We are continuing our look at Chapter 64 today. We closed our last study session with the people acknowledging that they are sinners and with them saying, "How then can we be saved?" These are two very good things: acknowledging the problem of sin and asking how the problem can be solved. We can't solve the problem ourselves, as they conclude in the portion of Scripture below.
"All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away." (Isaiah 64:6) This verse isn't saying that there's no value in good works but that we can't be saved by works. We are unclean ourselves; therefore, our works are unclean too. You may recall from our studies earlier in the Old Testament that there were laws regarding uncleanness. A number of things could render a person unclean, such as particular contagious illnesses and conditions that cause seepage of bodily fluids. Anything that person wore and anything they lay upon or sat upon was rendered unclean because they were unclean. In this same way, because we are unclean due to our sins, all of our works are unclean: "like filthy rags". Salvation is by faith, not by works. The Lord doesn't weigh our good deeds and our bad deeds on a scale to see if our good deeds outweigh our bad deeds. Even at our best, our works are flawed.
The people of Isaiah's nation have ignored the Lord's commands to repent for a long time. They have not responded correctly to the discipline He has applied so far. This is why the northern kingdom was conquered during Isaiah's lifetime and why the southern kingdom (which took longer to fall into the utter depravity of idolatry) was conquered 130 years later. Here we find the people admitting that they have failed to respond appropriately and that this is why the Lord is not rescuing them from their troubles. "No one calls on Your name or strives to lay hold of you; for You have hidden Your face from us and have given us over to our sins." (Isaiah 64:7) They are not claiming that the Lord caused them to sin or that He wants them to sin. What's happening here is that, because they insisted on going their own way for so long, the Lord is allowing them to have their way. That is because sometimes the only way a person will repent is for the Lord to let them hit rock bottom.
It can be really hard to allow someone we care about to hit rock bottom but sometimes it's the most loving thing to do. Someone I care about was methodically ruining their life in every way. They made one illogical bad decision after another. When they were on the verge of making a particularly big bad decision, there was actually a way I could have stopped them but the Lord very clearly said to my heart, "Don't do it. This decision is going to bring them to rock bottom and that's the way it has to be in order for them to change." So I held back and watched them make the decision and watched the outcome bring them to the brink of losing everything they had. It was a hard thing to do but I knew what the Lord had said. And He was right, because the tough lesson they learned caused them to repent and accept the Lord as their Savior and He turned their life completely around. Who knows how much longer it would have taken if I'd stepped in and prevented their mistake in spite of what the Lord said to me?
He knows each of us more intimately than anyone else will ever know us. He knows precisely how much pressure it will take for us to face our sinful state and be sorry for it. He knows what method brings each of us to repentance. For some people, all it takes is hearing the Scripture and taking it to heart. For others, it takes facing up to what a mess they've made of their lives by leaving God out of their lives. I'm one of the latter. It took me facing up to what a mess I'd made of my life. It took me acknowledging that I was lost in my sins and that there was nothing I could do to save myself. That's when I turned to the Lord.
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