For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Isaiah 64:1-3    

1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains would tremble before you!
2 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!
3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
    you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.

A. Find Out:

1. What does Isaiah yearn to happen? v.1a
2. What does he anticipate would happen? v.1b
3. What else does he liken it to? v.2a
4. What does he cry for the Lord to do? v.2b,c
5. What does he remember happening? v.3a
6. What happened? v.3b

B. Think:

1. What do you think Isaiah has in mind when he thinks back?
2. What does he want to happen now?
3. Why?

C. Comment:

In these verses Isaiah addresses the Lord. His yearning (v.1) is for the Lord to leave heaven and come down to earth. When he says, “rend the heavens” he recognises a division between heaven and earth, a division which only God can bridge, and that it seems on rare occasions.

It seems he has such an occasion in mind when he speaks of when the Lord came down, quite unexpectedly and when He came, His presence shook the very mountains. When did such a thing happen? At Sinai (Ex 19:16 -18) when there was thunder and lightening accompanying His presence and the mountain trembled. It is as if Isaiah is crying out, “Lord, please come down and be seen, just like you did at the beginning when you first met with us and made us a nation in our own right.”

When God comes, things happen. It like when fire comes, twigs catch fire and water boils. Lord, he cries, please come like this, come and have effect, so our enemies and indeed the whole world will see. He senses a need and remembers what happened of old, and the two together make him cry out in prayer, “Lord, please come down!”

D. Application:

1. Often God comes unexpectedly. He is sovereign and comes and goes in our experience as He wills. Lord please come again in our times, come now, we need You.
2. When God comes, things happen. Wherever Jesus was, things happened.
3.  Lord, please come and be seen to be coming by your powerful presence, by the effects caused by Your presence.

Passage: Isaiah 64:4-6

4 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.
5 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?
6 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.

A. Find Out:

1. What haven’t people heard or seen since ancient times? v.4a
2. What does God do for whom? v.4b
3. Who does He help? v. 5a
4. How did He act when they sinned? v.5b
5. What have they become like and what was their goodness like? v.6a
6. What seems to happen to them? v.6b

B. Think:

1. How does verse 4 continue from the previous verses?
2. How does verse 5 continue then change what is being said?
3. Why does he ask, “How can we be saved?”

C. Comment:

As Isaiah continues to consider what God is like, how He came down and helped Israel, he affirms that since the very inception of Israel there has never been any other god besides the Lord, who comes to the aid of His people.

“Who acts on behalf of those who wait for him” – here is a key to life: wait on God, wait for God, show your reliance upon Him. Those are the people He sees He can help. Those who are self-reliant, will not come to Him for help and He cannot help them. He comes to those who do what is right, who remember what God has said, for these are the people who will have open hearts, who will listen to the Lord and will respond to what He says and be obedient.

But then Isaiah faces their current situation: they have sinned and God has been angry! What hope is there in the face of God’s anger? Sin pollutes and so they are unclean – all of them! They may do good things but they have still sinned and so their good deeds are just as polluted. As a result life has gone from them and they are like shrivelled up leaves and the things they have done wrong act against them and seem to sweep them away from God and from life. This is the awfulness of Sin. It needs repentance. Nothing else can deal with it; nothing else can heal the breach with God.

D. Application:

1. God is there for us if we are open to Him.
2. If we reject Him and sin, we’re in trouble and must repent.

Passage: Isaiah 64:7-9 

7 No one calls on your name
    or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
    and have given us over to our sins. 8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;
    do not remember our sins for ever.
Oh, look upon us we pray,
    for we are all your people.

A. Find Out:

1. What doesn’t anyone do? v.7a
2. Why? v.7b
3. Yet how does he view God? v.8a
4. How does he view them? v.8b
5. What does he ask God not to do? v.9a
6. What instead does he ask Him to do, and why? v.9b

B. Think:

1. What indication is there of the seriousness of the situation?
2. In what does Isaiah place his hope?
3. How does he ask the Lord to restrict Himself?

C. Comment:

In verses 5 and 6 Isaiah had started reciting the state of the nation that had sinned against God. Now in verse 7 he states an awful end product of the sin and judgement cycle. The people had sinned and God had acted in discipline, but He had also withdrawn from the nation so that He didn’t seem to be there, and now there was almost a sense of spiritual apathy hanging over the nation so that no one (except Isaiah) was calling on God, no one was seeking Him.

In this awful state Isaiah has one thread of hope – that God is still the Father of this nation and they are therefore still His people. That is why earlier on he was remembering Sinai and reminding God of it, as if to say, “Remember Lord, you brought us into being, You are the Father of this nation. That at least cannot change. So please come and help us, if for no other reason, do it for this one!”

Then he goes on: You have a right to be angry, you have a right to remember our sins, but Lord, have mercy, please don’t go on being angry, don’t go on remembering our sins forever. Please turn back, look upon us – and have compassion for us (implied), after all, we are Your people. This is his one hope – that God will have mercy, simply because of the covenant relationship that He, the Lord, made with them.

D. Application:

1. God is my Father. He made me a Christian, through Jesus.
2. He will not give up on me now. Hallelujah!

Passage: Isaiah 64:10-12    

10 Your sacred cities have become a wasteland;
    even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you,
    has been burned with fire,
    and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
12 After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back?
    Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?

A. Find Out:

1. What has happened in the cities? v.10
2. What has happened to the Temple? v.11
3. What adjectives des he use to describe the Temple? v.11
4. What then does he ask the Lord? v.12

B. Think:

1. Why are cities important? What do they represent?
2. Why was the Temple important? What did it represent?
3. Why was the destruction so devastating therefore?

C. Comment:

In these verses we get to the heart of why Isaiah was crying out to God. It wasn’t just because he had a heart burden, but it was because when he travelled around he could see clear and obvious signs of the judgement of God upon them. Once this land had flourished, once the Temple had thronged with happy, sincere worshippers. But now….

Now as he travels around or as the news reaches him, he sees or hears that the cities and towns of the land have been devastated by the enemy invader. Even Jerusalem, the capital had been devastated. The town and cities that had once been the centres of the social life of Israel are now mere shells and the wind blows through them as through a desert. They are lifeless.

And then there was the Temple in Jerusalem. This amazing building that had been built to be the meeting place with God Almighty was now a burnt out ruin. No longer was it the place of beauty and splendour, no longer the doorway to heaven.

Israel has sinned and the judgement has come. People have given up (v.7) and the spiritual life has gone out of the land. It is now desolate in judgement. And then comes a lone voice crying out: “Come down Lord (v.1), don’t hold back (v.12), how can you keep silent in the face of this awfulness?” A lone prophetic voice calls, for otherwise there is no hope!

D. Application:

1. Blatant, ongoing sin brings the judgement of God – always!
2. In the face of the judgement of God, the man or woman with the heart of God calls out for mercy and forgiveness. That is hope.