Just seven verses into chapter 63, Isaiah begins to speak. He is upset. His message has been one of gloom and doom, of judgment and promise, but the people have not listened to him. And so, the prophet, now near the end of His book, calls on God to act, and do so swiftly.
What strikes me about chapters 63 and 64 is his total belief in the sovereignty of God. God is responsible for Israel’s misfortunes, as well as her inability to change her ways.
It seems he is more than a bit unfair, but don’t judge him harshly. He is confessing to the total dependence of humanity, in every way, on God. He is maintaining humanity’s total inability to survive without God’s favor.
God, of course, answers in chapter 65. He reviews Israel’s thorough going apostasy and blames her for her troubles, but he too makes a confession: He confesses His inability to leave His people alone. He will never allow them to be totally destroyed and those who devote themselves to Him, his servants, will he bless. In the end, He will bring them into a new age and a new place, a new heavens and earth where life bears no resemblance to the present.
It is that new heavens and earth Peter referred to in 2 Peter 3:13, the world all the servants of the Lord still long for.