Lord, look down from heaven;
    look from your holy, glorious home, and see us.
Where is the passion and the might
    you used to show on our behalf?
    Where are your mercy and compassion now?
16 Surely you are still our Father!
    Even if Abraham and Jacob would disown us,
Lord, you would still be our Father.
    You are our Redeemer from ages past.
17 Lord, why have you allowed us to turn from your path?
    Why have you given us stubborn hearts so we no longer fear you?
Return and help us, for we are your servants,
    the tribes that are your special possession.
18 How briefly your holy people possessed your holy place,
    and now our enemies have destroyed it.
19 Sometimes it seems as though we never belonged to you,
    as though we had never been known as your people. (New Living Translation).

There is something plaintive in that nineteenth verse don’t you think? But note how Isaiah makes his appeal to the Lord on the basis of the special relationship which exists between God and His people (17b). It is also on the grounds of who He is (16), i.e. their ”Father” and ”Redeemer”.

‘Do they face the world as children without a father? These are the questions which generations of Israelites have asked, especially in times of crisis. But they are also Isaiah’s own questions. They trouble him too as he prays…They are the questions of prodigals come home, daring to hope that father – simply because that is who he is – will not turn them from his door

Isaiah has become so identified with those for whom he prays that, as far as his language is concerned, there is no difference between him and them. Their Father is his Father, their sins are his sins, and so are their doubts, perplexities and hard questions. By his praying he brings them to the Father when they are too weak or proud to come themselves. He acts as a true intercessor. It is likely that later generations of Israelites used this very prayer to lament the destruction of the temple and seek God’s forgiveness. If so, it did double duty; it lived on after Isaiah himself had died, and became the prayer of the very ones for whom he had interceded. It gave them voice in one of the darkest moments of their history.’ Barry Webb: ‘Isaiah’, pp.242/243.