Isaiah · Old Testament · Isaiah 63:1–6
The Lord's Return in Judgment
The Story
Isaiah opens with a dramatic question — who is this coming from Edom, from the city of Bozrah, with his clothes stained red, striding forward in the greatness of his strength? The figure answers in the first person — "It is I, the LORD, announcing your salvation! It is I, the LORD, who has the power to save!" But the questioner presses further — why are his clothes so red, like those of someone who has been treading grapes in a winepress? The answer that follows is one of the most vivid and arresting images of divine judgment in all of Scripture. The figure declares that he has been treading the winepress alone, and that not one person from any nation came to help him. He trampled his enemies in his anger and crushed them in his fury, and their blood spattered his garments and stained all his clothing. The day of vengeance that burns in his heart, he says, has come — the year for him to redeem his people has arrived. He looked for someone to help him but found no one, so his own arm accomplished salvation and his own fury sustained him. He crushed the nations in his anger, poured out their blood on the ground, and left them without a defender.
The Message
Isaiah's vision is a sobering and uncompromising portrait of God as the sole and sovereign executor of justice — a warrior who acts alone because no one else can bear the full weight of what perfect judgment requires. The stained garments and the treading of the winepress are images of the totality and personal intensity of God's vengeance against evil, making clear that his judgment is not cold or mechanical but burns with the zeal of one who is absolutely committed to the redemption of his people. The passage is a reminder that the God of salvation and the God of judgment are not two different Gods — they are one and the same, and his rescue of the redeemed is inseparable from his destruction of everything that opposes them.