Isaiah 64:3Meaning & Commentary from the Church Fathers

A parallel thought is echoed by the prophet, declaring, For you will open the heavens, a sign of impending judgment akin to the days of the great flood, for the floodgates of heaven were unleashed. When this occurs, the mountains will tremble before you and melt like wax before the heat. Here, mountains refer not to earthly elevations, but to malevolent forces characterized by their pride, which are aptly compared to the tallest peaks. These forces, fostered by hubris, will quiver in fear; they will dissolve as if consumed by flames. The fiery wrath descending will vanquish those who appear to defy your commands. Through this, the name of the Lord will be made known to those who oppose you. What does this signify? The Almighty often performs wondrous acts, manifesting the vastness of His intrinsic power and dominion. In doing so, He sometimes disciplines sinners, making His wrath evident against them. This was exemplified when He rained down fire upon Sodom or when He unleashed a series of grievous plagues upon the foolish Pharaoh. Therefore, Lord, they implore, do not reveal your splendor or your name through judgment against us, but rather direct it toward the wicked powers or those who openly defy your glory, drawn toward it by their inflated pride; for even then, you will be exalted: your magnificence will be apparent, and the mountains will tremble at your presence. Once again, this pertains to the mountains we have mentioned.

Since our foes have overrun Your sanctuary, we find ourselves as we were at the beginning, when Your name was not called upon us; we beseech You, Oh, if You would tear the heavens and come down, fulfilling Your promises continually. This was uttered in a time before the Savior had arrived, before He took on our nature and essence from the womb of the virgin in order to restore us to the image of heavenly realities, just as we have borne the likeness of earthly things (1 Cor. 15). They argue that if this were to have occurred, if the heavens or firmament had been torn apart at the appearance of Your glory, the mountains would have collapsed, or been shaken and vanished, like wax in fire. Ezekiel beheld the heavens opened and witnessed a grand vision (Ezek. 1). Furthermore, during the blessings in Deuteronomy, Moses prayed, ‘May the Lord open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to bestow a blessing upon you’ (Deut. 28:12). The Gospel of Matthew recounts that John the Baptist witnessed the heavens opened and the Holy Spirit descending upon the Lord in the form of a dove. The mountains, which shall melt like wax at the coming of the Lord, of whom it is written, ‘For the Lord your God is a consuming fire’ (Deut. 4:24), symbolize the opposing forces and all who defy the mind of God, celebrated in the ninety-sixth psalm, ‘Behold, the earth is moved. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of all the earth’ (Psalm 96:3-4). If You had come down and fulfilled Your promises, the waters of the sea would have dried up, rendering their saltiness extinguished by fire. Another Psalm states, ‘As the smoke vanishes, so shall they perish; as wax melts before fire, so shall the wicked perish at the presence of God’ (Psalms 67:3). It is noteworthy that when the waters of the sea are consumed by divine fire, the name of the Lord the Savior shall be revealed to His foes, as referenced in the sixty-seventh Psalm, ‘The tongues of your dogs shall be made known among your enemies’ (Psalms 67:24), so that those who did not recognize Your goodness may now realize it through the devastation of their city and their own captivity. From Your presence, nations shall experience turmoil, or, as the Hebrew more explicitly states, shall be stirred, so that those who were previously idle may now find salvation. When He performs miraculous signs, as He did in Egypt and in the wilderness, they will acknowledge their inability to withstand His coming, as fear shall seize the mountains. It is beautifully rendered in Hebrew; those who above lamented, ‘Oh, if You had torn the heavens and come down, the mountains would have melted at Your presence,’ then add, ‘You have come down, the Word made flesh, and dwelt among us, truly Immanuel, which means God with us.’ Therefore, all the mountains concerning which we have spoken have fallen from Your presence. The Hebrews interpret this passage as follows: fire shall consume the wicked, just as waters boil with flames, confirming that ‘amasim’ does not signify destruction and melting, but rather the wicked.