In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bore them and carried them all the days of old.
Isaiah 63 opens with God coming in judgment. At verse 7 the prophet turns back to the Lord's kindness toward Israel in the earliest days. Verse 9 says something startling: the God who saves His people also enters their pain.
The verse sits inside a long record of the Lord's goodness to Israel.
At verse 7 of chapter 63 a long prophetic passage begins. In it the writer records "the loving-kindnesses and praises of the Lord" according to all His "great goodness toward the house of Israel." ... "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them." So the Lord identifies Himself with the people of His choice.
Their suffering was often the result of their own sin, yet God did not stand outside it as a spectator.
He took the Learner's place, to know by experience what His people would pass through. He would experience, in sympathy, the trials of their way. Because of their sinning they often suffered under the chastening hand of God in His government. He, their sinless Messiah, felt for them keenly. As another has said, "He first bore in His spirit what He removed by His power."
Entering their sorrow is not the same as bearing the penalty of sin. One commentator draws that line:
It is said in the word, "In all their affliction he was afflicted," and I believe it is not there a question of expiation. In Gethsemane, He was not yet drinking the cup, but His "soul was very sorrowful, even to death."
While His people were still travelling, God took no settled place of His own.
As long as the Lord's people crossed the desert and had enemies to fight, the Lord had no resting-place on the earth. He travelled in the tabernacle with His people: "In all their affliction he was afflicted." Only when His people could rest did God allow them to build Him a house where He might rest.
The verse gives their Saviour an unusual title. It points back to the wilderness and on to Christ.
He entered into their afflictions and granted His presence. He redeemed them from Egypt. He carried and cared for them until they reached the land of promise. ... We also read of the Angel of the Lord who went before them. Here He is called "the Angel of His presence." In Malachi 3:1 the expression "Messenger of the covenant" is really "Angel of the covenant," and that is clearly a prediction of the coming of the Lord Jesus. So here also we may see a reference to Him.
The last clause pictures a parent, not just a rescuer. (Older translations read "he bore them"; the ESV has "he lifted them up".)
A mother holds her child in her arms as the object of her protecting love and care. She holds its arms when teaching it to walk. God dealt with His people on earth in the same way. He carried them as an infant is carried. He held them up by His everlasting arms while He taught them to walk in His ways in complete dependence on Him... But their steps were unsteady and uncertain, and they stumbled all the way — at Marah, in the wilderness of Sin, at Rephidim. Still those mighty arms held them up with a patience that never ran out.
Commentators note that the Hebrew here has two possible readings.
In Isaiah 63:9 the King James Version differs from the common Hebrew text. It follows the reading backed by many manuscripts, the Talmud, and Jewish writers: "He was afflicted," or word for word, "to him there was affliction." But the old Greek, Syriac, and Latin versions all put a negative in place of the pronoun and preposition, though they translate the clause differently. If we follow the text that many prefer, we must translate it roughly like this: "In all their afflictions he was not an adversary"; or, "in all their distress he was not distressed."
The verse is not left in the past. One writer applies it to Elijah, a worn-out prophet whom an angel fed and strengthened:
The Lord sends the angel back again, for He is rich in grace and mercy. He watches over all our ways. He feeds our souls according to our needs and all our circumstances. So the Lord bore with Elijah and helped him, and this is also what He is toward us. As He was afflicted in all the affliction of His people, so is He with us in ours now.
- Chosen. The Lord identifies Himself with the people of His choice, and everything else in the verse follows.
- Felt. He did not watch their trouble from a distance. He entered it, bearing in His spirit what He would later remove by His power.
- Distinguished. Entering their sorrow is sympathy, not the payment for sin; commentators keep the two apart.
- Present. "The Angel of His presence" went before Israel in the wilderness. Writers see in Him a pointer to Christ, the Angel of the covenant.
- Carried. He bore them like a parent carrying a stumbling child — and the same God is with His people in their afflictions now.
But they rebelled and grieved his holy Spirit and he turned to be their enemy; himself, he fought against them.
Isaiah has just described God's tender care for Israel, the God who carried them through the wilderness. This one verse records what they gave back, and what He became to them.
One small word turns the chapter: "but". Weigh first what God had been to Israel, and what He had received back.
He was not changed in His loving-kindness, nor they in their deep need of it, as only He could show it to them. Until now His love had received no return, nothing but bitter disappointment. Yet what could exceed His tender care?
Notice whom they grieved. Writers set this verse beside others to show that the Holy Spirit is a Person, not a force:
Moreover, He can be resisted (Acts 7:51), vexed (Isa. 63:10), grieved (Eph. 4:30), lied to (Acts 5:3), and — a solemn thing to say — blasphemed (Matt. 12:31).
Then ask a simple question: whom do we actually grieve?
We do not grieve an enemy. We only grieve those who love us and care for us tenderly. We may make an enemy angry, or upset a stranger. But it is the tender heart that our conduct grieves, and the more tender and loving the heart, the more easily it is grieved. The Spirit of God loves us tenderly, and He is keenly aware of whether we respond fully to the love of the Lord Jesus. So He is easily grieved, but He never stops His service of love to us.
The second half of the verse is startling: the Saviour of verse 8 becomes the opponent of verse 10. This is God governing His own people, not abandoning His purpose.
On God's part, then, nothing had been lacking in His dealings with Israel. So what had been their response to all this goodness? Verse 10 gives the sad answer: "But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit." As a result His holy government had to come into action, and He became their adversary.
The same writer carries the charge forward, from Isaiah's day to Stephen's:
Here we have in a few words what Stephen expanded and brought up to date, as recorded in Acts 7. Here the prophet has to record that they grieved God's Holy Spirit. Many centuries later Stephen says to them, "You always resist the Holy Spirit." To grieve Him is serious indeed. To resist Him is fatal.
Stephen was quoting his nation's own prophet back to them. One writer shows what that charge exposed.
But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit; therefore He turned to be their enemy, and Himself fought against them (Isa. 63:10). Here again Stephen had the surest warrant for defending Jehovah and His Anointed. He had the same warrant for convicting the proud, stubborn Jews of their old wrongdoing and their opposition to every dealing of His grace… Israel had no faith. They were a people outwardly, and in profession, near to God, while their heart was always far from Him. Their rejection of the Messiah, their indifference to — or spiteful contempt of — the Spirit given at Pentecost, were only of a piece with their history throughout.
Verse 11 asks where the One who put His Holy Spirit among them has gone — which raises the question of how the Spirit was with Israel at all. One writer reads the whole section as the answer:
If you turn now to Isaiah 63 you will see the true ground on which the Holy Spirit could be with the Lord's people… That is a lovely summary of the ways of God, as He carried them through the wilderness to the pleasant land… I have drawn attention to this passage just to show one thing. The Holy Spirit was with them on the ground of redemption. Even then His presence was of a passing nature.
The verse does not end the story, because verse 11 begins with God remembering. That memory is where hope for the nation restarts.
They had rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit, and He had therefore turned to be their enemy. Yet He earnestly remembered them still, in the unchanged purpose of His love. And when the heart truly longs for God, that longing always matches the hidden purpose of His goodness.
- Rebelled — God's love for Israel met no return, only bitter disappointment. The word "but" is the answer they gave.
- Grieved — the Spirit is a Person, not a force. People resist Him, lie to Him, grieve Him. You can only grieve a heart that loves you.
- Turned — grieving the Spirit set God's holy government in motion. The God who had carried them became their adversary.
- Resisted — centuries later Stephen brought the same charge in Acts 7. To grieve the Spirit is serious; to resist Him is fatal.
- Remembered — the Spirit was with them on the ground of redemption. God remembered them still, and His purpose of love never changed.