”Oh, that you would burst from the heavens and come down! How the mountains would quake in your presence! As fire causes wood to burn and water to boil, your coming would make the nations tremble. Then your enemies would learn the reason for your fame! When you came down long ago, you did awesome deeds beyond our highest expectations. And oh, how the mountains quaked! 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! You welcome those who gladly do good, who follow godly ways. But you have been very angry with us, for we are not godly. We are constant sinners; how can people like us be saved? We are all infected and impure with sin. When we display our righteous deeds, they are nothing but filthy rags. Like autumn leaves, we wither and fall, and our sins sweep us away like the wind. 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. And yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, and you are the potter. We all are formed by your hand. Don’t be so angry with us, Lord. Please don’t remember our sins forever. Look at us, we pray, and see that we are all your people. Your holy cities are destroyed. Zion is a wilderness; yes, Jerusalem is a desolate ruin. The holy and beautiful Temple where our ancestors praised you has been burned down, and all the things of beauty are destroyed. After all this, Lord, must you still refuse to help us? Will you continue to be silent and punish us?“
Isaiah 64:1-12 NLT
This is the classic prayer of intercession from a righteous man. It is a prayer that has been prayed many times to God. Notably, Moses prayed a very similar prayer of intercession as God was about to smite a wicked Israel at the foot of Sinai. The prayer itself is a prayer of logic. It is comprised of a series points made to meet with God’s mind about his thoughts on destruction and how it meshes with his character. To this end, Isaiah doesn’t deny God’s righteous indignation toward sin. He freely and truly stipulates Israel’s wickedness. It is as a used menstrual rag. We must remember that in Jewish culture, this wasn’t just gross, it was ceremonially unclean. It meant that the women would be put away from society until she could stop bleeding. It had a negative affect on her ceremonially and socially. Isaiah is clear that this is us to God. But he also asks God to be the savior who saved Israel before, to his glory. Rather than an attempt to dupe God, it is a sincere plea at the one hope of the plight of his people. Time and time again, scripture shows that this is an effective way of engaging with God’s wrath and our own sin. God honors those who turn to him and humbly approach him with the fact of his reasonableness.
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