Peter Misselbrook's Blog
Nov 1 2019 - Isaiah 63 – Treading out the winepress

Isaiah 63 falls into 2 parts. Verses 1-6 describe, in somewhat gruesome terms, the coming of God in judgment upon all that has damaged and destroyed his world.

Let me take you back to the previous chapter where we saw that the Messiah, the Servant of the Lord, has placed watchmen on the walls of his holy city. These watchmen are to join the risen and glorified Messiah in giving God no peace from their prayers and intercessions until he makes his redeemed people a praise in all the earth (Isaiah 62:6-7). We spoke of this as the calling, in part, of every Christian, to pray as Jesus taught us for God's kingdom to come and his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Isaiah 63 describes what the watchmen on the walls now see. They see a character coming towards them from Edom. This idolatrous nation, descended from Esau and situated to the southeast of Jerusalem, with its capital Bozrah (not to be confused with Basra in Iraq), was a longstanding enemy of Judah and is used here as a symbol of an unbelieving world, contemptuous of the promises and goodness of God (see Genesis 25:29-34; Isaiah 34:1-15; Ezekiel 35). The man striding towards Jerusalem is robed in splendour and is proclaiming that he has won a great victory.

The watchman notices that his splendid garments are stained and splattered red as though he has been treading red grapes in a winepress and asks why this is so. The victorious character replies that there was no one else who was able to execute God's judgment and to save God's people from the threats of a world in rebellion against God. He has trodden the winepress of God's anger alone and has trampled down the opponents of God. His robes are now stained with their blood:

I trampled the nations in my anger;
    in my wrath I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground. (v. 6)

This grim picture may make us feel uneasy or even fill us with revulsion. It is indeed an awful picture. Nevertheless, it is the testimony of Scripture from Genesis to Revelation that God rescues his people by crushing those who oppress them and who are implacably opposed to the saving purposes of God. That is what God did when he rescued his people from Egypt. That is the desire of his martyred people in Revelation 6:10 when they cry out to God, "How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood?" That is part of what we pray for, whether we realise it or not, whether we like it or not, when, as watchmen on the walls we give God no rest but plead that his kingdom may come.

So this vision of the glorious victor in God's battle against evil gives way in the latter verses of this chapter to a psalm of praise and intercession recalling God's goodness to his people in the past and pleading for the Lord to show mercy again in saving his people.

I wish we could look in more detail at verses 7-19 of this chapter, but space does not permit. But I must pick up one remarkable phrase. Verse 9, perhaps speaking of Israel's slavery in Egypt, says of God, "In all their distress he too was distressed". God is moved by the plight of his people. This is most clearly demonstrated in the Lord Jesus Christ. He who was God from all eternity became human – became one of us. He shared and felt our distress. He endured the opposition, anger and violence of a world opposed to God and shed his blood for us: "by his wounds we are healed." Here is the most wonderful truth in all the world: we who also were rebels against God and worthy of God's judgment are redeemed, forgiven and made children of God because his blood stained his spotless robes – "the punishment that brought us peace was on him"; he endured God's wrath in our place. He, the victor over all the powers of sin and death will one day come again to establish his kingdom and make his unworthy but redeemed people "a praise in all the earth".

Lord Jesus, help us to tell the world of your kindness, your deeds of compassion and saving goodness for which we offer you our heartfelt and unceasing praise.

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Nov 1 2020 - John 3:22-4:6 – The seal of approval

There was a time when the Roman Catholic Church sought to provide guidance for its members on what they should read. A bishop of the church would grant an imprimatur, a licence certifying the Church's approval of a book and granting permission for it to be published and read. The imprimatur would be printed along with the book to certify that it was sound and helpful for readers.

John writes that whoever accepts the testimony of Jesus, "has certified that God is truthful" (John 3:33). It's an odd phrase, and not easy to translate. It means literally that the one who believes in Jesus has "set their seal" to Jesus' testimony, certifying it as truth from God. I think that the old practice of the imprimatur is a helpful analogy. Those who believe in Jesus – those who hear his words and follow him – have set their imprimatur on his testimony. We have recognised that Jesus is the one who speaks truth from God. We continue to read and follow his teaching and we commend it – and him – to others.

Baptism is the preeminent means by which we assent to the truth of God revealed in Jesus. In baptism we declare that God is in the right – he is righteous – and we are in the wrong – we are unrighteous and in need of cleansing. In Christian baptism we acknowledge that Jesus is God’s provision for our need; in his death we die to all that is opposed to God and through his resurrection we receive the power to live a new life. In baptism we declare our faith, our trust, in him; we declare that Jesus is the promised Saviour of the world and that we will follow him. In baptism we set our seal to this, that God is true and that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life.

But we have to confess that, all too often, we are inconsistent disciples. Having set our seal to affirm what God has done in Christ we all too often fail to follow him. All too often our thoughts, words and deeds do not follow closely his thoughts words and deeds. In the words of the General Confession from the Order for Daily Morning Prayer:

Almighty and most merciful Father; we have erred, and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. We have offended against thy holy laws. We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; and we have done those things which we ought not to have done; and there is no health in us. But thou, O Lord, have mercy upon us, miserable offenders. Spare thou those, O God, who confess their faults. Restore thou those who are penitent; According to thy promises declared unto mankind in Christ Jesus our Lord. And grant, O most merciful Father, for his sake; that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life, to the glory of thy holy Name. Amen.

We have need of such daily prayer of confession. But we also need daily confidence that God forgives and cleanses us afresh for Jesus’ sake; that our once-for-all baptism is a symbol of what God in Christ does for us again and again – does for us continually. Our confidence lies not in the fact that we have set our seal on him but that he has set his seal on us. He has declared that he will have us to be his own and that nothing in life or in death can separate us from his love. And it is this confidence that provides strength for renewed discipleship.

Lord Jesus, may my imprimatur on your testimony be more than mere show. Help me always to hear your voice and follow you. Help me always to commend you and your word to others that they too may know the truth of God.

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Peter Misselbrook