God’s Passionate Response to Sin Draws Forth Intercession

Isaiah 63–64

I looked, but there was no one to help, and I was amazed that no one assisted; so my arm accomplished victory for me, and my wrath assisted me. (Isa 63:5)

Main Idea: God’s passionate response to sin, both in wrath for the nations and discipline for his people, should call forth persistent and fervent prayer from God’s people.

1. The Lord’s Terrifying Day of Vengeance on His Enemies (63:1-6)
2. Persistent Intercession and Lamentation by God’s Watchman (63:7–64:12)
   1. The intercessor recounts the Lord’s history of love (63:7-9).
   2. The intercessor confesses sin (63:10).
   3. The intercessor prays based on the Lord’s history (63:11-16).
   4. The intercessor laments over the Lord’s disciplines (63:17-19).
   5. The intercessor pleads for God to descend (64:1-5a).
   6. The intercessor confesses sin again (64:5b-7).
   7. The intercessor pleads for God to act (64:8-12).

The Lord’s Terrifying Day of Vengeance on His Enemies

Isaiah 63:1-6

Having soared with the vision of the heavenly Zion in Isaiah 62, we now descend to the terrifying reality that the vision has not yet been realized. The earth is still filled with evil, and God’s passionate response to that evil unifies these two chapters.

These verses are simply terrifying. They should cause all faith-filled readers to tremble at his word (Isa 66:2), for when the great day of God’s wrath comes, who is able to stand (Rev 6:17)? We trust that Christ will rescue us from the coming wrath (1 Thess 1:10), but still the words are fearsome. Our approaching God is pictured as coming from Edom and Bozrah (Edom’s capital city), and his garments are stained crimson. He is striding vigorously, filled with energy, not depleted at all from his slaughtering. A questioner asks, “Who is this?” Who is this one so powerfully “striding in his formidable might?” The mighty figure answers, “It is I, proclaiming vindication, powerful to save.” The Lord executes his wrath with awesome power but only in perfect righteousness. And he does it by speaking—by the word of his power. The questioner asks him, “Why are your clothes red?” (v. 2). And the answer is, “I trampled the winepress alone. . . . I trampled them in my anger and ground them underfoot in my fury; their blood spattered my garments” (v. 3).

The wrath of God against Edom and Bozrah here is symbolic. Certainly Edom (Esau) was an ancient foe of Israel, but as we saw in Isaiah 34, Edom represents all the godless nations, those in rebellion against God. In the same way, Esau is singled out in the New Testament as representative of the godless reprobate (Rom 9:13; Heb 12:16). And when the “year of the Lord’s favor” comes to an end, the “day of God’s vengeance” begins (Isa 61:2)—the time for God’s wrath to be poured out on the godless. The second coming of Christ depicted in Revelation 19:11-16 will stand as the clear fulfillment of the blood-spattered warrior of Isaiah 63, for there Christ is depicted as wearing a robe stained in blood, slaughtering his foes with the sword coming from his mouth.

Before that day however, many dress rehearsals of judgment fall on countless godless nations who have opposed God and sought to destroy his people. All of them are mere foretastes of God’s final wrath on earth. Verse 4 says God had stored up his wrath against them, not forgetting any of their wicked acts, especially those done to harm his chosen people. And when the time came, he trod the winepress alone. God created the universe alone (44:24), so God also works both vengeance and salvation alone (63:5). Christ’s solitary redemption at the cross and his solitary slaughter of his enemies in Revelation 19 fulfill this perfectly.

Persistent Intercession and Lamentation by God’s Watchman

Isaiah 63:7–64:12

This overpowering image of the wrath of God against the godless on earth is just what many in Israel were waiting for. But the same holiness of God that motivates this destruction motivates his severe chastisements of his people’s sins. And the fact that “Edom” has not yet been finally punished and that Zion is not yet fully glorified means that it is time for the “watchmen on your walls” (in this case, Isaiah the prophet) to cry out relentlessly to the Lord (Isa 62:6-7). So the rest of these two chapters flow in a marvelous rhythm of worship, confession of sin, longing for God’s closeness, and pleading for God to intervene. This is how a watchman must intercede.

The Intercessor Recounts the Lord’s History of Love (63:7-9)

Isaiah begins by going over the history of the Lord’s mighty acts of salvation for Israel in the past. This history is vital to the intercessor’s confidence that God loves his people and will not cast them off because of their sins. So Isaiah begins by speaking of the Lord’s faithful love (Hb chesed, “covenant love”) and his “praiseworthy acts” on behalf of Israel. The foundation of these many acts of kindness in history is his election of them as his children (v. 8) and his amazing compassion for them in their suffering. Verse 9 says, “In all their suffering, he suffered.” Indeed, the only pain, grief, or affliction God ever suffers comes from his voluntary compassion for his people (Exod 2:24-25). God’s commitment to link his heart with that of his people is the basis of any confidence Isaiah would have in interceding. God sent the “angel of his presence” to redeem them from their slavery. God spoke plainly of him in Exodus 23:20-23, saying, “Do not defy him, because he will not forgive your acts of rebellion, for my name is in him” (v. 21; emphasis added). This is an extraordinary assertion to make of an angel, so this angel of his presence is none other than the preincarnate Christ. Since the next verse mentions the Holy Spirit, it is fascinating to see the Trinity here in Isaiah 63, directly active in Israel’s redemption from slavery in Egypt.

The Intercessor Confesses Sin (63:10)

Tragically, Israel’s history was one of consistent rebellion against the grace of God. Verse 10 says that in their rebellion, they “grieved his Holy Spirit” (cf. Eph 4:30). (The fact that the Holy Spirit can be grieved is great evidence of the Spirit’s personhood, for one cannot grieve an impersonal force.) Israel’s rebellion against God, from the desert after the Red Sea crossing through the history under Joshua, the judges, and the kings, was deeply grievous to God. Because of Israel’s rebellion, God became their enemy and fought them.

The Intercessor Prays Based on the Lord’s History (63:11-16)

The Lord (or perhaps, the intercessor) remembered the days of the past. The dominating image of this section is the Red Sea crossing, the power of God in delivering his people from the Egyptians and from the sea. The crossing occurred at night, with the light of the pillar of fire the only illumination. The sea walled up to the left and to the right, a dark threatening corridor of imminent death. The people went down into the Red Sea as the dead go down into the grave. But the angel of the Lord who led them in the form of the pillar is the same Savior, Christ, who will lead all his people out of the grave into the light of resurrection. The dawn that ended that terrifying night saw God bringing them up from the sea to “make an eternal name for himself” (vv. 12,14). But the question the intercessor now presses to the unchanging God is, Where now is the God who did all these great things in the past (v. 11)? The intercessor is following God’s own command in Isaiah 62:7-8 to remind God of his past actions and to give him no rest until he saves his people. The intercessor calls on God to stir up his zeal and his might, to stop restraining his yearning and compassion for his people (v. 15). Despite the fact it seems God has forgotten his people, the intercessor reminds both himself and God that he is our Father by adoption (v. 16). And though perhaps Abraham and Israel may become so disgusted with their descendants that they would refuse to recognize them, God’s commitment to his sinful children is infinitely greater and will never fail (v. 16). So he calls on God, their ancient Father, to be their Redeemer.

The Intercessor Laments over the Lord’s Disciplines (63:17-19)

These verses return to the theme of lamentation over Israel’s sin and, even more, over God’s disciplines for those sins. Verse 17 is perhaps a little surprising, for it seems like the intercessor is blaming God for Israel’s straying ways and hardened hearts. But God is perfectly holy and hates wickedness more than we can possibly imagine. The intercessor knows that our hearts naturally stray from God’s ways and become hardened in sin unless he intervenes with his sovereign grace. And if he fails to intervene, the straying and hardening is inevitable, though we are completely to blame for it. The whole ethos of this intercession in Isaiah 63–64 is asking God, Why do you apparently do nothing when we need you so desperately to save us from our sins and the sins of our enemies? So the intercessor pleads with God to stop his people’s straying, for it is this very thing that has led to God’s righteous judgments on Israel—the trampling of God’s sanctuary by Israel’s wicked enemies (v. 18). Isaiah the prophet, writing these words more than a century before the Babylonians would destroy the temple, gives future intercessors the words to say at that time—intercessors like Daniel, who would pray, confessing Israel’s sin and pleading with God for her restoration (Dan 9). So also Christians in every generation who are lamenting our sins and God’s righteous discipline should employ these concepts.

The Intercessor Pleads for God to Descend (64:1-5a)

The intercessor continues with a plea for God to “tear the heavens open and come down.” He yearns for the omnipotent God to show up and make the mountains quake at his presence (v. 1). The Hebrew grammar actually reads in the past tense, as if to say, “If only you had already torn open the heavens and come down,” then none of this would have happened. But though it is past in grammar, the desire is for an immediate answer and action by almighty God. Perhaps the most perplexing quandary to a Bible-believing Christian is, “Lord, if you are omnipotent and if you tenderly love your children, then why do you seemingly do so little to rescue them from their vicious enemies?” The tearing open of the heavens is an awesome description of the rending of the God-appointed barrier that exists between the physical heavens (sky and outer space) and the “third heaven” (2 Cor 12:2) where God dwells in unapproachable light. This dramatic plea is fulfilled ultimately in Jesus Christ, in both his first and second advents. At his baptism the heavens were torn open (Mark 1:10), but amazingly instead of a God of terror throwing lightning bolts to ravage the wicked of the earth, a single dove descended peacefully and landed on Jesus, the Lamb of God! God did tear the heavens open, but instead of wrath for sin, the world received a dovelike Spirit and a lamblike Savior. The heavens were torn open again when a vicious group of unbelieving Jews were stoning Stephen to death. But instead of a wrath-filled God, Stephen saw Jesus standing to receive him into heaven, and filled with his dovelike Spirit, his dying words were, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:56-60). I believe the martyr Stephen’s prayer was partially answered in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, who had abetted Stephen’s execution; however, God did not hold that sin against Saul but extended grace instead.

The desire for God to rend the heavens and come down is right and good, as long as we recognize that, were it not for the blood of Jesus, we would all be the brushwood that would be ignited, we would be the water that would boil. We would be God’s enemies and the nation that would tremble at God’s presence (Isa 64:2). Peter explains God’s seeming reluctance to “tear the heavens open and come down”: “The Lord does not delay his promise, as some understand delay, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish but all to come to repentance” (2 Pet 3:9).

But the intercessor should pray, indeed he must pray, for God to tear open the heavens and come down in the power of his Holy Spirit to do more saving acts, “awesome works that we did not expect” (Isa 64:3). In light of the Great Commission, this is a prayer for revival, for God to transform them from seething enemies to delightful children of God. Verse 4 is a powerful reminder of the special privilege of prayer to the only living God: “From ancient times no one has heard, no one has listened to, no eye has seen any God except you who acts on behalf of the one who waits for him.” This is the patient intercessor’s greatest hope, which alone can spur him on in prayer. God answers the prayer of the godly who delight in his ways (v. 5a).

The Intercessor Confesses Sin Again (64:5b-7)

But the problem is, no intercessor on earth is sinless, always doing what pleases God. So the intercessor must confess his sins and the sins of his people honestly to God (v. 5b). In fact, when seen in the light of God’s holy and perfect standard, it becomes clear that even our most righteous people are “unclean” and our most righteous acts are “like a polluted garment” (v. 6). All of God’s people on earth “wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind” (v. 6). That is why Jesus Christ, our Mediator, must ultimately be the intercessor whose prayer alone God the Father will answer. His righteous acts are alone perfect in God’s sight. Then, in Jesus’s name alone can we fulfill the role of intercessor. Apart from the work of the Spirit, none of us intercedes, none of us strives to take hold of God. Apart from the work of the Redeemer, God would most certainly hide his face from the most righteous intercessor we would choose from our number (v. 7). So the faithful prayer warriors among the church must intercede for God’s elect with humility and total reliance on the finished work of Christ (Heb 10:20).

The Intercessor Pleads for God to Act (64:8-12)

This paragraph completes the entire section, the ministry of the intercessor on behalf of his people. The focus of the entire prayer has been, “O Lord, we, your sinful people, desperately need you to cover our sins and act on our behalf! Please, O Lord, tear open the heavens and come down to destroy our enemies, despite the fact that we deserve all the judgments you have wisely meted out to us! Please, O Lord, no longer be silent or restrain your affections for us. Act, O Lord!” So the intercessor turns again to God the Father (who has adopted us), to God the potter (who has shaped us), to act on behalf of his sinful people (v. 9).

What is fascinating about this entire intercession, beginning in 63:7 and through to this section, is how the intercessor in effect wants God to have a selective memory, remembering his mighty acts in the past for his people, remembering the covenant he made with Abraham, remembering the salvation he worked at the Red Sea through Moses, remembering that he has adopted them to be his children and that he formed them like a potter does the clay, but to forget their sins that caused all these judgments! Their cities have become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. It is especially poignant that after the image of a glorious heavenly Zion in Isaiah 62, here we are told that the earthly Zion has “become a wilderness” (64:10). The beautiful temple where their fathers praised God has been burned down. Again, Isaiah as the intercessor is supernaturally empowered to drop himself more than a century and a half ahead in time into the moment in redemptive history when he could pray for the remnant to be restored to the promised land, to rebuild the rubble-filled city of Jerusalem and reestablish a holy temple where his people can again praise God. So the intercessor pleads with God to stop restraining himself, to stop being silent. Amazingly, this is the very Hebrew word used in Isaiah 62:1 in which Christ said, “For Zion’s sake I will not be silent!” In effect, the intercessor is showing him his writing and urging him to keep his promise!

Applications

The first application of these chapters is to stand in awe and trembling at the wrath of God against his enemies. The image of a blood-soaked warrior is terrifying when we realize that we all deserve to be included in the slaughter. Furthermore, we must embrace that this is very much the purpose of the second coming of Christ, for he will come to “trample the winepress of the fierce anger of God, the Almighty” (Rev 19:15). We should never be ashamed of the clear warning of the wrath of God and the future trampling of the godless. Rather, we should plead with sinners to repent while there’s time, to flee the wrath to come.

The remainder of the two chapters form the basis of a pattern of intercession in the light of the watchmen on the walls of Zion who are charged to remind God and to give themselves no rest or him no rest until he establishes Jerusalem as the praise of the whole earth.

A Christian may well take up this challenge but may say, “Lord, I don’t know what to pray for.” Isaiah 63:7–64:12 gives a wonderful answer to that uncertainty. Pray like this! But pray from a new-covenant perspective, based on Christ’s finished work. Pray based on God’s history of love toward his church, especially now in light of Christ’s saving acts toward the church (63:7-9); pray with genuine and humble confession of sin, that our sins have grieved the Holy Spirit (63:10); pray based on Christ’s resurrection from the dead as the fulfillment of the pattern of the Red Sea crossing (63:11-16); pray with a deep lament for our wandering ways and our hardened hearts, knowing that only in the new covenant and by the ministry of the Holy Spirit can the heart of stone be removed and the heart of flesh given (63:17-19); pray for God to tear open the heavens and come down—in gentle, saving love toward his elect now (revival!) and in wrath toward his enemies at the second coming (64:1-5a); acknowledge that even our best acts would be unclean apart from the blood of Christ and that we are pathetically weak in intercession (64:5b-7); and ask God to move out powerfully on behalf of his elect people, saving the unconverted and transforming the converted from often sinful to increasingly holy people (64:8-12).

Reflect and Discuss

1. Why do you think Christians are tempted to be ashamed of the potent and graphic images of God’s wrath in Scripture?
2. How does “Edom” represent the godless of the world in Romans 9:13 and Hebrews 12:16? How do we see the spirit of Esau alive in our world today?
3. How should the reality of the coming righteous wrath of God motivate us in evangelism and missions? How should it motivate us to put sin to death in our own lives?
4. Jesus says that he trampled the winepress alone, that from the nations no one was with him, and there was no one to help (63:3,5). Why is this?
5. How does Isaiah 63:7–64:12 give a pattern of intercession for us to follow today?
6. Why is it vital for us to keep in mind God’s amazing acts of salvation in the past, for Israel in the Old Testament (especially the exodus and the Red Sea crossing) but even more the finished work of Jesus Christ at the cross and the empty tomb?
7. Why is genuine, heartfelt confession of sin vital in this kind of intercession for Zion (God’s chosen people) now (63:10,17-19; 64:5b-7)?
8. Isaiah 64:1 asks God to tear open the heavens and come down. The image in these verses is of wrath and judgment. But the image of the torn-open heavens both at Christ’s baptism (Mark 1:10) and at Stephen’s martyrdom (Acts 7:56-60) is one of gentleness, grace, and mercy to a sinful world. How can we understand both aspects of God’s mighty actions on earth?
9. Isaiah 64:6 says, “All our righteous acts are like a polluted garment.” How do we understand this in light of our adoption as sons and daughters of God and of the cleansing blood of Christ?
10. How do 2 Peter 3:9 and 3:15 help us make sense of God’s seeming inactivity when the wicked seem to prosper so much?