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Who is this coming from Edom,
    from Bozrah, with his garments stained crimson?
Who is this, robed in splendour,
    striding forward in the greatness of his strength?

‘It is I, proclaiming victory,
    mighty to save.’

² Why are your garments red,
    like those of one treading the winepress?

³ ‘I have trodden the winepress alone;
    from the nations no one was with me.
I trampled them in my anger
    and trod them down in my wrath;
their blood spattered my garments,
    and I stained all my clothing.
⁴ It was for me the day of vengeance;
    the year for me to redeem had come.
⁵ I looked, but there was no one to help,
    I was appalled that no one gave support;
so my own arm achieved salvation for me,
    and my own wrath sustained me.
⁶ I trampled the nations in my anger;
    in my wrath I made them drunk
    and poured their blood on the ground.’

We saw in Is.61:2, the Messiah’s mission ”…to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour and the day of vengeance of our God…” Today’s reading is about the latter. When the appointed time comes there will be a day of judgment.

‘Saul of Tarsus was later to learn that the Lord and his people are one; he could not persecute the one without clashing with the other. This passage teaches that people everywhere are destined, one day, to learn the same lesson. The judgment in view is final and universal (6), but the reference to Edom in particular gives the passage a special emphasis (1). It is nations as persecutors of his people which will be the special objects of God’s fury on the final day. They will meet God as the powerful avenger of his people.

God’s people are the special objects of the world’s hatred, and it may often seem to us that those who reject the LORD mock us with complete impunity and that there is no redress available to us. But it is not so. This passage assures us that nothing we suffer goes unnoticed, and that every wrong done to us will be repaid in full. It answers our cry for just redress, but takes the responsibility for achieving it out of our hands and places it where it properly belongs. The LORD himself is our avenger.’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’, pp.240/241.

Because I love Zion,
    I will not keep still.
Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem,
    I cannot remain silent.
I will not stop praying for her
    until her righteousness shines like the dawn,
    and her salvation blazes like a burning torch.
² The nations will see your righteousness.
    World leaders will be blinded by your glory.
And you will be given a new name
    by the Lord’s own mouth.
³ The Lord will hold you in his hand for all to see—
    a splendid crown in the hand of God.
⁴ Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City”
    or “The Desolate Land.”
Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight”
    and “The Bride of God,”
for the Lord delights in you
    and will claim you as his bride.
⁵ Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem,
    just as a young man commits himself to his bride.
Then God will rejoice over you
    as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.

⁶ O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls;
    they will pray day and night, continually.
    Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.
⁷ Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work,
    until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.
⁸ The Lord has sworn to Jerusalem by his own strength:
    “I will never again hand you over to your enemies.
Never again will foreign warriors come
    and take away your grain and new wine.
⁹ You raised the grain, and you will eat it,
    praising the Lord.
Within the courtyards of the Temple,
    you yourselves will drink the wine you have pressed.”

¹⁰ Go out through the gates!
    Prepare the highway for my people to return!
Smooth out the road; pull out the boulders;
    raise a flag for all the nations to see.
¹¹ The Lord has sent this message to every land:
    “Tell the people of Israel,
‘Look, your Saviour is coming.
    See, he brings his reward with him as he comes.’”
¹² They will be called “The Holy People”
    and “The People Redeemed by the Lord.”
And Jerusalem will be known as “The Desirable Place”
    and “The City No Longer Forsaken.” (NLT).

‘God’s promises should become our prayers. Isaiah prayed that Jerusalem might be restored (v.1), and he urged the watchmen and all of God’s people to pray as well (vv.6-7). The psalmist prayed ”for the peace of Jerusalem” (Ps.122:6). When there is peace in Jerusalem, there will be peace in the world.

The nation’s restoration will be as joyful as a wedding (vv.4-5;61:10). Beaulah means ”married” and Hepzibah means ”My delight is in her.” The people were ”divorced” from God because of their unfaithfulness, and He was not delighted in them; but that will change when God cleanses their sins.

Now is the time to make ready, for the King is coming to Zion (vv.10-12; Mt.21:5; Rev.22:12)!’ Warren W. Wiersbe: ‘With the Word’, p.490.

The above author also adds in his Old Testament Commentary: ‘…the prayers of His people are an important part of the program of God.’ (p.1200).

Because I love Zion,
    I will not keep still.
Because my heart yearns for Jerusalem,
    I cannot remain silent.
I will not stop praying for her
    until her righteousness shines like the dawn,
    and her salvation blazes like a burning torch.
² The nations will see your righteousness.
    World leaders will be blinded by your glory.
And you will be given a new name
    by the Lord’s own mouth.
³ The Lord will hold you in his hand for all to see—
    a splendid crown in the hand of God.
⁴ Never again will you be called “The Forsaken City”
    or “The Desolate Land.”
Your new name will be “The City of God’s Delight”
    and “The Bride of God,”
for the Lord delights in you
    and will claim you as his bride.
⁵ Your children will commit themselves to you, O Jerusalem,
    just as a young man commits himself to his bride.
Then God will rejoice over you
    as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride.

⁶ O Jerusalem, I have posted watchmen on your walls;
    they will pray day and night, continually.
    Take no rest, all you who pray to the Lord.
⁷ Give the Lord no rest until he completes his work,
    until he makes Jerusalem the pride of the earth.
⁸ The Lord has sworn to Jerusalem by his own strength:
    “I will never again hand you over to your enemies.
Never again will foreign warriors come
    and take away your grain and new wine.
⁹ You raised the grain, and you will eat it,
    praising the Lord.
Within the courtyards of the Temple,
    you yourselves will drink the wine you have pressed.” (New Living Translation).

Here is further encouragement to pray. In response to one man’s (Isaiah’s) prayers, God is going to do something in and for Jerusalem that the world ”will see”. Let that thought sink in.

It has been pointed out that the kind of bold, prevailing prayer described in verses 1,6 and 7 is justified only on the basis of God’s clearly revealed will (see verse 8 and the reference to what God has ”sworn”). So we will pray best, most intelligently, with the Bible in our hearts and hands.

‘The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.’ F.B. Meyer.