Isaiah Pleads For Yahweh To Exercise His Sovereignty On Their Behalf (Isaiah 64:8-12).
‘But now O Yahweh, you are our father,
We are the clay and you are the potter,
And we are all the work of your hand.'
Here lies Isaiah's hope. That Yahweh has proclaimed Himself their Father (see on Isaiah 63:16). He has set His choice on them (Deuteronomy 7:7-8). And while they are but clay He is the Potter. Thus He can shape them into what He will. The declaration of the sovereignty of God is absolute. He knows that it is within Him to make them what He will. The difference between Edom and Jacob is not that Jacob is a little better than Edom, but that Jacob is loved and chosen and Esau (Edom) is not (Malachi 1:2-3). This is why Isaiah believes that Yahweh can yet step in and save. The materials on which He has to work may be impossible. But Yahweh is the God of the impossible, and he is confident that He can and will save them.
‘Do not be not very sorely angry, O Yahweh,
Nor remember iniquity for ever,
Behold, look, we beg you,
We are all your people.
Having stated his case that all is dependent on the graciousness of Yahweh Isaiah now pleads for Yahweh to act. Let Him assuage His anger, let Him forget their iniquity, let Him remember that they are the people whom He has chosen. Let Him look on them and show mercy towards them. Otherwise they have no hope. Was this not why the Servant died, that He might make deliverance and salvation available to such as these? In this lies their hope. They are all His nominal people. But if they are to experience His salvation that must become actual and real. So Isaiah prays for the theory to become the fact. ‘All the people' is the longing of his heart, for he knows from what he has already been told that not all will respond.
‘Your holy cities have become a wilderness,
Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
Our holy and our beautiful house,
Where our fathers praised you,
Is burned with fire,
And all our pleasant things are laid waste.
Will you refrain yourself for these things, O Yahweh?
Will you hold your peace and afflict us very sorely?'
Sitting in the loneliness of his room, remembering the Bloodstained One (Isaiah 63:1-6), fearing the doom of Edom for his people, and grieving over and praying for their sins, the ancient Isaiah is making his desperate plea. Will God have mercy? But he knows that it cannot be until Babylon's interruption promised in Isaiah 39:6-7 has occurred, and he sees it ahead as though it were already there. Babylon must be allowed further say before Zion prevails. The perfect tenses indicate certainty of completion not the time when the events will occur.
The holy cities of Judah will become a desolation, it is as certain as though it had happened. (All the cities are holy because this is all God's land). Zion will become a wilderness. Jerusalem will become a desolation. The Temple, their holy and beautiful house of Yahweh, where their fathers had praised Yahweh, will be burned with fire. All that is theirs that is most pleasant will be laid waste by the northern predators. He knows this must be because God had said so (Isaiah 39:6-7; Isaiah 43:28), and he accepts it. But the question is, will this mean their end as it had meant Edom's end? Will He refrain from helping them in these dreadful circumstances. Will He say and do nothing and let them be afflicted by His will? Will the Bloodstained One tread them in the winepress? Or will God have mercy and save? That is his question. Is there hope?