“The Divine Warrior”
Isaiah 63:1-6
I’m not sure if you noticed, but Isaiah’s tone has changed since last week’s Scripture. We are entering the final chapters of Isaiah’s book, where Isaiah turns his focus from what will happen in the future, when Israel will be seen redeemed, to what was happening at the time of his writing and what it was going to take to them to the future.
Isaiah begins this section with a promise of God’s intervention. The Israelites were reminded that it was by God’s power they would be able to live righteous lives. And God’s power would be seen doing so through the divine warrior. Isaiah is reminding the Israelites that God will defeat every enemy that comes their way, especially the most dangerous enemy……… SIN.
Isaiah uses a physical and military imagery in these verses. It may seem like God was planning to take on the nations that were oppressing Israel and defeat them. Which is something that does happen over time, but this imagery is meant to be more than that.
As we continue to read, Israel has its own problems and they start with being weak, because they are sinful. As we read through the next three chapters, we will discover that God does not tell the Israelites that He will destroy their “physical” enemies, in spite of their sinfulness. What He tells them is He will destroy “sinners.” Not just sinners from those nations that were against Israel, but those sinners who are among His own people.
However, for those of God’s people who allow themselves to be made righteous,
God will use them to call the other nations to be worshippers of the LORD.
This brings us back to verses 1 & 3, and reveals that the blood that stains the garments of the Victor is that of “all” sinners, from all nations, including the nation of Israel. Anyone who defies God, is symbolized by the nation of Edom.
Verses 3 & 5 tell us that it is the righteous Judge, the one without sin, who is able to save. And in order for the Judge to be righteous, He must follow a purpose. And the destruction that is necessary is not just to destroy, but to provide “redemption” and “salvation.” The sin and those who live by it, need to be overcome, in order for salvation to be possible. God is reminding the Isaelites that their redemption will not occur while they remain in their sin.
For many of us, the imagery this chapter displays, of a blood-spattered warrior striding victoriously off a battlefield strewn with corpses does not make us feel good.
We have been blessed in America. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the last battle on American soil was, in 1890, the Battle of Wounded Knee between the US Calvary and the tribal Sioux Indians. Not so for the rest of the world. Allow me try to put this in a different perspective.
Many of you have read “The Hiding Place,” by Corrie Ten Boom. It is the story of how she and her family were sent to concentration camps because they helped many Jews escape from the Nazis during World War II. Everyone in her family, except her, died in those concentration camps. Just for a moment, try to imagine the look on her face, when a blood-spattered, smoke-grimed GI, came striding up to the barbed-wire gates and with one shot of his submachine gun blasts the lock off and sets her and the others free. My guess is each prisoner wants to run up and hug that man and smother him with adoration. He means freedom to them, deliverance, life from the dead.
I strongly doubt anyone one of them went up to the GI and said, “Oh dear, you’ve ruined the gate. You know, young man, the Nazi’s are actually nice people, deep down. If you would just put down your gun and try to talk to them nicely I am sure they would listen.” Not quite! The enemy was just that, an enemy and there was only one way to win, and that was to fight to the death.
This is an excellent example of the spiritual battles that occur on a daily basis. Sin is an enemy and negotiations are not going to cut it. It was sin that killed God’s Son and it is sin that will continue to kill all of God’s creatures if it can. God is not negotiating with sin.
Such is the state of the human heart. To think that we can have received forgiveness of sin, thanks to the blood of Jesus, and still continue to practice sin, which is what killed Him in the first place is insane.
Christ died for our sins, in order to set us free. Redemption and salvation are available for us to receive. It’s important to remember what Isaiah has told us up to this point. It is by God’s power that we are able to live righteous lives.
We are in the part of history that continues to wait for the day when sin will be defeated forever. The day the Divine Warrior returns and completes the defeat. In the meantime, we are called to live by faith. And that faith has implications for the present. Take hold of this idea, today, right now. The idea that if Christ, the divine warrior, will one day triumph over all sin, one day, shouldn’t we be letting Him defeat sin in our own lives, today. Not only defeat our sin, but give us a deep seated hatred for it, in all its forms.
Because of it, our Savior died. A gruesome thought.
This problem with sin has been around since the beginning of time and it is a prevalent theme in many of Paul’s letters to the new Christian churches. Paul explains to his newly converted brothers and sisters now that they have come to Christ, who offers them grace, not to waste that grace by continuing to live in sin. He tells them to stop stealing, stop lying, stop raging against each other, stop committing adultery, stop oppressing the poor, stop boasting. Stop, stop, stop, sinning, because when you keep sinning, it means you have not given Christ the throne of your life. Because Christ’s mission is to destroy sin. Christ will not sit there while you sin, however He will give you the strength to stop sinning. It’s our choice.
Today as we partake of the Lord’s Supper, we have an invitation to take inventory. Are there sins in our lives that need to be addressed? Addictions that need healing? Mindsets that need mending? This is the time to do it.
Let’s pray.
