The Garments of the Saviour

by J. Flanigan (Northern Ireland)

11. Garments of Victory

“Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in His apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength? ... Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat? I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with me: for I will tread them in mine anger ... and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I will stain all my raiment,” Is.63.1-3.

An otherwise beautiful hymn has mistakenly interpreted these words as describing the Saviour’s return from Golgotha, His garments stained with the blood of His cross, but the verses have no reference to Calvary at all, or to the sufferings of Christ. They are prophetic still, looking to a future day and to our Lord’s triumph at His return in power and glory. As the peaceful kingdom of Solomon was introduced in judgment, and was established only after the removal of Adonijah, Joab, and Shimei, so will the setting up of the kingdom of the Prince of Peace be preceded by the destruction of the King’s enemies. Adonijah was a usurper. Joab was a murderer. Shimei cursed King David. They were a trinity of evil and had to be removed before Solomon’s kingdom could be established. These verses in Is.63 portray, in graphic symbolism, the awfulness of the destruction of the enemies of David’s greater Son, the heir to the throne, to the land, and to the world, prior to the setting up of His millennial kingdom.

There is at once, however, a perceived problem. Zechariah predicts that the coming King will set His feet upon the Mount of Olives, Zec.14.4. Rev.16.16 identifies the battlefield as being Armageddon. Here, in Is.63, the victorious King is returning from Edom. The apparent difficulty is that Armageddon is North, in Galilee. Edom is in the South, below Israel’s southern border, at the foot of the Dead Sea, with Bozrah as its capital city. Olivet lies between, in Judea, on the East of Jerusalem. To where then will the King come? Where will the final battle be fought? Where exactly will His enemies be destroyed?

There is, of course, no discrepancy. There cannot be in the inspired Word. It may well be that the King will come initially to the Mount of Olives. From this mount He ascended to Heaven, and at this mount His angels promised that in like manner He would come again. But the enemies of God and the Gospel are not at all confined to this area. By divine intervention the armies of those who oppose Him will be gathered together at Megiddo, and there be crushed. Some, perhaps fleeing, will be pursued to Edom and Bozrah, so that, for the whole length of the Land the King will travel in triumph, from Megiddo through Olivet to Edom and from Edom through Olivet to Megiddo.

In Rev.14.20, again in awful symbolism, there will be blood to the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs. These are not exactly furlongs as we know them, but rather the Greek stadia. As Seiss remarks, “A river of human blood 160 miles in length, and up to the bridles of the horses in depth, tells the awful story.” From Edom to Esdraelon the Land will flow with the blood of the King’s enemies. It is “the great winepress of the wrath of God.” Rev.14.19.

The figure of the winepress is therefore common to both Isaiah and the Revelation. The vintage was an event of great significance and ceremony in the East. The harvested grapes were put into the winepress, or wine vat. They were then trampled out, sometimes ceremonially and joyfully to the strains of music, until the grape juice flowed from them to be collected in the vat. As may well be imagined, the garments of those who trod them out were stained with the blood of the grapes. Such is the symbolism used here and the people familiar with the custom of the vintage would easily recognise the meaning.

Messiah will come. His enemies, and the enemies of His ancient people will then have had their day. For too long they have raged against the Lord and against His anointed. They have broken the cords of divine restraint and have scorned the Almighty. For centuries the voice of rebellion has reverberated throughout the Land of Israel and the world, but now “the Lord will have them in derision” and “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh,” Ps.2.

Doubtless Jerusalem will be in the very heart of it all, but the battle will rage from Megiddo to Bozrah. Megiddo is, at the one and same time, a city, a hill, a valley, and a plain. Armageddon, or Har Megiddo, has been the battlefield of the ages. Men of almost every age and every nation have fought at Megiddo. It has a commanding position, an abundant water supply, and rich pastures, all of which have made it a notorious battleground. Canaanites and Philistines, Jews and Egyptians, Chaldeans and Persians, Greeks and Romans, Moslems and Crusaders, Turks and Arabs, and the British too, have all fought here. Here Deborah and Barak fought the Canaanites. Here Gideon fought the Midianites. King Saul was slain here, and Ahaziah, and good King Josiah. This vast plain has a history of strife, but the final battle has yet to be fought.

The armies of the nations will be gathered there. The Western bloc, the armies of the beast of Rev.13 will be there. The great Northern Confederacy, Russia and her satellites, will be gathered too. The Kings of the East will cross the Euphrates in the might of their great numbers, and the King of the South, will move northward, the wealth of his oil reserves giving him his power.

Poor Israel will be in the centre of opposing powers. Humanly speaking the little Land could be overrun and the tiny nation at last crushed out of existence. But the promises which Jehovah made to Abraham, to Isaac, to Jacob, and to David, must be fulfilled. At the crucial moment Messiah will come. The sign of the coming of the Son of Man appears in the heavens and those blocs of nations, formerly enemies of each other, now unite to become allies against the Lord and His anointed.

The battle will not be prolonged. “The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ,” 2Thess.1.7-8. From Megiddo to Bozrah He will triumph. “Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah?” He replies personally, “I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” Metaphorically His garments are stained with the blood of His enemies. He has trampled them like grapes in a winepress and their blood, sprinkled on His garments, has stained all His raiment.

The blood-stained robes of the Conqueror are garments of victory. Now He can, and will, enter on His reign of peace and rule from sea to sea and from the river to the ends of the earth. He has rightfully exchanged the purple robe of mockery for the royal robe of victory and He will now reign supreme.          

And when He comes in bright array, and leads the conquering line,
It will be glory then to say that He’s a Friend of mine!

—to be continued (D.V.)