EasyEnglish Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 64:12
God has promised to replace all that enemies have destroyed. The *Lord’s people believe that he performs all his promises in the end. But they cannot understand why such a long delay continues (see Isaiah 62:1; Isaiah 62:6-7).
• God’s delays are a frequent experience (see Psalms 6:3, among many examples). But God has a much greater plan than people can even imagine (see Isaiah 55:8-9). His measurements of time are not the same as ours (see 2 Peter 3:8-9).
covenant ~ special agreement that God made with Israel (see Exodus chapter 24).
Lord ~ God’s name in the Bible. In the original language, God’s names mean ‘head over all’ and ‘God always’.
clay ~ kind of earth that one uses to make pots; clay is soft when wet, but dries hard.
Jerusalem ~ at the time of David and Solomon, the capital of the country called Israel. During the time of Isaiah, Jerusalem was the capital of the country called Judah.
Temple ~ special building in Jerusalem where Jews praised God and offered him prayers and gifts.
Jerusalem ~ at the time of David and Solomon, the capital of the country called Israel. During the time of Isaiah, Jerusalem was the capital of the country called Judah.
Jew ~ a person who belongs to the 12 tribes of Israel.
tribe ~ group of the later family of one father.
ancestor ~ member of one’s family in the past.
Zion ~ the mountain in Jerusalem where God’s holy Temple was.
Jerusalem ~ at the time of David and Solomon, the capital of the country called Israel. During the time of Isaiah, Jerusalem was the capital of the country called Judah.
Temple ~ special building in Jerusalem where Jews praised God and offered him prayers and gifts.
Jew ~ a person who belongs to the 12 tribes of Israel.
tribe ~ group of the later family of one father.
Isaiah: New *Heavens and a New Earth
God’s *Messiah Beats God’s Enemies
Isaiah Chapter s 56 to 66
Gordon Churchyard
The words in square brackets, […], are not in the *Hebrew Bible. They make the book easier to understand in English. Isaiah wrote his book in the *Hebrew language. The words in round brackets (…) are explanations.Chapter 64
v1 Oh, that you had split the skies and come down! Then the mountains would have trembled in front of you.
v2 [It would have been] like when a fire burns up bits of wood. And [it would have been] like a fire that boils water. [This would have happened] when you came down. And you would have made your enemies know your name. The nations would have shaken in front of you.
v3 [It would have happened] while you did terrible things. They were things that we did not expect. [It would have happened] while you came down. And the mountains would have trembled in front of you.
v4 And, for a long time, nobody has heard of, or thought about, such a God as you. Nobody has seen [such a God]. He acts on behalf of those [people] that wait for him.
v5 You help the people that are happy to do the right things. They [are the people that] remember your ways. But you are angry because, for a long time, we have *sinned against your ways. So, can [anyone] save us?
v6 We have all become like someone who is *unclean. And all the good things that we do are like dirty bits of cloth. We all dry up like a leaf and, like a wind, our *sins sweep us away.
v7 And nobody calls out your name or tries to contact you. [This is] because you have hidden your face from us. And you have made us slowly to lose our strength, because of the power of our *sins.
v8 But *LORD, you are still our father. We are [like] the *clay and you are [like] the *potter. Your hand made all of us.
v9 Do not be too angry with us, *LORD. And do not always remember our *sins. But look! Help us again, we are all your people.
v10 Your *holy cities will become a desert. *Zion will be a desert and Jerusalem will be full of rubbish.
v11 Our fathers praised you in our *holy and wonderful *temple. [But then], fire will burn it. [An enemy will] ruin everything that is of value to us.
v12 After all this, *LORD, will you still do nothing? Will you remain silent and continue to punish us?
Notes on Chapter 63
Notes on the 4th Song of the *Messiah
Verses 1-6 are the fourth (4th) Song of the *Messiah. Here, the *Messiah tells us that he has punished his enemies. The colour of their blood stains his clothes. It makes him look as if he has been jumping on red *grapes! *Grapes are the fruits that people use to make wine.
Verse 1 Isaiah 62:11 says, ‘Look! Your salvation (rescue) is coming.’ In this chapter, it (or, actually, he) arrives. Compare this verse with Isaiah 52:8, and Isaiah chapter 53. But who is coming? And why does he come from Edom?
Edom was a country east of Judah. Its capital city was Bozrah. In the Bible, it is a typical enemy of God. It often appears when the Bible describes Jesus’ return. It appears where writers describe the end of the world. But here and in verse 2, words that are similar mean different things. In *Hebrew, the words for ‘Edom’ and ‘red’ (verse 2) are nearly the same. The writer uses that technique again with ‘Bozrah’ here and ‘winepress’ (place to squeeze juice from *grapes) in verses 2 and 3. ‘Bozrah’ is similar to a word that means ‘wine’ in *Hebrew!
It is God’s *Messiah who is coming from ‘the red place’. He has punished the people there who were God’s enemies. It has made his clothes red (verse 2), as if he had worked in a ‘winepress’ (verses 2-3).
Verse 2 A ‘winepress’ is where people squeeze the juice out of *grapes with their feet. They jump up and down on them! They then make wine from the juice of the *grapes. The red *grapes make the clothes of the workers red.
Verse 3 Notice the word ‘stain’ here and in verse 1. His clothes were not red. His work stained them red. He did the work alone. Nobody helped him, see also verse 5. As an English Christian song says,
There was no other good enough
To pay the price of *sin.
He only (in other words, he alone) could unlock the gate
Of heaven, and let us in.
‘*Sin’ is our thoughts, words and deeds when we do not obey God. Christians see the red colour here as the blood of Jesus. He not only saved his people when he died. He also punished his enemies!
Verse 4 ‘In my heart’ was a *Hebrew way to say ‘in my mind’. ‘The day of *vengeance’ was the day when God was going to punish people. Isaiah 61:2 also refers to ‘the day of *vengeance’. Our translation there has ‘the day when God will punish’. ‘*Vengeance’ means ‘do to somebody the unpleasant things that they have done to you’. God’s ‘day of *vengeance’ is the time when he will punish his enemies. He will punish everybody that does not obey his laws. So, in this section, there is a picture of God. He is doing two things. He is punishing his enemies. But at the same time, he is *redeeming his people. There is a note on ‘*redeem’ in Isaiah 43:1-3.
Verse 5 This is similar to Isaiah 59:16: ‘He saw that there was nobody to do anything [about it]. And he considered it terrible that there was nobody to act [in this matter]. So his own arm [brought about] salvation (rescue and safety) for him. And his own very great goodness made him strong.’ ‘Them’ is ‘the people that I had *redeemed’ in verse 4.
Verse 6 ‘Seem *drunk’ is like Isaiah 51:22, ‘Therefore, hear this, you people that [God is] hurting. You are *drunk, but not with wine.’ They had not drunk too much wine, so that they were *drunk. God had punished them, so that they seemed *drunk! They did not know ‘what had hit them’!
Isaiah’s Prayer
From here, to the end of chapter 64, is one prayer.
First, Isaiah remembers the past (63:7-14)
- Then he confesses his people’s *sins to God. He prays that God will forgive them. (63:15 to 64:12)
Verse 7 There is an ’*inclusio’ in this verse: it starts and ends with words about ‘kindnesses’. These kindnesses are the love of God which never fails. ‘*LORD’ is the name that God used in the *covenant. The ‘*covenant’ was the agreement between God and his people. He agreed to look after them and to be their God. They agreed to love, serve and obey him. We translate the ‘house of Israel’ as the ‘family of Israel’. That may mean the people or the king’s family. Verse 8 tells us that it probably means the people from Israel.
Verse 8 Exodus 14:30 tells us, ‘So the *LORD saved Israel that day.’ That was the day when he saved them from Egypt. He saved them many times after that, up until when Isaiah was alive. Verse 9 tells us about this. He expected them to be loyal to him. That means, to do what they had promised, verse 7. The *Hebrew text actually has ‘sons, who will not be disloyal’. ‘Disloyal’ means the opposite of ‘loyal’. So, ‘not disloyal’ actually means ‘loyal’!
Verse 9 An *angel is a servant of God in heaven. But this *angel is probably the ‘*Angel of the *Covenant’, which may be another name for God himself. The *Hebrew Bible actually calls him ‘the *angel of his face’. ‘*Mercy’ is ‘kindness when you do not have to be kind’. There is a note on ‘*redeemed’ at Isaiah 43:1 and Isaiah 43:3. Here, it emphasises the family connection in verse 8: ‘my people … sons’. They were the people that God had brought up out of the Red Sea, Exodus 14:21-22.
Verse 10 God had hoped that his sons would ‘be loyal’, verse 8. But they were not loyal. They did not obey God. In fact, they insulted God! This made God’s Holy Spirit angry. Paul warns Christians not to do that in Ephesians 4:30.
Verse 11 Notice the three statements.
But they did not obey him. (Verse 10)
- So he turned against them. (Verse 10)
- Then he remembered the former times. (Verse 11)
In the *Hebrew Bible, all three words are ‘and’. This shows us the connection. Our translation shows us the story. While God fought against his people, he suddenly remembered the past! He remembered the Red Sea experience. This does not mean that God had forgotten it. It means that he decided to act again. He saved them long ago, and he would do it again. He would rescue his people, his family, see verse 8. Therefore ‘then’ (or ‘and’) in verse 11 means the time when he decided not to punish them too much.
In the original language, ‘leaders of his group’ is ‘leaders of his flock’. ‘Flock’ actually means a ‘group of animals’, especially sheep. God’s people are often called ‘sheep’ (Psalms 23:1; Psalms 100:3; Isaiah 40:11 and John 10:11).
Isaiah imagines that God is asking himself questions! ‘‘Where is he?’ means ‘where is the God?’ Notice the *inclusio:
verse 11 starts in the water of the Red Sea, Exodus 14:22
- but verse 12 ends in the water of the River Jordan, Joshua 3:14-17.
In both incidents, God divided the water, and his people crossed on dry ground! They were as safe as a horse that ran on hard, dry ground, verse 13.
Verse 12 Again, notice ‘his beautiful arm’. This is a word-picture for God’s special servant in Isaiah 53:1. In the Bible, the arm of the *LORD often means Jesus; and the hand of the *LORD often means the Holy Spirit. Notice also the reason why God did all this. It was ‘to make his name always famous’.
Verse 13 ‘The deep places’ are the Red Sea and the River Jordan. The word ‘desert’ does not only mean ‘dry, sandy country’ in the Bible. It also means open country, where horses can run safely. So, God’s people ‘did not fall’ on the journey from the Red Sea to the River Jordan. They went safely from Egypt to Canaan.
Verse 14 Here is a beautiful special description. Farmers led their groups of sheep from high ground down to grassy fields. There the sheep had plenty of food. So the Holy Spirit led God’s people from the dry desert to Canaan, where there was plenty of food.
Verse 15 The prayer really starts here. We call it ‘the prayer proper’. We can divide the prayer proper into 7 sections.
A1 63:15-16 God, you do not seem to be showing love to your people.
B1 63:17-19 Why is this, because we are still your people?
C1 64:1-3 If you had done something, the nations would have trembled in front of you.
D 64:4-5 But now, is there really any hope for us?
C2 64:6-7 We are dying because of our *sin. You are not helping us.
B2 64:8-9 But we are still your people!
A2 64:10-12 God, will you continue to do nothing?
Notice that the A sections are similar, as are the sections B and C. This leaves the central section, D, as the important one. Is there any hope for us? This is an example of an *inclusio that includes many verses.
Verse 15 reminds us of King Solomon in 1 Kings 8:30. The *LORD’s desire makes him want to do what he has promised. His strength makes him able to do it. His love is something inside him that makes him do it. His pity is his love that flows out from him. God has always shown these qualities in the past. Isaiah wants to know why God chooses not to show these qualities now. This is what ‘not giving them to us’ means.
Verse 16 This verse is an *inclusio in itself:
father - Abraham - Israel - *redeemer
All four words are family words. But Abraham and Israel are dead. They cannot help their people. The note on *redeemer (Isaiah 43:1 and Isaiah 43:3) tells us that a *redeemer is a member of your family. God is not dead. He is still their father. The trouble is that he is not helping his people! The end of chapter 63 ends (verses 17-19) asks God why he does not help.
Verse 17 ‘Let us wander’ does not mean that God was responsible for their *sin. Rather, that he let them wander as a punishment. The result of *sin is often its own punishment. A hard heart is a special *Hebrew way to say something. It means an attitude that a person will not change. Only God can change this sort of attitude. That is why Isaiah prayed, ‘Come back to us.’ Only if God returns to his people will he change their hard hearts. Isaiah gives the reason for his prayer: family. God is their father and their *redeemer (verse 16).
Verse 18 In Isaiah 39:6–8, there are these words. During Hezekiah’s life, Isaiah already knew that his people would go to Babylon. Isaiah knew that this would be the punishment for his people’s *sin.
Isaiah chapter 39
v6 ‘ “This is what will certainly happen. [Soldiers from Babylon] will take everything [that is] in your palace to Babylon. They will take everything that your *ancestors have stored here until now. They will leave nothing [here]”, says the *LORD.
v7 “And some of your own sons, your grandsons [and their sons, too], will go [to Babylon]. [Soldiers from Babylon] will force them to go there. And they will become *eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.” ’
v8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, ‘The words that you said from the *LORD are good.’ But what he really thought was, ‘There will be *peace and security while I am alive.’
The important thing is that Isaiah wrote 63:17-19 before the *exile. The *exile was the 70 years when the *Jews had to live in Babylon, away from their own country. It was between 606 and 536 *B.C. Isaiah wrote 39:6-8 while Hezekiah was still alive. Hezekiah died about 690 *B.C. So, the ‘short time’ was between Hezekiah’s life and 606 *B.C. ‘Our enemies’ (in Isaiah 63:18) would be the soldiers from Babylon. The ‘*holy place’ was Jerusalem, but especially God’s house there, that is, the *temple.
Verse 19 God had ‘not governed’ his people because they had not obeyed his laws. They did not seem like his people any longer!
Notes on Chapter 64
Verse 1 Many translations of the Bible make this in the future. But by the rules of *Hebrew grammar, it is probably in the past. God had not come down to help his people. He had done nothing in the last 15 years of King Hezekiah’s rule. He did nothing in King Manasseh’s rule, 690-640 *B.C. There is a tradition that Manasseh’s servants sawed Isaiah in half to kill him. Notice another *inclusio in verses 1-3: ‘come/came down’ and ‘trembled’. The Bible often uses words like that when God ‘comes down’ to the earth. There are examples in Exodus 19:18 and Psalms 18:7 and Psalms 68:8.
Verse 2 It does not take long for a fire to burn away wood. A fire soon boils water. It would not have taken God long to make Israel’s enemies shake with fear. But God had not ‘come down’!
Verse 3 Isaiah emphasises that the nations would soon have shaken with fear. It would have happened while God was coming down. It would have happened while the earth trembled. It would have happened suddenly! God would have done something that nobody expected. And his enemies would have become very afraid, immediately! But God had not ‘come down’.
Verses 4-5 For a long time, nobody has thought about God. The people have continued to *sin against his ways (which means ‘his laws’). But he is the God that helps these people:
the people that wait for him. ‘Wait’ here means ‘to expect him to do something’.
- the people that obey him. Those people do what is right.
But, for a long time, people have not done these things. So, can anyone (which means ‘God’ here) save us? At this part of his prayer, perhaps Isaiah expected people to answer, ‘No!’
Verses 6-7 Compare these verses, C2 in the *inclusio above, with C1. In C1, it is the enemies of God, from other nations, that may have trembled. In C2, it is God’s people that ‘tremble’. Isaiah did not say ‘tremble’. But he might have done, when he described their *sin and its results.
‘We have become like someone who is *unclean.’ The ‘someone’ is the person that the writer describes in Leviticus 13:45. That person has a serious disease called ‘leprosy’ in his or her skin. Therefore, the rules in the Book of Leviticus said that he was not a suitable person to praise God in God’s house. Also, he cannot live with God’s people. That is what ‘*unclean’ means here. It does not mean that he has not washed himself!
- ‘The good things that we do are like dirty bits of cloth.’ These are not any old ‘dirty bits of cloth’. They are the *underclothes that a woman makes dirty by her blood once a month. This links it with the *sin of Adam and Eve. We call it ‘original *sin’. We are all ‘original *sinners’, because we all have Adam and Eve as our original father and mother. And we are therefore all like Adam and Eve; we are all *sinners. So, even if we do good things, our original *sin cancels them out. We cannot earn God’s love and kindness!
- ‘We all dry up like a leaf, and, like a wind, our *sins sweep us away.’ Death is the result of our *sins. Isaiah often wrote about ‘leaves and things that die’ as a picture of people. Look at number 7 in the section below called Something to do. Psalms 1:4 has a similar picture. It says: ‘Wicked people are like *chaff that the wind blows away.’ ‘*Chaff’ is dead parts of a plant which people have taken the grain from.
- ‘Nobody calls out your name or tries to contact you.’ *Sin causes death. But we become dead to God before our bodies die! Our spirits die to God. In Ephesians 2:1, Paul calls it ‘dead in *sins’. As a result, we do not try to contact God. We have no real relationship with God.
‘You have hidden your face from us. And you have made us slowly to lose our strength, because of the power of our *sins.’ This is God’s punishment for *sinners. But will God do something, even if his people forget him? ‘Read on’, as they say!
Verse 8 Isaiah prays to God about three things.
A father is always a father, whatever his children have done. So, God is still the father of the people from Judah.
- ‘*Clay’ is a type of earth. A person called a ‘*potter’ makes pots from it. God is like the *potter, and his people are like the *clay. If there were no *potter, there would be no pot.
- God showed his skill, like an artist, when he made people. If there were no artist, there would be no art.
Isaiah does not blame God for bad children, bad pots and bad art. He just explains the relationship between God and his people. He made them. So they are like a father’s children, a *potter’s pots, or an artist’s art.
Verse 9 Now Isaiah reaches the main part of his prayer. He does not want God still to be angry. The *Jews are God’s people. Therefore, he wants God to take care of them again.
Verse 10 Again, Isaiah ‘sees’ (read the note on Isaiah 1:1) what will happen. The ‘*holy cities’ means the whole of the country called Judah.
Verse 11 The *temple was God’s house in Jerusalem. It was ‘*holy and wonderful’ because it was the house of God on this earth. And God was present there in a special way.
Verse 12 Isaiah now asks the important question. What will be God’s reply to his prayer? It is not only Isaiah’s prayer. It is the prayer of everybody who agrees with Isaiah’s prayer. The answer is in Chapter s 65 and 66.
Something to do
1. Compare the 4 Songs of the *Messiah with the 4 Songs of the Servant. The *table below tells you where to find them.
| | Servant Songs | *Messiah Songs |
| 1 | Isaiah chapter 60 | |
| 2 | ||
| 3 | ||
| 4 |
2. Study the verses in the book called Revelation that are about:
the anger of the ‘Lamb of God’ (which means Jesus) (Revelation 6:15-17); and
the winepress (place to squeeze juice out), which God’s anger was like (Revelation 14:17-20 and 19:15).
Of which verses in Isaiah chapter 63 do they remind you?
(A lamb is a young sheep and the ‘Lamb of God’ is a special name for Jesus. God *sacrificed him because of our *sins, as people *sacrificed a young sheep because of their *sins.)
3. Read Psalms 78 and compare it with Isaiah 63:10-14.
4. Make a list of the various *inclusios in Isaiah Chapter s 63 and 64. They are not all in the notes!
5. Our translation of Isaiah 64:1 is in the past. But many English translations put it in the future. Perhaps you too want God to do something more than he seems to be doing. Then pray the words in the future tense!
6. Study some of the other great prayers in the *Old Testament. Here are some examples: Ezra 9:6-15; Nehemiah 1:5-11; Daniel 9:3-19. All these came after the prayer in Isaiah 63:15-64. They also come after the *exile to Babylon.
7. Read the verses in Isaiah about ‘leaves and things that die’. They are in Isaiah 1:30; Isaiah 24:4; Isaiah 28:1; Isaiah 34:4 and Isaiah 40:7.
8. Read 1 Corinthians 2:9. It says, ‘No eye has seen it. No ear has heard it. No mind has thought about it. [What is it?] The things that God has prepared for the people that love him.’ This repeats words from Isaiah 64:4. We may ask why they are not the same. The answer is because Paul did not use the *Hebrew *Old Testament. He used the *Greek translation of the *Old Testament. God can speak through both the original Bible and the translations of the Bible for the people that read them.
heavens ~ another word for ‘skies’. It can also mean the place where God lives and the skies above us.
'Old Testament ~ the earlier part of the Bible.
messiah ~ a leader such as a king. With a capital M (that is, ‘Messiah’), it means Jesus for Christians.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
sin ~ not to obey God. Or, what you do when you do not obey God.
unclean ~ not acceptable for the purposes of religion; unable to worship God in his temple; foods that God did not allow the Jews to eat.
worship ~ to tell God (or a false god) that he is wonderful; and also, to tell him that you love him.
temple ~ God’s house in Jerusalem. False gods also had temples.
Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language, it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’), it is a name for God.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
clay ~ the soft, sticky earth that people use to make pots.
potter ~ a person who makes pots out of clay.
clay ~ the soft, sticky earth that people use to make pots.
holy ~ very, very good. Only God is really holy. He is so holy that he is separate from everybody else.
Zion ~ a name for Jerusalem.
temple ~ God’s house in Jerusalem. False gods also had temples.
grape ~ a fruit that grows on a vine.
vine ~ grapes grow on vines. People make wine from grapes.
grape ~ a fruit that grows on a vine.
vine ~ grapes grow on vines. People make wine from grapes.
sin ~ not to obey God. Or, what you do when you do not obey God.
vengeance ~ when someone does to people the bad things that they have done to other people.
vengeance ~ when someone does to people the bad things that they have done to other people.
redeem ~ a member of your family buys you from an enemy.
drunk ~ the state of someone who has drunk too much alcohol.
inclusio ~ ‘something to do’ after Isaiah chapter 1 explains this word.
covenant ~ the agreement between God and his people. In this agreement God agrees to help and to protect his people. His people agree to love and to serve God. Or, an agreement between nations.
angel ~ a special servant of God in heaven.
Heaven ~ the home of God.
angel ~ a special servant of God in heaven.
Heaven ~ the home of God.
covenant ~ the agreement between God and his people. In this agreement God agrees to help and to protect his people. His people agree to love and to serve God. Or, an agreement between nations.
mercy ~ kindness when you do not have to be kind.
ancestor ~ a past member of your family, perhaps in previous centuries.
eunuch ~ a man who cannot have sex. This is because somebody has cut off a certain part of his body. And that part is necessary in order to have sex.
peace ~ a calm and content attitude. The word often means simply that there is no war. But ‘peace’ especially means the calm and content attitude of a person who has a right relationship with God.
exile ~ a person whom enemies force to live away from his own home or country. Or, the place where that person has to live.
Jews ~ the people that lived in Judah (which sounds like ‘Jew-dah’) and Israel.
underclothes ~ the clothes that a person wears underneath their normal clothes, against the skin.
chaff ~ the dead bits of a plant after people have taken the grain from it.
chaff ~ the dead bits of a plant after people have taken the grain from it.
clay ~ the soft, sticky earth that people use to make pots.
table ~ a way to set out information in a series of boxes.
sacrifice ~ something that the priests put apart (or separated) for the LORD. Usually it was an animal. They killed it and burned it.
LORD ~ LORD is a special name of God. In the Hebrew language, it is YHWH. It may mean ‘always alive’. So LORD is a sign that the Hebrew word is YHWH.
lord ~ master. When it has a capital L (that is, ‘Lord’), it is a name for God.
Hebrew ~ the language that Isaiah spoke.
Greek ~ the language that people spoke in Greece.