Isaiah 59:16 He saw that there was no man, And wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.
Isaiah 63:5 I looked, but there was no one to help, And I wondered That there was no one to uphold; Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; And My own fury, it sustained Me.
This is one of the most intimate revelations of the Z’roah in Scripture. God looks for a human intercessor but finds none. No man can bridge the gap. So His own Arm accomplishes the work. In Hebrew, v’tosha lo z’roah — “His arm saved for Him” — reveals that salvation originates from within God Himself, not from any outside help. Isaiah adds that His own righteousness sustained Him — it upheld His resolve to save — and His fury upheld Him, a holy passion that would not rest until justice was accomplished.
This truth is central in the Passover (Pesach) picture: Israel did not fight her way out of Egypt; she was carried out. The Lamb’s blood and the Arm’s power worked together without Israel lifting a weapon. In the same way, at the cross, Yeshua (Jesus) — the Arm of the LORD — bore the full weight of salvation without human assistance. His righteousness sustained Him through the agony, and His righteous fury burned against sin and death until they were utterly defeated.
Theologically, this leaves no room for pride. We bring nothing to redemption but our need; we do not earn it, we receive it. Just as the Arm moves only at the Head’s command, Yeshua obeyed the Father’s will flawlessly — even to the point of death. His saving work was solitary, unstoppable, and completely sufficient. His righteousness was far more than a moral attribute; it was the unwavering strength that kept Him on course to fulfill the mission His Father had ordained for Him before the foundation of the world. (1 Peter 1:19-20)
Prophetically, Isaiah 63:5 echoes this: “My own arm brought me salvation, and my fury upheld me.” This is God ensuring that the work is perfect, untouched by human failure. His fury was not uncontrolled rage, but holy determination — the fierce love of the Redeemer refusing to let His people perish. The Arm finishes what the Head purposes, and nothing in heaven, earth, or hell can stop it.
For us, this means resting in the finished work. We add nothing to the cross but our surrender. The same Arm that saved alone is the Arm that sustains continually. The righteousness that held Him to His mission is the same righteousness now covering us, and the same holy passion that upheld Him is the passion that guards and keeps us until the end.
Stop carrying burdens you were never meant to bear. Salvation is His work from start to finish — rest in it, and you will discover a strength you could never produce on your own. For His Arm accomplishes all that the Father commands, His righteousness will never fail, and soon that same Arm will lift you up and carry you all the way home.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]I love this story! Peter was sitting between two guards and suddenly an angel of the Lord comes to him and frees him — and he thinks it’s a vision! He’s not sure if he truly believes it.
“Exhausted but still in pursuit…” Well, now we know why the angel of YHVH addressed Gideon the way he did. With his small three hundred man army he had just decimated the army of Midian — but the victory wasn’t complete, and so the Jewish general and his small, exhausted, hungry, band were determined to cross the Jordan and take care of 15,000 additional Midanite enemies and their leaders, Zebah and Zalmunna.
His nightmares began each day when he awoke. James Stegalls was nineteen. He was in Vietnam. Though he carried a small Gideon New Testament in his shirt pocket, he couldn’t bring himself to read it. His buddies were cut down around him, terror was building within him, and God seemed far away. His twentieth birthday passed, then his twenty-first. At last, he felt he couldn’t go on.
On January 1st 1863, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation which proclaimed freedom for all slaves in the ten states which were in rebellion. At the time, when U.S. Secretary of State Seward took the document to the President to sign, Lincoln took a pen, and held it for a moment. He then removed his hand and dropped his pen. Lincoln turned to Seward and said, “I have been shaking hands since nine o’clock this morning and my right arm is almost paralyzed. If my name ever goes into history, it will be for this act, and my whole soul is in it.” He hesitated, then took the pen, and without wavering, took the document and boldly signed it!
For nearly 2000 years the Jewish people were scattered across the world without a homeland. In one day, according to the meticulous preparation of God, on May 14th 1948, the nation of Israel was restored. As millions of Jews were returning to their homeland they began rebuilding the ancient cities that were destroyed, restoring the desolations of many generations, and fulfilling Biblical prophecy…
As we celebrated Shavuot last night, we’re looking at the promise given 2000 years ago: that normal people will lead extraordinary lives; that disciples, who were terrified on the night of Yeshua’s (Jesus) death, were transformed into bold saints of God; and that fishermen, tax collectors, and housewives – normal everyday people – became empowered, and turned the Roman Empire inside out and upside down!
The disciples worried — we only have five small loaves and two fishes! What ever will we do?? Five loaves and two fishes could never feed the multitudes in the natural realm! But we have a God who is in the multiplication business! He works on an entirely different mathematical equation than we are accustomed to — He takes the little we offer and turns it into more than we could fathom!