I have read many commentaries on Isaiah 63 in the past six months, or so; and I don't believe anyone really understands it; or if they do they most likely got lucky. LOL! I personally believe it refers to the destruction of Jerusalem and the first temple by the Chaldeans. If you read on, in context, until 64:10-11, it is written:
"Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste." (Isa 64:10-11 KJV)
While I can see, on the surface, possibilities of this referring to the destruction of Jerusalem and the second temple in 70 AD by the Roman Armies (along with other Israeli cities;) I just cannot imagine the children of Israel speaking of the second temple in the manner that is underlined!
In any case, I do recall the Lord using armies of various empires to carry out his judgements. If I understand correctly, he used the Assyrians to punish Egypt; Assyrians to punish the northern ten tribes; the Chaldeans to punish the Assyrians and Jerusalem; Cyrus and the Persians to punish the Chaldeans; and the Roman armies to punish Jerusalem and Israel.
Maybe a few of those are mixed up, but the imagery is the same: when Christ came in judgement he came in the form of invading or opposing armies. This is the way the Lord prophesied the future punishment of Jerusalem by the Roman armies (66-70 AD):
"The Lord shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand; A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young: And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee. And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the Lord thy God hath given thee." (Deu 28:49-52 KJV)
"And the remnant took his servants, and entreated them spitefully, and slew them. But when the king heard thereof, he was wroth: and he sent forth his armies, and destroyed those murderers, and burned up their city." (Mat 22:6-7 KJV)
"And when [Jesus] was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it, Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes. For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side, And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation." (Luke 19:41-44 KJV)
"And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh." (Luke 21:20 KJV)
Philip
No 100 lb hail stones, no super earthquakes flattening all the mountains, no islands vanishing, no historic recording of 2 supernatural witnesses that for 3.5 years defy the Satanically super empowered beast and his world wide control system, no system of marking denoting who could buy or sell. These things have not happened yet...nor has the third temple been rebuilt.
You twist scripture...even the parts which are clearly understood and need no high powered “intepretations” of symbolic imagery. You build your house on sand not on the rock of scripture!