Isaiah 63 explained: A Warrior, Then a Desperate Prayer

A figure from Edom (vv. 1-2)

Someone sees a mighty figure marching in from Edom, Israel's neighbor to the south, whose chief city was Bozrah, with his clothes stained red. Edom was bitterly remembered for gloating when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem and for cutting off people who fled, and its name sounds like the Hebrew word for red.

Treading the winepress (vv. 3-6)

The figure is the LORD, and the red is the blood of hostile nations he has trampled like grapes underfoot, because no one else stepped in to help. It is a deliberately violent picture of judgment on Israel's oppressors; Christians later linked it to the rider in a blood-dipped robe in the book of Revelation and read it as pointing to Jesus.

Remembering past kindness (vv. 7-9)

The voice changes, and the people begin a long prayer by listing the LORD's goodness: he chose them, saved them, and lifted them up and carried them in the old days. The Hebrew of verse 9 can be read as God sharing their distress or in other ways, and scholars are unsure which reading is original.

Rebellion and the sea crossing (vv. 10-14)

The prayer admits the people rebelled and grieved God, so he became their opponent. Then someone remembers the days of Moses, the God who split the sea and gave his people rest like cattle going down to the plain, though the Hebrew leaves it unclear whether the one remembering is the people or God himself.

A plea from the ruins (vv. 15-19)

They beg the LORD to look down and act, calling him Father even if their famous ancestors Abraham and Jacob would not recognize them, and they bluntly ask why he makes them wander and hardens their hearts, words some read as God allowing it and others take as they stand. Enemies have trampled the temple, most likely in Babylon's destruction of Jerusalem, and the last verse is hard to translate: either 'we have become like people you never ruled' or 'we are yours, but our enemies never were.'

Key verse: Isaiah 63:16

Where Christians differ

Christians differ over whether the blood-stained warrior of verses 1 to 6 is mainly God judging Edom and Israel's enemies in history, or a picture of Christ, either defeating evil at the cross or judging the world at his return.

Something to think about

When someone you once trusted seems to have gone silent, what does it take to keep arguing with them rather than simply walking away?