◄ Isaiah 63:9 ►
In all their distress, He too was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them. In His love and compassion He redeemed them; He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Study Bible
In all their distress, He too was afflicted,

This phrase highlights God's empathy and solidarity with His people. It reflects the deep connection between God and Israel, where their suffering becomes His own. This concept is echoed in the New Testament, where Jesus Christ is described as a High Priest who sympathizes with our weaknesses (Hebrews 4:15). The idea of God being afflicted alongside His people can also be seen in the narrative of the Exodus, where God hears the cries of the Israelites and is moved to act on their behalf (Exodus 3:7-8).

Exo 3:7 The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the affliction…
Jdg 10:16 So they put away the foreign gods from among them…
Psa 106:44-45 Nevertheless He heard their cry; He took note…

and the Angel of His Presence saved them.

The "Angel of His Presence" is often understood as a theophany, a manifestation of God Himself, or a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ. This angel is not merely a messenger but represents God's immediate presence and power. In Exodus 23:20-23, God promises to send an angel to guard and lead the Israelites, which is seen as a direct intervention of God in their deliverance. This angelic figure is also associated with the divine presence in the wilderness, guiding and protecting the Israelites.

Exo 23:20-23 Behold, I am sending an angel before you to protect you…
Exo 14:19-20 And the angel of God withdrew and went behind them.…
Gen 48:16 the angel who has redeemed me from all harm—…

In His love and compassion He redeemed them;

God's actions are motivated by His love and compassion, central attributes of His character. Redemption here refers to the deliverance from bondage, particularly the Exodus from Egypt, which is a foundational event in Israel's history. This act of redemption is a type of the ultimate redemption through Jesus Christ, who delivers humanity from the bondage of sin (Ephesians 1:7). The language of love and compassion underscores the personal and relational nature of God's salvation.

Psa 103:4 who redeems your life from the Pit and crowns you…
Neh 9:17 They refused to listen and failed to remember…
Exo 6:6 Therefore tell the Israelites: ‘I am the LORD…

He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.

This imagery of God lifting and carrying His people evokes the care and protection He provided throughout their history, especially during the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings. Deuteronomy 1:31 describes God carrying Israel as a father carries his son, emphasizing His nurturing and sustaining role. This phrase also points to God's faithfulness and enduring commitment to His covenant people, a theme that runs throughout the Old Testament and finds its fulfillment in the New Testament through Christ's sacrificial love and ongoing intercession for believers.

Exo 19:4 You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt,…
Deu 1:31 and in the wilderness, where the LORD your God carried you…
Deu 32:11-12 As an eagle stirs up its nest and hovers over its young,…

Persons / Places / Events
1. The Israelites
The chosen people of God, often experiencing distress and needing deliverance.

2. The Angel of His Presence
A divine figure representing God's immediate presence and intervention.

3. God's Love and Compassion
Attributes of God that motivate His actions towards His people.

4. Redemption
The act of God saving His people from their afflictions.

5. The Days of Old
Refers to the historical acts of God in delivering Israel, such as the Exodus.
Teaching Points
God's Empathy with Our Suffering
God is not distant in our distress; He shares in our afflictions, demonstrating His deep empathy and understanding.

The Role of Divine Presence
The "Angel of His Presence" signifies God's active involvement in our lives, offering guidance and salvation.

The Motivation of Love and Compassion
God's actions are driven by His love and compassion, reminding us of His unwavering commitment to our well-being.

Historical Faithfulness as a Foundation for Trust
Reflecting on "the days of old" encourages us to trust in God's consistent faithfulness throughout history.

Redemption as a Continuous Process
God's redemption is not a one-time event but a continuous process of lifting and carrying us through life's challenges.
Bible Study Questions
1. How does understanding God's shared affliction with us change our perspective on personal suffering?

2. In what ways can we recognize the "Angel of His Presence" in our daily lives today?

3. How can reflecting on God's past acts of redemption strengthen our faith in current trials?

4. What practical steps can we take to emulate God's love and compassion in our interactions with others?

5. How do the themes of love, compassion, and redemption in Isaiah 63:9 connect with the life and ministry of Jesus Christ?
Connections to Other Scriptures
Exodus 23:20-23
The Angel of the Lord is mentioned as guiding and protecting the Israelites, similar to the "Angel of His Presence" in Isaiah 63:9.

Deuteronomy 1:31
Describes God carrying Israel as a father carries his son, echoing the imagery of God lifting and carrying His people.

Psalm 34:18
Highlights God's closeness to the brokenhearted, paralleling His shared affliction with His people in Isaiah 63:9.

Hebrews 2:17-18
Jesus is described as sharing in human suffering, akin to God being afflicted with His people.

Lamentations 3:22-23
Emphasizes God's steadfast love and compassion, which are central to His redemptive actions.
Sermons
Christ with His People in TroubleIsaiah 63:9
Discipline by ChastisementJ. D. Jones, B. D.Isaiah 63:9
Divine DisciplineN. H. Schenck, D. D.Isaiah 63:9
GodF. Delitzsch, D. D.Isaiah 63:9
God's Suffering SympathyR. Tuck Isaiah 63:9
The Angel of His PresenceProf. J. Skinner, D. D., A. B. Davidson, D. D., F. Delitzsch, D. D.Isaiah 63:9
The Angel of His PresenceR. Thomas, D. D.Isaiah 63:9
The Spheres of CompassionW. M. Clow, B. D.Isaiah 63:9
The Sympathy of GodAlexander MaclarenIsaiah 63:9
An Outburst of ThanksgivingE. Johnson Isaiah 63:7-9
The Greatness of God's GoodnessW. Clarkson Isaiah 63:7-9
People
Isaiah
Places
Bozrah, Edom, Zion
Topics
Adversary, Afflicted, Affliction, Angel, Arms, Bare, Beareth, Bore, Caring, Carried, Cause, Distress, Distressed, Lift, Lifted, Love, Mercy, Messenger, Pity, Presence, Redeemed, Saved, Saviour
Dictionary of Bible Themes
Isaiah 63:9

     1135   God, suffering of
     1255   face of God
     4140   angel of the Lord
     5698   guardian
     6687   mercy, God's
     7922   fellowship, with God
     8330   receptiveness

Isaiah 63:7-9

     6688   mercy, demonstration of God's

Isaiah 63:8-9

     4111   angels, servants

Isaiah 63:9-10

     5013   heart, divine

Library
Mighty to Save
'Mighty to save.'--ISAIAH lxiii. 1. We have here a singularly vivid and dramatic prophecy, thrown into the form of a dialogue between the prophet and a stranger whom he sees from afar striding along from the mountains of Edom, with elastic step, and dyed garments. The prophet does not recognise him, and asks who he is. The Unknown answers, 'I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.' Another question follows, seeking explanation of the splashed crimson garments of the stranger, and its answer …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Sympathy of God
'In all their afflictions He was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved them'--ISAIAH lxiii. 9. I. The wonderful glimpse opened here into the heart of God. It is not necessary to touch upon the difference between the text and margin of the Revised Version, or to enter on the reason for preferring the former. And what a deep and wonderful thought that is, of divine sympathy with human sorrow! We feel that this transcends the prevalent tone of the Old Testament. It is made the more striking …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Winepress and Its Treader
'Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone.'--ISAIAH lxiii. 2, 3. The structure of these closing chapters is chronological, and this is the final scene. What follows is epilogue. The reference of this magnificent imagery to the sufferings of Jesus is a complete misapprehension. These sufferings were dealt with once for all in chapter liii., and it is Messiah triumphant who has filled the prophet's vision since …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Mighty Saviour
That he is mighty we need not inform you; for as readers of the Scriptures you all believe in the might and majesty of the Incarnate Son of God. You believe him to be the Regent of providence, the King of death, the Conqueror of hell, the Lord of angels, the Master of storms, and the God of battles, and, therefore, you can need no proof that he is mighty. The subject of this morning is one part of his mightiness. He is "mighty to save." May God the Holy Spirit help us in briefly entering upon this …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 3: 1857

Where is the Lord?
"Then he remembered the days of old Moses, and his people, saying, Where is he that brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where is he that put his holy Spirit within him? That led them by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the water before them, to make himself an everlasting name? That led them through the deep, as an horse in the wilderness, that they should not stumble? As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest: …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 38: 1892

Exposition of Chap. Iii. (ii. 28-32. )
Ver. 1. "And it shall come to pass, afterwards, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy; your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men shall see visions." The communication of the Spirit of God was the constant prerogative of the Covenant-people. Indeed, the very idea of such a people necessarily requires it. For the Spirit of God is the only inward bond betwixt Him and that which is created; a Covenant-people, therefore, without such an inward …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament

Organic and Individual.
"Where is He that put His Holy Spirit among them?" --Isa. lxiii. 11. The subsequent activity of the Holy Spirit lies in the realm of grace. In nature the Spirit of God appears as creating, in grace as re-creating. We call it re-creation, because God's grace creates not something inherently new, but a new life in an old and degraded nature. But this must not be understood as tho grace restored only what sin had destroyed. For then the child of God, born anew and sanctified, must be as Adam was in …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Temporary Hardening.
"Lord, why hast Thou hardened our heart? "--Isa. lxiii. 17. That there is a hardening of heart which culminates in the sin against the Holy Spirit can not be denied. When dealing with spiritual things we must take account of it; for it is one of the most fearful instruments of the divine wrath. For, whether we say that Satan or David or the Lord tempted the king, it amounts to the same thing. The cause is always in man's sin; and in each of these three cases the destructive fatality whereby sin poisons …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Additional Note.
(Passage not easy to identify, p. 390, note 14.) Easy enough, by the LXX. See Isaiah lxiii. 3. kai ton ethnon ouk estin aner met' emou. The first verse, referring to Edom, leads our author to accentuate this point of Gentile ignorance. …
Tertullian—The Five Books Against Marcion

The First Thing Suggested at the Very Outset Is...
The first thing suggested at the very outset is, as we have already said (sec. 17-19), that all our prayers to God ought only to be presented in the name of Christ, as there is no other name which can recommend them. In calling God our Father, we certainly plead the name of Christ. For with what confidence could any man call God his Father? Who would have the presumption to arrogate to himself the honour of a son of God were we not gratuitously adopted as his sons in Christ? He being the true Son, …
John Calvin—Of Prayer--A Perpetual Exercise of Faith

The Holy Spirit in the New Testament Other than in the Old.
"By His Spirit which dwelleth in you."--Rom. viii. 11. In order to understand the change inaugurated on Pentecost we must distinguish between the various ways in which the Holy Ghost enters into relationship with the creature. With the Christian Church we confess that the Holy Spirit is true and eternal God, and therefore omnipresent; hence no creature, stone or animal, man or angel, is excluded from His presence. With reference to His omniscience and omnipresence, David sings: "Whither shall I go …
Abraham Kuyper—The Work of the Holy Spirit

Perea. Beyond Jordan.
"The length of Perea was from Macherus to Pella: the breadth from Philadelphia to Jordan." "The mountainous part of it was mount Macvar, and Gedor," &c. "The plain of it was Heshbon, with all its cities, which are in the plain, Dibon, and Bamoth-Baal, and Beth-Baal-Meon," &c. "The valley of it is Beth-Haran, and Beth-Nimrah, and Succoth," &c. The mention of the mountains of Macvar occurs in that hyperbolical tradition of R. Eleazar Ben Diglai, saying, "The goats in the mountains of Macvar sneezed …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica

Some Man May Say: "If There be not in the Dead any Care For...
17. Some man may say: "If there be not in the dead any care for the living, how is it that the rich man, who was tormented in hell, asked father Abraham to send Lazarus to his five brothers not as yet dead, and to take course with them, that they should not come themselves also into the same place of torments?" [2750] But does it follow, that because the rich man said this, he knew what his brethren were doing, or what they were suffering at that time? Just in that same way had he care for the living, …
St. Augustine—On Care to Be Had for the Dead.

God Seeks Intercessors
"I have set watchmen upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their peace day nor night. Ye that are the Lord's remembrancers, keep not silence, and give Him no rest till He make Jerusalem a praise in the earth."--ISA. lxii. 6, 7. "And He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor."--ISA. lix. 16. "And I looked, and there was none to help; and I wondered, and there was none to uphold."--ISA. lxiii. 5. "There is none that calleth upon Thy name, that …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession

Why Should we not Believe These to be Angelic Operations through Dispensation of The...
16. Why should we not believe these to be angelic operations through dispensation of the providence of God, Who maketh good use of both good things and evil, according to the unsearchable depth of His judgments? whether thereby the minds of mortals be instructed, or whether deceived; whether consoled, or whether terrified: according as unto each one there is to be either a showing of mercy, or a taking of vengeance, by Him to Whom, not without a meaning, the Church doth sing "of mercy and of judgment." …
St. Augustine—On Care to Be Had for the Dead.

Prayer
But I give myself unto prayer.' Psa 109: 4. I shall not here expatiate upon prayer, as it will be considered more fully in the Lord's prayer. It is one thing to pray, and another thing to be given to prayer: he who prays frequently, is said to be given to prayer; as he who often distributes alms, is said to be given to charity. Prayer is a glorious ordinance, it is the soul's trading with heaven. God comes down to us by his Spirit, and we go up to him by prayer. What is prayer? It is an offering …
Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments

The Wonderful.
Isaiah ix:6. HIS name shall be called "Wonderful" (Isaiah ix:6). And long before Isaiah had uttered this divine prediction the angel of the Lord had announced his name to be Wonderful. As such He appeared to Manoah. And Manoah said unto the angel of Jehovah, What is thy name, that when thy sayings come to pass we may do thee honor. And the angel of Jehovah said unto Him "why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it is Wonderful" (margin, Judges xiii:17-18). This angel of Jehovah, the Person who …
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory

His Passion and Crucifixion.
AS all active virtues meet in Jesus, so he unites the active or heroic virtues with the passive and gentle. He is the highest standard of all true martyrdom. No character can become complete without trial and suffering; and a noble death is the crowning act of a noble life. Edmund Burke said to Fox, in the English Parliament, "Obloquy is a necessary ingredient of all true glory, Calumny and abuse are essential parts of triumph." The ancient Greeks and Romans admired a good man struggling with misfortune, …
Philip Schaff—The Person of Christ

Sense in Which, and End for which all Things were Delivered to the Incarnate Son.
For whereas man sinned, and is fallen, and by his fall all things are in confusion: death prevailed from Adam to Moses (cf. Rom. v. 14), the earth was cursed, Hades was opened, Paradise shut, Heaven offended, man, lastly, corrupted and brutalised (cf. Ps. xlix. 12), while the devil was exulting against us;--then God, in His loving-kindness, not willing man made in His own image to perish, said, Whom shall I send, and who will go?' (Isa. vi. 8). But while all held their peace, the Son [441] said, …
Athanasius—Select Works and Letters or Athanasius

Malachy's Pity for his Deceased Sister. He Restores the Monastery of Bangor. His First Miracles.
11. (6). Meanwhile Malachy's sister, whom we mentioned before,[271] died: and we must not pass over the visions which he saw about her. For the saint indeed abhorred her carnal life, and with such intensity that he vowed he would never see her alive in the flesh. But now that her flesh was destroyed his vow was also destroyed, and he began to see in spirit her whom in the body he would not see. One night he heard in a dream the voice of one saying to him that his sister was standing outside in the …
H. J. Lawlor—St. Bernard of Clairvaux's Life of St. Malachy of Armagh

The Ascension of Messiah to Glory
Lift up your head, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD strong and mighty, the LORD mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O ye gates; even lift them up, ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in. Who is this King of glory? The LORD of hosts, he is the King of glory. T he institutions of the Levitical law were a "shadow" or "sketch" of good things to come. They exhibited a faint and general outline …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 2

How Shall one Make Use of Christ as the Life, when Wrestling with an Angry God Because of Sin?
That we may give some satisfaction to this question, we shall, 1. Shew what are the ingredients in this case, or what useth to concur in this distemper. 2. Shew some reasons why the Lord is pleased to dispense thus with his people. 3. Shew how Christ is life to the soul in this case. 4. Shew the believer's duty for a recovery; and, 5. Add a word or two of caution. As to the first, There may be those parts of, or ingredients in this distemper: 1. God presenting their sins unto their view, so as …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life

A Divine Colloquy Between the Soul and Her Saviour Upon the Effectual Merits of his Dolorous Passion.
Soul. Lord, wherefore didst thou wash thy disciples' feet? Christ. To teach thee how thou shouldst prepare thyself to come to my supper. Soul. Lord, why shouldst thou wash them thyself? (John xiii. 4.) Christ. To teach thee humility, if thou wilt be my disciple. Soul. Lord, wherefore didst thou before thy death institute thy last supper? (Luke xxii. 19, 20.) Christ. That thou mightst the better remember my death, and be assured that all the merits thereof are thine. Soul. Lord, wherefore wouldst …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety

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