Isaiah 64:6
All of us have become like one who is unclean, --
Someone who had touched a dead body was considered to be contaminated by it and was required to go through a process of cleansing to prevent the spread of disease.
and all our righteous acts --
All the best things we can do, even when we try our hardest to be good and do right.
are like filthy rags; --
These filthy rags are actually putrid, uncleanable menstrual cloths; the most disgusting thing Isaiah could think of.
This means that even the best, most noble, fine things we can do are still contaminated by uncleanness and unacceptable to God. This uncleanness is our fallen human nature; that's why Jesus said we must be "born again" (John 3:3ff).
We all shrivel up like a leaf, --
Like a fall leaf looses its chlorophyll (that gives it its green color, revealing the fall color) and then looses all its moisture and dries up and crumbles; we all "shrivel up" with wickedness and old age.
and like the wind our sins sweep us away. --
Then like the wind blows away the leaf, so our sins (iniquities; twisting the Truth) cause us to "twist in the wind," the way we twist God's good rules that are meant for our good, by "re-interpreting" them to mean something else that they're not. And we end up "blown away" from the prosperity and peace we used to know, when we acknowledged God.
Wake up, people. Do what God has enabled you to do. I know you're just one person, but it takes every one of us to constitute that "moral majority" that used to be talked about. All together we can do it, with God's help & in His strength. Persevere. Occupy until He returns, don't bury your talent by sitting on your hands.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
