The Advent in Isaiah

Isaiah 63v1-6 Advent and Judgement

I don’t know what you think of some of the news that’s been shown recently. What was going on with baby P? How could a parent be so cruel and vile? What’s going on in the Congo, where soldiers are robbing refugees of the little food they have, and where children are forced to murder people? Why do we live in a world with so much evil going on?

If God cares, why doesn’t he do something?

C.S. Lewis once said “Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is he not landing in force, invading it? Is it that he is not strong enough? Well, Christians think he is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why he is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining his side freely… God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like when he does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks onto the stage the play is over.”

Today’s passage tells us what it will be like when he does.

Read Isaiah 63v1-6

what is going on in this section of Isaiah, and how it fits with what has come before

Chapters 53-55 had a dramatic vision of the suffering servant accomplishing victory, and the ramifications of that explained – universal salvation and peace. But the hearers were still left asking the question “yes, but when? When will the vision be completed?”
These unresolved questions give the background to the last ten chapters of Isaiah. What are the people to do while waiting for the conqueror who will bring a new heaven and earth, who will bring the culmination of the plans of God? What are they to do in the interim?
We too are a people in waiting. We have seen many prophecies fulfilled but still wait for the final conclusion, the return of the Lord Jesus - we too are living in the interim.
We have spoken before of the three 'peaks' of fulfilment of prophecy;

The fulfilment in Isaiah’s day.
The fulfilment in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The fulfilment that is yet to come, when Jesus returns. The second Advent.

Here we have Isaiah turning people’s attention to the future – a future where injustice will eventually be brought to reckoning. The very language which he uses is symbolic and picturesque.

Who is this coming from Edom, from Bozrah, with garments stained crimson?

Edom has been a long term enemy of Israel, a thorn in their side, and Bozrah is their capital city. They had been denounced earlier in Is34 and we know that historically they aided Babylon in the conquest of Jerusalem, slaughtering the Jews. Hated and feared, the Jewish people would probably rejoice at prophecy of their come-uppance.
Edom means ‘red’ and Bozrah is from the same meaning as winepress – hence the play of words with vs2. We have the image of someone striding purposefully from the other land, with robes stained crimson, like someone who has been trampling grapes in the winepress.
Yet as they get closer, we realise that he is not stained with wine, but with blood. Nobody has acted as his agent, he personally has destroyed them.

This is the vision of the conquering Messiah which so captured the imagination of the people of Israel. This is the Messiah that they wanted to see. When Jesus was born in the stable and laid in the manger, as he grew up, the people didn’t want to see the suffering Messiah of Isaiah, they wanted to see the conquering Messiah of Isaiah, who would throw off the Roman yoke and put Israel back on top again.

Last Easter we thought about how Jesus fulfilled the prophecies of the suffering Messiah in his sacrifice at the cross.
Jesus is yet to fulfil the prophecies of the conquering Messiah. But he will

Now, you might ask me this – how does “gentle Jesus, meek and mild” fit this image of bloody conqueror, dispenser of vengeance?

Part of the reason is that we can sometimes have a wrong image of Jesus – we latch onto the Sunday School ‘meek and mild’ image and forget other aspects of him we see in the scriptures:

Jesus making a whip and driving the moneychangers from the temple (John 2v14-16)
The harsh words Jesus has for the Pharisees (Matt 23v11ff).
John the Baptists prophecy about Jesus (Matt 3v11-12) “I baptise you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing-floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”
Jesus was not shy about warning about the future judgement to come and the consequences of disobedience (especially in some of his parables).
Furthermore, God has explicitly given Jesus the role of Judge (cf John 5v22ff) “Moreover, the Father judges no-one, but has entrusted all judgment to the Son...”

We expect the return of Jesus.

When the disciples saw him ascending to heaven in Acts 1, the angels told them “Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back the same way you have seen him go into heaven”.
The first advent was in many ways unremarkable. Born to a peasant woman in a stable, witnessed by lowly shepherds, away from the pomp and circumstance of royalty. The prince of peace came into this world quietly when he came as suffering Messiah.
I remember someone saying to me once “Oh, I expect if Jesus comes back that people will misunderstand him again, and ignore him and perhaps crucify him all over again”. That showed a fundamental misunderstanding about Jesus and his second advent!
Nobody will miss it when Jesus comes again! 1 Thess 4v16 says “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air”.
This is not going to be easy to miss!

The Revelation, the last book of the Bible has something to tells us about Jesus the conqueror too. Glance forwards at Rev 19v11ff to highlight the future advent of Christ

“I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no-one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. "He will rule them with an iron sceptre." He treads the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS”.

Do you notice the similarity between this vision of Jesus in the Revelation and the vision of the conquering Messiah in Isaiah’s prophecy?
A robe dipped in blood
Striking down the nations
Treading the winepress of the fury of God

What does this mean for us, for this world, for those around us?

A second advent is coming.

All the prophecies which lined up to point to the first advent of Christ, the babe in the manger, born in Bethlehem to a virgin, came true. We rejoice in that and celebrate it this Christmas as every Christmas.
We look back in wonder and delight at all that Jesus has done for us.
We also ought to look forward, to the second advent of Christ which is yet to come.

We call for Jesus to come, do we understand what it means when he does?

I love to sing songs like “O come O come Emmanuel”, long to see “God with us”.
But when he comes it isn’t to sit down for a cosy church service and a nice cup of tea!
As we have seen, he is going to return to bring judgement. To bring Gods justice to a world which has gone right off the rails. To answer the cry of every child which has been brutalised.

I believe that thinking about the second advent is a call to action for us, to spur us forward in taking the gospel to the lost.

When Jesus returns, it is those who have become part of Gods people, Gods family, who will be rejoicing with him in the air in the most wonderful reunion that this world has ever known.
When Jesus returns it is those who don’t know Christ, who have rejected him, who will be facing the judge with his robe dipped in blood, bringing fierce vengeance for sin.

Christmas is coming.

one of those times of year when people across the country are slightly more open to thinking about Christ.
a great time for us to make the most of every opportunity which Christmas provides for us.
To tell people about Emmanuel, God with us. To tell people about the Prince of Peace. To tell people about their saviour.

I once saw a video of the Bradford City fire disaster, as part of a fire training exercise at work. On Saturday 11th May 1985, 11,000 football fan had gathered to watch a football match between Bradford City and Lincoln city. At 15:40 hours that day a small fire was noticed at the back of the Sunwin Stand. The play was continuing, but the fire was also spreading.
About 30 seconds later the fire was growing and the people at the end of the stand where the blaze was, had started to move onto the pitch and so the game was stopped. The people at the other end of the stand simply sat where they were, unaffected by what was happening. Within a short time the roof of the stadium had combusted into flames and the people at the other end of the stand suddenly began to panic.

People were unable to get onto the safety of the pitch in time, 56 people lost their lives and 265 were taken to hospital with serious injuries. Many of the dead were the young and elderly, crushed in the stampede to get to safety. Others died in the flames.

This video is so shocking and upsetting, that it is only used for fire safety exercises and is banned from view to the general public. It is horrific at how unnecessary the deaths were. If only people had reacted when they first saw the fire, and made their way onto the pitch, nobody would have been killed.

There were a number of upsetting factors of the video. An elderly man, who like the rest, hadn’t initially thought that he was in danger, could be seen desperately trying to climb over the seats to the front of the stand and on to the pitch. When he got about half way his clothes had begun to catch fire. He suddenly realised that he was going to make it, just gave up, and waited to die

One thing that struck me however was the efforts of one police officer. He had been near to the area of the fire and had realised the seriousness of the situation. He could be seen near to the start of the incident, frantically trying to wave people towards the pitch, towards safety. However, people didn’t seem to be listening to him, it was as if they felt safe in the crowd that they were in. However a number did listen, they went towards the pitch, and they were saved.

Where are you today? Are you sitting in the stands, unaware of the growing threat and enjoying all that life has for you? Are you safely on the pitch, saved from the fire yourself but looking on as others perish? Or are you engaged in trying to rescue everyone that you can from the fate that awaits them?

Alex White

Choose your preferred style for this site: