I came across a few verses this morning in my reading and felt compelled to share my thoughts on those verses with you.  The first verse I want to make mention of is Isaiah 64:6.  Now if you don't know the verse by the reference I'm sure once you start to read, the rest of the verse will find its way to your brain.  Isaiah 64:6 reads,

          

"But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags; We all fade as a leaf, And our iniquities, like the wind, Have taken us away."(NKJV) 

This is a common verse when we refer to the fact that our salvation is no doing of our own and that what we do here on earth is nothing in comparison with what the Lord has done.  We usually only get the first part of the verse however.  "But we are an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags..." and we stop there.  But look with me at the last part of this verse...

We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

Yes, we literally fade as the leaf as our bodies age and we pass away: were it not for salvation our souls would be carried away by our sin and taken far from the Lord.  But look also at the everyday application.  Aside from the grace and mercy of our Lord, aside from Him sending His only Son to die a horrible death on the cross of Calvary, we are but filthy rags.  AND we all stumble, we all fade in our rigor of the study of the Word,  we make mistakes and each and every one of our sins (iniquities) causes our now frail, weak and faded spirits to be carried farther from our Lord and Savior and farther from the Truth.

The other verse often quoted is Isaiah 64:8.  Again if you are not familiar with the reference the verse reads,

      But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the         work of Your hand.

We usually get this full verse when we reference it.  All the parts are there and we understand what it's telling us.  That we are clay, meant to be shaped and molded into a glorious thing.  That our Lord is the potter. He will be doing the shaping and molding, the breaking down to build back up into something more glorious.  That we are all a unique work or creation of God our Father.

The part we don't hear or reference very often is that little verse in between these two.  Did you notice that these two often quoted verses are in the same book?  How about the same chapter?  Did you notice that they are only separated in that chapter by a single verse?  So, what does that mysterious missing verse say?

Isaiah 64:7 reads

And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities.

This missing verse talks about how no one, not a single one of us, calls out His name in our sin.  We don't get ourselves in a fit trying to reach Him.  It is explained that this happens because He hides His face from us when we are consumed by our sin.  And rightly so, for the face of the Lord is not that of sin but of righteousness.  However, now that we are living in the new testament and the Savior has come, we have hope in His face and He does not leave our side.

If we put these verses in order, the story would tell us...

All that we do, no matter the effort we exert, falls short of the glory of God.   
(But we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;)

Our stumbling, mistakes and the fading of our rigorous study of His Word cause our sins to carry us from our Lord. 
(We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.)

In that sin that has carried us away, we, of our own power, do not cry out to you, or strive to return to you.
(And there is no one who calls on Your name, Who stirs himself up to take hold of You; For You have hidden Your face from us, And have consumed us because of our iniquities)

BUT, we know that we are clay, being molded and shaped by our Maker, the Potter.  We are a unique creation of the Lord and He takes care of His sheep.
(But now, O LORD, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You our potter; And all we are the         work of Your hand.)

And that my friends, is the gospel story.  While we were sinners, separated from our Creator by our sin, He sent His only Son to die on the cross for all of our sins.  So that, by believing in the glorious thing He has done and counting Jesus Christ alone as our Savior, we can have eternal life with our Creator and Sustainor in heaven, when we pass from this earth. (Ephesians 2:1-9) (John 3:16-17) Glory be to His name on high!!

To His Glory Alone,
JMarie