Isaiah’s prayer

How Long?

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Your holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Our holy and beautiful house, where our fathers praised you, has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly? – Isaiah 64:10-12 ESV

Isaiah 64

Isaiah’s prophetic ministry spanned the reigns of four successive kings in Israel. He had lived long enough to have seen God’s warnings of judgment come true. King Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian troops had laid siege to Jerusalem for years and had eventually entered the city, pillaging and burning the temple of God, and taking captive many of the citizens of the city. As Isaiah surveyed the aftermath of all that happened, he knew two thing: They had gotten what they deserved and God was the one who brought it upon them. Their stubborn refusal to turn from their sin and back to God had led to their fall. God had not only allowed the Babylonians to defeat Judah, He had invited them to do so. They were acting on His behalf, as His agents of punishment. Jeremiah had recorded the words of God, warning, “behold, I will send for all the tribes of the north, declares the LORD, and for Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, my servant, and I will bring them against this land and its inhabitants, and against all these surrounding nations. I will devote them to destruction, and make them a horror, a hissing, and an everlasting desolation” (Jeremiah 25:9 ESV).

The sad state of affairs in which the people of Judah found themselves had been brought on by their own sin and had been sanctioned by the very God they had refused to obey. And Isaiah knew that as long as God remained angry with them, they had no hope. There was nothing they could do to change their circumstances. Their redemption lay completely in the hands of God. Only He could restore them, which is why Isaiah called out to Him. He knew that as long as God remained silent, the people would remain enslaved, impoverished, hopeless and helpless. It is interesting to note that the people of Judah had refused to obey God and serve Him alone, but now they were having to obey a foreign king and live as slaves to his will. They had rejected the one true King and found themselves serving a pagan, human king. But Isaiah was not willing to accept their current circumstances as final. He turned to the only one who could do anything about it. His prayer was for God’s redemption and restoration of His people.

But when God redeems, He offers more than just release from the guilt of sin. He desires more than just a release from the pain and suffering caused by sin. He wants to restore the relationship necessary for men and women to exist peacefully and pleasantly in His presence. The people of Judah needed more than just release from captivity to Babylon or the physical restoration of the temple and their city. They needed God. They needed their hearts restored. They needed their character transformed. And only God could bring those things about. God’s silence would only mean more suffering. God’s decision to delay His salvation would only prolong their pain. Isaiah knew the people of Judah well enough to know that, in spite of all that they were having to endure, they were hardheaded enough that they would never repent of their sins and return to God. So He was appealing to God to do what only He could do. Save.

All the way back in chapter 44 of Isaiah, God had spoken these words to Isaiah:

Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
who formed you from the womb:
“I am the Lord, who made all things,
who alone stretched out the heavens,
who spread out the earth by myself,
who frustrates the signs of liars
and makes fools of diviners,
who turns wise men back
and makes their knowledge foolish,
who confirms the word of his servant
and fulfills the counsel of his messengers,
who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited,’
and of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built,
and I will raise up their ruins’;
who says to the deep, ‘Be dry;
I will dry up your rivers’;
who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd,
and he shall fulfill all my purpose’;
saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’
and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’” – Isaiah 44:24-28 ESV

Just as God had ordained and orchestrated the fall of Judah through the king of Babylon, He was going to one day restore the fortunes of His people and rebuild the temple through another pagan king. God was not done yet. He was not finished with the people of Judah and had not forgotten all the promises He had made to Abraham and David. Judah had to be restored. Jerusalem had to be rebuilt. The temple must be reconstructed. Why? Because one day God’s final solution to man’s sin problem would be born into the tribe of Judah, walk the streets of Jerusalem, minister in the temple courtyard and be crucified outside the city walls. All as part of God’s redemptive plan for the world.

Isaiah would never live to see that day, but he hoped in it and longed for it. So should we. We live in a time when men are enslaved to so much and held captive by the oppressive rule of so many things. Even believers find themselves living as slaves to sin, when they have already been set from its grasps. Our world longs for release from its pain and suffering. As believers we should long for the day of God’s salvation – the Day of the Lord. Our daily prayer should be, “How long?” We should long to know how much longer God will delay before He brings about His restoration and redemption to the world. How long will it be before He sends back His Son to call home His bride, the church? How much longer will He delay before He brings the final fulfillment of His redemptive plan for the world? Only He knows. But we can cry out for His salvation to come. We can long for His redemption to take place. Because only He can bring about the transformation this sin-sick world needs.

The Potter.

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But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all your people. – Isaiah 64:8-9 ESV

Isaiah 64

Isaiah has used this imagery before. He obviously had an affinity for the idea of God being the potter and mankind being soft clay in His sovereign hands. Earlier, in chapter 45, Isaiah referred to the potter/clay relationship. “What sorrow awaits those who argue with their Creator. Does a clay pot argue with its maker? Does the clay dispute with the one who shapes it, saying, ‘Stop, you’re doing it wrong!’ Does the pot exclaim, ‘How clumsy can you be?’” (Isaiah 45:9 NLT). For Isaiah, imagining God as a potter helped him better understand His sovereignty and control over all things. Seeing man as the clay in the Potter’s hand was a way for him to visual man’s ultimate submission to God’s divine will. Sovereignty and submission were two key themes for Isaiah. And the apostle Paul picked up on this same imagery in the book of Romans. “Who are you, a mere human being, to argue with God? Should the thing that was created say to the one who created it, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ When a potter makes jars out of clay, doesn’t he have a right to use the same lump of clay to make one jar for decoration and another to throw garbage into?” (Romans 9:20-21 NLT). Paul, like Isaiah, believed that God was ultimately in control of all things. He believed and trusted in God’s complete authority and dominion over all creation, including mankind.

Yet, while Isaiah recognized and respected God’s sovereign authority, it motivated him to appeal to that authority and plead with God to use it in order to forgive and restore the very people He had made. God had fashioned the people of Israel out of nothing. He had raised up an obscure, no-name individual from Ur of the Chaldees and transformed his lineage into a mighty nation. He had rescued them from captivity in Egypt. He had led them through the wilderness for 40 years, eventually providing them with a rich and fertile land in which to live. They were God’s creation. He had formed them. Now, Isaiah was calling on the Potter to rescue them. He was appealing to the mercy of God. Paul knew that God was fully capable of showing mercy on whoever He chose. He wrote: “In the same way, even though God has the right to show his anger and his power, he is very patient with those on whom his anger falls, who are destined for destruction. He does this to make the riches of his glory shine even brighter on those to whom he shows mercy, who were prepared in advance for glory” (Romans 9:22-23 NLT). Paul’s point was that God, as the Potter, was free to extend mercy to Jews and Gentiles alike. He had made them both. He could show mercy to both. And He has.

All of us were destined for destruction, but God, in His mercy, sent His Son to die on our behalf. He redeemed and restored us. He is in the process of refashioning us. He has the power and authority to do so. Isaiah knew that. That is why he called on God as the Potter and asked Him to extend mercy to a people who did not deserve it. He knew that God had made them and that only God could save them. He was well aware that God had the right to destroy them, but he also knew that God was a loving, gracious, patient and forgiving God. He appealed to God’s mercy. He simply asked Him to look on their condition. The rest he was willing to leave in God’s hands. He didn’t presume to tell God what to do. He didn’t question why God had allowed the circumstances in which they found themselves to take place. He didn’t shake his fist in anger at God. He didn’t demand. He didn’t complain. He simply placed the fate of he and the people of God in the hands of the Potter.

There is a great old hymn that speaks of this Potter/clay relationship in a very personal, intimate way. It simply says: “Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay. Mold me and make me after Thy will, While I am waiting, yielded and still.” There is a sense in which we must submit ourselves to the sovereign will of God. We must trust Him and rely on Him to do what is best for us. He knows what He is doing. We may not see the benefits of His will for our lives, but we must learn to recognize that He alone knows what we need, what we deserve and what is required to transform us into vessels of honor, fit for His use and capable of bringing Him glory and honor. It is one thing to recognize God’s sovereignty and stubbornly submit to it. You can resignedly accept His control, simply because you can’t do anything about it. But what if we could learn to see that control as something to rest in and rely on. When you can accept God’s sovereignty and balance it with His incomparable love, mercy and grace, you discover that being in the Potter’s hands is the very best place you can be. Then you can say, “Mold me and make me after Thy will. While I am waiting, yielded and still.”

Like One Unclean.

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Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. – Isaiah 64:5b-7 ESV

Isaiah 64

Isaiah was brutally honest in his assessment of the condition of God’s people. It was not a pretty picture. He had just finished saying, “You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways” (Isaiah 64:5a ESV), but then he had to sadly acknowledge that no one in Judah fit that description. God was going to meet them, but it would not be a joyful occasion, because of their sins. God was angry with them, and rightfully so. They just couldn’t seem to stop sinning, and Isaiah couldn’t think of a reason why God would ever want to save them. Their sins had left them unclean, like a leper banned from access to the temple of God. They were impure, unholy, and unable to come into the presence of God. But Isaiah uses even more graphic language to describe the nature of their sin. All their activities, even their so-called righteous ones, were like soiled menstrual rags – unclean, unacceptable, and repulsive to the sight of God. Like a leaf fallen from a tree, they were lifeless and easily carried away by the winds of sin. 

Isaiah paints a bleak, yet honest, picture. He knew all too well just how bad things had gotten in Judah. He had been trying to get their attention. He had been warning them of God’s pending judgment. But no one had listened. They had even stopped calling out to God. They couldn’t even seem to rouse themselves from their sinful stupor long enough to lift a hand in God’s direction. From the human perspective, it was as if God had hidden Himself from them. But it was their sin that had created a barrier between them and God. He was still there. He was ready to respond as soon as they were willing to repent. But their constant state of sin had left them in a sorry condition. They were separated from God and unable to do anything to remedy their problem. In fact, God had given them over to their sin. He had allowed them to reap the consequences of their choices. They were experiencing the consequences of their sin.

The apostle Paul describes a similar situation in his letter to the Romans. “Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused. Claiming to be wise, they instead became utter fools. And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols made to look like mere people and birds and animals and reptiles” (Romans 1:21-23 NLT). Rather than worship God, they created their own gods. They came up with gods who would approve of their sin and validate their selfish desires. As a result, God let them have exactly what they wanted. “So God abandoned them to do whatever shameful things their hearts desired” (Romans 1:24 NLT). That verse should send shudders down the spine of every believer. The very thought of God abandoning us to do what our hearts desire should scare us. Our natural man, left to its own devices, will always choose the wrong path. Our old nature, motivated by pride, lust, greed, and selfishness, will always gravitate toward rebellion against God. Even as redeemed children of God, we must never lose sight of the fact that our capacity to sin remains within us. It is only our dependence upon God and our reliance upon His indwelling Spirit that gives us the ability to live righteously instead of sinfully. Paul reminds us, “So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves” (Galatians 5:16 NLT).

Sin is a constant threat to the child of God. We have our old sinful nature to deal with. We live in a hostile world that is opposed to us and intent on destroying us. We have an enemy who can’t stand us and who is out to steal, kill and destroy. While our sins can never separate us from the love of God or cause us to lose our salvation, they can destroy our joy, rob us of peace, damage our witness, harden our hearts, limit our effectiveness, and harm the reputation of God. There is nothing more sad than a child of God whose life doesn’t reflect his position. We have been redeemed by God through the blood of Jesus Christ and are intended to live lives that reflect our new-found status as sons and daughters of God. We have the Spirit of God living within us and the Word of God to guide us. We have been placed within the body of Christ and been given spiritual gifts designed to minister to one another so that we might grow in Christ-likeness. But sin can and will wreak havoc on our spiritual lives if we allow it to. If we give in to our sinful nature, we will reap the consequences. That’s why our constant dependence upon God is so important. Paul put it this way: “My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:2 NLT). I can choose to live as one unclean or as one who has been cleansed by the blood of Christ. I can give in to my old sinful nature or I can live in constant reliance upon the will of God with the help of the Spirit of God.

No God Besides You.

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When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him. You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. – Isaiah 64:3-5a ESV

Isaiah 64

What we know about God greatly influences how we pray to Him. The greater our understanding of God’s power, the more likely we are to ask Him to display that power on our behalf. If our knowledge of God includes an awareness of and belief in His grace and mercy, our prayers will contain appeals for Him to extend both to us. But if we don’t know God well, it stands to reason that our prayer life will suffer because we will not know what to expect from Him. We can ask Him for things, but we will do so with apprehension, because we aren’t familiar with His ways. We can share with Him our burdens, but if we don’t know Him well, we’ll never even know if He has heard or even cares.

Isaiah prayed to a God he clearly knew. And it was far more than just an academic or historical knowledge. He had a personal awareness and understanding of God. Yes, he knew the stories from Israel’s past. He had heard about the appearance of God on Mount Sinai when the people were wandering in the wilderness. He was aware of the thunder, lightning, and earth-shattering signs that accompanied that appearance. He also knew that when God showed up, the people tended to straighten up. He had a way of getting their attention. But Isaiah also knew that there was more to God than just shock and awe. There was more to His appearing among the people of Israel than just to get their attention. He wanted to reveal His power. He wanted to assure them of His presence. He was there among them and He cared greatly for them. Yes, God wanted them to fear Him. But He also wanted them to depend upon Him. The kind of rock-shattering power He displayed before them was available to them, to protect them, provide for them, and to give them an assurance of His ability to do all that He had promised to them.

One of the problems the people of Israel had always had was their seeming inability to see God as personal and loving. They had no trouble fearing God. They just couldn’t understand how much He loved them. They tended to keep their distance from God, out of fear that He would kill them. They didn’t really trust Him. Which is what led them to seek other gods in place of Him. But Isaiah knew God to be extremely loving, intimate, personal and gracious. Which is why he stated, “You welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways” (Isaiah 64:5a NLT). He understood God to be loving and welcoming to all those who trusted Him enough to obey Him. Isaiah had found God to be approachable and merciful. He feared God, but wasn’t afraid of Him. He had an awe and respect for the holiness and majesty of God, but had no trouble approaching Him as his loving Father.

Isaiah found himself ministering among a people who had forgotten just how great God was. Their personal knowledge of God was suspect. Isaiah could speak on His behalf and tell them all that God had to say to them and about them, but they didn’t take him seriously. Which is why Isaiah was asking God to make an appearance. He longed for God to show up in might and power, as a form of wake-up call for the people. But what Isaiah really wanted was for the people to know God they way he knew God. He wanted them to understand that the God he knew was simply waiting for them to return to Him with humble, repentant hearts, ready to obey Him, and He would bless them. He would extend mercy and grace to them. He would forgive them. Because there is no God besides Him. They were wasting their time looking for help from any other gods. They were going to be highly disappointed if they continued to reject God’s calls to repentance. The Babylonians were not going to show them mercy. The Egyptians were not going to provide them with protection. The gods of all the other nations weren’t going to be able to save them. Ignoring God was not going to make Him go away. Rejecting His warnings was not going to keep them from happening. They could either experience the wrath and judgment of God, or they could experience the grace, mercy, love and forgiveness of God. Either way, they were going to learn that there was no other God besides Him.

God will display His power. He prefers to do so in order to bless His children. But if He has to, He will do so to discipline them. The greater our knowledge of God’s love for us, the more we will expect Him to reveal His power for our good. We will learn to fear Him less and respect Him more. We will understand His power, but know that it is there to protect and provide for us. We will approach Him expectantly, not hesitantly. We will run to Him, not from Him. Because we will know that there is no God besides Him.

Longing For God’s Presence.

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Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at Your presence—as fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence! – Isaiah 64:1-2 ESV

Isaiah 64

Isaiah was a prophet of God speaking the words of God to the people of God. He prophesied over a period of time in Judah that spanned the reigns of four different kings. Over that time, he had watched their brothers and sisters in the northern kingdom of Israel fall to the Assyrians because of their sin and rebellion against God. And he saw the nation of Judah committing the very same sins and headed for the same fate if they did not repent and return to God. Early in his ministry as God’s prophet, God had given Isaiah a vision and a clear message concerning His people. “Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth; for the Lord has spoken: ‘Children have I reared and brought up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master’s crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand’” (Isaiah 1:2-3 ESV). God’s people had rejected Him. They had consistently disobeyed Him. And Isaiah knew that, because of God’s holiness and righteousness, He was going to have to bring judgment against them. God would not allow His people to continue to live in open rebellion to Him. He would be forced to punish them for their sin, motivated by their pride and self-sufficiency.

But Isaiah longed to see God step in. He knew that their only hope was to be found in God. After years of prophesying to the people of Judah, he had no illusions that they might actually hear what he was saying and repent. Unless God did something, their fate was sealed. They would be incapable of saving themselves, so if anything was going to happen, it would have to be God’s doing. So he cried out, “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down!” He was looking for a visitation from God, a physical manifestation of God’s presence much like the people had experienced when He came down to Mount Sinai in the wilderness. That had been an attention-getting, never-to-be-forgotten moment for the people standing at the foot of the mountain. “Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain” (Exodus 19:17-20 ESV). That appearance by God had made an impression on the people, and Isaiah longed to see God do the same thing in his day. He knew that the people of Judah would continue to ignore God unless He showed up in a spectacular fashion, complete with thunder and lightning, smoke, earthquakes, and other attention-getting signs. In essence, God had become invisible to them. He was out of sight, out of mind. They no longer expected to see Him or hear from Him. The message of Isaiah was just like those of the other prophets who had been warning them for years. Their words went in one ear and out the other. So Isaiah wanted to see God show up in power, might and majesty.

Isaiah’s hope was that an appearance from God would ignite a change among the people. Perhaps it would light a spiritual fire under them and cause them to reconsider his message and return to God. Not only that, Isaiah believed it would do wonders for God’s reputation among the pagan nations that were threatening the security of Judah. The reasoning behind Isaiah request that God make an appearance was in order “to make Your name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence!” But the truth is, that was the role the people of God were supposed to have fulfilled. They were the ones who were to have made God’s name known to the nations as they lived in obedience to Him. They were to be living illustrations of what it looked like to live in obedience to God, enjoying His presence, power and provision. Any time the people of Israel had lived in submission to God’s will and obeyed His commands, He had stepped in a given them victories over their enemies. He had blessed them. And had put the fear of God in their enemies. The reign of Solomon is a perfect illustration of that reality. It was a period of unprecedented peace and prosperity. As long as the people remained faithful to God, His power and presence was with them. The problem in Isaiah’s day was not that God was absent, but that the people were disobedient. It was their sin that was preventing God’s power from being displayed among them.

We may long for God’s presence, but He has not left us. He is never far away. The only thing that puts distance between us and God is our own sin. Longing for Him to show up in power makes no sense if we have no desire to do what He says. Desiring God to do great things is silly if we aren’t willing to do what He has called us to do in the first place. The people in Jesus’ day longed to see Him perform signs and miracles. They got a kick out of seeing Him do the miraculous. But for the most part, they had no interest in what He was offering them. They refused to repent and return. Longing to see the power of God while refusing to submit to the authority of God is pointless. God’s power is best revealed through our dependence upon Him and obedience to Him.