Evening over bare granite mountains: low heavy storm cloud lying on the peaks, one long rift of pale light breaking through it, the valley below dim and still.

New heavens and earth

Isaiah 64

Have you ever begged God just to show up?

12 verses≈ 3 minBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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Where we are

1–5Zion on trialJudah’s sin, the mountain raised, the vineyard’s song
6Holy, holy, holyIsaiah’s call, in the year King Uzziah died (about 740 BC)
7–12ImmanuelAhaz’s fear, the sign, the Child, the shoot of Jesse
13–23The nations judgedBabylon to Tyre: the LORD is Judge of all the earth
24–27The whole earthThe earth laid waste, and death swallowed up
28–35Woe and a KingEgypt’s help or the LORD’s, and the King in His beauty
36–39Hezekiah’s crisisSennacherib, 701 BC: the prayer, the sickness, the envoys
40–48Comfort My peopleTo the exiles ahead: Cyrus, the idols, the Servant
49–55The Servant and ZionPierced for our transgressions; Zion restored
56–66New heavens and earthA house of prayer, the Anointed One, all things newChapter 64

A Prayer for God’s Power

Isaiah

Dusk in a stony camp: a fire of dry brushwood and thorns blazing up under a blackened clay pot on three stones, the water boiling over in steam, sparks rising.

If only You would rend the heavens and come down,

so that mountains would quake at Your presence,

as fire kindles the brushwood

and causes the water to boil,

to make Your name known to Your enemies,

so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!

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Isaiah

When You did awesome works that we did not expect,

You came down, and the mountains trembled at Your presence.

Isaiah

Question

Quick question

No ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God but the One “who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.”

Paul takes up 64:4 in 1 Corinthians 2:9. What does he say no eye has seen?

Isaiah

You welcome those who gladly do right,

who remember Your ways.

Surely You were angry, for we sinned.

How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?

Isaiah

A late autumn afternoon on a stony slope: dry brown oak leaves torn loose and blowing across the ground and up into the air, a bare branch at the frame's edge.

Each of us has become like something unclean,

and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;

we all wither like a leaf,

and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

Isaiah

No one calls on Your name

or strives to take hold of You.

For You have hidden Your face from us

and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

Isaiah

A potter's yard at morning: a low stone kick wheel standing still with a half-formed vessel of wet red clay on it, a lump of fresh clay on a board beside it, pots drying behind; no potter.

But now, O LORD, You are our Father;

we are the clay, and You are the potter;

we are all the work of Your hand.

Isaiah

Isaiah

Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure;

do not remember our iniquity forever.

Oh, look upon us, we pray;

we are all Your people!

Isaiah

Noon over a ruined Judean hill town: tumbled house walls overgrown with thornbushes and scrub, wild goats standing on a broken wall, a fig tree growing out of a doorway.

Your holy cities have become a wilderness.

Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation.

Isaiah

Gray morning on the temple height after the fire: a scorched stone platform, charred cedar beams fallen across the steps, one bronze pillar lying broken on its side, thin smoke rising.

Our holy and beautiful temple,

where our fathers praised You,

has been burned with fire,

and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

After all this, O LORD,

will You restrain Yourself?

Will You keep silent

and afflict us beyond measure?

0:16

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

Pray

O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter. Do not remember our sin forever. Look upon us, for we are Your people. Come down and make Your name known. Amen.

A prayer from the ruins (63:7–64:12)

Whiteboard

The prayer ends on a question. The LORD’s answer begins in the very next line: ‘I revealed Myself to those who did not ask for Me’ (65:1).

You’ve experienced

Isaiah 64

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A verse to carry with you

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

Isaiah 64:8

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