Isaiah 64

This chapter continues a prayer that begins in the previous chapter. The people long for God to tear open the heavens and act as He did in the past. They confess that their own goodness is worthless and that sin has swept them away. Then they cast themselves on God as Father and potter, and ask Him to see the ruin of His city and not stay silent.

Isaiah 64:1-2

The people cry for God to break into the world in visible power, as when Sinai shook. They want His coming to be so plain that even His enemies and the nations would be shaken and learn who He is. It is the prayer of those who feel God is far away.

BSA: rend (“tear open, break apart”): The heavens are pictured as a barrier God must tear open to reach His people. name (“character, reputation”): They want God’s true character, not just His title, to be recognized by all.

Hebrew: קָרַעְתָּ (qāra’tā, H7167) — “you would tear.” This is the word used for tearing cloth, as in grief. It is a violent, urgent picture: they long for God to rip the sky open.

See also: Exodus 19:18; Psalm 144:5.

Isaiah 64:3

They remember past rescues, such as the exodus and Sinai, when God did things nobody had dared to hope for. He has come down before, so they ask Him to do it again. Memory of what God has done feeds bold prayer.

BSA: awesome (“terrible, fearful”): God’s deeds were so mighty they caused fear and wonder.

See also: Exodus 34:10.

Isaiah 64:4

No other god has ever been known to work for those who wait on him. Other gods demand service; the LORD acts for His people. Paul draws on this verse when he speaks of what God has prepared for those who love Him.

BSA: wait for (“place their confidence in, trust in”): Waiting here is active trust, leaning your whole weight on God.

See also: 1 Corinthians 2:9.

Isaiah 64:5

God meets those who gladly do right and keep His ways in mind. Yet the people admit that His anger was deserved, because they sinned. Their question is honest and heavy: if we stay in our sins, how can we be saved? Only God Himself can answer it.

BSA: welcome (“meet with, draw near to”): God draws near and meets those who seek to do His will. saved (“rescued, delivered”): Salvation means being pulled out of danger that we cannot escape ourselves.

Isaiah 64:6

The confession is thorough: everyone is unclean, even their best deeds are like soiled garments, and sin sweeps them away like a dry leaf in the wind. Nothing they have can earn God’s favor. This leaves them needing mercy alone.

BSA: filthy rags (“polluted”): The picture is of cloth made unclean, which no one could offer to God. wither (“fade away, lose strength”): Sin drains life from us like autumn drains a leaf.

Hebrew: עִדִּים (‘iddîm, H5708) — “soiled garments.” The word points to a cloth used during uncleanness. Even their righteous acts, spoiled by the heart behind them, left them unfit to stand before God.

See also: Romans 3:23; Psalm 90:5-6.

Isaiah 64:7

Nobody is seeking God anymore. The people see that their silence toward Him and His hidden face go together. God has let sin run its course and handed them over to its power. This is a sobering picture of where sin leads.

BSA: strives (“exerts themselves, makes an effort”): Even the effort to lay hold of God has died out among them. delivered (“given over, surrendered”): God let them fall into the grip of the very sin they chose.

See also: Romans 1:24.

Isaiah 64:8

Here the prayer turns. “But now” they stop looking at their failure and look at who God is: Father and potter. The clay does not shape itself. They rest their hope in His care and His hand, trusting He has not finished the work.

BSA: Father (“our Creator and loving Parent”): God is both the maker of His people and the One who loves them as a parent. clay (“soft and pliable material”): Clay can be reshaped, so there is hope for a ruined people.

Hebrew: יֹצְרֵנוּ (yōtsrēnû, H3335) — “our potter, the one who forms us.” The word comes from shaping with the hands, the same verb used when God formed man from the dust in Genesis. Israel is again asking to be formed.

See also: Jeremiah 18:6; Isaiah 63:16.

Isaiah 64:9

They ask for limits on God’s anger, not an end to justice. They plead that He would not hold their sin against them forever. Their final appeal is simple: we are all Your people. It rests on His covenant, not on their worth.

BSA: remember (“keep in mind, hold against us”): To remember sin in this sense is to keep charging it against someone. look upon us (“see our condition, have compassion on us”): They ask not just for a glance but for a caring look that leads to help.

See also: Psalm 103:9-10.

Isaiah 64:10-11

They lay out the ruin before God: cities empty, Jerusalem desolate, and the temple burned. The temple was where their ancestors praised Him, so its loss is a loss of worship itself. They bring the grief to God, because only He can restore.

BSA: holy (“set-apart, sacred”): These places were set apart for God, which makes their destruction all the more painful. ruins (“waste, desolation”): Everything pleasant to them has been left empty and wasted.

See also: 2 Kings 25:9; Psalm 79:1.

Isaiah 64:12

The prayer ends with questions, not an answer. Will God hold Himself back and stay silent while His people suffer? It leaves the matter in His hands, trusting that the God who came down before can hear and act again.

BSA: silent (“hold Your peace, remain quiet”): Their hardest trial is not just the pain but God’s seeming silence.

See also: Psalm 83:1.