Context No. 2423 of 4322 · Isaiah

Isaiah 59:17-21: in context

17He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head. He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle. 18According to their deeds, he will repay as appropriate: wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies. He will repay the islands their due. 19So they will fear the LORD’s name from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun; for he will come as a rushing stream, which the LORD’s breath drives. 20“A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob,” says the LORD. 21“As for me, this is my covenant with them,” says the LORD. “My Spirit who is on you, and my words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart out of your mouth, nor out of the mouth of your offspring, nor out of the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now on and forever.”

Isaiah has just said that God looked for someone to intervene and found no one, no intercessor, so his own arm brought salvation. Now he pictures God arming himself: righteousness as a breastplate, a helmet of salvation, zeal wrapped around him like a cloak. He comes to repay and to redeem, and the promise comes to Zion: a Redeemer will come to those who turn from sin.

What stands out is that God does the arming himself. When there was no one else to stand in the gap, he did not wait or delegate; he put on salvation like armor and moved. Our rescue did not depend on a human champion rising to the occasion, because none did. It rested on God's own resolve to act. The same salvation Paul later hands to us as armor to wear was first God's own gear, worn when he came to redeem a people who could not save themselves.

Am I waiting for some human rescuer to fix what is broken, when God has already taken it upon himself to act?

Sources

Isaiah 59:16: He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore his own arm brought salvation to him.
Isaiah 59:17: He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head.
Isaiah 59:20: A Redeemer will come to Zion, and to those who turn from disobedience in Jacob, says the LORD.