“YOU ARE OUR FATHER!”

 

Isaiah 64:8-12                       (ESV)

    “[8] 

    But now, O LORD, “YOU ARE OUR FATHER”;

        WE ARE THE CLAY, and YOU ARE OUR POTTER;

        we are all the work of YOUR hand. 

    [9] 

    Be not so terribly angry, O LORD,

        and remember not iniquity forever.

        Behold, please look, we are all YOUR people. 

    [10] 

    YOUR Holy cities have become a wilderness;

        Zion has become a wilderness,

        Jerusalem a desolation. 

    [11] 

    Our holy and beautiful house,

        where our fathers praised YOU,

    has been burned by fire,

        and all OUR PLEASANT PLACES have become ruins. 

    [12] 

    Will YOU restrain YOURSELF at these things, O LORD?

        Will YOU keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?”

In days past it was common to hear the question “who’s your daddy”.   To my knowledge it wasn’t meant to challenge anybody’s heritage as much as it was the “in” thing to ask.  It can be very easy to follow what “this world” uses as examples, especially when humor or acceptance is linked to the actions.  But do we grasp that with every breath we are living a testament that “YOU ARE OUR FATHER” to a lost and dying world?

There is a hymn reportedly written in 1906 which considered Isaiah 64 by the author.  

“Have Thine own way, Lord! Have Thine own way!
Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and make me after Thy will,
While I am waiting, yielded and still.”

Like the old hymn, Scripture states that YOU are the Potter, and we are, IN REALITY, simply clay to be formed into whatever GLORIFIES HIM!  By ourselves, we don’t even have the ability to BREATH on our own (Isaiah 42:5), let alone MAKE ourselves successful!  We need to have our EYES OPENED and SEE that HE is more than we could EVER imagine and HIS PLAN for our lives is our only hope for true PEACE!  

We might have to experience a wilderness and desolation?  OUR PLEASANT PLACES might become ruin!  But HE might be leading us to the Red Sea to perform HIS HANDIWORK in our lives and draw GLORY to HIS NAME!  When we acknowledge that “YOU ARE OUR FATHER”, we are proclaiming that WE ARE THE CLAY, and YOU ARE OUR POTTER, and we surrender to YOUR leadership in our lives!!!