The Chosen Key Word in this Chapter is “Presence” it comes from the Hebrew Word “paneh” which means “presence, face.”
Isaiah pleads passionately for God to intervene dramatically while confessing Israel’s genuine unworthiness. Welcome to Bible Life Basics Chapter Reviews, I am Chris and this is Isaiah 64.
Isaiah pleads, “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence, as when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence,” recalling how when God did terrible things they looked not for, He came down, and the mountains flowed down at His “presence,” “paneh” in Hebrew.
Isaiah declares that since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, besides Him, what He has prepared for him who waits for Him, describing how God meets him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember Him in His ways, yet confessing they have sinned, in those is continuance, and they shall be saved, describing how they are all as an unclean thing, and all their righteousnesses are as filthy rags, they all fade as a leaf, and their iniquities, like the wind, have taken them away.
Isaiah laments that there is none who calls upon His name, who stirs up himself to take hold of Him, since He has hidden His face from them, and has consumed them because of their iniquities, yet pleading, “But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand,” asking Him not to be very angry, nor remember iniquity forever, but to behold, they are all His people, closing with a poignant description of their holy and beautiful house, where their fathers praised Him, being burned up with fire, and all their pleasant things laid waste, this raw, honest prayer honestly confronting genuine national crisis while still clinging desperately to covenant relationship.
Isaiah’s passionate cry, oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, gives genuine voice to desperate longing for God’s dramatic, unmistakable intervention during a season of real crisis and apparent silence. His humble acknowledgment, we are the clay and you our potter, models genuine submission that continues clinging to covenant relationship even while honestly confessing profound unworthiness and failure.
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