Julia Ward Howe’s imagery – “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord! He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored” – comes from the Book of Revelation (Revelation 19:11-16); but before that it comes from Isaiah: “I have trodden the wine press alone, and from the peoples no one was with me; I trod them in my anger and trampled them in my wrath” (Isaiah 63:3).

God alone is the judge. No one else can do it: though we often eagerly assume we are good enough to step right up with words of condemnation on those we feel deserve it, there is actually no one who can stand with God to help crush the wicked for their sins (63:5-6).

Nevertheless, Isaiah insists, it is mercy rather than judgment that is God’s intention. The prophet sings out: “I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love” (63:7). God is the one who saves: it is “his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them” (63:9). Yet judgment comes, because “they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit” (63:10).

This will eventually lead into a plea for God’s compassion and grace, on the basis of God’s character as Heavenly Father: “you are our father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our father; our Redeemer from of old is your name” (63:16). We have strayed so far from the Covenant that Abraham and Jacob could never recognize us: yet God our Father, who placed within us “his Holy Spirit” (63:11) and by “the Spirit of the Lord” gave us rest (63:14), comes to be our Redeemer.

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Again and again we have vexed your Holy Spirit, O Lord; pretending we are better than our neighbor, we rush to judge and condemn one another; we make you our enemy, and deserve to have our wrath come upon us to crush us. We can offer nothing in our own defense, except the astonishing truth that the judge of the living and the dead has come to redeem us.

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