In verses 1-6 is a brief account of the appearance of the Lord Jesus in Judah's land when as Israel's Messiah He will have destroyed the allied armies of the nations bordering Palestine, the blow falling in the country of Esau's children-Edom, or Idumea (the Greek form of the same name). His first act, on corning back to the world, to Jerusalem where He was crucified, will be to judge the western power, the revived Roman Empire in its head, and the Antichrist. This will be shortly followed by judgments falling on the eastern powers represented by the Assyrian or king of the north, and the nearby nations with which Edom will be associated. The prophetic Scriptures tell much of coming judgments upon the children of Israel and tile nations, but the object of the Holy Spirit being to tell of the character of the judgments, long withheld and richly deserved, and upon whom they will fall, and when, we are not given uncalled for detail, nor the order or precise time of most of the judgments.
Bozrah, verse 1, was an important place in Edom, and will be again. In verses 3 and 6, "the people" refers to the nations, not to Israel. Israel will have a share in the judgment on Edom (Isa. 11:11And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: (Isaiah 11:1).4: Obadiah 1818And the house of Jacob shall be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, and the house of Esau for stubble, and they shall kindle in them, and devour them; and there shall not be any remaining of the house of Esau; for the Lord hath spoken it. (Obadiah 18)).
Verses 3, 4 and 6, we should read as the Lord's speaking of what He will have done, rather than of what He will thereafter (16; read for example, in verse 3: "I have trodden them in Mine anger and their blood is sprinkled upon My garments, and I have stained all My garments."
Verse 7 begins the last division of Isaiah's very extended and most inclusive prophecy. The remainder of chapter 63 and the whole of chapter 64 are the voice of the Spirit in the remnant of Israel, seeking, with confession of past sin and acknowledgment of God's mercy, deliverance from the consequences for their sin. In chapters 65 and 66 we have God's answer of grace, in language which moves the heart.
In verse 8, the last clause may be read "and He became their Saviour." "Him" at the end of verse 14, is Moses. Verse 14 is properly plural in form,—"As cattle go down into the valley, the Spirit of Jehovah gave them rest, etc." Verses 7-14 are a review of Israel's history as watched over and cared for by God from the slavery of Egypt to their resting place in the land of Palestine.
Founded upon the nation's former experience of divine favor, the God-fearing children of Israel of the fast approaching day will plead for a renewal of it (verses 15-19), They will press a relationship not equal to that in which the Christian stands, but one owned of God for the reborn children of Israel:
"Thou, O Jehovah, art our Father; our Redeemer, from everlasting is Thy name."
A mere remnant of the nation which has been for many centuries under God's disfavor because of sin upon sin, they declare that Abraham may be ignorant of them,—and certainly the mass of Israel, apostate from God, will not acknowledge them; under judicial hardening, too, the nation has been, like Pharaoh of old, who first hardened his heart, and afterward was hardened (Ex. 9:1212And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had spoken unto Moses. (Exodus 9:12)),—-yet are they His people, and in the deepest need.