CHAPTER 64

(698 B.C.)

A PRAYER FOR HELP AGAINST THEIR ENEMIES

¹Oh that You would rend the heavens, that You would come down, that the mountains might flow down at Your Presence (in this Chapter, Israels prayer continues and concludes. As she asks the Lord to look upon them once more with favor, Israel now asks for a manifestation of the Divine Presence, such as they have experienced in the times of old, and such as shall suffice to strike terror into the hearts of their enemies. Their prayer will be answered!),

²As when the melting fire burns, the fire causes the waters to boil, to make Your Name known to Your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your Presence! (His Coming, as described in Rev., Chpt. 19, will be so cataclysmic in nature, so powerful in actual fact, with such a sure defeat of Gods enemies, that His Name will surely be known to His adversaries. Truly, the nations will tremble at His Presence!)

³When You did terrible things which we looked not for, You came down, the mountains flowed down at Your Presence. (The inference is that God did exceedingly more than Israel ever dreamed He would do, respecting their deliverance from Egypt. His actions transcended their utmost expectations.)

⁴For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither has the eye seen, O God, beside You, what He has prepared for him who waits for Him. (The Apostle Paul, in I Cor. 2:9, alludes to this Verse and states that, under the Second Covenant, the wonders prepared for Believers are revealed. Here Faith declares that neither has the eye seen, nor the ear heard of, a God doing such wonders as the God of Israel did.

In Israels prayer, and at a most destitute time, such pleadings proclaim Israels return to God and the Bible. Now Faith begins to come forth, Faith that was lacking upon the First Advent.)

⁵You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness, those who remember You in Your Ways: behold, You are wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved. (The provisions of the Gospel, prepared under the First Covenant and revealed under the Second Covenant, are foreshadowed in this Verse. Gods Way of pardoning and justifying the sinner is opposed to mans way. First, there is the belief of His Revelation respecting sin and its eternal doom, and then the acceptance of the atoning Saviour, Who said, I am the Way. Such is the Salvation afforded by Christ, and such is the only Salvation that saves!)

CONFESSION OF SIN

⁶But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. (Here Israel confesses the reason for their desperate condition. At long last, they own up as to exactly what it is, our iniquities.

But we are all as an unclean thing, is actually saying before God that they are a spiritual leper. They now recognize that their self-righteousness is no more than filthy rags, which refer to the menstrual flux of a woman regarding her monthly period.

It is very difficult for men, and especially religious men, to admit to such! Hence, not many religious men are saved!)

⁷And there is none who calls upon Your Name, who stirs up himself to take hold of You: for You have hid Your face from us, and have consumed us, because of our iniquities. (Once again, Israel admits that it is her iniquities which have brought about the judgment of God upon her. She has only herself to blame!)

⁸But now, O LORD, you are our Father; we are the clay, and You our Potter; and we all are the Work of Your Hand. (In this Passage is the gist of the great Salvation Message of Christianity. Only God can change the shape of the clay, thereby molding the vessel into the shape and design that is desired, thereby mending the flaws and weaknesses.)

⁹Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity forever: behold, see, we beseech You, we are all Your People. (The appeal here is for God to begin all over again, like the potter with the clay. The idea of the phrase, Be not wroth very sore, refers to the fact that God had become very angry with His People. The reason for that anger was sin on the part of Israel. God cannot abide sin in the lives of His Own People any more than He can in the wicked.)

¹⁰Your holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. (As we have stated, the entirety of this prayer of Repentance, which began in the Fifteenth Verse of the previous Chapter, will be prayed by Israel at the end of the Great Tribulation at the Second Advent of Christ.)

¹¹Our Holy and our beautiful House, where our fathers praised You, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste. (This speaks of the Temple that is yet to be built in Jerusalem. In fact, when the Antichrist turns on Israel, he will make their Temple his religious headquarters, committing every act of vileness that one could think.)

¹²Will You refrain Yourself for these things, O LORD? will You hold Your peace, and afflict us very sore? (Israel first repents of her terrible sins, pleading Gods Mercy, Grace, and Love. They then bring to His attention the terrible plight of the holy cities, and of Jerusalem. Last of all, they proclaim to Him the destruction of the Temple.

They then ask, Will You refrain Yourself for these things, O LORD?

The answer is certain. He will not refrain Himself! He will not hold His peace!)