The southern kingdom enjoyed some spiritual revivals during the 130 years it lasted after the fall of the northern kingdom, but it too eventually descended into so much idolatry and immorality that it was conquered as well. Many scholars think the people's acknowledgement of their sin, as related to us here in Isaiah, occurred after they had been conquered and taken into captivity.
We find the people longing for deliverance from their enemies. As is often the case when we find ourselves in unpleasant circumstances, they had asked themselves, "Why is this happening to us? Why did the Lord not prevent this from happening?" And, again as is often the case, they concluded that they have only themselves to blame. We bring a lot of the hardships of this life upon ourselves by getting outside of the will of God, like the people of Isaiah's time did, don't we? I confess I have made some terrible messes at times by either doing the opposite of God's will or by stepping ahead of Him to get something that is His will but is at the wrong time.
Having gotten out of the Lord's will but having turned back to Him when their hardships caused them to face their wrongdoings, the people cry out to Him for help. "Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, as the mountains would tremble before You! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make Your name known to Your enemies and cause the nations to quake before You!" (Isaiah 64:1-2)
As we've mentioned before, references to "the nations" are references to the Gentiles. Gentile nations were heathen nations in those days. That is not the case for many Gentile nations in our own times, but it was certainly the case in Isaiah's day, although there were some Gentiles from other nations who had converted to Judaism. But the worship of the God of Abraham was not the national religion of any Gentile nation during Bible times.
These heathen nations were the "enemies" of God because they rejected Him. They rejected Him and they hated the descendants of Abraham---the people called by the Lord's name. In today's passage we find the descendants of Abraham calling upon God to fight against their enemies---and His.
The Lord fought against their enemies in the past, such as when He delivered them from Egypt and such as when He defeated the heathen nations of the Promised Land in order to place the Israelites there. The people think back on those times when He acted mightily on their behalf. "For when You did awesome things that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled before You. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for Him." (Isaiah 64:3-4) The Gentiles believed in other gods but no other gods ever proved their existence. No other gods performed signs and wonders. No other gods miraculously saved those who called upon them. Only the God of Israel ever did any of those things because He is the only God there is.
This God---this only God---is a righteous and holy God. He does not reward sin. Although we cannot live perfectly sinless lives in these frail mortal bodies, the Lord knows our hearts. He knows who loves Him and who feels bad for their sins (and who quickly repents of them) and He knows those who not only make sin their lifestyle but who actively enjoy living in opposition to Him (because they do not really care about Him). When so many of the people of the northern and southern kingdoms forsook Him in favor of useless pagan deities, this was a form of deliberate sin and a purposeful change of lifestyle. The Lord could not reward unrepentant sin. He had to discipline them for their own good, which is why He did not deliver them from their enemies, as we see them recognizing below.
"You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember Your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, You were angry. How then can we be saved?" (Isaiah 64:5) They stopped gladly doing right. They did not care to remember His righteous ways. They did not repent when He pointed out to them, time and time again, that they were going down the wrong path. Eventually the situation reached a tipping point and the Lord had to take action in ways He would have preferred not to take action, but He had to allow such dire circumstances to befall them that they would consider their actions and repent of them.
Our portion of text today ends with them asking, "How then can we be saved?" We are going to talk about this question in more depth in our next study session. But, thanks be to God, there is a way to be saved! The God who comes to help has made a way for us to be saved.
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