The three passages (Ps. 98:9; Isa. 51:5; 63:1-4,5b-6) which explore the role of the Arm of the LORD as Judge appear within contexts which profile the soteric redemption that God’s Arm would accomplish. The purpose for the pairing of deliverance and judgment stems from the fact that the Arm of the LORD “looks at both friend (with salvation) and foe (with victory).”[1] Compared which previous chapters, the texts devoted to this facet of the study are fewer in number and more brief, but nonetheless reveal important data without which a comprehensive portrait of the Arm of the LORD would be impossible
Psalm 98:9
Although the psalmist declared that “the LORD . . . is coming to judge the earth” (Ps. 98:9), the ministry of God’s Arm clearly is in mind as evidenced by the verse’s context. In Psalm 98:1 the Arm of the LORD achieves “wonderful things” (i.e., effects soteric deliverance), while verses 2-3 expand this thought. This miraculous act prompts both mankind (vv. 4-6) and nature (vv. 7-9a) to shout with joy because the workings of the Arm of the LORD would result in the world being judged “with righteousness, and the peoples with equity” (v. 9).
The revelation that the Arm of the LORD is Judge does not emerge until the final verse of Psalm 98, but this does not indicate that the psalmist regarded the duty as insignificant or even of secondary importance. Rather, the theme of judgment is as necessary a function of God’s Arm as His deliverance. In fact, Psalm 98:9b is the reason[2] for which the LORD receives praise in verses 4-9a.
Isaiah 51:5
A cursory reading of Isaiah 51 shows that the Arm of the LORD is a prominent theme in this passage. To miss this fact is to miss the point of the chapter, for it appears twice in verse 5.[3] The immediate context of Isaiah 51:5 (vv. 51:4-8) is salvific, assuring the audience that their eschatological deliverance never would dissipate. The people could rely on the LORD’s promise because of His righteousness. Once more God’s uprightness, which occurs four times in verses 5-8, is crucial to judgment.
Other passages in the Book of Isaiah help to elucidate the meaning of Isaiah 51:5. Whereas in the present text God states that His “arms will judge the peoples,” He declares in Isaiah 2:4 that “He will judge between the nations.” Since the prophet assigned Isaiah 2 to “the last days” (Isa. 2:2), one must ascribe Isaiah 51:5 to the eschaton as well.
The coastlands gather “together for judgment” (cf. Isa. 51:4) in Isaiah 41:1. After assembling (Isa. 42:4), the Servant “establishe[s] justice . . . in the earth, [causing] the coastlands [to] wait expectantly for His law” (cf. Isa. 51:4). These two texts assert that besides being eschatological, divine judgment proceeds from the Messiah and is universal in its extent.
Isaiah 63:1-4a, 5b-6
The word judge or its derivatives are not to be found in Isaiah 63:1-6, but the pericope bears the markings of a judgment passage. Like Psalm 98:9 and Isaiah 51:5, righteousness (Isa. 63:1) plays an important role in the text, informing the reader that both deliverance and judgment are in mind, as explained above. The coupling of vengeance (Isa. 63:4a) with redemption (Isa. 63:4b), as well as the pairing of salvation (Isa. 63:5a) with wrath (Isa. 63:5b), further demonstrates this argument.
According to Bernard Gosse, Isaiah 63:1-6 paints an unusual scene in which a mysterious figure “est présenté comme intervenant en Edom, aux dépens duquel doit s’exercer la vengeance divine. Le triomphe du salut et de la justice divine deviennent alors une conséquence de la ‘vengeance’ divine contre Edom.”[4] The speaker of Isaiah 63:1-2 submits two questions to the warrior: 1) “Who is this who comes from Edom?” and 2) “Why is Your apparel red, and Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press?” Edgar W. Conrad noticed that “unlike the rhetorical questions posed in the announcement of the LORD’s plan against the nations (chaps. 13-27 and 40-47)”[5] the addressee readily responds to the inquiries.
The passage communicates the identity of the figure only in terms of “I,” but the surrounding context of Isaiah 63:1-6 provides more clues. Isaiah 61:1 likewise records the musings of one who also is known as “I,” but in this chapter the speaker clearly is the Messiah.[6] The introduction to Isaiah 63:1-6 moreover contains a prophecy in which the LORD heralds the advent of His Anointed One: “Lo, your salvation comes; behold His reward is with Him, and His recompense before Him” (Isa. 62:11). Immediately after God promulgates the arrival of Messiah, the figure of Isaiah 63:1-6 emerges.
That Isaiah 63:1-6 is an allusion to the Messiah rather than the LORD is not a new interpretation, for early Jewish commentary attests to this position. Not only does the Isaiah Targum recognize the pericope as a description of the “Warrior-Messiah,”[7] the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, in its inflation of Genesis 49:11, refers to a bloody image of the Messiah that is based on Isa[iah] 63:1-6.[8] As the Arm of the LORD, the Messiah sets about the task of punishing the LORD’s enemies.
[1] Derek Kidner, Psalms 73-150: A Commentary on Books III-V (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1975), 352.
[2] Konrad Schaefer, Psalms, Berit Olam: Studies in Hebrew Narrative & Poetry, ed. David W. Cotter, Jerome T. Walsh, and Chris Franke (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical, 2001), 242.
[3] J. Ross Wagner, “The Heralds of Isaiah and the Mission of Paul: An Investigation of Paul’s Use of Isaiah 51-55 in Romans,” in Jesus and the Suffering Servant, ed. William H. Bellinger Jr., and William R. Farmer (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity, 1998), 213.
[4] J. Ross Wagner, “The Heralds of Isaiah and the Mission of Paul: An Investigation of Paul’s Use of Isaiah 51-55 in Romans,” in Jesus and the Suffering Servant, ed. William H. Bellinger Jr., and William R. Farmer (Harrisburg, PA: Trinity, 1998), 213.
[5] Edgar W. Conrad, Reading Isaiah, Overtures to Biblical Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1991), 106.
[6] Gregory J. Polan, In the Ways of Justice Toward Salvation: A RhetoricalAnalysis of Isaiah 56-59, American University Studies, vol. 7 (New York: Peter Lang, 1986), 15.
[7] Gerbern S. Oegma, The Anointed and His People: Messianic Expectations from Maccabees to Bar Kochba, Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha Supplement Series, vol. 27, ed. Lester L. Grabbe, et al. (Sheffield: Sheffield Academic, 1998), 299.
[8] Samson H. Levey, The Messiah: An Aramaic Interpretation: The Messianic Exegesis of the Targum, Monographs of the Hebrew Union College, vol. 2 (Cincinnati: Hebrew Union College, 1974), 9.
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