Isaiah 64 - Bible Study in 5 Minutes

Isaiah 64 Short Summary:

Isaiah offered a prayer to God for the people of Judah. Isaiah 64 is a continuation of the second half of Isaiah 63. Isaiah asked God not to be angry with the people of Judah any longer, but to regard them as children. He prayed for God to come down from heaven and deliver them from their exile in Babylon.

Isaiah 64 Bible Study

TIMELINE:

• The prophetic ministry of Isaiah spanned the reigns of King Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.

• Isaiah’s ministry is thought to span from 739-681 BC.

• Judah was taken into Babylonian captivity between 607-586 BC. The captivity and exile of the people was progressive, spanning about 30 years.

KEY CHARACTERS:

• Isaiah – The son of Amoz (1:1). God commissioned Isaiah as His prophet to Judah.

• The People of Judah – Isaiah speaks prophetically, offering a prayer to God for the exiled people of Judah who found themselves in Babylonian captivity.

• Edom – The Edomites were previously called out by God in Isaiah 34 for their evil. They were neighbors and relatives of the people of Judah, but they had long been adversaries. Edom appears to be used in Isaiah 63 as a stand-in for all of Judah’s enemies.

DEFINITIONS:

• *no definitions

OUTLINE:

• A PRAYER FOR GOD’S CHILDREN (64:1-12):

  • Isaiah 64 is a continuation of Isaiah’s prayer at the end of Isaiah 63.

  • Praying prophetically, in the voice of Judah’s exiles, Isaiah prayed for God to “rend the heavens” and save His people in their distress.

  • He asked God to come down and make the mountains quake, like He did at Mount Sinai (Ex 19:18), to strike fear into the hearts of Judah’s oppressors.

  • Isaiah knew God helped those who lived upright lives, but he also knew Judah had been living in sin for a long time.

  • He confessed His people’s sin, saying, “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment” (64:6).

  • It was this sin that was responsible for the ruin of Jerusalem and the destruction of Solomon’s Temple.

  • Isaiah asked God not to think of the people of Judah in anger any longer, but to think of them as His children.

APPLICATION:

• The picture of the potter and the clay is a common one in the Old and New Testament.

• God is depicted as the potter and we are the clay.

• A potter gets to pick the shape and function of the clay before firing it. He gives it purpose and place in the world.

• While there is a sense in which we all have a will to make our own decisions, that truth must be balanced with the truth that God shapes our circumstances and lives to accomplish a purpose of His own through us.

• Our lives may not turn out the way we want them to, because sometimes our will doesn’t conform to the hands of the Potter.

• As God shapes us through time, trials, blessings, people, and circumstances, trust that, as long as you are walking in the light of God, your life is on course to accomplish God’s purpose.

• Your life may not look like you imagined, but what do you know!? You’re just clay!

• The Potter never makes mistakes.

• Sometimes we have to lose the life we dreamed up to find our true life in God’s eternal will (Mat 10:39).