Isaiah · chapter 64 of 66
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Isaiah 64 continues the people's prayer of lament, asking the Lord to tear open the heavens and come down as at Sinai. It acknowledges that no one has seen a God like him who acts for those who wait for him, confesses that all are like one unclean and their righteous deeds like a polluted garment, and appeals to being clay in the hands of the Father the potter, that he not be angry forever.
Isaiah 64 is the second half of the prayer that began in 63:7 and shows a community looking at the devastation of the city and the temple and crying out to God. It mixes remembrance, confession and plea, and is one of the most honest texts in the book about God's apparent distance.
The prayer begins with an intense plea: oh that you would tear open the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence, as when fire kindles brushwood and causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries and cause the nations to tremble before you. When you did awesome things we did not look for, you came down and the mountains quaked before you.
Verses 4 and 5 recall that 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. But 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. No one calls upon your name or 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.
Verse 8 is a turn: 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. 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?
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The people plead that the Lord tear open the heavens and come down so that the mountains tremble before him. It is the cry of those who need a divine intervention to change what they cannot change.
No one has heard or seen a God besides the Lord who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. Paul alludes to this verse in 1 Corinthians 2:9 when speaking of what God has prepared for those who love him.
We are all like one unclean, our righteous deeds like a polluted garment, and we fade like a leaf. The confession admits that human effort is not enough to stand before God.
In spite of sin, the people hold on to a relationship: you are our Father, we are the clay and you are the potter. They appeal to God's work on them, not to their own merit.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: That the Lord tear open the heavens and come down, and that the mountains quake before him. — Isaiah 64:1
Answer: That from of old no one has seen a God besides him who does so. — Isaiah 64:4
Answer: As a polluted garment. — Isaiah 64:6
Answer: The people are the clay and the Lord is the potter. — Isaiah 64:8
Answer: It was burned by fire, the place where their fathers praised him. — Isaiah 64:11
Answer: Whether he will restrain himself at these things, whether he will keep silent and afflict them so terribly. — Isaiah 64:12
Isaiah 64 gives permission to pray with frankness. The people do not hide their confusion or pain, and at the same time they confess their sin and appeal to God's character. In a small group you can encourage praying with that mix of honesty and trust, without disguising suffering or minimizing guilt.
The image of the clay and the potter reminds us that we are not self-sufficient. Accepting that we are the work of God's hand frees us from the pressure to justify ourselves and opens the possibility of being shaped. For someone who feels abandoned in a crisis, the text teaches that crying out is a legitimate form of faith: the people do not fall silent but call upon the Lord.
Isaiah 64 ends without an immediate answer: the people wait. Chapter 65 is the Lord's response, which explains why he was silent and announces new heavens and a new earth.
Paul writes that no eye has seen and no ear has heard what God has prepared for those who love him, and the phrase closely resembles Isaiah 64:4, though it combines the passage with other texts. He applies it to the wisdom of God that the Spirit reveals to believers.
The Hebrew word refers to a stained and ritually unclean cloth. It means that not even the best human works can present us clean before God, because sin affects the whole person. It does not despise good works but denies that they are the basis of our acceptance; that basis is God's grace.