Isaiah 63:15-19--Prayer for Mercy

Isaiah 63:15-19
English Standard Version

Prayer for Mercy
15 Look down from heaven and see,
    from your holy and beautiful habitation.
Where are your zeal and your might?
    The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion
    are held back from me.
16 For you are our Father,
    though Abraham does not know us,
    and Israel does not acknowledge us;
you, O LORD, are our Father,
    our Redeemer from of old is your name.
17 O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways
    and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?
Return for the sake of your servants,
    the tribes of your heritage.
18 Your holy people held possession for a little while;
    our adversaries have trampled down your sanctuary.
19 We have become like those over whom you have never ruled,
    like those who are not called by your name.

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Isaiah has done his best to get the people's focus back on God and His covenant love (also known as His mercy in the Old Testament) for His people.  Now he wants to lead them in a prayer for God to once again act on their behalf in accordance with His covenant love.  They ask Him to once again turn His face towards them and see them in their suffering.  They call on Him to act for His name's sake.  He is the Father and they are but little children not able to do anything on their own--they need Him to do everything for them.

He is their Redeemer as well, the one who bought them with a price when He led them out of slavery in Egypt.  They were not a people, but, that night, He made them a people marked by the blood of a Passover Lamb.  Now we are His people bough with a price and marked with the blood of the better Passover Lamb--the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

Isaiah asks why the LORD caused them to wander away.  The simple answer is that He did not.  He allowed them to be tested, but it was their own evil desires that led them away.  It's hard sometimes though to not ask God "Why didn't you stop this?"  If the test never comes, we can never truly know what is in our hearts and learn from it.  God knows with or without the test as He sees and knows everything, but it reveals the truth to men and to angels that God's salvation is for people that don't deserve it, but is judgment is for people who definitely deserve it.

Isaiah asks the LORD to remember His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and return the people to the Land once more so that they could experience the fullness of His covenant blessings and worship Him there in a new Temple.  If God does not separate His people from the Gentiles, Isaiah fears that they will become exactly like the Gentiles or possibly become even worse than the Gentiles (in God's eyes, they have already gotten there, which is why He sent them into Exile, but Isaiah does not want them to remain in that state--he knows the Israelites will likely only repent if they have hope of returning to the Land).