Isaiah 64

Isaiah is on his knees in this chapter. The English text and Hebrew text is slightly differently divided. In the Hebrew the first verse of the English text is the last verse of chapter 63. Isaiah knows eschatology very well. He is going to pray it to happen earlier than scheduled in heaven (vv. 1-2 but 63:19c-d until 64:1d in the Hebrew). The reason is that he saw probably a vision of the punishment that the Lord is going to bring for their sins in Judah between 586-536 BCE (vv.10a-11d). We know it is Judah since Israel is not mentioned. Israel cannot be mentioned since the exile of Israel already took place in 723 BCE during the time of Isaiah’s ministry.  It says “Jerusalem a desolation” (v. 10c). This verse poses at first glance a problem for the historicists and beg to follow the preterists in using the historical grammatical approach of interpretation and assign all of Isaiah’s talking to his own times and events. Adventists follow the HISTORICAL-GRAMMATICAL approach which is history linked to eternity past and eternity future. It is a maximalist approach of history in historicism and in preterism a minimalist approach. It cannot be a reality in Isaiah’s day since Jerusalem was never a desolation in his day. It was a desolation in 586 BCE and other times in history like 70-73 CE. That is why preterists are forced in their interpretational key to allocate two Isaiahs to the book of Isaiah, the real one and the name-user during the exile. Eschatology works with visions and Isaiah’s source of information in vv. 1-2 is based on visions of the End-Time. One can assume that God showed him also in vision what is going to happen a century and a half later in vv. 10-11. There is no need to throw out the historicist model of interpretation and substitute it for the preterist model in this chapter. In vv. 8a-9c the Isaiah used the temporal particle “now” and that is to mean that in Isaiah’s day in about 700 BCE, he is wishing for an atonement of their sins to take place. This part of the chapter is preteristic and can fit the historical-interpretational model. Isaiah began by saying that he wishes that the End will come fast “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down” (v. 1a). It is the scene at the Second Coming where the heavens rend and God comes down, the mountains quake at the presence of the Lord. Fire will cause water to boil and trees to burn and the name of God will be made known to the adversaries of the Lord and nations will tremble at His presence (v. 1-2). This information is not just imagination of Isaiah. It is known in sources of earlier prophets now unavailable of visions they had or it is a vision that Isaiah had. Eschatology seems to have been well known since Adam and what the Bible records are just selections and fragments of the big picture, because the concepts were well known to everyone. At that time in the Second Coming “in the doing of awesome things we did not expect [at the Second Coming] You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence” (v. 3a-b). Isaiah then describes the character of God, as he is doing throughout his book. From the begin of history no one has seen a God like Isaiah’s God (v. 4). “Who acts on behalf of the one who waits for him” (v. 4c). The person who rejoices in doing righteousness the Lord meets (v. 5). The one who remembers the Lord in His ways is the one who is doing righteousness. The remnant of God’s sinful condition before conversion is then spelled out. God was angry for the remnant sinned (v. 5c). They continued in sinning for a long time. All of them [Isaiah included himself] have become like one who is unclean (v. 6a). The remnant’s righteous deeds are like filthy garments (v. 6b). Their iniquities like the wind took them away (v. 6d). None of the remnant calls on the Name of the Lord and they do not attempt to take hold of God (v. 7a-b). In this situation of sinful condition, God hid His face from the remnant [also Isaiah “us”] (v. 7c). God delivered them [including Isaiah] into the hand of their iniquities (v. 7d). For this reason Isaiah is atonement seeking in vv. 8-9). He calls God His father, view all of them as clay and the Lord as a potter and all of them are the work of His hand (v. 8a-c). He asks the Lord not to be angry beyond measure and not to remember the iniquity “forever” (v. 9b). “Behold all of us are Your people” (v. 9c). At this point the Lord gave Isaiah a vision of the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BCE. “They holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation” (v. 10a-b). He could see that the temple “our holy and beautiful house where our fathers praised You has been burned by fire and all our precious things have become a ruin” (v. 11a-d). He wanted to know if the Lord will just let these things happen. Whether the Lord will allow them to be afflicted like this (v. 12).

Dear God

All of us wants to be Your people. Grant us the salvation that is only in Your beloved Son, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Koot van Wyk, (DLitt et Phil; ThD) Kyungpook National University, Department of Liberal Education, Sangju, South Korea; conjoint lecturer of Avondale College, Australia