Isaiah 64:8-12 But now, O LORD, you are our father; we are the clay, and you our potter; and we all are the work of your hand.… The prophet addresses himself to God in earnest prayer for Divine interposition, and he uses a twofold plea. I. THE INTIMACY AND FULNESS OF GOD'S RELATIONSHIP. 1. God was their Creator. He made them as truly as the potter fashions the clay; they were his workmanship (ver. 8). 2. God was their Father. He had cared for them and bestowed on them his parental love; would he abandon his own children? 3. God was their Redeemer. He had rescued them from bondage, had given them their heritage, had made them "his people" (ver. 9). So fully and so intimately is God related to us now, and we can use the same terms with a deeper and larger meaning, taught of Christ and redeemed by his blood. II. THE SEVERITY OF THEIR DISTRESS. Zion a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation, "the holy and beautiful house" a calcined ruin, the beauty of the land a barrenness and a blot. The extremity of the Church's misery, its utter helplessness without Divine relief, is a strong plea with which to come to him who gave himself for it and lives to establish it. - C. Parallel Verses KJV: But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand. |
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