You have to wonder what people of Isaiah’s day thought of the notion that God’s holy and glorious temple would one day be a smoldering hulk in a desert, but as Isaiah wrote the words of God, that’s exactly the picture the Lord presents.
In Isaiah 63 and 64, the prophet reviews God’s troubled relationship with His people – troubled because His people, like rebellious children, refused to hear His voice and obey. Isaiah confesses that God’s people are unworthy of the blessings of God, but he asks for them anyway, and expects them, because they are, after all, God’s children – and their suffering has been great.
The people reading this book for the first time have a choice about their future: They can change the way they are living. They won’t, but they could. And every day, as time marches toward the inevitable foretold tragedy, they are reminded: this is what God said would happen if we didn’t repent.
In the end, God promises great blessings, but one should keep in mind that the blessings are only guaranteed to God’s people, and then only if God’s people, as God’s people, turn to Him and place their trust solidly in His power and way.