Isaiah

Isaiah 63: God judges enemies while Israel pleads

Begin in prayer

Before we read of God’s judgment and His people’s lament, let us bow before His power and goodness. Ask Him to expose our rebellion and bring our family to Jesus for the mercy no human strength can supply.

Say among the nations, “Yahweh reigns.” The world is also established. It can’t be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity.

Psalm 96:10

Father in heaven, please open our eyes as we read Your Word. Teach us to fear Your righteous judgment and remember Your goodness. Lead us to confess sin and seek mercy through Christ. Make us more like Jesus. And please bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

A mighty warrior comes from Edom with garments stained red from treading the winepress of judgment. He has acted alone in anger because the day of vengeance and the year of His redeemed have come. The voice then remembers God’s loving kindness to Israel, His pity and His rescue of them in former days. Yet they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit, so He turned against them and fought them. Memories of Moses, the sea crossing and rest supplied by God’s Spirit raise a plea for His compassion to return. They call Him Father and Redeemer when even Abraham and Israel cannot acknowledge them. They lament their wandering and hardened hearts while enemies trample the sanctuary and the people seem no longer called by His name.

As you read Isaiah 63, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God alone judges His enemies and saves His people.

The red garments belong to a victorious warrior who says the blood of His enemies has stained His clothing. The winepress pictures His trampling judgment, with no helper able to accomplish what His own arm has done. He comes to repay evil and accomplish the redemption He has appointed. Remembering mercy does not conceal Israel’s rebellion, which grieved the Holy Spirit and made God fight against them. Edom came from Esau, Jacob’s brother, and was a bitter enemy of Israel, so Edom and its city Bozrah stand for all God’s enemies. Calling Him Father and Redeemer turns their hope to Him alone, though Abraham does not know them (verse 16). Their question about hardened hearts laments being left in their sinful wandering under judgment, without making God the author of their sin. The trampled sanctuary gives the plea its urgency, asking the God who showed compassion before to return in mercy.

How does Isaiah 63 show us that God alone judges His enemies and saves His people?

God’s power brings judgment no enemy can resist.

His garments are stained by enemies’ blood as He treads the winepress. No one helps Him carry out His wrath. His own arm accomplishes judgment and the redemption He has appointed.

Remembered mercy makes rebellion more grievous.

God pitied His people and carried them in former days. They answered that kindness by grieving His Holy Spirit. He became their enemy and fought against them, as the chapter plainly says.

God’s people must bring their lament to Him.

They remember His Spirit giving rest after the sea crossing. Their prayer names Him Father and Redeemer amid present distress. They ask for mercy while confessing the wandering and hardness that have overtaken them.

Memorise

You, Yahweh, are our Father. Our Redeemer from everlasting is your name.

Isaiah 63:16

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, what rebellion must I confess while asking Jesus to show mercy in my distress?

The warrior declares that no one was with Him as He trod the winepress. His stained clothing shows judgment against His enemies. Later in the chapter, people who have grieved God’s Spirit can only plead for their Father and Redeemer to return.

Revelation shows the coming King in a garment sprinkled with blood, who treads the winepress of God’s wrath (Revelation 19 verses 13 and 15). He also came to save guilty people through His own suffering. His own blood was shed for His people, and by it He redeemed them. He rose victorious, and His forgiveness rests on a sacrifice made once for all. The enemies’ blood in Isaiah’s picture must not be confused with His blood shed for sinners.

Turn from rebellion and trust Jesus for mercy. Remembering past kindness cannot excuse present disobedience. Everyone who believes in this Savior receives pardon. The Judge who trod the winepress alone is also the Redeemer to whom His people cry.

Parent's note

Tell your children that the winepress scene describes judgment on enemies, not Jesus shedding His own blood. Keep its severity and the people’s confessed rebellion together with their plea for mercy. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God that His righteous power brings judgment and that He invites guilty people to seek His mercy, and bring the heart question to Him. Every child can pray, so let each one say a short prayer if they want to.

But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. Before him all the nations will be gathered, and he will separate them one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Matthew 25:31-32

Mighty God, thank You for Your goodness and for the Redeemer guilty people need. Please turn our family from rebellion and bring us to trust Jesus. Forgive our sins through His finished sacrifice. Teach us to remember Your mercy, heed Your Spirit through Your Word and call upon You in our distress. Amen.