Isaiah 63:15-65:18
When Isaiah was written, Israel as a nation was split into two kingdoms: The north was known as Israel, while the south was known as Judah. Isaiah witnessed the discipline of God when he used the Assyrian empire to level the northern kingdom of Israel; and because Judah was guilty of some of the same sins Israel was guilty of, he pleaded that the people repent.
In this passage, Isaiah is longing and pleading for revival in the midst of Israel’s lowest point spiritually, emotionally, and physically. They have experienced the judgement of God and are living in the midst of judgment as a consequence of their idolatry and rebellion. Isaiah is not only praying for revival, but he is also providing a model for Israel to pray, as well as a model for our own prayers. Here are the five things we learn about God that should shape our prayers as well as our lives.
God is a Loving Father
Isaiah’s prayer begins: “Look down from heaven and see…” What does Isaiah want God to see? He wants him to see the people whose ancestors God swore to bless through Abraham (see Gen. 12:1-3; 15:1-20). However, Isaiah acknowledges at the beginning of his prayer that God is not only aware of Israel’s situation, but that he has deep feelings for them. God deeply feels for his people, and this is why Isaiah continues: “For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name” (v. 16). As a loving Father, God, by his very nature, redeems those who are lost. God not only redeems his children, but he is deeply concerned that we become what we were meant to become. Isaiah continues in his prayer in 64:8, “O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.”
It was hard for Israel to see God as a loving Father, because they were actively experiencing his discipline because of their sins; God warned his people over and over again that if they ever decided to worship other gods or habitually violate his commands that they would be disciplined like a father disciplines a child. Isaiah prays to God: “Look down from heaven and see…” as if God wasn’t watching. Later, Isaiah prays: “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down…” as if he were far off. But when you come to Isaiah 65:1, we learn that God never left, but has been seeking his wayward children: “I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that was not called by my name.”
We behave the same way. How many times have you questioned where God wandered off to in the pilgrimage of your life? Have you ever stopped to ask during those seasons in your life if it was you who wandered off? The reality is that we have a God who is greater than our rebellion and both seeks and saves the lost, regardless of the fact that it is we who have wandered away.
God is a Great Father
Israel should have known, based upon their countless experiences of a God who relentlessly pursues those whom he deeply loves, that he is faithful, even when his people are faithless (2 Tim. 2:13). Now, understand that God’s faithfulness is not a license to sin. God’s faithfulness is the place to put our confidence and hope in, as Isaiah did when he prayed: “Though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name” (63:16). In other words, “Because we have wandered away, and compared to Abraham and Isaac’s (Israel’s) faithfulness, if they were to visit us today, they wouldn’t recognize us; however, God will not forsake us.
Where did Isaiah get his confidence in God? Isaiah remembered how God miraculously delivered the Hebrews from the bondage of Egypt, and he remembered Exodus 15 and the power of God displayed with the parting of the read sea:
“In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries; you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.’ You blew with your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.” (Exodus 15:7–10)
God’s parting of the Red Sea was great, but not the greatest thing He ever did. God formed mankind from the dust of the earth. God flooded the earth, cleansing it from the blood-stained soil caused by violent men. God birthed a nation through Abraham and Sarah. Over and over again we read of the great acts of a sovereign and awesome God. And if that were not enough, we have Hebrews 11:3, “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible” (Hebrews 11:3).
God is a great father who is deeply concerned about his people.
God is a Patient Father
The reason for Isaiah’s prayer in the first place is because the people of Judah sinned and continued to sin. The prophet witnessed how God disciplined the northern kingdom of Israel after hundreds of years of idolatry and rebellion, and throughout those years God sent the people his prophets to appeal to them to repent, so that they could experience redemption, forgiveness, and wholeness as the people of God.
There comes a point with every generation that if they ignore God long enough, God will hand them fully over to what they long for. This was the fear of Isaiah and the reason why he asked in his prayer: “O Lord, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your heritage. Your holy people held possession for a little while; our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary. We have become like those over whom you have never ruled, like those who are not called by your name” (Isaiah 63:17–19). Because Isaiah remembered how God showed up in powerful ways not just in his lifetime, but throughout the history of the Hebrew people, he asked that God show up powerfully again to bring revival to his people.
Judah had continued in her sin long enough. The spiritual and moral climate of a nation that once prided itself in holiness and fidelity to the Word of God, had wandered away from God: “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 64:6–7).
The sad fact is that Judah did not listen to Isaiah’s pleas and although pockets of revival did come under the ministries of Josiah (2 Ki. 22:1-23:35), Ezra, and Nehemiah, Judah never recovered from her idolatry and rebellion against God. After God’s patience eventually ran out after more than 400 years, Judah was leveled. For 414 years, God gave his people every opportunity to turn from their sins, but they refused him: “I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that was not called by my name. I spread out my hands all the day to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, following their own devices…” (Isaiah 65:1–2).
God is a patient Father. Think about the ways God has been patient with you. How long will it be for God to have all of your heart? God is not interested in playing second fiddle in your life and he will either hand you over to your sins or he will deliver you from your idols.
God is a Redeeming Father
I love the irony of Isaiah 64:1-2 compared to Isaiah 65:1: “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down…” God’s answer to Isaiah 64, was: “I was ready to be sought by those who did not aske for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am,’ to a nation that was not called by my name.” The point is that in the midst of our rebellion, God pursues us for the purpose of redeeming us. This is the great theme of the Bible: God seeks and saves the lost.
All throughout these verses God reminds us of who he is regardless of our faithlessness:
Isaiah 63:16. “For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name.” (Isaiah 63:16)
Isaiah 64:8. “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.” (Isaiah 64:8)
Isaiah 65:8-9. “Thus says the Lord: “As the new wine is found in the cluster, and they say, ‘Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it,’ so I will do for my servants’ sake, and not destroy them all. I will bring forth offspring from Jacob, and from Judah possessors of my mountains; my chosen shall possess it, and my servants shall dwell there.” (Isaiah 65:8–9)
What we learn from these verses is that God’s grace and love is infinitely bigger than our sins and failures. If we read between the lines of these verses, we read that God is good and we are not; this my dear brothers and sisters is the point of Romans 2:4, “Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance” (Romans 2:3–4)?
Our redemption is meant for the glory of God and the good of the nations: “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked…. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ…” (Eph. 2:1, 4). Why did God do it? He did it because of Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
God is a Re-Creating Father
The good news of Isaiah is found in 65:17! “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.” In other words, the end of Israel and Judah’s story as a divided nation is not “destruction” but “new creation!” I have said it before, and it is not original to me, but is what I read in every verse of the Bible: “God loves you too much to leave you as you are!”
What our world needs most is not a cleaver church, great programs, functioning systems, captivating sermons, or trendy worship music. What our world needs is a Re-creating God who makes something new out of the ashes of our sin-begotten lives. What the world needs is a people redeemed to be the Bride of Christ who shouts from the roof tops and mountain peaks “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Cor. 5:17). The story of the Bible is the song of our Redeemer: “Behold, I am making all things new” (Rev. 20:5).
Application
Men, if you want to be better fathers, then take your cues from our Heavenly Father. Learn from him and lean into him as the only One who can satisfy the hearts of our children. May they hear how much you love them through your words and your deeds as often as possible. When they break the rules, may your discipline be seasoned with truth, grace, and mercy. When your child is broken, look for ways to build them up and push them to be better. When they are heartbroken over their sin, remind them that tomorrow is a new day by pointing them to our Great Redeemer Jesus Christ.
