Isaiah 64: You Are the Potter, We are the Clay

Acknowledging the reality of humankind’s propensity to turn away from God, and even the people of God’s propensity to stray, Isaiah asked God a question all of us have asked at one time or another—Why, O Lord, do you let us stray from you? Why do you allow our hearts to harden, so that we no longer reverence you?

Come Quickly, O Lord

So, Isaiah asked God, since God’s people were so far from the Lord, would God come close to God’s people? Could God come in power, not hold back, but respond with the same powerful miracles the Lord had brought in times past to rescue them?

“O that you would tear open the heavens and come down,
    so that the mountains would quake at your presence—
as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    so that the nations might tremble at your presence!
When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect,
    you came down; the mountains quaked at your presence.”

Isaiah 64:1-3 (NRSVUE)

Isaiah, on behalf of the people of God, confessed their collective sins: they were as unclean as lepers, as filthy as dirty rags, as weak and faded as fall leaves, no more able to control themselves than the wind.

“From ages past no one has heard,
    no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
    who works for those who wait for him.
You meet those who gladly do right,
    those who remember you in your ways.
But you were angry, and we sinned;
    because you hid yourself we transgressed.
We have all become like one who is unclean,
    and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.
We all fade like a leaf,
    and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.”

Isaiah 64:4-6 (NRSVUE, emphases added)

Mold Us, Make Us

Isaiah admitted their deep need, they needed God to mold them and form them, to make them into the people God had always meant for them to be.

“There is no one who calls on your name
    or attempts to take hold of you,
for you have hidden your face from us
    and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.
Yet, O Lord, you are our Father
    we are the clay, and you are our potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.”

Isaiah 64:7-8 (NRSV)

Isaiah once again appealed to the Father, to God’s compassion, to God’s promise to make God’s people into a great nation.

“Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord,
    and do not remember iniquity forever.
    Now consider, we are all your people.”

Isaiah 64:9 (NRSVUE)

Isaiah lamented the visions of ruin God had given him, of what was in store for the people one day, of the destruction and exile of both the northern kingdom of Israel, and of the southern kingdom of Judah. Even the beautiful and holy mountain of God, the city of God, and the sacred temple of God would one day be laid to waste.

“Our holy and beautiful house,
    where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned by fire,
    and all our pleasant places have become ruins.”

Isaiah 64:11 (NRSVUE)

Often, we are afraid that if God does not answer quickly, the Lord never will. Isaiah pleaded with God.

“After all this, will you restrain yourself, O Lord?
    Will you keep silent and punish us so severely?”

Isaiah 64:12 (NRSVUE)

Yet think of how long some of the ancient faithful ones in Scripture prayed before they received their answer from God. For all those in the Hebrew scriptures, God’s promise of Messiah was yet to be fulfilled. In fact, think of all the preparations that God had put into place and was forming, even as people prayed and wondered if God would ever respond in power.

If that is where you and I are, then this is a prayer we can pray for ourselves. We can put our names in here, and the names of the people we are heavy-hearted about. Whoever it is who seems far from God’s reach, and it seems God is withholding compassion from can be placed here in this prayer. Please God, come in power.

Intercession glorifies God through acknowledging dependence upon God

For whom do we need to intercede? The greatest prayer you and I can pray is for God to do God’s will, for God’s glory, in God’s way, by God’s timing, without restraint. God will always answer yes to that prayer. God has given us Isaiah’s prayer in the first place, to pray during these seemingly hopeless, endless life situations. God creates newness out of the ruins when you and I humble ourselves before the Lord and say,

When you and I pray, let us keep Isaiah’s perspective. Remember God’s steadfast love, give praise to God, for the Lord is both Redeemer and Judge. God is the warrior who protects the Lord’s own because God loves justice and hates wrong.