Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents

63:15-16 Isaiah claims God's love for his people. your holy and beautiful habitation. See 6:1 and 64:11. are held back. See 64:12, where "restrain yourself" translates the same Hebrew verb. Isaiah is concerned that God is withholding himself from his people (cf. 42:14). Abraham does not know us. The people have drifted from their ancestral faith (cf. Gen. 15:6; 22:12; 26:5).

63:17 why do you make us wander? God did not force his people to sin but, in discipline, gave them over to the power of their sins (cf. Ex. 4:21; Deut. 32:4; Job 34:10; Isa. 6:3, 10; Rom. 1:24, 26). Return. Human repentance requires divine initiative (cf. Ps. 80:14-15; 90:13).

63:18 Your holy people held possession for a little while. The glory days of God's old covenant people, happily settled in the Promised Land, were all too brief (cf. Deut. 4:25-26).

64:1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down. Isaiah sees the heavens as a vast curtain, concealing God, and begs God to rip them apart and step down into this world with his felt presence (cf. 40:22).

64:3 Awesome things alludes to the history recalled in 63:7-14 (cf. Ex. 15:11; 19:16-20; 34:10; Deut. 10:21; 2 Sam. 7:23; Ps. 66:3-5; 106:21-22).

64:4 a God besides you. Essential to Isaiah's message is the uniqueness of Israel's God (cf. 43:11; 44:6; 45:5-6, 18, 21-22; 46:9; 47:8, 10). who acts. Unlike the idols, the God of Israel intervenes (cf. Ps. 135:5-18; Isa. 31:1-9; 37:14-38). He never fails to meet those with true faith. who wait. See note on 40:31.

64:5a him who joyfully works righteousness. See Deut. 28:47-48.

64:5b-7 With four similes, Isaiah laments the long-standing patterns of sin among God's people. like one who is unclean. A leper, infected and infectious (cf. Lev. 13:45-46; Isa. 6:5). like a polluted garment. Even their righteousness is disgusting to God (cf. 57:12; Ezek. 36:17). like a leaf. Decayed, brittle, lifeless (cf. Isa. 1:30; 40:6-8). like the wind. The overwhelming power of sin (cf. Ps. 1:4; Isa. 17:13; 40:24). for you have hidden your face. Cf. 8:17. When God's "face" shines upon his people, they live in his favor (Num. 6:25-26); when he hides it due to their unfaithfulness, they suffer.

64:8-9 you are our Father. Isaiah is not blaming God for Israel's condition; he puts his hope in God as the sovereign Father (cf. Ps. 103:13-14; Isa. 45:9-10). Be not so terribly angry. See Ps. 79:8; Isa. 54:7-8; 57:16-19. remember not iniquity forever. See 43:25; 53:4-6; Jer. 31:34. we are all your people. God chose them, and thus his fame in the world could suffer loss through them (cf. Ex. 32:11-14; Ezek. 36:20-23).

64:10-12 Jerusalem was a desolation as a result of the Babylonian invasion (cf. 6:11-12; Jer. 25:8-11). Our holy and beautiful house. The temple was lovely with the holy presence of God, as it matched God's "holy and beautiful habitation" (Isa. 63:15; cf. note on 60:7). yourself . . . us. God's own glory and his people's desire for restored happiness in him will surely move him to act.