The Lord is a Warrior. You want to be on His side!

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 21

Isaiah 63:1-10

The Bible gives us many pictures of God, all of them true, but often quite different from one another, showing us different aspects of who our God is. The Lord is depicted as a kindly Father, a gentle Shepherd, a bleeding Savior dying a cross. Then there are the images like the one we have in Isaiah 63. The image of the LORD as a warrior, covered in the blood of His enemies. In this first half of Isaiah 63, we see the LORD making war against the enemies of Israel, but also against Israel when Israel turns away from their God, driving home this message: The Lord is a warrior, and you want to be on His side!

Who is this who comes from Edom, in crimsoned garments from Bozrah, he who is splendid in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength? As you recall Edom is the territory just south of the land of Judah, and Bozrah is one of the chief cities in the land of Edom. Edom belonged to the descendants of Esau, Jacob’s brother, who was also named “Edom,” which means “red,” because he was “red” like the earth when he was born, and because he craved the red stew his brother Jacob once made. In spite of their blood ties, the people of Israel and the people of Edom were ongoing enemies of one another. Here, Isaiah sees a picture of a mighty man marching back from the land of Edom, dressed in “crimson,” a shade of red.

Who is it? The LORD God replies, “It is I, speaking in righteousness, mighty to save.” The Lord is the One dressed in red, marching back from Edom. Isaiah then asks:

Why is your apparel red, and your garments like his who treads in the winepress? The Lord answers, “I have trodden the winepress alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath; their lifeblood spattered on my garments, and stained all my apparel. For the day of vengeance was in my heart, and my year of redemption had come. I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled, but there was no one to uphold; so my own arm brought me salvation, and my wrath upheld me. I trampled down the peoples in my anger; I made them drunk in my wrath, and I poured out their lifeblood on the earth.”

God has returned from Edom, covered in the blood of the enemies of His people Israel. Now, Edom wasn’t the only enemy of Israel, but clearly Edom was chosen to represent all Israel’s enemies because it means “red.” It’s a play on words, which goes together with all the other red images in these verses: the color crimson, the red splatter from the winepress after the Lord trampled His enemies like people used to trample grapes in the winepress to squeeze out the juice, the blood spattered on the Lord’s garments and on the earth where their bodies fell. It’s a graphic depiction of the Lord as a warrior bent on destruction.

But “God is love!”, isn’t He? Yes, God is love. And He wants all men to be saved. And He gave His own Son on the cross for the sins of all, so that all might believe in Him and actually be saved and become part of His people, members of His holy Church. But God is also a warrior. He wants us to understand that. He wants us to understand that all those who remain opposed to Him and to His people will not be put up with, will not be left alone forever to keep opposing His Church. The time will come when God steps in to make war against His enemies, and no one will escape.

The book of Revelation draws heavily on these images from Isaiah 63, where Jesus Himself is depicted with this very same imagery when He comes again at the end of this age to carry out His judgment against all who remained enemies of His Church. So, ultimately, this part of Isaiah’s prophecy is pointing forward, pointing ahead to Judgment Day.

But then Isaiah points backward, back to the beginning of God’s dealings with the people of Israel. He says, I will recount the steadfast love of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, according to all that the LORD has granted us, and the great goodness to the house of Israel that he has granted them according to his compassion, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.

Now we hear of the Lord’s compassion for Israel as they were just starting out, His compassion toward Jacob and his family, His choice of that nation to be His own special people whom He would tend as a Shepherd, and for whom He would fight as a Warrior.

For he said, “Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely.” Obviously God knew that they would eventually deal falsely, that the children of Israel would turn away from Him, for the most part. But Isaiah is setting the stage here, comparing God to an earthly father who expects great things from his children, who expects that, for all the love he will show to them, they will certainly love him in return! Surely they wouldn’t turn against their own father!

And he became their Savior. In all their affliction he was afflicted. God saved the people of Israel over and over again, from famine in Canaan, from slavery in Egypt, from starvation in the desert, from enemy armies on their way back to Canaan. In every way, God became their Savior. And when they were afflicted by earthly troubles or foreign adversaries, “He was afflicted.” God didn’t relish the suffering of His people. When they suffered, God suffered.

And the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old. For over a thousand years, God cared for the people of Israel, rescued them from their enemies, taught them, carried them, loved them. He was a Warrior for them, a Warrior on their behalf. Even when they went astray, He kept going back for them.

But, after over a thousand years of God’s care and nurturing and innumerable “second chances” that He gave them, they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; therefore he turned to be their enemy, and himself fought against them. After turning away from God and His Word and back to their idols over and over and over again, Israel’s persistent rebellion against God grieved His Holy Spirit to the limit of His patience. And then God, the Warrior, who had acted on their behalf for so many centuries, eventually turned into their enemy. When God, the Warrior, chooses to save and protect, no one can stand in His way. But when God, the Warrior, makes Himself the enemy of someone and fights against someone, well, no one can stand in His way there, either.

This verse is talking about the punishment of the Babylonian captivity. Sadly, it is also what happens when Christians stop living in daily contrition and repentance. St. Paul uses the same language as he warns the Ephesian Christians: Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

So what lesson shall we draw from these verses? First, how good it is to be on God’s side. He is a loving Father who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth. He patiently calls us to repentance when we stumble and calls us back to His Son, the Lord Jesus, where there is perfect acceptance and forgiveness of sins. And there is forgiveness in Christ precisely because the Lord is a Warrior on our behalf against every enemy. He took down Satan for us through the cross, and He’ll take down Satan once and for all on the Last Day. He battled against sin for us and won, and eventually He will save us from this sinful world. And in the meantime He defends us in just the right ways so that no evil can befall us. That’s the first lesson.

The second lesson is that you want to remain on God’s side, so that He never becomes your enemy. And that means, don’t become arrogant when it comes to your faith. Don’t become indifferent to the Word of God, or to the preaching of it, or to the living of it. Don’t let sin reign over you, so that you grieve the Holy Spirit. But live each day in contrition and repentance. Live each day remembering God’s saving acts on your behalf, which are more than you can number. He will not easily become the enemy of those whom He has purchased with the blood of His Son and whom He has called and brought into His kingdom. Always let the red blood of Christ mark the door of your heart by faith. Then you will have nothing to fear from the One who comes from Edom as warrior on the Last Day. Because He won’t be coming to fight against you, His people. He’ll be coming to fight for you, to save you from every last enemy. Amen.