't save them. So he waits a little longer until they see that they have more to repent of. Now, also, the word "zeal" in the book of Isaiah is another metaphor describing the Lord's Servant. They're really asking for the Lord's Servant to come and save them, or for someone like the Lord's Servant, or like Moses, to come and save them. 63:16 Surely thou art our Father! Though Abraham does not know us or Israel recognize us, thou, O Lord, art our Father; Our Redeemer from Eternity is thy name. This actually shows quite a bit about them because these people are apparently not identified with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Israel is named Jacob. They may be the people identified with the mingled lineages of Israel, or Israelites mingled among the nations, the Gentiles, or identified with the Gentiles. At any rate, they are in an alienated state. That is very obvious. But they're trying to renew their relationship with the Lord their God., the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, by claiming that he's their Father. Of course he is; he's the Father of all humanity. But it's important for them to renew that relationship. "Our Redeemer from Eternity is thy name!" 63:17 Why, O Lord, hast thou made us stray from thy ways, hardening our hearts so that we do not fear thee? Relent, for the sake of thy servants, the tribes that are thine inheritance. Hardening our hearts so that we do not fear thee?" Is that really what the Lord does? He makes people stray from his ways, and he hardens their hearts so that they don't fear him? No. But then it only shows that they're half way there, doesn't it? Again, they're recognizing that covenant curses have come upon them, their plight is awful, they need deliverance from slavery like the Israelites, but they're not quite ready for deliverance yet, because their repentance is not complete. There's still a little bit of self-deception there. They've been so use to meting out oppression to others, such as extortion and illicit transactions, and other forms of injustice, and the murders, the things we've been talking about, so their thinking is not yet straightened out. Their thinking is still warped. " Relent, for the sake of thy servants, the tribes that are thine inheritance." In fact, they're not even willing to go all the way in their repentance, because they're calling upon the Lord to do for them, for his servants' sake. In other words, they want proxies, like king Hezekiah was. They want the prayers of Moses to effectual for them. They want Hezekiah's prayers, his intercession with God to be effectual for them. They're not totally willing to clean up their own act yet. But they may be on the way to doing so. Meanwhile, the threat to them is so grave that they want deliverance now. They don't want to wait. "Save us now, for your servants' sake." As we keep repenting we'll become clean, ourselves. "Relent, for the sake of thy servants, the tribes that are thine inheritance." The servants, here, are synonymous with "the tribes that are thine inheritance." The servants are the tribes. This is the part that is similar to John the Revelator's twelve-thousand from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. This is where Isaiah touches on that. And those servants—at least in Isaiah's theology—are proxies for the people, on the order of king Hezekiah, or of Moses. The Lord is to relent, in this case, for meting out covenant curses, to deliver them from evil—for the servants' sake. Not for their own sake, but for the servants' sake. Because the servants are righteous and they intercede with God on their behalf. So the Lord listens to their prayers and relents. He is merciful to his people. 63:18 But a little while had thy people possessed the holy place when our enemies trod down thy sanctuary. The Promised Land, the place of the sanctuary of the Lord, "when our enemies trod down thy sanctuary. We have become as those whom thou hast never ruled and who have not been known by thy name." They were the covenant people--"thy" people, as in the covenant formula. They did possess the Promised Land, the place of the Lord's sanctuary. They transgressed, they rebelled, they probably rejected the Lord's Servant. the Assyrian, their enemies came in upon them and trod down the holy place, among other covenant curses, and eventually those people became as if they never were the covenant people of God, as though they never had been blessed of God, but cursed only. 63:19 We have become as those whom thou hast never ruled and who have not been known by thy name. As if they had never taken his name upon themselves and become his covenant people. Here we have a group of people that are not experiencing the blessings, that are not the ones that are part of a Zion people. These are the people who are subjected to the Assyrians, the enemies of God's people. Some of them are, undoubtedly, destroyed at this time, and others, if they repent quickly enough, might still make it, but not through direct, Divine intervention. They'll still have to suffer that time and still go through all the hardships of it. And, hopefully, by the end of that time they'll be fully converted to the Lord again. They've hardened their hearts, they've strayed from his ways, they've become alienated, but they're on their way back. They're not there yet, because they're still blaming the Lord for things that are not true, but they're getting there. Some of them are, anyway. So there's hope for them. This is that middle category of the Lord's people, the ones that also survive into the Millennium that are not under the protection of the power of glory, they don't die.... [end of sentence cut off.] In chapter sixty-three, verses eleven through fourteen, it harked back to the exodus out of Egypt, with a looking forward to the new exodus out of Babylon, or out of all the world. And in this chapter, sixty-four, we have a new descent of God on the mount, like he came down on Mt. Sinai, anciently, in a great display of power. They're looking back at that, and also looking forward to the new version of that at the end of the world when the Lord will come down upon Mt. Zion and appear to his people. And in those days Moses sought diligently to prepare the people to meet with God, on the mount. But when God came down on the mount, the people ran away, and said to Moses, "You speak with God! You tell us what he wants us to do and we'll do what you say." But in fact, seventy elders, Moses, and Aaron did go up to the mount see and meet with God. So at least there was a representation of the people that did. In effect, in those days there was a division of three categories of people: the ones who saw God up on the mount, with Moses, the ones who formed the congregation of Israel who congregated in what's called solemn assemblies and received the word of God, through Moses, and there were those who were the mixed multitude, and others who were part of Israel but were not of the other two groups. So we have a three-fold division there. In this scenario, here in chapter sixty-four, we have something similar. We have those who see and meet God when he comes, in the book of Isaiah. And we just saw, in the end of chapter sixty-two that God comes to his people, Zion, and it's a universal event. Then there's those who survive the calamities of the last days. Part of that groups needs to repent, and does. We've already seen that group. There are those who recognize their faults, or are beginning to recognize them. There's still some self-deception among them, but eventually they realize that they've been transgressors and that they need to repent, and they do. They also become the congregation of Israel. And then there are those who are part of the slaughter and are plundered and trodden down by the Assyrians, that don't survive.