I have loved this verse, Today’s Text, for years. Since I first learned of it as a young Preacher, I suspect.

It is no doubt to be completely fulfilled during the coming Millennium, that Golden Age that will descend upon earth when Jesus comes again!

But still … I believe that even personally I have experienced (and seen) it come to fruition … even during these dark days.

Here it is: “And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” Isaiah 65:24, with God Himself being the Speaker.

The verse, quite clearly, speaks of PRAYER. People “calling.” And God “hearing.” More than that, God “answering!”

And we all know (and have known since we got saved) that God indeed answers prayer.

As in Jeremiah 33:3 … “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

But Jesus too, promised such: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: for every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8

But the unique thing about Isaiah 65:24 is that God is here promising to “hear and answer” … even BEFORE His people even ask!

Wow!

As if (and of course it is true) God can “read” our desires and longings, even before we express them!

I know He has “answered” some of my prayers … prior to my ever asking them!

Let’s all we all stop right now … and THANK HIM for His Attentiveness to our needs!

Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Our chapter begins rather cryptically. But God is the Speaker: “I am sought of them that asked not for me; I am found of them that sought me not: I said, Behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name.” Isaiah 65:1

The “nation” that was (still is) called by God’s Name is none other than “ISRAEL.” (The “el” at the end of this little proper noun is God’s very name “El” or “Elohiym.”)

But the “nation” that is NOT called by God’s name (and is the subject of our Verse today) is the vast block of human creation we would now call the “gentiles.” As a group, of course. (Actually the noun “goy” is employed here, a sure giveaway that the gentiles are in view. If the Jews had been in mind, likely “am” would have been used, another Hebrew noun meaning “people.”)

And God has “courted” or “pursued” or sought to “speak good news” to these gentiles as well. To “us,” I might rejoice!

Yes, God said to us who are not Jews … “Behold Me, behold Me!”

Twice Isaiah (quoting God) here writes “hinneh,” both occurrences (of course) being interjections! (As in: “Wow! What a surprise! Amazing! Look! God is offering us Salvation!”)

Here’s the point today: ISRAEL DID NOT WANT THE LORD! SHE REJECTED HIM! SO GOD, IN HIS LOVE AND GRACE, HAS TURNED TO US GENTILES! (AT LEAST UNTIL SUCH A TIME THAT ISRAEL IS READY TO BE SAVED!)

Our Text’s opening clauses are admittedly tough, hard to discern or interpret. But God is saying that the most unlikely of all people (the gentiles again) have been saved! People most unlikely to have ever sought the Lord!

We who are saved by God’s Grace and who are not Jews should be ecstatic today! “Jesus loved even me!”

And I am pretty sure I have explained this verse rightly because of something Paul later said about it. In Romans 10:20-21 it looks to me like he also applies Isaiah 65:1 to the gentiles. “But Esaias is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not; I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. BUT TO ISRAEL he saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and gainsaying people.”

“BUT TO ISRAEL” … in distinction to the gentiles who have believed!

Wow!

I love that word “whosoever!” I think it wonderfully expresses the very Heart of God! The God Who provides salvation for gentiles, too.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

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Oh, the impact the Book of Isaiah has had on the New Testament!

On our Christian lives, too, including our “vocabulary.”

And today’s verse furnishes us a prime example …

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6

What confession!

Yet this is from the same writer who records: “Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.” Isaiah 1:18

Wow!

But now, I can’t drift … back to our Text for today.

“But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.” Isaiah 64:6

The Hebrew adjective “unclean” (spelled “tame,” and pronounced ta-may’)means “defiled” or “polluted.” (The root word’s first use in Scripture records when Shechem “defiled” Jacob’s daughter Dinah, Genesis 34:5.)

And did you notice Isaiah frames the word “righteousness” in the plural number? “Our RIGHTEOUSNESSES, which to us (apparently) appear to be many … are merely (revoltingly) “filthy rags” in God’s Eyes!

“Rags” means “clothing, garments, apparel, robes, vestures,” (dozens of times) … but means “rags” as here only once in the Old Testament!

The adjective “filthy” conveys a powerful word picture. The word is simply spelled “ed” and means “a period of time.” It became to the Jews a word for “menstrual (bloody) cloths!” Which were extremely unclean to the rabbi, to the priest, in Mosaic Law. (Leviticus 15:19 … And if a woman have an issue, and her issue in her flesh be blood, she shall be put apart seven days: and whosoever toucheth her shall be unclean until the even.)

To “fade as a leaf” suggests the state of losing one’s vitality. (The spiritual man who meditates in God’s Word “day and night” will be like a tree whose leaves never fade! Read Psalm 1:1-3.) Isaiah is highlighting the “wages” of sin here.

The noun “iniquities” employs a verb meaning “twisted things, perverted” in the Sight of God! The word is spelled “avon” in Hebrew.

But here (next) is another unique metaphor. Our sins/iniquities being like the “wind!” Strong wind that blows away lots of good things, a cyclonic storm of sinfulness, destroying much in its path!

This single verse provides us a veritable theology of sin (in class this is called “hamartiology”).

Sin which Jesus came to forgive!

Sins which Jesus bore for us on the Cross!

Isaiah 53:6 … All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; AND THE LORD HATH LAID ON HIM THE INIQUITY OF US ALL.

In fact, God can even do this with our “filthy rags” and iniquitous wretchedness … “Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness: according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies BLOT OUT MY TRANSGRESSIONS.” Quoting a repenting David in Psalm 51:1.

Wow!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

Such sins … all gone!

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“For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.” Isaiah 64:4

This is clearly the very verse Paul had in mind as he (much later) wrote: “But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.” 1 Corinthians 2:9

At least 66 times is Isaiah so used, his words being reproduced (quoted directly or indirectly) in the New Testament! What an impact!

Sounds like (from today’s Text) that God has “prepared” some great things for His people! In Hebrew “prepared” translates “asah,” a verb meaning “to make, to fashion, to produce, to perform!” While in Greek (Paul’s word) “hetoimazo” which is translated “prepared” means “made fit.” Or simply “to make ready.”

Makes one anticipate God’s Will … positively so … for each child of His, each believer in Jesus!

“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.” Jeremiah 29:11 surely expounds this idea too!

And Isaiah hints that no god beside our great (living) God … can do such things! “Oh God, beside Thee!” Beside the God Who so loved the world He sent His Son Jesus to die for our sins!

A Hebrew scholar has expressed his thoughts on the verse, Isaiah 64:4, like this: “For from days of old no one has heard, nor has ear perceived, nor has the eye seen a God besides You, Who works and acts in behalf of the one who gladly waits for Him.”

Wow!

Heaven must be wonderful!

Our glorified bodies, too!

Not even mentioning the “New Jerusalem” that will be our home eternally!

And all of eternity …“with Jesus!”

Hallelujah!

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

We can’t even imagine what God has planned for those who love Him! He IS indeed: “able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Ephesians 3:20

Years ago in Book about “Revival” I recall reading a Sermon using Isaiah 64:1 as its Text. These words comprise a prayer to God: “Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence.”

As in: “Lord, we need Thee. Please come and help us. Only Thy Presence could ever meet the needs (right the wrongs) in this old sinful world. Thou art our Salvation.”

In our Text today … the verb “wouldest rend” is spelled “qara” in Hebrew, meaning “to tear in pieces.” It can also mean “to make (something) wide or large.” Or “to split asunder!”

The verb “come down” is self-explanatory. “Yarad” means “to descend.” (God did descend one Day, literally, at the Incarnation! Jesus is God “come down” to us!)

Come to think of it, God did “rend the heavens” once as well! When Jesus was baptized! “And straightway coming up out of the water, he (Jesus) saw the heavens opened (the Greek verb schizo, our word “schism,” meaning ‘to tear open’), and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him.”

Wow!

This is Revival, no doubt!

But our verse today, Isaiah 64:1, does NOT directly point to either of the two Jesus Events just described, not precisely. It looks yet further ahead to the Second Coming of Jesus to earth!

I mean “Revelation 19:11” ahead …

John there wrote: “And I saw heaven opened (like a door), and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him (JESUS) was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.”

Jesus, returning to defeat the anti-Christ and the hordes of ungodly people who worship him! Jew haters, every single one!

And then literally, the Old Testament teaches us … when Jesus’ Feet touch earth … “And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives SHALL CLEAVE in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.” Zechariah 14:4

Yes, the earth will be rearranged when Jesus comes again!

Truthfully … “the mountains will flow at His Presence!” Just like our Text insinuates, promises.

And mark this … when Jesus comes again … TRUE (WORLD-WIDE, GENUINE) REVIVAL WILL HAVE ARRIVED!

Isaiah’s prayer of long ago will have been answered.

Amen.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell

I more and more see why godly people long for that Return, for that Revelation of our dear Lord. And why the Bible closes (Revelation 22:20 with this prayer: “Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

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