Isaiah 64:1 - Meaning and Application

Here the people pray that God would appear in a striking way for them, in verses 1 and 2. Their situation at the end of the previous chapter was very sad and very hard, so it was time to cry out, “Help, Lord.” They ask that God would show his zeal and his power. They had already prayed in Isaiah 63:15 that God would look down from heaven. Now they ask more, that he would come down to rescue them, just as he promised in Exodus 3:8.

They want God to show himself in his providence, both to them and on their behalf. When God gives his people some extraordinary rescue, Scripture says he shines out or shows his strength. So they pray that he would “rend the heavens and come down,” just as Psalm 18:9 says that he bowed the heavens and came down. They want him to display his power, justice, and goodness in a way everyone can notice and acknowledge. God’s people long for this, because they are satisfied to see him even when his path is hard to trace, while others may be made to see him when his ways are hidden in the clouds. This also points forward to the second coming of Christ, when the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout. “Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly.”

They also ask that he would crush every kind of resistance and make it yield before him. They pray that the mountains would melt at his presence, meaning that the fiercest display of God’s anger would break even the strongest opposition. Hard, rock-like obstacles should melt away before him, like metal in a furnace that becomes liquid and can be shaped however the worker wants. In that way, they ask for a great shaking of things, so that God would bring about a glorious change in favor of his church. The image may also point to volcanoes, or burning mountains, that send out fiery streams and make nearby waters boil, as a warning of God’s wrath and a picture of the final judgment.

They want all this to bring glory to God’s name. They ask not only that his friends would know his power, for they already trust him, but also that his enemies would know it and tremble before him. Then they would say, like the men of Beth Shemesh, “Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God?” and, “Who knows the power of his anger?” The lesson is clear, sooner or later God will make his name known to his enemies and force to tremble those who would not come and worship before him. If God’s name is not a safe place for us, it will be a strong place against us, and we will not be able to escape his judgment. The day is coming when even nations that seem many and strong will tremble at God’s presence.

The plea is built on what God has done before for his people. At the throne of grace, “You have done it before, so you will do it again,” is sound reasoning, as Psalm 10:17 shows. They first point to what he did for Israel when he brought them out of Egypt in Isaiah 64:3. He did terrible, surprising things in the plagues of Egypt, things they had not expected and had not dared to hope for. He then came down on Mount Sinai with such fearsome power that the mountain and the ones around it seemed to melt and tremble, as Psalm 114:4 and Habakkuk 3:6 describe. In many great rescues, God made great men fall and great opposition give way. Judges 5:4-5 and Psalm 68:7-8 speak of this too. Some understand this also as a reference to the defeat of Sennacherib’s powerful army, which would have been just as surprising a display of God’s power.

They also appeal to what God has always been ready to do for his people in general. He has made rich and ready provision for the safety and happiness of all who seek him, serve him, and trust in him. So they do not need to fear being disappointed, because what he has prepared is sure, and it is enough. This provision is very rich, as Isaiah 64:4 says. Human beings have not heard or seen what God has prepared for those who wait for him. These are people who wait for him in the path of duty and wait for the salvation he has promised. Their happiness is tied to what God has prepared for them, what he planned in his wisdom and is working out in providence and grace.

Some Jewish teachers understood this of the blessings kept for the days of the Messiah, and the apostle applies it that way too. Others extend it to the glory of the world to come. It refers to all the goodness God has stored up for those who fear him and trusted in him, as Psalm 31:19 says. Since the beginning of the world, people in the most searching and thoughtful ages have not fully known it by hearing or seeing. No one besides God fully knows what he has prepared for holy souls, for the present and the future. Much of it was hidden in earlier ages, because the rich treasures of Christ were hidden in God and concealed from the wise and prudent. But in later times they were revealed through the gospel, as 1 Corinthians 2:9 says, and Paul’s words in Romans 16:25-26 and Ephesians 3:9 point the same way.

What people had not heard from the beginning of the world they should hear before the end, and at the end they will see it when the veil is removed and glory is revealed. God alone knew what he had stored up for believers. Even when it is revealed, the human mind cannot fully grasp it. It is spiritual and far beyond the kinds of ideas we naturally form from the world we see around us. It is so great that it will exceed our highest hopes. Even the present peace of believers, and much more their future joy, passes understanding, as Philippians 4:7 says. Only God fully understands it, because his understanding has no limit.

Some read these words a little differently and take the point not so much to be the greatness of the thing itself, but the greatness of the One who does it: “No eye has seen a God besides you, who works like this for the one who waits for him.”

We must learn from God’s amazing acts of grace, as well as from his acts of power, that no god is like him, and none of the mighty can compare with him. His kindness, no less than his greatness, shows his unique glory.

It is very ready, as Isaiah 64:5 says: “You meet the one who rejoices and does what is right, meeting him with the good you have prepared for him” (Isaiah 64:4), and you do not forget those who remember you in your ways. This shows the fellowship that exists between a gracious God and a gracious soul.

First, if we want fellowship with God, we must make it our habit to do our duty in everything. We must work righteousness, meaning we must do what is good and what the Lord our God requires, and do it well. Second, we must be cheerful in doing our duty, rejoicing while we work righteousness. We should delight in God and his law, be glad in his service, and sing as we work. God loves a cheerful giver and a cheerful worshiper. We must serve the Lord with gladness.

Third, we must fit ourselves to all of God’s providence, his wise rule over our lives, and respond in the right way to it. We must remember him in his ways, in every path where he leads us, whether he comes toward us or seems to go against us. We should think of him and thank him when his ways show mercy, in a day of prosperity. When he corrects us, we should respond with patience and submission. “In the way of your judgments we have waited for you,” for in a day of trouble we must think carefully and humbly.

We are also told what we may expect from God if we attend him faithfully in the way of duty: “You meet him.” This points to the friendship, fellowship, and closeness into which God admits his people. He meets them to speak with them, to show himself to them, and to receive their prayers (Exodus 20:24; Exodus 29:43). It also shows how willing he is to do them good. He goes ahead of them with the blessings of his goodness. He is glad to do good to those who are glad to do what is right, and he is ready to be gracious to those who wait for him.

He meets his repentant people with pardon, like the father of the prodigal son met his returning son (Luke 15:20). He meets his praying people with a peaceful answer while they are still speaking (Isaiah 65:24).

They also appeal to the unchanging favor of God and the strength of his promise, even though his people have sinned and he has shown displeasure for their sins. “Behold,” they say, “you have many times been angry with us because we have sinned, and we have felt the signs of your anger. But in those ways of yours, the ways of mercy in which we have remembered you, there is continuance.” Or it may mean, “In those ways you are forever.” His mercy endures forever, so in the end we will be saved, even though you are angry and we have sinned.

This fits the way God made his covenant, his binding promise. If we forsake his law, he will punish our wrongdoing with a rod, but he will not take away his steadfast love completely, and he will not break his covenant (Psalm 89:30 and following). By this covenant many have been saved from ruin when they were just about to fall (Psalm 78:38). By this continuing covenant we also hope to be saved, because an everlasting covenant is our whole salvation.

Though God has been angry with us for our sins, and rightly so, his anger lasts only for a moment. His favor, however, gives life, because it continues. In the paths of his favor he goes on and keeps going, and that is what we depend on for salvation (Isaiah 54:7, Isaiah 54:8). It is good for us that our hope of salvation rests not on our own merit or strength, because there is no surety in that. Even Adam in innocence did not remain steadfast. Our hope rests instead on God’s mercy and promises, and in those there is sure continuance.