Isaiah 64 · The Lantern

If only You would rend the heavens and come down, so that mountains would quake at Your presence,

This power is present to you, that of which we did not hear from all time, nor were we able to say (which would be bearing false witness) that someone else was such a God, in the way that our eyes have now seen the effects in such works.

David also said "Lord, bend the skies and come down," and Moses said, "Show me your face that I might see you clearly." For no one saw more closely than Moses when receiving the law of God. God was speaking from the clouds, and [Moses] witnessed that same presence of his majesty.

1113. Here he offers a petition. And first, he asks for the presence of the judge; second, he asks for mercy: "behold you are angry" (Isa 64:5). Concerning the first, he does two things. First, he sets out the petition; second, the fulfillment of the petition: "you didst come down" (Isa 64:3). Concerning the first of these, he does two things.

as fire kindles the brushwood and causes the water to boil, to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!

When You did awesome works that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled at Your presence.

From ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him.

Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.…

The divine is invisible in nature. "For no one has ever seen God," as it is written. But God can be seen by the eyes of faith from those things that happen without explanation and beyond speech. For the invisible things, since the foundation of the world, are clearly understood by the things that are made, that is, his heavenly power and godhead.

In benefits, he sets out the greatness of his benefits: "from the beginning of the world they have not heard," for never has anything been seen or heard, like what God did for the Jews, and will do for the saints in glory: "eye has not seen, nor ear heard: neither has it entered into the heart of man, what things God has prepared for them that love him" (1 Cor 2:9). 1120.

You welcome those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. Surely You were angry, for we sinned. How can we be saved if we remain in our sins?

A disorder of priorities. Not because you are angry, we have sinned; but because we have sinned, you are angry. And because we have sinned, you are angry with us, O Lord: therefore we have gone astray and have left the right path. Whether according to the Hebrew, who we have always been in sins, we shall be saved only by your mercy, who we are defiled through ourselves.

"You were angry, and we sinned." This is a sentence with reversed terms, that is, since we have sinned, you were angry and had us deported; and this is analogous to the words "and they made his grave with the wicked." "Some day we will be saved." With the same mercy through which you saved us once from Egypt, we will be saved from Babylon as well.

As to the promptness of his benefitting them: "you have met him that rejoices," to help him, while he was still petitioning or coming to you; "him that rejoices," in you: "wisdom goes about seeking such as are worthy of her" (Wis 6:17). Mystically: Simeon (Luke 2). 1117. "Behold you are angry." Here he sets out mercy.

Each of us has become like something unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all wither like a leaf, and our iniquities carry us away like the wind.

(Verse 6.) Behold, you are angry, and we have sinned; we have always been in them, and we shall be saved. And we have become like the unclean, all of us, like the soiled cloths of our entire righteousness. And we have fallen like leaves, and our iniquities have swept us away like the wind.

Some translators try to alter the meaning of this passage.… For it is not, they say, that the divine anger was the cause of their misdeeds, but that because they misbehaved, God was angry. For they are afraid lest God's anger be thought of as the effector of sins.

And as to the imperfection of their good deeds: "and we are all become as one unclean, and all our justices," because they are wrapped up in other sins: "if I be washed, as it were, with snow waters, and my hands shall shine ever clean, yet you shall plunge me in filth, and my garments shall abhor me" (Job 9:30-31).

No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

"There is no one who calls on your name." Since they worshiped the idols, they did not remember your name. "There is no one who bestirs himself to take hold of you." They certainly put all their faith in the idols.

(Verse 7) There is no one who calls upon your name, who rises and holds on to you. You have hidden your face from us and have afflicted us in the hand of our iniquity. LXX: And there is no one who calls upon your name and remembers to grasp you. For you have turned your face away from us and have delivered us because of our iniquities.

1118. He shows the need of the petitioner as to lack of help. And first, lack of human help: "there is none that calls upon" and "takes hold of you," with prayers: "I held him: and I will not let him go" (Song 3:4); second, lack of divine help: "you have hid your face," of your mercy, "and have crushed us in the hand," that is, the work, of our iniquity; according to what it sa…

But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You are the potter; we are all the work of Your hand.

Do not be angry, O LORD, beyond measure; do not remember our iniquity forever. Oh, look upon us, we pray; we are all Your people!

The Lord gives to each person according to his deeds; against those who sin greatly and often he is very angry indeed, but he is angry in a mild way against those who do wrong in a few things and only for a short time.

They entreat God insistently concerning his removal from friendship with them. Since they had come to this situation through their many sins, they wove their prayers with great skill. For since they are unable to mollify the one who could save them with their own works and blameless lives, they now take another route.

And now, O Lord. Here he sets out mercy. And concerning this, he does two things. First, he asks for mercy, assigning the reason: you are our father: as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are we in the hand of God (Jer 18:6); remember, I beseech you, that you have made me as the clay (Job 10:9).

Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wasteland and Jerusalem a desolation.

Our holy and beautiful temple, where our fathers praised You, has been burned with fire, and all that was dear to us lies in ruins.

Moreover, your house, that is, the sanctuary of our sanctification and glory, in which our fathers praised you, has fallen into ruins and ashes, and has been destroyed by a raging fire, so that no victims are offered in it, no Passover is celebrated, nothing is done of the ceremonies that you commanded to be done, but all our desires have been turned into ruins. ...

The defendants speak of the damage in the soul and that they have been caught in their sins; they are like leaves blown about by every wind and, scattered all over, now remember the external misfortunes that came on them. And the destruction of Jerusalem is deplored along with the temple's burning. For after the Savior's crucifixion, these things were fulfilled.

If we who bear the name of "your people," he says, are unworthy of your goodwill, judge the city worthy to be spared by reason of its founder, for it has become a desert.

After all this, O LORD, will You restrain Yourself? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?

Isaiah64