Isaiah 63 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence
This particular passage doesn’t seem to be connected to what comes before or after, and it reads more like one of the laments in the psalms than a vision or prophecy, but, surely, the prophets were well versed in laments as well. In the first six verses, Isaiah speaks of the wrath of the Lord going out against his enemies, and his garments being stained with their blood in order to work salvation for his people. This seems to be a vision of the future rather than the present, for currently the people of God are undergoing suffering.
But then, in v.7, Isaiah purposely recounts the steadfast love of the Lord and the great goodness of the Lord to the house of Israel through the years. He reminds the Jews that in all their affliction, the Lord was afflicted, and that in His love and pity He redeemed them, lifting them up and carrying them all the days of old. Even though they had sinned against him, and He had become their enemy for a time, he brought them salvation for the sake of his own name and glory.
Then the lament comes in vv.15ff in which Isaiah cries out to the Lord to look down from heaven to show once again his care and concern for them, to act with his great might and zeal to save them. By faith, he says to the Lord in v.16, “you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.” And he pleads with God to return to them and to show his ownership of them as his own heritage, to prove that he rules over them and that he has called them by his own name.
In times of suffering like this it is very difficult to see the compassion and kindness of our God. It is very difficult to understand what he is doing and why. But for the one who clings to Christ, he continues to cry out to the Lord for comfort and for peace and remembers that the Lord is afflicted in our afflictions. Because we know that is true, walking by faith, we continue to wrestle with God in prayer rather than walking away from the Lord in anger.