We previously noted chapter 63 ends with a request for God to look down from heaven to behold the needs of His people. Today’s chapter begins with a call to the Lord to come down from heaven in a demonstration of power to deliver the church from her oppressors. The Old Testament church knew trial and persecution, often physical and brutal. It is the earthly experience of all Christ’s church to be tried. Satan’s antagonism towards believers is not a new phenomenon. Daily deliverances The Lord has personally come down from heaven to deliver His people at the cross. He will return again from heaven to deliver the church at His second coming. However, it is perhaps best to consider Christ as coming spiritually and…

Our passage divides into three sections. The connecting thread is the Lord’s deliverance of His people from their enemies. In the first part Isaiah anticipates a day of divine vengeance and ‘the year of my redeemed’. In the second part the kindness and faithfulness of God in times past is recalled, especially the deliverance of Israel from captivity in Egypt. The final part is a prayer for help. In it, faith is expressed, sins are confessed, and an appeal is made for recovery and restoration upon covenant grounds. Isaiah quizzes Christ The prophecy is descriptive of the victories of the Lord Jesus over His enemies at the cross and the triumphs of His love and grace in redemption. It opens with a series of questions…