Isaiah 63-66

What’s Happening?

Isaiah has just described God’s eternal Kingdom. In his Kingdom, God’s people live forever in peace and prosperity, and there is no suffering or death. However, Israel has rebelled against God and rejected his Kingdom. So now Isaiah warns Israel they must repent or be forever excluded from God’s Kingdom. In a vision, a watchman spies a warrior in the distance dressed in red marching toward Jerusalem. As he gets closer, the watchman realizes the red on the warrior’s clothes is blood. When he asks who this is and why he’s covered in blood, the warrior says that he is God and the blood is that of his enemies (Isaiah 63:1-6). This brief vision depicts God’s total destruction of evil throughout the world. It’s a warning that Israel must repent of their evil, rebellion, and defiance or else meet God on the battlefield.
Then, in a long lament, Isaiah mourns that God seems to be absent from among his people. Long ago, God regularly poured out his compassion and saving power on Israel (Isaiah 63:7-10). God freed them from Pharaoh, led them through a sea, and guided them through the wilderness by his Spirit (Isaiah 63:12-14). So Isaiah asks why God has seemingly abandoned Israel to their current plight (Isaiah 63:15-16). And why he has let the people he loves devolve into moral and spiritual darkness (Isaiah 63:17-19). Isaiah wishes that God would just split open the skies, destroy Israel’s enemies, and show himself as he did in the past (Isaiah 64:1-4). Yet, as soon as he speaks these words, Isaiah knows that if God showed up as this Sky-Render, Israel has no hope. Israel is full of wickedness and evil; even her people’s best deeds are like filthy rags to God (Isaiah 64:5-7). So Isaiah asks God to remember that he is not simply a Warrior against evil but a God who loves them. He tells God to look at the devastation his people’s sin and evil have wrought and asks God to end his absence and visit his people in love (Isaiah 64:8-12). 

But in response, God says he has visited his people in love many, many times, only to be rejected. God has not been absent from his people; his people have isolated themselves from him. He has simply given Israel what they wanted (Isaiah 65:1-7, 11-16). Nevertheless, after Israel’s evil is destroyed, God promises to resurrect them (Isaiah 65:8-10). On that day, God will also create a new world for his renewed people. In it, there will be no more suffering, evil or threatening armies, and not even death (Isaiah 65:20- 25). And God’s new earth will belong to anyone who humbly repents (Isaiah 66:1-4). Soon, all sin and evil will be routed from within Israel (Isaiah 66:5-6, 24). But from the ruins, God will rebuild his kingdom, and peace will reign not just in Israel but over the whole earth forever (Isaiah 66:7-23). God has never been absent from among his people, and soon, he will show his people his love once again.

Where is the Gospel?

Isaiah asked God to split open the skies, destroy Israel’s evil, and show himself as he did in the past. In response, God said that he would soon visit his people in love, raise his people from their sinfulness, and create a new earth for them to live on. God visited his people in the person of Jesus. Jesus is the Sky-Render Isaiah prayed for. Jesus came down from heaven, and like a Warrior, he marched on the evil within Israel, invaded Death, and rose from his grave triumphant over them all. Through his resurrection, Jesus has established a new eternal Kingdom that neither death nor threatening armies can overthrow (John 18:36). And just as God guided Israel through the wilderness by his Spirit, Jesus has sent his Spirit to guide all those who have humbly repented as they wait for his Kingdom to come in its fullness (John 14:15-31). 

Soon, Jesus will arrive on earth once again as a Warrior clothed in red. He will be spattered with the blood, but it is the blood he shed on the cross (Revelation 19:11-16). In his death and resurrection, Jesus conquered the evil of the world. And, when he returns he will build his good Kingdom, from the ruins of our evil world, and peace will reign over the whole earth forever. 

We can be full of wickedness and evil, and even our best deeds can seem like filthy rags compared to God’s goodness and power. However, God does not require moral perfection; he only asks that you humbly repent. Renounce your past evil because Jesus’ Kingdom is coming. 

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who is dressed in red. And may you see Jesus as the Warrior who rids the world and our hearts of evil.