Isaiah 64:1-7 – His loving touch brings a transformed life

Isaiah 63:15-64:7 describes two yearnings of the prophet. Firstly, despite their hardened hearts, he wished that God in His covenant loyalty and faithfulness would come to their rescue. Secondly, despite their longstanding sin, he yearned for God’s presence to break through and bring a telling difference in their waywardness. He was confident that God’s presence would bring about seismic changes in their life that would cause God’s own name to be known and people converted to serve Him.

In these last five verses of Isaiah 64, he had yet another wish. He longed for God, presenting several reasons why God should cease from His anger with them and touch them instead. Why? Firstly, he longed that God would touch them because they were His children, and He was their Father.  Secondly, God should touch them because He was their potter, and they were like clay in His hand. And He was after all the One who would mold them as a  nation. Thirdly, He should touch them because Judah’s cities, especially Zion, had become a wasteland, leaving Jerusalem utterly desolated.  Fourthly, God must touch them because the beautiful temple of Judah where their forefathers gathered to praise Him had been torn down. He asserted that all that were once precious to them were now in ruins. Pleading for God’s sympathy, Isaiah asked two rhetorical questions: Will You restrain Yourself at these things, Lord? Will You keep silent and afflict us beyond measure?

Audaciously Isaiah pled with God to touch them, notwithstanding their longstanding and persistent waywardness. He did not presume on God, by insisting that He was obliged to touch them. Instead, he came reasoning with Him, fully aware that he was pleading to their loving Father, their great Redeemer, and the One who held them in His hand.

God has always been the only One who shapes the destiny of His people. Like the good plan He had for Judah, His people, He also has a great plan for us. And He alone can make a difference in our lives. While He has a great plan for us, He would not force it on us. He wants us to come willingly for He will not violate our free will. But in His love, He will allow the hard circumstances of life to arrest our attention to bring us to the realization of how much we need Him. When we willingly come to Him,  we find His loving arms embracing us and leading us into the fulness of His plan for us. It makes sense to return to God no matter how far we have strayed from Him. He is the Father in the parable of the prodigal son who will not let go of His love for us. No matter how far we have strayed, let us return to Him today!