Isaiah [Part 18] - Messiah's Triumph & Judgement

Read the transcript below, or watch a video of the teaching by Joseph Shulam.

Shalom. After many lessons, we are beginning to see the horizon, the end of Isaiah. It's a big book; it's the biggest book in the Bible in volume, and a very, very important book because it has many of the Messianic prophecies. Recently, we did Isaiah 53, which is all Messianic prophecy dealing with the suffering servant of God, the Messiah, who dies, who bears our iniquities on himself, and, by his stripes we are healed. That's the suffering servant Messiah.

And now we are jumping to Isaiah 63. 53 was the suffering servant Messiah; 63 is still the Messiah, but not the suffering Messiah. The reigning Messiah, the judging Messiah. So, I'm going to start right from verse 1 of the book of Isaiah chapter 63. I am reading the translation, the Jewish translation of the text to English:

Let me read another verse:

One more verse:

That's verse 3. Let me go back to verse 1. I would like to read for you one of my favorite commentaries, Abraham Ibn Ezra, a medieval Jewish commentary writer who lived in Spain and wrote commentaries on the whole Old Testament and also some commentaries on other rabbinical Jewish literature. So, I'm repeating the verse:

Here is the commentary of Rabbi Abraham Ibn Ezra. On purpose, I'm using Orthodox, well-accepted, universally accepted commentary writer of the Torah and the Prophets, and even the Psalms, the whole Old Testament. One thing special about Ibn Ezra is that he was not very diplomatic and wrote in the commentary whatever he felt like is right in his own mind, and most of the time he was right. Here is what Ibn Ezra writes on this text of Isaiah 63:

Okay, I don't know where Ibn Ezra got it that Christianity was first established among the Edomites here, referring Edomite to the Romans, but it's very interesting that he addresses the speaker in this chapter to the Messiah, and, as it says in the end, to God Himself. But more correctly, he says it may be referred to God Himself. That's a very interesting opening here, in Isaiah 63.

The first verse, the person who is speaking, the person who is being addressed and speaking himself, is describing his clothes. They're red because he's been treading out the wine, the grapes for wine, and so he is wearing clothes that are stained with red, crimson. Remember, Isaiah 53 is the suffering servant of God, the suffering Messiah, the first coming of Yeshua as a suffering servant of God. Isaiah 63 is the Messiah, but now he is triumphant; he's coming to judge, to divide between the saints and the sinners, the good and the evil, the worldly and the heavenly host people.

Okay, this is setting the stage, and we're going now to verse 2. The prophet is asking this character, who has no name here but is described as treading the wine and the grapes and having his clothing stained with grape juice. And so the prophet asks—somebody asked this character that is described in this chapter:

And in verse 3, we have the answer:

Verse 3. 'The prophecy refers to the destruction of Edom, an overthrow of the dominion of his religion.' Okay, Edom, in rabbinical Judaism, is the Catholic Roman Church. We have wonderful texts about this in Ibn Ezra's commentary of the Torah. So, Ibn Ezra tells us that this scene of this character, the Messiah, or God Himself, in this case, is a scene in which He is judging Edom, Botzrah, being the Catholic Church, the Christian establishment. He's judging it, and that's why His clothes are stained with red.

Verse 4:

I want to stop here for a minute and deal with this issue. The day of vengeance is described in Amos and in the other prophets, and even in Isaiah, and even as the great and terrible day of the Lord. Amos says, 'Don't say the day of the Lord, the day of the Lord, because the day of the Lord is going to be darkness, not light. It's going to be judgment, not joy for the world. A day of vengeance by God, and I will do it alone.'

That's verse 5.Verse 5 tells us that he's going to do it alone:

Backing up a minute, in order to tie up the picture, we have a picture: somebody coming with clothes stained in red. You could say blood, you could say wine, you could say any of these things. And he is coming to mete out the judgment over—who? Over the world, but to begin with, over Edom, over the Christian Empire. Yes, yes, we should believe that the judgment is going to come over the false people that have misused the name of Yeshua, the name of Jesus, and made an idol out of Him, and falsified His identity and falsified His message and hated His own brothers, the Jewish people. Not for a year or two years, and not even for 30 years or 40 years like World War II.

We're talking about hundreds of years, hundreds of years, from the Roman period, then the Byzantium period, and then the Spanish and Portuguese Inquisition, and finally, in the 20th century, the Nazi Holocaust. These were not Buddhists or Muslims who built the concentration camps from Ukraine and Russia and Belarus and Latvia and Lithuania all the way to Holland. Concentration camps. Anti-Semitism was not born by the Chinese or the Japanese. It was born by Christians. So, yes, the second coming of the Messiah will be judgment for the world, but mainly for the Christian world that uses Jesus as a symbol, as an idol, that doesn't believe in Jesus. They believe in Jesus, but they don't believe a word that He said, a teaching that He taught, a command that He commanded.

Verse 6:

You know, there will be a humiliation of the nations. But verse 7 of chapter 63 has a change of atmosphere:

The character, the Messiah, God Himself, however you see the character that is speaking these things and prophesying these things—if you see it as the Messiah or God Himself, or some might even see it as the Angel Michael, the Archangel Michael, Mikhael—but the writer, the speaker in this case that is giving Isaiah these prophecies:

In other words, we could understand this in several different ways, and, it is talking about Israel. This is clear in the middle of the verse. He's talking about Israel. Whoever did kindness to Israel, God will take into account. Yes, this is a very strong prophecy. Whoever did kindness to Israel, God will take it into account. And the vast bounty—in other words, He blessed Israel in such a way and benefits and bestowed upon them God's pleasure, God's grace. This character, the Messiah, in this case, according to Ibn Ezra and rabbinical sources, will take into account all those that did good to Israel.

You know, when I think about it, what a big change is happening to the world. To the Christian world. In the 19th century, anti-Semitism was so rampant all over Europe and all over the world, and including in the United States of America and South America. Wherever there were Christians, there was anti-Semitism. Hatred of the Jews. And here Isaiah, in the 8th century BC, before Christ, says that whoever did good to Israel will receive God's mercy, according to His mercy and His great kindness. And then the speaker, the Messiah, God Himself, however we want to look at this text, says:

Verse 8:

This chimes together with other texts that we read in Isaiah that God promises the salvation of Israel. Chapter 40 and chapters after chapter 40 of Isaiah. And then you've got Romans 11:26 that says:

Romans 11:25 says: 'I don't want the Gentiles to be ignorant of this: all Israel shall be saved.'And so, yes, the Messiah is promising that those who will bless Israel, will help Israel, show mercy to Israel, will be saved, will be blessed.

Now verse 9 is one of the most important and fascinating verses of all in this chapter. The problem is in the text itself because Hebrew is a small language and many words have more than one meaning. And I'm reading you the Jewish translation of the Hebrew text of Isaiah 63:

The one that is speaking—the topic, the Messiah, God Himself—and 'the angel of His presence'. That's a very interesting phrase. I propose to you now that the angel of His presence is the Messiah Himself. Now I can prove it from other texts, but for now, for the sake of the shortness of time in this lesson, please accept my interpretation:

Our history. Who delivered us? Who was our guide in the wilderness in Sinai? Who was the rock from which we drank water twice? Chapter 17 of Exodus, and chapter 30 of Exodus. Who was it? It is the Messiah. Paul tells us this directly in 1 Corinthians, chapter 10, that the rock from which they drank was the Messiah that followed them in the wilderness.

So Isaiah is in the same theme.

Our history is a revelation of God's grace. But the agent of that grace is the Messiah.

Verse 10:

Yes, He saved them, He took care of them, He fed them, He gave them water in the wilderness, Manna for 40 years in the wilderness.

This is Isaiah is actually almost quoting from Deuteronomy, chapter 32. 'Grieved the Holy Spirit'.

Look, we have two thousand years of exile in which the Jews suffered mainly in Christian countries.

But verse 11:

Let's talk about God. Let's talk about the Messiah in this case, who made His glorious arm march at the right hand of Moses, who divided the waters before them and made Himself a name for all times, who led them through the deep so that they did not stumble as a horse in the desert. Who is it? Paul tells us it's the Messiah.

Yes, we're not finished with this chapter. Since we don't want to make this lesson too long, I am going to do a second lesson continuing this text to the end of chapter 63 because it's so important. It's describing the second coming of the Messiah. The first coming is a suffering servant. The second coming is in Isaiah 63. 53 is the suffering servant; 63 is the glorious King that came to do judgment on the world. We're stopping here, and the next lesson will continue from where we stop now. God bless all of you.