Note some deliverance passages and how it is God who solves the problem:Isaiah 59:2-4 But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, And your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. 3 For your hands are defiled with blood And your fingers with iniquity; Your lips have spoken falsehood, Your tongue mutters wickedness. 4 No one sues righteously and no one pleads honestly. They trust in confusion and speak lies; They conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity.
The Scripture states that the iniquities of Israel has separated them from their God. The result of one who is sin-infested is that God hides Himself from him. Indeed, the hands of sinners are defiled, unclean, and filthy. Even the very fingers on one's hands are full of iniquity and transgression. The lips find comfort in speaking falsehood and the tongue mutters wickedness. This is the utter depraved state that Israel found herself in back in Isaiah's time. Indeed, this is the same state that all human beings find themselves in. This is the human plight. The predicament is evident: God turns away from sinful man because of his impurity and defilement.
Note even verse 12:
Isaiah 59:12 12 For our transgressions are multiplied before You, And our sins testify against us; For our transgressions are with us, And we know our iniquities:
Man, utterly helpless and incapable of bringing any deliverance unto himself in any way whatsoever needs One to interceed on behalf of Him. Note, the response does not come from man and his ingenuity but from God and His abundant mercy:
Isaiah 59:15-16 Now the LORD saw, And it was displeasing in His sight that there was no justice. 16 And He saw that there was no man, And was astonished that there was no one to intercede; Then His own arm brought salvation to Him, And His righteousness upheld Him.
What an amazing concept. Man, covered in filth, sin, defiling wickedness and unrighteousness cannot save Himself. But the LORD saw. That's the greatest phrase that brings comfort to deadened sinners. The LORD saw us. The LORD looks upon us. The LORD regards us. NOTE, it is not because there is anything worthy in us. Rather, the opposite is true. It is because we are wholly unworthy to look at that Yahweh—in his sovereign and supernatural mercy—looks upon our helplessness and brings salvation to him. The text says that God's "own arm brought salvation."
This is OT gospel given by Yahweh through Isaiah to the people of Israel. But the same truth can be found in the NT as well. We are dead in sin and in need for God's sovereign intervention to "bring salvation" to sinners. May we be faithful to evangelize and wait for God's "own arm to bring salvation" to His elect.
