Isaiah 64:1-9 (NRSV)
Read Isaiah 64:1-9 on biblegateway.com
Chapter 64O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence- Verse 2as 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! Verse 3When you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. Verse 4From 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. Verse 5You 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.
Verse 6We 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. Verse 7There 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. Verse 8Yet, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand. Verse 9Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.
Devotion
In the current times of economic uncertainty in the world, today’s text from the prophet Isaiah brings us a word of confidence. Isaiah 56-66 was likely written in ancient Israel’s times of great economic, political and religious uncertainty, in the struggle with exile and return from Babylonia. “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 64:8).
These words from Isaiah reassure us—as they reassured the ancient Israelites—that when life is undermined by the ravages of destruction and violence, or injustice and suffering of so many different kinds, God’s people are actually safe and cared for in the hands of the potter who made them. How our uncertain world, nation and lives are in need of that great good news!
Prayer
Holy One, how good it is to know the certainty of your presence in
all of our uncertain times. Amen.