Isaiah 63:2

Isaiah THE WINEPRESS AND ITS TREADERIsaiah 63:2 - Isaiah 63:3 . The structure of these closing chapters is chronological, and this is the final scene. What follows is epilogue. The reference of this magnificent imagery to the sufferings of Jesus is a complete misapprehension. These sufferings were dealt with once for all in Isaiah 53:1 - Isaiah 53:12 , and it is Messiah triumphant who has filled the prophet’s vision since then. I. The treading of the winepress. The nations are flung into the press, as ripe grapes. The picture is plainly a figure of some tremendous judgment in which the powers that oppose the majestic march of the triumphant Messiah will be crushed and trampled to ruin. They are trodden ‘in Mine anger, and their life-blood is sprinkled on My garments.’ It is He who crushes, not He who is crushed. The winepress which He treads is the ‘winepress of the wrath of Almighty God,’ and His treading of it is His executing of God’s judgments on those whose antagonism to Him and to His ‘redeemed’ has brought them within their sweep. The prophetic imagination kindles and casts its thought into that terrible picture, which some fastidious people would think coarse, of a peasant standing up to his knees in a vat heaped with purple clusters, and fiercely trampling them down, while the red juice splashes upon his girt-up clothes. The prophet does not date his vision. It has been realised many a time, and will be many a time still.

Wherever opposition to Christ and His kingdom has reached ripeness, wherever antagonistic tendencies have borne fruit which has matured, the winepress is set up and the treading begins. ‘Wheresoever the carcass is, there will the eagles be gathered together.’ ‘Immediately he putteth in the sickle because the harvest is done.’ The judgments tarry long, and Christ’s servants, oppressed or hard pressed, get impatient, and cry ‘How long, O Lord, dost Thou not judge? It is time for Thee to work.’ But long patience precedes the divine awaking, for it is not God’s way nor Christ’s to cut down even a cumbering tree, until the possibility of its bearing fruit is plainly ended, and the last use that He makes of anything is to burn it. The repeated settings up of Christ’s winepress have all been one in principle, and they all point onwards to a final one. There have been many ‘days of the Lord,’ and if men were wise and ‘observed these things,’-which most of them are not,-they would see that these lesser ‘days’ made a ‘final great and terrible day of the Lord’ supremely probable, and in perfect analogy with all that experience and history have testified as to the method of the divine government.

Isaiah 63:2-4 . Wherefore art thou red, &c. — The dialogue is continued, and the prophet or the church, having inquired concerning the person, now inquires why his habit has been thus sprinkled and stained. I have trodden the wine-press alone — I have destroyed the enemies of my people, I have crushed them as grapes are crushed; this being a usual metaphor to describe the utter destruction of a people, Psalm 44:5 ; Revelation 14:19-20 ; and the ease with which God can do it, which is no more than to crush a bunch of grapes. This exactly agrees with what is said of Christ, Revelation 19:15 , That he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. Bishop Lowth has observed, that “there is an energy and sublimity in this description, which is not to be paralleled in any language.” And of the people there was none with me — I have delivered my people, and destroyed their enemies by my own power, without any human help. Thus he destroyed the Assyrians, Isaiah 37:36 . Thus he infatuated the Babylonians, and opened the two-leaved gates for Cyrus, Isaiah 45:1 . Thus he divided the sea and Jordan before Israel of old, and overthrew Jericho, and the kings and nations of Canaan. It is true he often makes use of instruments in conquering, whether the temporal or spiritual enemies of his people; but he needs them not; and when he employs them, they act by commission and authority derived from him, and by strength which he communicates to them.

For I will tread, &c. — Or, rather, I trod them in mine anger, and I trampled them in mine indignation, and their blood — Hebrew, נצחם , robur eorum, their strength; Bishop Lowth renders it, their life-blood was sprinkled on my garments. For the day of vengeance — The day designed and appointed by me, wherein to take vengeance on the enemies of my church, is, or rather, was, in my heart — So that I could not forget nor neglect to execute it: see notes on Isaiah 34:8 ; Isaiah 61:1 . And the year of my redeemed — The year appointed for their redemption, is or was come — Though it seemed to tarry, and his people might be ready to give up all hope of it, it came at last, and did not disappoint their expectations.

2. The prophet asks why His garments are "dyed" and "red." winefat—rather, the "wine-press," wherein the grapes were trodden with the feet; the juice would stain the garment of him who trod them (Re 14:19, 20; 19:15). The image was appropriate, as the country round Bozrah abounded in grapes. This final blow inflicted by Messiah and His armies (Re 19:13-15) shall decide His claim to the kingdoms usurped by Satan, and by the "beast," to whom Satan delegates his power. It will be a day of judgment to the hostile Gentiles, as His first coming was a day of judgment to the unbelieving Jews.

2 . The meaning of Jehovah’s appearing is not yet explained, and so the dialogue proceeds. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel ] Better, Wherefore is there red on thine apparel ; the form of the question indicating that the red colour is not that of the vesture itself but is something adventitious. “Red” ( ’âdôm ) is suggested by Edom , just as the figure of the winepress may be suggested by the resemblance of Boçrâh ( Isaiah 63:1 ) to bâçîr (vintage). The figure, however, is in itself an appropriate one; the winepress appearing “as an emblem on the coins of Bostra during the Roman rule” (Cheyne, Comm. ). 3 ff . Jehovah’s answer, disclosing the reason of His appearing. I have trodden the winepress ] or winetrough . The word ( pûrâh ), from a root meaning to “foam,” seems to be poetic, although the only other instance of its use is prosaic enough ( Haggai 2:16 ). For the image of the winepress cf. Lamentations 1:15 ; Joel 3:13 . and of the peoples (R.V.) there was none ( no man ) with me ] See Isaiah 63:5 . for I will tread them &c. ] Render and I trod them &c. The substitution of past tenses for futures throughout the verse is imperatively demanded by the sense, although it requires a series of changes in the vowel-points ( Vav consec. for simple Vav ). The reason of the Massoretic punctuation was the desire to make it plain that the prophecy relates to the future.