Isaiah 63:15-64:12  Click here for Bible Verses

Hi GAMErs!

Today’s passage is Isaiah 63:15-64:12.  Let’s go!

Isaiah 63:15-19 (NIV)
15  Look down from heaven and see from your lofty throne, holy and glorious. Where are your zeal and your might? Your tenderness and compassion are withheld from us.
16  But you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us or Israel acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.
17  Why, O LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance.
18  For a little while your people possessed your holy place, but now our enemies have trampled down your sanctuary.
19  We are yours from of old; but you have not ruled over them, they have not been called by your name.

Isaiah 64:1-12 (NIV)
 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!
 As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!
 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
 You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?
 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.
 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.
 Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD; do not remember our sins forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray, for we are all your people.
10  Your sacred cities have become a desert; even Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a desolation.
11  Our holy and glorious temple, where our fathers praised you, has been burned with fire, and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
12  After all this, O LORD, will you hold yourself back? Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?

On 63:15-64:12:  As I noted yesterday, Isaiah 63:7-64:12 can be seen as one unit.  Isaiah is wrestling with a picture that he sees of Jerusalem being in ruins, and yet he began by recalling God’s goodness (Isaiah 63:7-14).  Now in Isaiah 63:15-64:12 Isaiah gets real with God about the tough emotions he is experiencing.  In this way, Isaiah 63:7-64:12 reads like something from the Psalms.  Isaiah starts by recounting how God famously helped and delivered His people in the past (Isaiah 63:7-14), then he speaks of how difficult and desperate His people’s current circumstances are, and then he is going to cry out for God to act (Isaiah 63:15-64:12).

You might wonder what time frame Isaiah is referring to.  After all, we have gone from Isaiah 60-62 where Jerusalem is described in its most glorious final state to a time when Jerusalem is a desert and a desolation (v10) and the temple has been destroyed (v11).  In 63:7-64:12, Isaiah, who is writing in 700 B.C., is looking to a relatively nearer future time when the temple would be destroyed, but it is tough to pinpoint with certainty which timeframe Isaiah is referring to here, since the temple would be destroyed more than once in Israel’s history.

Whatever time period Isaiah is referring to specifically in Isaiah 63:7-64:12, this passage teaches us a number of lessons about what to do when you’re facing desperate and difficult times:
1.  Recall God’s goodness in the past to give you hope about the future. (63:7-14)
2.  Remember that God is always our heavenly Father. (63:16; 64:8)
3.  Turn to God and be real with Him about what you’re feeling. (63:17)
4.  Come to God with an attitude of repentance and humility. (64:6-7)
5.  Boldly call on God to act on your behalf. (64:12)

This is how Isaiah and other ancient believers would get through their most difficult times, and we would be wise to do the same when we face difficult times.

God, thank You that You are my heavenly Father and You will never leave me or forsake me.  Thank You that I can come to You as I am and be real with You about what I’m feeling.  Search me O God and see if there’s any way I need to be adjusting my attitude or my behaviour.  I call on You today to glorify Yourself in the situation I’m in.  In Jesus’ name, AMEN!