Isaiah 64:1-7

D. RESTLESSNESS OF ZION (cont-'d), Chapter S 63 - 64
4. PENITENTLY VEXED

TEXT: Isaiah 64:1-7

1

Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might quake at thy presence,

2

as when fire kindleth the brushwood, and the fire causeth the waters to boil; to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!

3

When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down; the mountains quaked at thy presence.

4

For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God besides thee, who worketh for him that waiteth for him.

5

Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou wast wroth, and we sinned: in them have we been of long time; and shall we be saved?

6

For we are all become as one that is unclean, and all our righteousnesses are as a polluted garment: and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.

7

And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee; for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us by means of our iniquities.

QUERIES

a.

Why has the attitude of the people now apparently changed?

b.

Is verse four quoted in 1 Corinthians 2:9?

c.

How does one take hold of God? (verse seven)

PARAPHRASE

O Lord we wish you would break open the impenetrable expanse of the skies that seems to be keeping You from coming down personally to us in all Your omnipotence making the whole earth shake and tremble with Your judgment. If you would intervene directly, Lord, Your righteous glory would consume our enemies like fire consumes brushwood and the fiery lava of volcanoes makes the waters boil. Yet, when we think about it Lord, if you came down thus You would do such awe-inspiring wonders that we do not even have language to describe them. Since the world was created no person anywhere has ever seen or heard of a God like You who works for those who patiently trust in Him. Lord, You gladly receive any man who comes to you doing righteousness and joyfully following in Your ways. But we have continued in our sinning; even when You expressed Your hatred of our rebellious ways we went right on sinning. How can we ever be saved? Yes, we all stand in relationship to You as one cut off from the covenant because of our uncleanness; any righteousness we might think we have is really non-existent and we are as legally unclean as the bloodstained rags of a woman at her monthly period. Like the leaves of autumn, we fade, fall and wither; our sins sweep us away like the wind blows away the autumn leaves, In spite of our very apparent condition, no one calls upon Your name and no one ever prods himself to make any firm commitment of his life to Your word. You have withdrawn Your grace from us and we are being consumed by the consequences of our sins.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 64:1-3 CRY: The complaint of the preceding passage begins to turn toward a cry of desperation which leads to a confession. The remnant is gradually coming to the attitude God is able to use in His messianic program. Now the cry is that Jehovah will tear an opening in the impenetrable black cloud that is standing in the way of His seeing their predicament and come down to help them. They are begging God to come in direct intervention as He did for their ancestors. God presented Himself as directly as He dared to Isaiah in His theophany in the temple (cf. Isaiah 6:1 ff). Why could the people not accept Isaiah's testimony to that direct appearance and trust Him to deliver them from the impending captivity? For the same reason men and women today demand a physical appearance from God before they will believe when there is sufficient testimony to His incarnation in the New Testament!

The anticipation of Jehovah's appearance is couched in the experiences of their ancestorsmountains quaking, fire burning, waters boiling, nations trembling, (cf. Exodus 19:16 ff; Psalms 144:5; Deuteronomy 32:22; Judges 5:4-5; Micah 1:3-4; Hebrews 1:4-6; Hebrews 3:3; Hebrews 3:15; Psalms 18:8-16, etc.). Should God appear directly He would consume the whole material universe (cf. Hebrews 12:18-21; 18:25-29). Instead of coming in His consuming Presence, He sent His Son to give the world a saving Presence. So when the people give more thought to what such a direct intervention of Jehovah would bring, they are moved to cry, O, Jehovah, if You came down thus You would do awe-inspiring deeds and wonders that not even we could anticipate! Should Jehovah appear on earth it would be overwhelmingno human language could express it, no human being could guess what it would be like! The great apostle Paul was caught up into the third heavens and saw things it was impossible for human language to describe (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:1-4).

Isaiah 64:4-7 CONFESSION: At last, the remnant, after contemplating the awesome holiness of Jehovah and His unsearchable power, confesses its sin and prepares to be clay in the Potter's hand (cf. Isaiah 64:8). First, there is the confession of the uniqueness of Jehovah's revelation of Himself and His relationship to those who wait (or trust) in Him. The people are at last testifying that Jehovah is quite unlike the idols. In fact, no one in all the world is able to know the mind, Spirit, deeds, person-hood of Jehovah unless Jehovah chooses to reveal Himself. And even then, man can know only as much of God's mind as He chooses to reveal through His appointed spokesmen (prophets and apostles, etc.). This is the sense in which the apostle Paul quoted Isaiah 64:4 in 1 Corinthians 2:9. The nature of the living God is such that the human mind is incapable of discovering Him or inventing Himman must humbly wait until God reveals Himself and man must humbly accept both the instrumentality by which and the extent to which God reveals Himself.

The uniqueness of Jehovah stands out in contrast to all pretended gods most apparently in His faithfulness to be constantly present with those who seek righteousness and remember (walk in) His ways. The holiness of Jehovah was unique in contrast to all the gods of the heathen. At last the people are admitting that Jehovah requires men to rejoice in and work righteousness to enjoy His presence. They have come confessing as Hosea (Hosea 14:1-9) instructed their northern countrymen to do. This remnant of Isaiah's disciples has been brought to its confession through the preaching of the prophet concerning the atoning suffering of the Servant and the future glory of Zion. They will produce a progeny of faithful servants (by implanting Isaiah's message in their offspring) which will, in turn, bring the Messiah into the world (cf. Matthew 1:18-25; Luke 1:24-56; Luke 1:67-80; Luke 2:1-52; Luke 4:14-30, etc.).

Once man has been confronted with a revelation of Jehovah's holiness and admits it, then he sees himself as he truly is, a sinner in need of Jehovah's saving grace (cf. Isaiah 6:5-6). The remnant here acknowledges it has been a long time in its sin and in need of God's grace; else, how shall it be saved? They see their uncleanness. They now realize they are spiritually cut off from Jehovah because He is absolutely holy and they have defiled themselves and are no longer worthy to stand in His presenceeven if He should come in answer to their prayer. This is quite different from the attitude expressed by some in Judah when they haughtily dared the Lord to come down and be present with them (cf. Isaiah 5:19). They see their uncleanness as a polluted garment using the figure of the ceremonial uncleanness of a woman at the time of her monthly period (cf. Ezekiel 36:17; Leviticus 18:24-28). The Hebrew word tame-' is translated unclean and is the same word the leper is to cry out (Leviticus 13:45-46) indicating the confession here is a recognition of having been cut off from covenant relationship by their sin.

Not only are they experiencing the legal condemnation of their sin, they are also experiencing the psychological and social consequences of it. They are all withering and dying like leaves on a tree and their sin is tossing them about and blowing them away like the wind blows the fallen leaves. The tragedy of the situation is that sin is so pervasive in the nation, no one seems concerned enough to call upon the name of the Lord which involves taking hold of His word. Perhaps the none would be qualified by the fact that a few were calling on the Lord (Isaiah and the remnant). But there were so few Jehovah must still withhold His direct intervention (hid thy face from us) until the captivity comes and the nation is chastened and purified and a larger remnant is formed. The Hebrew word khazak is translated take hold but is usually more intense and translated hold fast as when Hagar was told to hold fast to Ishmael (Genesis 21:18) or when Pharaoh was holding on to the Israelites (Exodus 9:2). So now their sin is consuming themthey are suffering the due penalty of their sins (cf. Romans 1:28), and the nation as a whole does not turn to God and hold fast to Him for strengthit is going to be blown away into captivity.