“I have been treading the winepress alone; no one was there to help me. In my anger I have trampled my enemies as if they were grapes. In my fury I have trampled my foes. Their blood has stained my clothes.
For the time has come for me to avenge my people, to ransom them from their oppressors. I was amazed to see that no one intervened to help the oppressed. So I myself stepped in to save them with my strong arm, and my wrath sustained me. I crushed the nations in my anger and made them stagger and fall to the ground, spilling their blood upon the earth.” Isaiah 63:2-6 NLT
Sometimes people ask where the Cross is to be found in the Old Testament. Of course, it is to be found in Isaiah 53, but I would contend that it is also found in the passage quoted above. That point emerges when we look at the context in which it appears.
Isaiah chapters 56-66 form a pyramid. The foundation stones are 56:1-59:15a and 63:7-66:24. Here we see the perennial sinfulness of the very people God has chosen for himself. These chapters seem to be addressed to the people who returned from exile, so their continued sinfulness is a scandal.
What is to be done? That is addressed in the next course of stones: 59:15b-21 and 61:1-6. Here we see a mighty Warrior who comes to deliver his people from their deadly enemies. Who are those enemies? Clearly, from the chapters on either side, they are sin and sinfulness.
The next course of stones: 60:1-22 and 61:4-62:12, shows that the Warrior’s work is absolutely effective. The Light of God has dawned in the people’s lives and all the world can see their righteousness. Then, 61:1-3, the apex of the pyramid, tells us who the Warrior is. He is the Spirit-anointed One who comes to proclaim the Good News of salvation. (See Luke 4:18-21.)
So, whose blood is it that stains the robes of the Warrior? It is the blood of his people’s enemies, of course. He has trampled those enemies like grapes in a wine vat. But he has become those enemies; he has taken our sins into himself! Whose blood? His own! “He became sin who knew no sin,” and “He suffered…in order to sanctify the people by his own blood.” His own blood! Praise his Name!
Called To Be Transformed 