Isaiah chapter 63 - 2nd John

Of the three letters written by John, two of them, the first and the second use a word that is found nowhere else in scripture. That word is ‘antichrist’, and John uses this word in both the singular and plural form.

With all of the words used in scripture to speak of this person, it is quite amazing that we do not find the word ‘antichrist’ used in either of Paul’s letters to the believers at Thessalonica, nor in the fifteenth chapter of his first letter to the Corinthians.

Another word we encounter when we read John’s letters is the word ‘deceiver’, and John uses this word in both the singular and plural form as well, but this word is only found in the second of John’s letters. It’s not like this word is found only in John’s letters, but isn’t all that common to the Bible.

It is only found in a few places. It’s just that John only uses it in 2nd John, so, what we have are two words used rather sparsely in scripture; (antichrist/ antichrists is used a total of five times, and deceiver/deceivers is used only eight times).

Only in 2nd John do we find both words used. Nowhere else in the Bible. 2nd John has the fewest verses of any book in the Bible, so the fact that we find both of these rather unique words within the same book of only thirteen verses adds to the uniqueness of this matter. However, it gets even better. These two words are found in the same verse of 2nd John, verse seven, where we read:

“For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.” (2nd John v7)

This one verse tells us something very important about anyone who is “an antichrist”, and we can apply this same characteristic to ‘the’ antichrist. He is to be a “deceiver”. We can read of several things that the coming antichrist will be, and will do, but this one may be the most significant of his characteristics because it is the trademark of Satan himself.

Yes, he will be the man of sin. Yes, he will be the lawless one. But, most of all, he will be the deceiver of all deceivers that have ever been in this world. Now, we want to see if we can find this deceiver in the sixty-third chapter of Isaiah.

You can read the entire sixty-third chapter of Isaiah and never find either of the two words we identified in 2nd John. They’re not in there, but look at the first two verses of the chapter. What do we see here?

“Who is this that cometh from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the winefat?” (Isaiah 63:1-2)

Someone coming out of Edom is wearing clothes made in the capital city of that nation, Bozra, and he is wearing clothing that has been dyed red. Why? His clothing is “glorious”. He is making some sort of power move; “travelling in the greatness of his strength”. The one speaking here is asking this person why his clothes are red like the clothes of “him that treadeth in the winefat”. Who is “him that treadeth in the winefat”?

The one whose clothes are red because He “treadeth in the winefat” is none other than Christ. In verses three and following He explains how His clothes got to be red. Here we have someone coming out of Edom (the nation populated by the children of Esau), and this person is mimicking Christ. He is trying to appear to be Christ. Who is that going to be?

The Antichrist, and he has dressed himself up so people will think that he is the one who “treadeth in the winefat”. This person is trying to pull off a deception. He is trying to deceive people and thereby pass himself off as Christ. (Note: Edom here could be either a literal or a spiritual reference or it could be both.)

This is a clear presentation of the Antichrist, and the specific characteristic that he is using in this case is that of being a deceiver. He’s not presented here as the lawless one, nor as the man of sin. Here we are seeing him as the deceiver. As with the 2nd letter of John, we see deception and we see the Antichrist. Neither word is used, but that’s who we are seeing just the same.

We have found this in Isaiah’s sixty-third chapter, and 2nd John is the sixty-third book of the Bible. They are connected.