In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.
Isaiah was one of the most significant prophets of the Hebrew Bible, writing during a time of deep national crisis for Israel. This passage in chapter 63 looks back on God's faithfulness throughout Israel's history, particularly the Exodus — when God rescued the Israelites from centuries of slavery in Egypt. The "angel of his presence" refers to a divine messenger believed to guide and accompany the Israelites on their long journey to freedom. What is remarkable here is the claim that God was not a distant observer of their suffering — he was distressed alongside them. He entered their pain, and then he acted: lifting them up and carrying them.
God, I sometimes picture you watching from a distance. Remind me today that you are in the middle of what I'm carrying — that my distress is yours too. You entered, you lifted, you redeemed. I trust you to do it again. Amen.
There is a kind of sympathy that watches suffering from a safe distance. "That must be so hard," we say, and mean it, while never quite stepping into the mess. This verse describes something altogether different. The God who created galaxies, who spoke light into existence — that God felt distress when his people were in distress. The Hebrew word carries the weight of genuine anguish, not polite concern. This isn't a God who watches your 3 AM panic from a comfortable remove. He is there, in it, troubled by what troubles you. That changes something, doesn't it? Not just your theology — the actual texture of your hardest moments. You are not going through anything alone. When the diagnosis came, when the relationship broke apart, when grief settled in and refused to leave — God was not watching from above with clinical detachment. He was distressed. And then he acted: he lifted them up and carried them. That is the pattern. He enters. He carries. He redeems. You can trust that pattern with whatever you are holding today.
What does it mean to you that God was "distressed" alongside his people — and how does that shape your picture of who God is?
Think of a moment of real suffering in your life. Does it change anything to consider that God was not a distant observer in that moment, but was present and troubled alongside you?
Some people feel a God who can be distressed seems less powerful or stable. How do you hold together the ideas of God's strength and God's empathy?
God's pattern here is to enter pain before redeeming it. How does that shape the way you should respond when someone close to you is suffering?
Is there a situation in your life right now where you need to trust this pattern — that after entering, God will lift and carry? What would it look like to actually release that to him this week?
And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not.
Luke 7:13
And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
Exodus 33:14
Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared.
Exodus 23:20
Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me: and the Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant, whom ye delight in: behold, he shall come, saith the LORD of hosts.
Malachi 3:1
And in the wilderness, where thou hast seen how that the LORD thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place.
Deuteronomy 1:31
And the LORD said, I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows;
Exodus 3:7
Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears into thy bottle: are they not in thy book?
Psalms 56:8
And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
Exodus 3:2
In all their distress He was distressed, And the angel of His presence saved them, In His love and in His compassion He redeemed them; And He lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
AMP
In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
ESV
In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the angel of His presence saved them; In His love and in His mercy He redeemed them, And He lifted them and carried them all the days of old.
NASB
In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
NIV
In all their affliction He was afflicted, And the Angel of His Presence saved them; In His love and in His pity He redeemed them; And He bore them and carried them All the days of old.
NKJV
In all their suffering he also suffered, and he personally rescued them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them. He lifted them up and carried them through all the years.
NLT
In all their troubles, he was troubled, too. He didn't send someone else to help them. He did it himself, in person. Out of his own love and pity he redeemed them. He rescued them and carried them along for a long, long time.
MSG