Isaiah Chapter 64 Verse-by-Verse Commentary
Isaiah 64:1–2
We wish you would tear open heaven and come down, so the mountains would shake at your presence! It would be like fire kindling the brush, and the fire then makes the water boil. Then your enemies would know your name, the nations would tremble before you!
In the Hebrew bible, the first verse here is actually the last verse in chapter 63 but we see the desire for Messiah to come down. This speaks of the second coming of Yeshua Messiah and the fact that there would be a change because of the wrath of God being poured out. This wrath would cause the nations to know the character of God which would produce a godly fear which, as we know, is the beginning of knowledge.
Isaiah 64:3–4
When you did tremendous things that we were not expecting, we wished that you would come down, so that the mountains would shake at your presence! No one has ever heard, no ear perceived, no eye seen, any God but you. You work for him who waits for you.
This passage speaks of events at Mt Sinai as God gave the people the chance to continue life in perfect obedience to him but the people did not understand what God was offering.
Isaiah 64:5–7
You favored those who were glad to do justice, those who remembered you in your ways. When you were angry, we kept sinning; but if we keep your ancient ways, we will be saved. All of us are like someone unclean, all our righteous deeds like menstrual rags; we wither, all of us, like leaves; and our misdeeds blow us away like the wind. No one calls on your name or bestirs himself to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and caused our misdeeds to destroy us.
In this passage we see that God met the people that remembered his ways and sought righteousness but he was angry with the continued sin of those who did not believe in the faithfulness of God. The people had not expected the offer that God had made at Mt. Sinai and so continued in the ways of sin.
Isaiah 64:8–9
But now, ADONAI, you are our father; we are the clay, you are our potter; and we are all the work of your hands. Do not be so very angry, ADONAI! Don't remember crime forever. Look, please, we are all your people.
This passage speaks of the fact that it is only through the action of God that we can be changed into the people that he wants us to be and, if he were to remember our sin forever, we would be left with no hope.
Isaiah 64:10–12
Your holy cities have become a desert, Tziyon a desert, Yerushalayim a ruin. Our holy, beautiful house, where our ancestors used to praise you, has been burned to the ground; all we cherished has been ruined. ADONAI, after all this, will you still hold back? Will you still stay silent and punish us past endurance?
We see that all of the things that the people of Israel had taken comfort in are gone and all they are left with is the hope that God will keep the covenant that he had made with Avraham. Isaiah realizes that, if God does not act, the people will fall.