 |  |
the people there was none with Me: for I will tread them in Mine anger, and trample
them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain
all My raiment. For the day of vengeance is in Mine heart, and the year of my redeemed
is come."
We learned from Rev. 1: 10 that the prophetic setting of the book was "The day of the
Lord". Here the character of that day is given, viz., "the day of vengeance", and its
object and issue is "the year of my redeemed". The word "vengeance" occurs six times
in Isaiah, and this sixfold vengeance with its contexts is illuminative of Rev. 19:, 20::--
"For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of the recompences for the
controversy of Zion" (Isa. 34: 8).
The context speaks of the Lord's judgment upon the nations, the passing away of the
heavens, the turning of the land into "confusion" and "emptiness"--the same condition
(tohu and bohu) as that of Gen. 1: 2. In Isa. 35: we have the blessing that flows out to
Israel when the wilderness shall "blossom as the rose", and there we have the next
reference to vengeance:--
"Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God
will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; He will come and save you"
(Isa. 35: 4).
This chapter concludes one great portion of Isaiah's prophecy, and the glory and the
triumphant issue of the revelation of Christ can be felt as one reads the chapter through.
The next reference to vengeance has definitely to do with Babylon:--
"Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin, daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground:
there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans . . . . . I will take vengeance . . . . . thou
shalt no more be called, The lady of Kingdoms" (Isa. 47: 1-5).
Babylon's fall immediately precedes the coming of the Lord in the Revelation, and
here in Isaiah it is especially prominent. Just before the glorious command sounds forth,
"Arise, shine, for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee"
(Isa. 60: 1), we find another parallel with Rev. 19: ;--
"For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and an helmet of salvation upon His
head; and He put on the garments of vengeance" (Isa. 59: 17).
In Isa. 41: 2, 3 we read:--
"To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them
beauty for ashes."
Then comes the last reference, that of Isa. 63: with which we commenced. The
object of the Lord's coming is further specified in Rev. 19: 15:--
"And out of His mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations:
and He shall rule them with a rod of iron; and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God."