June 29 – Isaiah 64
In this chapter, we get to hear Isaiah’s voice. Not his prophecy, where he is echoing God’s words to Israel … his own voice as he talks to God himself. He’s praying. He’s pleading. Come down, O Lord, and do these great things now! How long must we wait for your appearing? Can you imagine the angst? He knows what God can do and will do, and he would like it right now, please. I get it. I feel that way some days, too.
This is a rich, rich prayer. It’s honest and real. It incorporates confession of sin and wonder and praise to God. It acknowledges Who is the potter and who is the clay, and rightfully gives God the honor due to Him. It’s a great model for us to follow in our own prayer lives.
I love verse 4, with its reminder about waiting: “For since the world began, no ear has heard and no eye has seen a God like you, who works for those who wait for him!” There’s the key. We wait for Him. We trust in His timing, knowing that any delays are for good reason. God also waits to end the world. He is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to him in repentance and that means delaying the rescue for those who will still reach out to him (See 2 Peter 3:9). Yes, we can trust Him in the waiting.
We can also trust Him in the shaping. Isaiah compares God to a potter and us to clay. The potter takes a lump of clay and makes of it a useful tool of some sort. That is exactly what God does with us. He makes us useful through the shaping and molding of experiences, sufferings, joys and hardships. The best gift we give Him is lying still and letting Him mold and shape us. After all, He knows the clay and how to shape it effectively. Let’s be pliable in His good hands.
My verse: Isaiah 64:7 “Yet no one calls on your name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins.”
My response: Yet no one calls on You … this is echoed in Revelation as well. The answer is always to turn toward You. Oh Father, how I want those I love who don’t believe to turn. For if they did? Your mercy would follow …
