Community Bible Study -- Isaiah

Text of Presentation, Lesson 21, Isa 63:7-64:12

Click Here to return to Isaiah Home Page

Isaiah’s Faithfulness; the Lord’s Faithfulness
“A Cry for Forgiveness and Revival”

The last two sessions have discussed God's ability to defeat sin in all its forms. With that said, Isaiah resumes his commentary on the human inability to do what is right (63:7-65:16), emphasizing that God’s intervention is required to break the cycle of human failure. Tonight’s focal passage (63:7-64:12) is a lament over human failure, raising the question why God allows this to persist. The next – our final – session discusses God’s answer.

63:7-14 focus on three aspects of man’s relation to God, using the Exodus as an example. God shows incredible, undeserved grace to man . . . man rebels . . . and just when man seems beyond restoration, restoration occurs. Isaiah rehearses the aspects of God's character and the Israelites’ character revealed in the Exodus: God’s "kindnesses" and "compassion" (63:7) . . . His “love and mercy" (63:9). He does “good things" (63:7) by saving and redeeming (63:9) his people. By contrast, despite all God did for them – He even "lifted them up and carried them" (63:9; cf 46:3-4) and gave them “rest” (63:14) – the Israelites turned against God and “grieved His Holy Spirit" (63:10). Isaiah’s language stresses a personal relationship: the problem was not that they questioned the authority of a king or a judge; the Israelites rejected a Father's love, care, and concern. Their rebellion was unthinkable; it made them God’s “enemy" (63:10). Love and personal relationship don’t override cause and effect! Yet even though during the Exodus God would have been justified wiping his people off the face of the earth for repeatedly breaking His covenant (cf 63:11-14), God did not abandon them. In this way, Isaiah points to the future . . . a new Moses as the "arm of the LORD" (63:12; cf 52:10; 53:1) for a fallen people . . . who will deliver them from their persistent rebellion. This is something God must do; it’s beyond man’s power!

63:15-64:12 is Isaiah’s lament, spoken on behalf of the people. It begins with a complaint (63:15-19): God lives in unapproachable holiness and glory, far from his people. He has "withheld" his "might" and "compassion" (63:15). This is not right; God is the true "Father" (63:16) of Israel, much moreso than biological ancestors like "Abraham" and Jacob ("Israel"). Israel is first and foremost a spiritual group, not merely an ethnic or national group. They are who they are because of the covenant love of God: not merely the "Father" of the nation, but its "Redeemer." If that love should ever be withdrawn, they have no reason to exist!

Yet that seems to be precisely what has happened. The people "wander from" God's "ways" with hardened hearts and do not know how to fear him (NIV, "do not revere you"). Isaiah articulates the people’s claim they are not responsible for this condition. There is no way man can turn to God unless God softens the depraved and hardened human heart (cf 1:9), so Isaiah implores God to "return" (63:17) to his people.

63:18-19 implies God is helplessness or unconcerned. Israel ("your people”) once “possessed your holy place” and were “yours from of old," but it is now as if they had never “been called by your name"; "enemies have trampled down your sanctuary."

64:1-5 moves from complaint to petition, calling on God in the name of the people to leave his isolation in the "heavens" and to come to their aid (64:1). The reason – as Isaiah has often noted – is so the nations may know the "name" (64:2) of God: that they might know God is the sole Sovereign of the universe. Only when those nations see God blessing and defending his people will they recognize him appropriately. This does not seem an unreasonable request; history has shown God can act and has acted. In fact, when God manifested himself in the past, dramatic things occurred (64:3-4), like parting the Red Sea (Ex 14:21-22) or stopping rain for three years (1 Kings 17:1). And unlike pagan “gods,” the Lord performed his miracles on behalf of his people.

But Isaiah knows there are conditions for God to act (64:4-5). God acts on behalf of those who "wait for him" . . . who put their trust in him and not in their own devices (cf 30:18, 40:31); and one evidence of such trust is a life of godliness. To "remember [his] ways" is not just intellectual awareness of God's character and expectations: it is to live in accord with those "ways" (cf Deut. 8:10-20).

This is confirmed by the phrase "gladly do right" (64:5). It’s a contradiction of terms to have a relationship with a holy God while doing what is contrary to his character . . . but that is exactly what has happened. Far from remembering God's ways by following them, God’s people sinned against those ways . . . so God's presence became a curse, instead of a blessing. Hence while it is possible to petition God to make the Jews righteous, their unrighteousness prevents the petition from being heard. How can they "be saved"?

64:6-7 expand this contradiction. The people blame God for their hard-heartedness. They know they cannot have a relationship with God and fulfill their mandate as a light to the nations if they continue to live lives that reproach God’s holy character. They are "unclean"; even the "righteous" things they do are defiled and contaminated (64:6). Isaiah’s image of a dead leaf swept away by a wind of sin underlines the Old Testament understanding that sin is not a behavioral dysfunction, but an offense against the very nature of life, which must end in death and decay. To have a relationship with God they must lay "hold" of Him by calling on his "name," in self-renunciation and dependence; but God's "face" is "hidden," so they “waste away" in their "sins" (64:7). This problem seems a “Catch-22”; what is to be done?

In 64:8-12 Isaiah cries out again for God to take action. Surely God can break the cycle and restore his people to himself. Isaiah reiterates that the nation only exists because God, the "Father," brought them into existence; He is the "potter" who formed their "clay" (64:8). Despite the people's "sins," He must not forget they are His creation (64:9); He should not overlook the fact that His "sacred" places are in "ruins" (64:10-11). Isaiah resumes the plea of 63:15: the LORD must not "hold [himself] back"; he must not be "silent" and keep punishing them relentlessly.

This kind of argument is unusual for Isaiah; normally he speaks for God criticizing the Jews – not vice versa, as he does here. We might wonder if 63:15- 64:12 is a "setup": a "straw man" argument for God to demolish in the next chapter. But Isaiah presents the argument clearly and convincingly. His reason may be that if the returnees from the Exile are tempted to say these things, they will discover Isaiah has already said them better than they could! Furthermore, Isaiah’s passion and poignancy suggest that even if this may be a “setup," its purpose is to bring up for thoughtful discussion the complex relationship between human will and divine will.

We are each responsible for our actions. We can’t say, "It's not my fault; God made me do it." At the same time, God is not just a bystander, watching the drama of unfolding human choices. God's holy, redemptive will is going to be accomplished – through us or in spite of us; there is ongoing interaction between God's will and our choices.

God has designed this world so the choices we make form us into the persons we are. For example, in the account of "hardening" Pharaoh's heart before the Exodus (Ex 4:21 ff) . . . Pharaoh was prepared to do anything to secure his power base, including genocide; he became that sort of person because of a lifetime of choices. Thus the Bible says God knew Pharaoh would harden his heart (Ex 3:19), that Pharaoh hardened his heart (8:15), and that God hardened Pharaoh's heart (7:3); all are true. Pharaoh seemed to have an absolute range of choices, but in reality he lived in a world he had not designed, constrained by choices he had made in the past. Hence his choices and his ability to choose were really quite limited! Consider the choices facing Bashar Assad of Syria today regarding Lebanon; whatever he chooses to do has consequences based on his past choices – and even his father’s choices.

Contrary to Isaiah’s lament, God did not made the people sin. They chose to sin against God's clearly expressed will. And once having chosen to sin, it became easier and easier to continue, and harder and harder to stop. This is the way God has made his world. Only God’s intervention can break this pattern. If God does not choose to intervene, people will continue in their sin . . . and compound their alienation from God.

But this is not merely a matter of God's deciding whether to intervene . . . but whether the Jews will meet the necessary conditions for God's intervention? Are God's people willing to break certain patterns of behavior in their lives? Will they cry out, as a Galilean man did hundreds of years later, "I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!" (Mark 9:24)? Or do they want God's blessings while they continue to do what they had always done? Humans want to have our way and God's blessings at the same time, but that can never be; we must choose one or the other!

63:7-14 might be viewed as Isaiah’s call to the Jews – and to mankind through the centuries – to return to our first love. It is not the stern Judge or distant King who calls us but the One who has carried us through all the years (cf 46:3-4) . . . who gave us birth, held our arms when we took our first steps, and faithfully guides us out of the desert of despair into green pasture. The whispers of the Holy Spirit are those of a brokenhearted Lover who tells us it is not too late to return to his arms. And this Lover is not a weak doormat – to be “used” over again between other love interests. He is Almighty God, whose ways are truth and whose law is eternal. To grieve his heart is to fall off a cliff. If he becomes our enemy, life will turn against us; but his desire is to be our lover.

This metaphor applies individually and collectively. Millions of people have turned to God in failure, despair, and shame and found restoration, cleansing, and revitalization. In our rebellion, we have experienced God's incredible willingness to hear our prayer of desolation and come home to our hearts again. And collectively . . . only the miraculous power of God can explain the beginning of the church and its dramatic spread throughout the world. Money and power brought disobedience, until the church seemed to have gone beyond restoration . . . but then restoration occurred through the undeserved grace of God. This has happened again and again . . . through people like Luther and Wesley, and others.

The church in the West – collectively – is in precipitous decline today and needs to heed Isaiah’s message: to wake up and return to our first love. God has breathed new life into his church before, and He will do it again. History shows God will not let his church go; it will be restored again. The only question is when, and the answer depends on us.

Isaiah and the bible insist each of us is responsible for his actions, so Isaiah’s portrayal in chapters 63-64 of the ancient Jews as believing they were helpless victims indicates they were influenced by pagan attitudes of fatalism. One reason immigrants have flocked to America is the limited options in the old world, where lines of class and place were firmly fixed at birth. “Christian” Europe essentially had a pagan world view: that one’s entire life was dictated by fate – beginning with one’s station of birth. But in America, a person’s only limitations were vision and diligence . . . a socioeconomic climate which resonates with the biblical message: every person has real choices to make in life and is responsible for those choices. Anyone can become a new person in Christ regardless of the past. Obedience to God will bear fruit to the end of time, even for an eighty-year-old runaway like Moses; but sin has its effects, even on King David. Good choices open unlimited possibilities; and bad choices have consequences, regardless of position or status. Hence the biblical message has borne fruit in spectacular ways in the new world!

But today there’s a struggle in America between those who want to retain and expand our opportunity-culture, and those who want to slide back into a pagan, “old world” belief in fate. This struggle manifests in contrasting sound bites like “ownership society” vs “nanny state,” and “welfare” vs “entitlements,” and if social security is a “safety net” or a “retirement fund”; and the outcome has religious implications as was made clear by Michael Moore’s map after the 2004 election, describing Bush states as “Jesusland.”

Pagan fatalism certainly has attractions: it’s not necessary to work hard . . . we are just “lucky” if we are well off – and “unlucky” if we are not. The rise of casinos and state-run lotteries is both a symptom of this . . . and a contributing factor. Trial lawyers can become very wealthy convincing people they are victims. If we hold a cup of McDonald’s coffee between our legs while driving a car – it’s not our fault if it spills and burns us . . . we are victims because McDonald’s makes coffee too hot. If we fall off a ladder – the manufacturer should have told us of that risk. (Duuhh!)

Worst of all, these same pagan attitudes of “religious fate” insidiously sneak into the thinking of many “evangelical” Christians today. We deplore our sinful condition and admit it is far from what God wants. We pray God will break in and make us different . . . but God doesn't, so we thank God for the grace of Jesus that tells us we are accepted anyway! But such an attitude is a “cop-out." God loves the unique features that make each of us different from every other person on this planet; He’s not going to make us into different persons from what we are. Redemption does not mean having our personality destroyed, but molded by our Creator.

Look at it this way. Most of us have heard the popular anti-Christian one-liner: “God don’t make no junk; God made me this way, so that must be OK.” There’s an element of truth to that: we are God’s creation, and “God don’t make no junk”; but it’s not “OK.” After 21 weeks of Isaiah, we know God does not want to destroy his creation . . . but if God’s creation becomes corrupted, it must be cleansed and purified. God doesn’t want to make us into persons other than who we are; He wants to free us from the blights on our personalities, so our character is more like His.

But how is this cleansing and purifying to take place? We want God to “zap" us, but that’s not the way it works. The apostle Paul says “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training" (1 Cor 9:25), and those who belong to Christ have “crucified the ‘flesh'" (self-willed living; NIV “the sinful nature," Gal. 5:24). It’s up to us to appropriate the spiritual power that is ours in the Cross and in the Holy Spirit.

God has already placed his Spirit in every believer (Rom. 8:9). So we do not need to “get" the Holy Spirit. What we need to do is to turn him loose . . . believing God will make us like himself, as we identify specific behaviors that are an offense, isolate the causes of those behaviors, learn what triggers them, avoid places where we are likely to fall into them, celebrate our successes, stop beating ourselves up for failure, and walk on. God's power is unleashed in us when we step toward him in faith, take the hammer in hand, and do what we need do to crucify the self-will that is God's enemy.

But what God does want to destroy is the victimization arguments of the Jews – and of modern Americans. In our next – and final – session, we’ll discuss this and the greater implications of human will vs divine will.