Imagine you are a son or daughter, and your father tells you exactly what to do, and you do it perfectly. With a smile on your face, you show your dad, "I did everything you wanted, aren't you proud of me?" But your dad turns to you and says, "It'll never be good enough. Your best effort is like trash to me. All I really want is for you to love me." How difficult would it be to maintain a relationship with that kind of father? That is exactly how many people read Isaiah 64:6
"But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." (Isaiah 64:6)
Christians (primarily) usually interpret this verse to mean that all our deeds, including our righteous deeds are like filthy rags to G-d. No matter how hard you try, no matter what you do, every physical action you take in this world (even for G-d) is nothing more than a filthy cloth to Him.
Is that really the takeaway that G-d wants us to have? Did G-d really make it so no matter how much we try, nothing we do will ever be "good enough"? This is polar opposite to the loving Father figure described all throughout the scriptures! This interpretation is not just overly depressing (and based in docetism), but also an interpretation that is wildly out of context.
Let's go back a few verses to truly understand what is going on.
In Isaiah 63, they are blaming G-d for making them stray, "Why G-d, do YOU make us stray from Your ways and cause our hearts away from revering You?" There is a blame being placed on G-d because G-d has hid His face from them. Isaiah 64 picks up with more lamenting and then says:
5 Yet You have struck those who would gladly do justice, And remember You in Your ways. But you are angry that we have sinned; We have been steeped in them (sin) for a long time, we will we be saved?
Isaiah 64 is part of a prayer from the Jewish people in exile, expressing their deep remorse and recognition of their sins. They are crying out to G-d, acknowledging that their disobedience has led to their suffering, and they feel distant from Him. It's a communal reflection on their spiritual state, and they are essentially saying, “We’re aware of how far we’ve fallen from Your expectations, G-d.”
The ones who did righteousness and justice were taken from them. The ones who remained had fallen into sin and G-d became angry with them. They had continually sinned and now ask if they will be spared or if G-d will eliminate them too.
Why were the righteous taken? If people saw that the righteous died when they were undeserving of death, people would realize how merciful G-d was being towards them by letting them live while they were undeserving (Moed Katan 28a). Now there are no more righteous, everyone is involved in sinful activities and who will be righteous and show us them the way back? Which righteous person is left to be taken so that they can realize G-d's mercy on them and repent? There is none.
6 All of us have become like a filthy rag [unclean], and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
The people recognize that their efforts to be righteous are not working because they are still tainted by sin. In other words, their attempts at good deeds are like putting a bandage on a serious wound without addressing the underlying issue. It's likened to a person who is told to sweep the floors, but he puts on muddy boots and walks forwards while sweeping. He is doing the deed required, but what is it achieving? Until he takes off the muddy boots, his best efforts will leave a trail of dirt.
The phrase “filthy rags” in the Hebrew is often interpreted to refer to cloths used during menstruation (which would render one ritually impure under Levitical law). This metaphor is a dramatic way of saying that their acts, done without proper spiritual intention or without following God’s ways, have no value because they are impure. This isn’t saying that good deeds are inherently worthless, but rather that deeds done in a state of rebellion or impurity are ineffective in restoring the relationship with G-d.
7 Yet no one invokes Your name, Rouses themselves to cling to You. For You have hidden Your face from us, And made us melt because of our iniquities.
This verse explains verse 6 plainly; no one invokes your name or gathers up the effort to cling to G-d. This is why even their 'righteous deeds' are like dirty rags, it is because no one truly chases after G-d. This is similar to a man telling his neighbor that a good husband only sleeps with his own wife. The neighbor, upon hearing this, rushes over and sleeps with the man's wife - and claiming to be a good husband. It is not the deed itself that made him a good husband, it was doing a deed while in an active relationship.
They feel that the reason that they are in this situation is because G-d has hidden His face from them and caused them to stray further away because of their sins. The more they sin, the further from G-d they become. But if G-d does not look towards them and help them, how will they turn back to Him? Thus Isaiah continues with a plea to G-d:
8 But now, O ETERNAL One, You are our Father; We are the clay, and You are the Potter, We are all the work of Your hands.
With the acknowledgment of their wrong-doing (the first step of repentance), they plea to G-d and beg for Him to help them turn from iniquity.
G-d then responds and gives them hope of a messianic future if they choose to obey Him with the proper spirit and intent (Isaiah 65:8-10, 16-25), but those who do not obey Him and desire evil, then they will perish and all their works will be regarded as dust (Isaiah 65:11-15).
Conclusion
Isaiah 64:6 is not about dismissing all righteous deeds as worthless, but rather about highlighting the spiritual condition of the people during that time. Their "righteousness" had become ineffective because it was performed without true devotion or a sincere return to G-d. Just as walking in muddy boots defeats the purpose of sweeping, their actions, while externally good, were tainted by internal impurity and estrangement from G-d. The passage is a plea for repentance and reconnection, not a rejection of righteousness itself. G-d, as a loving Father, desires our hearts and our sincere efforts, not empty actions. When approached with humility, repentance, and genuine intent, our actions are indeed meaningful and can restore our relationship with the Divine.
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