64:1–3  O that thou wouldst rend the heavens and descend, the mountains melting at thy presence—as when fire is lit for boiling water, which bubbles over from the heat—to make thyself known to thine adversaries, the nations trembling at thy presence—as when thou didst perform awesome things unexpected by us: thy descent of old, when the mountains quaked before thee!

And that descent of old was, of course, on Mt. Sinai, where some did burn up in God’s presence, at that time. Those who transgressed were burnt. Now these people are appealing to the Lord to come down again and rescue them from their enemies and adversaries. In effect, “Let our enemies be burnt up, in your presence,” as they were anciently. The problem with that is, that unless they themselves are purified, and sanctified, and are prepared meet God, face to face, they themselves will be burned up in his presence, just as they were anciently. And so God can’t come too soon. He can’t come until these people have gone through the Refiners fire-- his people have gone through the Refiners fire-- and are ready, in fact, to meet their God.

The rending of the heavens implies Divine intervention. And God does descend, because on the spiritual ladder he’s at the very top. He stands at the gate of heaven. And it is a condescension, besides being a descent. And, as we saw in chapter fifty-three, God did come down, already, and he was rejected of his people, by and large. So why should he come down, now, to rescue them? There has to be a change in their attitude, and in their preparedness, and in their allegiance to him. And there is. By the time that he comes, there will be, in fact, a group prepared to meet him.
Isaiah uses imagery of all kinds in his discussions-- “boiling water” is just another one. We have three lines, here, that parallel each other: “The mountains melting at thy presence,” “the nations trembling at thy presence,” and “the mountains quaking at thy presence, or “before thee.” It’s the same word in Hebrew “panecha,” which means “before thee,” or “at thy presence.”
The presence of the Lord could be his actual presence—he’s right there, his literal, physical coming--but it can also mean that time period that precedes his coming. So, “at thy presence” could mean “at the time of his coming, the time immediately preceding his coming.” And the verbs, “melting,” and “trembling,” and “quaking,” are all synonyms in Hebrew. “At thy presence” is the same in the three instances. So these are really three, parallel lines that parallel “mountains” with “nations” and “mountains,” in an a b a chiasm. Which means that Isaiah is establishing the idea that mountains can serve as a metaphor of nations. They’re three, synonymous, parallel lines. The only odd man out is “nations.” And it shouldn’t be. And if it isn’t, then nations also mean mountains, and mountains can mean nations. We can say, “the mountains melting at his presence,” could mean “the nations melting at his presence.” “The nations trembling at thy presence,” the second one, and then the mountains quaking before thee could mean the nations quaking before him—or in his presence-- in an allegorical sense.
When we look back at all that we’ve read in the book of Isaiah, and see the whole scenario that Isaiah has described, we see, in fact, that they are mountains quaking, literally, physically, and also that the king of Assyria is the one who causes the mountains—and nations—to quake. The quaking is a word link to the king of Assyria, in chapter five, verse twenty-five, for example: “Therefore the anger of the Lord is kindled against his people. He draws back his hand against them and strikes them. The mountains quake, and their corpses lie like litter about the streets.
For all this his anger is not abated. His hand is upraised still. He raises an ensign to distant nations,” and goes on to talk about the king of Assyria who personifies God’s hand and anger. Then in chapter fourteen, there the king of Assyria, under his religious title, “king of Babylon,” it says: “Is this the man who made the earth shake and kingdoms quake, who turned the world into a wilderness, demolishing its cities?” In effect, these people are calling upon the Lord for help against the king of Assyria. And when God comes he comes to destroy the wicked and to deliver the righteous. That’s the nature of his coming, as a two-fold aspect. And so it is here. His actual, literal, physical coming doesn’t necessarily destroy the wicked. The wicked are destroyed before his actual coming. They’re destroyed at his presence, at his imminent presence, but not at his literal, physical presence. When the Lord comes, he comes to an earth that has been cleansed of the wicked through the various calamities that happen. The king of Assyria destroys the wicked—the sinners, the wicked people, criminals, the tyrants, and proud ones of the earth, and then the armies of the Lord’s Servant destroy the Assyrians. So finally, when the Lord comes, he comes to a purified earth.

64:4  Never has it been heard or perceived by the ear, nor has any eye seen a God besides thee, who acts thus on behalf of those who wait for him.

That is, God comes to the rescue. That’s his nature. He’s a Savior of his people. That’s why, in chapter sixty-two he comes under his name, Salvation. “See, your Salvation comes, his reward with him, his work preceding him.” He personifies Salvation. And that’s how he acts on behalf of those who wait for him. And the waiting for him is another word link. It identifies those who have waited it out. Whose allegiance to the Lord has been tested to the utmost. It’s part of their cleansing and refining process, that they continue to have faith in the Lord all through these afflictions, all through these bad times—through the oppressions, the bondage, and tribulation of that period of time. They still go on trusting in the Lord, hoping in him, waiting for him. The adversity that happens to them is really good because it does cleanse and sanctify them and lifts them up a level, on the spiritual ladder. They pass the test. It is a test for them that lifts them higher. Good and evil work together, for good, or it can, for those who deal with it properly.

64:5  But thou woundest those of us who joyfully perform righteousness, who remember thee by following thy ways—that in them we might ever be saved. Alas, thou wast roused to anger when we sinned,

Now this is the same type group of people talking, as in chapter sixty-three, where they said, “Why, O Lord, hast thou made us stray from thy ways, hardening our hearts that we cannot fear thee.” There’s a little self-deception going on. This is not the elect group. This is not the holy ones and the valiant ones. They wouldn’t talk like that. The holy ones are the ones who are waiting it out and the Lord comes to the rescue and intervenes in their behalf. But this is another group, here, a lesser group of individuals. They’re not the ones who are destroyed who are out-and-out wicked or who have hardened their hearts beyond the point of return. But this is an intermediate group. And they’re struggling with themselves, with their acts, but they’re coming around. As you see, bit by bit, in these last chapters, they come around, and see things as they are.

“But thou woundest those of us who joyfully perform righteousness, who remember thee by following thy ways—that in them we might ever be saved.” They are performing righteousness. Even in difficult times when they come under attack, when they’re persecuted and mocked for their allegiance to God. They do it joyfully. They’ve come a long way from where they were before. And yet, they say “thou woundest those of us who joyfully perform righteousness.” They’re not saying, like they did in the last chapter, “Thou hast made us stray from thy ways, hardening our hearts. You hardened our hearts. You made us stray.” No. They’re a stage beyond that kind of self-deception. People may have been born into a situation, raised up in such a way that they didn’t fear God. But they can’t blame God for that. If they themselves had made right choices they would not be there.

But anyway, this group is beyond that; they’re moving ahead in the repentance process. They’re recognizing, though, that they’re suffering at the hands of God. Why? If God is just and merciful, then why are they now still going through difficulties; why doesn’t he just come and rescue them? Well, because God wants them to go through more repentance and more purifying. And the wounding of them, or their being afflicted with various misfortunes, is nothing other than the curses of the covenant. The curses of the covenant are still following them around, based on their previous transgressions. A person can repent and be forgiven of his sins, but that doesn’t mean that the effects of his past sins are not still going to come and catch up with him. If I smoke, and then I quit and no longer have a smoking problem, there could still toxins floating around in my body that I have to get rid of. So it is with people who do wrong. The effects of the transgression can follow them around for a long time afterwards.

The wounding of those of us who joyfully perform righteousness pertains to some of us, not all of us. He only wounds those who perform righteousness. Well, maybe. The others might get themselves killed if they don’t perform righteousness, if they don’t repent, if they don’t get their act together. But the wounding is the effects of past transgressions, and that’s good! Those are good effects, because it does enable them to go through further refining. And that’s the intent and purpose of covenant curses. They’re not just punishment for the sake of the punishment. They’re punishment for the sake of a person’s repentance, and their own spiritual progress. “Thou woundest those of us who joyfully perform righteousness, who remember thee,” implies that there are other who are not remembering God. To “remember thee” implies there are others who are “forgetting to follow God’s ways. It’s one thing to just remember him, off and on, thinking, “Oh yea, there’s God up there somewhere.” It’s quite another thing to remember him by following his ways, by actually doing what he asks you to do, doing things his way. In other words, following his standard of righteousness, not your own. Going to church, in and of itself, may not mean much.

“Who remember thee by following thy ways—that in them,” in those ways, “we might ever be saved.” Because in those ways there is salvation from sin. His way is the way of repentance: being sorry for the sin and putting it away, not doing it any more. But there’s more to it than that. For example, it has to do with ordinances that God has established. Chapter twenty-six, verse seven says, “The path of the righteous is straight. Thou pavest an undeviating course for the upright. In the very passage of thine ordinances we anticipated thee, O Lord; the soul’s desire is to contemplate thy name.” Ordinances bring us into God’s presence, as individuals. Temple rites were designed, of God, to bring people through the veil into God’s presence. And that was found in the tabernacle, anciently, under Moses. Moses went through the veil into God’s presence. But he had to be sanctified, to do that. He couldn’t just go into God’s presence, unworthily, or he would die in his presence, as many later did. The high priest, on the day of atonement, was to go in to proclaim the name of God, in the Holy of Holies in the temple, and make atonement for the sins of the people. Towards the latter end of the temple period they tied a rope to the ankle of the priest because the priest would die in God’s presence when the Lord would appear. [what was the purpose of the rope? To pull the dead body out??]

To be saved means a lot. It doesn’t just mean—not in Isaiah anyway—that you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior, and you’re saved. There’s much more beyond that. That’s a very elemental level; it’s a beginning on the path of salvation, but it’s not Isaiah’s definition of salvation. Isaiah’s definition of salvation is to bring people up to a level that can get them into God’s presence without them perishing in his presence. It’s like the seventy elders upon the mount. God has established certain ways--ordinances and performances--for people to prepare themselves. If they will do those things then they can come into his presence. When they can do so, individually, on a large scale, then the Lord can come to them collectively; then they’re ready to meet him. Otherwise, if he came, it would be like them all going through the veil all of a sudden, and the Lord would come out of the veil and there they are, in God’s presence, and they would all perish. [note: how come Joseph Smith, as a boy didn’t perish when he saw God the father and his son? Was that just a holographic vision, not their real presence? Was Joseph so clean and pure he didn’t perish?]

So all of this coming on the mount, and so forth, has to be timed perfectly, because the Lord is no respecter of persons and he doesn’t change from yesterday, to today, to tomorrow. If he’s going to come in our day, let’s say, or in the end time of the world, and if people are going to be able to withstand his presence or be able to endure and to live in his presence, it’s got to be on the same basis as anciently. We have to measure up. Our worthiness to receive him, our preparedness, our sanctified state has to be such that we can live in his presence, and not perish. Even Isaiah himself, in chapter six, when he saw the Lord, was smitten dumb and his mouth had to be opened, all his senses had to be opened, showing that even a prophet of God had difficulty being in God’s presence. And there’s a whole history of that throughout the Old Testament, of people who see God and become impaired in some way or die, or think they’re going to die, because it’s such a major event. The only difference between the individual appearances of the Lord to people, and his appearing on a mass scale, is just that it’s multiplied that many individuals. The individuals still have to be prepared individually. “Alas, thou wast roused to anger when we sinned.” Now they recognize, clearly, that that have sinned.

64:6  and now we have altogether become as those defiled, the sum of our righteousness as a menstruous rag. We are decaying like leaves, all of us; our sins, like a wind, sweep us away.

They recognize that they had a righteousness which maybe was a false righteousness. It was their own self-righteousness. They were duped. They bought into a lie. Somehow they accepted the idea that maybe going to church or going to synagogue or doing certain things that Christians or Jews did, represented righteousness and made them acceptable to God. And it wasn’t necessarily so. It says that they, themselves, are as those defiled, meaning they’re still in a sinful state. And again, Isaiah’s using imagery from every part of life, even a woman’s menstrual cycle, from which things are cast off. These people consider themselves worthy to be cast off.

“Thou was aroused to anger when we sinned,” implying the consequences of sin or transgression, some kind of punishment, or covenant curse, but also the fact that the king of Assyria was given power over them, because he personifies God’s anger. For a time, this group of people, anyway, became subject to the king of Assyria. And we see that in chapter ten, where it says: “O my people who inhabit Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrians, though they strike you with the rod or raise their staff over you, as did the Egyptians, for my anger will very soon come to an end and my wrath will become their undoing.” So he makes an end of the king of Assyria at some point. But for a time, the king of Assyria has power over this particular group of people, not over the holy and valiant ones who are protected by the Lord in that day, who go on the exodus under the protection of the cloud of glory. They are not subject to the king of Assyria. But this group is. It’s part of their refining process.

“We are decaying like leaves, all of us; our sins, like a wind, sweep us away.” Again, this is imagery from life, about leaves, as in the fall which drop from the trees onto the ground and start decaying way. And it’s kind of a chaos motif; these people are going into a state of chaos, but not all the way. They regenerate. They’re not those who become dust, or chaff and go up in smoke, and so on. That’s a third group. Those are the ones who don’t make it. They’re the sinners who will not repent and who, in fact, reject God. “Our sins, like a wind, sweep us away.” The wind, too, is a word link connecting to the Day of judgment, which is like unto a storm. There is wind and hail, rain and lightnings and thunders. They’re swept away, like leaves. They’re like I said, not totally swept away. This group is getting their act together; they’re hanging on.

64:7  Yet none calls upon thy name, or rouses himself to take hold of thee. For thou hast hidden thy face from us and enfeebled us at the hand of our iniquities.

That’s the difference between the holy and valiant ones, and this group. The holy and valiant ones, the elect, call upon his name, all the time. They are the ones who rouse themselves and take hold of him. And now they see the contrast between themselves and those who do that. They remember when they lived among them still, before the exodus, before the elect were taken out. They remember what kind of people they were and how zealous they were for God, for the things of God. They did serve as an example to them. They were kind of carried along by that spirit of the valiant ones, but did not, themselves, do those things. But now the less valiant are beginning to recognize that those things are what they need to do. They haven’t been use to doing that: “Yet none calls upon thy name or rouses himself to take hold of thee.” It takes more than just token allegiance to the Lord. It takes active allegiance in actively serving God and thinking upon the things of God.

“For thou hast hidden thy face from us and enfeebled us at the hand of our iniquities.”
They’re cut off from his presence, perhaps even from the Spirit, and certainly from his physical presence. The elect, by virtue of the fact that they are holy and valiant, are able to endure his presence at any time and to endure presence of the Lord. But not this group. They’re not ready yet because they’ve been enfeebled at the hand of their iniquities. In other words, weakened by the fact that there’s still problems in their lives. Like I mentioned before, iniquities are different from sins. Sins are things that we’re forgiven of if we repent. But iniquities are those patterns and effects of sin that we have inherited from our fathers or parents or grandparents, down through the generations, dysfunctional patterns, ignorances, false traditions, genetic defects—whatever it may be that we’re having to deal with because of what happened in the past—either things we ourselves did, or things that were done by our mothers or fathers ever since the fall of Adam. This is the thing Moses talks about when he says the iniquities of the fathers will be visited upon the heads of the children to the third and fourth generation. These are the effects of sin that we’re having to deal with, in addition to our own sins, and distinct from our own sins. We can repent of sins, but we’re still having to deal with these habit patterns, dang it, that prevent us from being perfect. But we can overcome those things, also, and when we do, then we are totally sanctified. And that’s what the sanctified ones have done, the holy ones, the valiant ones. They’ve been valiant in dealing with those things, in recognizing what those things are, and that they’re not necessarily sins of their own doing, in which they can be forgiven and are forgiven. As Ezekiel says, “Every person answers for his own sin.” The child does not inherit the sin of the father. The child must answer for his own sins, and the father for his own sins. And here we’re dealing with iniquities. The hand is also a metaphor describing the king of Assyria. Because they’re not yet perfect, or perfected or sanctified, because they haven’t been valiant, yet, in calling upon the name of the Lord and arousing themselves to serve him and take hold of him, to rely upon him, to wait for him, they’re still given into the hand of the king of Assyria, as part of their refining process and he does his thing with them. As Daniels says, he makes war upon the saints, but not necessarily with the sanctified ones, but upon those who are aspiring to be saints, as this group is. They’re aspiring to be purified and sanctified. They’re coming along.

64:8  Nevertheless, thou art our Father, O Lord; we are the clay and thou art the potter, and we are all alike the work of thy hands.

That’s a beautiful verse because it shows, now, that they are beginning to call upon him, more and more, and in a different way than before. They’re not accusing God of anything. They’re not bewailing the fact that they’ve been wounded or that they’re suffering. Now it’s taking a positive note. They’re calling upon the Lord and saying, “Okay, here we are. We’ve been reduced to this low condition, but that makes us all the more fit for you to work with us. Now you can start creating us and making us over, anew.” That’s a wonderful place to come to, isn’t it? It’s a wonderful recognition, finally. It’s like a broken heart and a contrite spirit. And when that happens, then the Lord can work with people. In fact, he can make a new creation of them. That’s the whole goal. When people ascend a level on the spiritual ladder, it’s a rebirth. They’re born again. They’re born as a higher creature, greater than they were before. They let God do that. It’s not of their own making, it’s of God’s making. When they totally submit their wills to his, then he can do that, then sanctification can happen for them. “Nevertheless thou art our father, O Lord.” In other words, we want to be your children, your begotten sons. “We are the clay, and thou art the potter. Make us over. We are all alike, the work of thy hands.” It’s a whole group, now, that’s appealing to God, the middle group.

“The work of thy hands” is another word link, in Isaiah, because it identifies the people of the Ten Tribes who went captive into Assyria. At the end of chapter nineteen we have those three categories of God’s people: “ In that day Israel shall be a third party to Egypt and to Assyria, a blessing in the midst of the earth. The Lord of Hosts will bless them, saying blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel my inheritance.” And there, Assyria, the work of his hands is not the actual Assyria, but those who were taken captive into Assyria who end up being the only survivors of Assyria, because Assyria, in the book of Isaiah, mostly represents the king of Assyria and his wicked armies who are world conquerors who destroy God’s people who are numbered among the wicked. But this group, the ones who survive, are the people of the Ten Tribes. We’ve seen that happen, several times now.

So these people who are given into the hand of their iniquities were enfeebled by the hands of their iniquities. It makes more sense that the king of Assyria should have power over them, because they come out of that milieu. They come out of the people who live in Assyria. It makes more sense that the king of Assyria should oppress them. But that, too, works toward their good, because that oppression and that power that the king of Assyria has over them tries their patience, tries their allegiance to God. Are they willing to die for the Lord, or will they capitulate and go over to the Assyrian side? No. They’re the works of his hands, or works of two hands—the left hand, the king of Assyria, and the right hand—the Lord’s Servant. They recognize the message of the Lord’s Servant, or the message of God that the Servant brings. They recognize that they need to renew their allegiance to God, repent of their sins, overcome their iniquities, and come on an exodus. Only, this group didn’t go on an exodus, earlier, because they didn’t measure up in time, when the exodus took place. But they still want the same blessing, and they can get it. But now they have to wade through the time, through that Refiners fire, through that end-time period that prepares them and acts as a refiners fire for them.
Here, then, we have something similar to what we had in verses five and six: “Thou woundest those of us who joyfully perform righteousness.” Righteousness, there, is a metaphor describing the Lord’s Servant. So they’re latching on to what the Lord teaches them. But the Lord was aroused to anger when they sinned, because they didn’t measure up, totally; they were not valiant. They didn’t sanctify themselves in time. So they were still given into the hands of the king of Assyria, to a large degree. Being the work of his hands means that on the one hand they renew their allegiance to God; they repent. And on the other hand they’re allowing the king of Assyria’s oppression of them to serve as a Refiners fire. And so by the time it’s all over, they will be sanctified, too, and ready to meet God.

64:9  Be not exceedingly angry, O Lord; remember not iniquity forever. See, consider that we are all thy people!

“Thy people” is the covenant phrase, or formula, that identifies them as his covenant people. Their allegiance is to God, not to anyone else. God was slow to listen to them because they were slow to repent. They didn’t repent immediately, like the first group did. “Be not exceedingly angry, O Lord,” because they’re still suffering covenant curses. “Remember not iniquity forever.” They recognize that there’s really no way that they, themselves, can overcome their iniquities. God has to lift them higher. When they appeal to him, when they totally submit themselves to his will, like clay in the hands of the Potter, then their iniquities can be overcome. I think everyone of us recognizes that we of ourselves are almost powerless against some these patterns of behavior and things that we’ve inherited. If we, ourselves, are not empowered of God then there’s no way we can overcome. We overcome through the blood of the Lamb, through his merits, the merits of his atonement. We, of ourselves, have no power to do that. This group is appealing to God to bring them to that state, to where even their iniquities can be overcome. They want to be sanctified. “Consider that we are all thy people!” That’s what it’s all about— is calling upon God. That’s what they’re doing. You can see that they’re making great progress, here.

64:10–11  Thy holy cities have become a wilderness; Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a desolation. Our glorious holy temple where our fathers praised thee has been burned with fire, and all places dear to us lie in ruins.

This means that this group is experiencing covenant curses. They, themselves, haven’t been wiped out in this calamity. They haven’t been destroyed by the king of Assyria. They’re still alive. They didn’t go on the exodus, before the destruction--like Lot taken out of Sodom before the destruction, as the elect group, the holy and valiant ones did-- but they’re still around. They’re still alive, and in repentant mode. The holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion is a desert, Jerusalem a desolation--all of that was done by the Assyrians. They’ve turned the beautiful, fertile places into a desolation and a wilderness. And we saw that in the very beginning of the book of Isaiah. On the other hand, for the elect who go on the exodus the wilderness blossoms and becomes a new paradise. But this group is experiencing some difficulty.

“Our glorious holy temple where our fathers praised thee has been burned with fire.” Fire is a metaphor describing the king of Assyria. So he burnt it. Just like the king of Babylon burned the temple, anciently. “And all places dear to us lie in ruins.” That was one of the main themes in the book of Isaiah. Ruin—ruin before rebirth. These people are going through this, collectively. They didn’t need to. The individuals who participated in the exodus went through the Refiners fire before the calamities came. They didn’t need to go through another Refiners fire. When they submitted their lives to God, they went through individual difficulties that refined them, perhaps through their own, personal ruins, until eventually they overcame all things, and qualified for salvation. And here this group is going through that collectively

64:12  At all this, O Lord, wilt thou restrain thyself, in silence letting us suffer so exceedingly?

And what does the Lord say? ‘Yes!” Yes, he will let them suffer exceedingly. But not forever. Their suffering has a purpose. It’s not because God is mean. It’s not because he’s a vindictive God, at all. It’s just a consequence of past behavior, and it’s meant to refine them. When this kind of suffering happens you’re not suppose to run away from it, but to go through it. The quicker you go through it and process through it, the quicker you can come out at the other end, refined. God’s silence is part of the Refiners fire. He stands back, awhile, and tests his people’s loyalties, with these things. Suffering is another one of Isaiah’s themes: suffering. And suffering is like ruin. It precedes salvation. Before salvation there is suffering. There cannot be salvation without suffering. It’s the pattern. It’s the same as there cannot be exaltation without humiliation. There cannot be deliverance without punishment, unless there’s some being that’s born on the earth who’s perfect and never needed punishing, or never needed bringing up short. The punishment comes first and cleanses one of the sin, and then he’s ready for deliverance. Then he can be delivered. Suffering precedes salvation. It’s all part of his plan. And the quicker they recognize that, the better. Wade through it, see it through, and at the end you’ll come out saved, physically and spiritually. The spiritual has to precede the physical.