Our blood-stained Conqueror
by Dr Pauline Simonsen
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For the day of vengeance was in my mind, and the year for my redeeming work had come (Isaiah 63:4).
Read Isaiah 63:1–6
Our Hollywood movie today is not Cinderella – it’s The Equalizer. It’s every Die Hard movie, with a blood-spattered hero who single-handedly wreaks vengeance and emerges from the smoking ruins of destruction having brought victory with his own strong right arm.
This comparison with Holy Scripture might seem flippant, but read Isaiah 63:1–6 again, and picture it. A majestic, terrifying figure, his splendid clothing stained crimson, strides out of enemy territory (Edom was a long-standing enemy of Israel). A vivid Q&A interview happens, with the watchers asking, ‘who is this?’. The transfixing figure replies, ‘It is I, proclaiming victory, mighty to save’. No name is given or needed because we realise this is the Lord’s Anointed One, now Conqueror.
The watchers ask why the majestic One’s clothes are soaked crimson as if he’d been trampling grapes in a wine press, and the Conqueror takes up this familiar Old Testament image. Here the ‘grapes’ in the winepress are Israel’s enemies, upon whom the Anointed One has brought his wrath and judgement. Isaiah 63:6 is particularly graphic and terrifying, and suddenly any flippancy about the judgement of the Lord’s Anointed One shrivels in our mouths. We are face-to-face with the Holy One of Israel, who acts with sovereign power to redeem and avenge his beloved people. Israel. Us.
There is an apocalyptic sense of judgement here – this image is repeated in Revelation (Revelation 14:19,20 and Revelation 19:15), describing the wrath of God. Our 21st-century sensibilities recoil from these images of violence.
But if we look deeper into this ancient-world vision of vindicating vengeance, we see One whom we recognise. Look how the Conqueror emphasises that he alone did this work:
I looked, but there was no helper; I was abandoned, and there was no one to sustain me,
so my own arm brought me victory, and my wrath sustained me (Isaiah 63:5).
I am reminded of Jesus in his suffering and crucifixion. ‘I looked for pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none’ (Psalm 69:20).
Jesus’ passion and death were carried alone by him; only he could do the work of salvation. He battled our worst enemies: the pervasive, crippling sin within and around us, this fallen, corrupt world, the liar and murderer Satan. He did battle with death itself.
And – thanks be to God! – our Conqueror emerged from the battle, bloodstained but victorious. He has done it. It is finished. The day of vengeance has brought us life.
Lord Christ, we kneel in trembling awe before you, our conquering King. The lengths you have gone to in your fierce love to rescue us from our enemies! Saviour, cover us in your grace and hide us in your righteousness. We pray in your mighty name. Amen.
Pauline leads a Bible college and offers spiritual direction in Palmerston North, New Zealand. She’s married to Roger – who is recently retired – and she enjoys having him home a bit more. When she gets some free time, Pauline loves cooking and reading and likes nothing better than sitting with a cat on her lap and watching the birds in her garden.
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