Isaiah 64:1-9
Isaiah was a
prophet who proclaimed God’s message, mainly to Judah, about 700 years before
Christ. This was during the time the Assyrian Empire had conquered Israel and
Judah.
Many believe
that Isaiah’s disciples continued proclaiming God’s word in Isaiah’s footsteps,
and that this occurred centuries after Isaiah died. If this is true, it is
likely that our passage tonight was written in the 500s, after the Babylonian
Empire had defeated the Assyrians and captured the Israelites, and then after
the Persian Empire had conquered the Babylonians. In 538, the Persian leader
Cyrus the Great allowed the Israelites to return home from captivity. It may be
during this time of return from exile that our passage was written.
Unlike many
passages in the book of Isaiah, which tend to be God’s messages to Judah or the
surrounding nations, Isaiah 64:1-9 is part of a prayer to God.
So it
begins:
“Oh, that
you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze
and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
and cause the nations to quake before you!
For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.”
that the mountains would tremble before you!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze
and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
and cause the nations to quake before you!
For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.”
The prophet
prays that God would show God’s power through great supernatural, destructive
acts—that God himself would come down, and by descending, cause the earth and
its nations to tremble in fear! The prophet writes on behalf of a people
returning to a home that is alien; their temple, their walls, their fields are
ruinous and barren, and the great hope they had been expecting—God’s
deliverance—wasn’t as they imagined it to be. The prophet asks God to reveal
himself so that the nations would know of God’s power and the source of
Israel’s strength. He asks God to reveal himself maybe also so that the
Israelites themselves would again believe.
On one level
it is difficult for me to relate to this. To my knowledge, neither I nor my immediate
ancestors have lived as prisoners and refugees and then returned home, only to
find our home disappointing.
Yet I have
felt disappointed, have felt that my expectations of reality did not match my actual
experience of it. As a member of the body of Christ, these words in Isaiah seem
to unearth feelings I did not realize I had. We as Christians have returned
home from exile, the exile of sin; we have been returning home ever since Jesus
declared “It is finished” on the cross. And when he rose again, he showed us
that God has already begun creating a new heavens and a new earth, planting
streams and a garden in the desert, preparing a banquet to feed all nations.
Yet we have
dwelled in this age that is supposed to be our home for thousands of years—and
it is disappointing. In many places the temple seems to be crumbling, the walls
are brittle, and the land is dry and cracked. Yes, the church has done much
good over the centuries, but she has also been faithless, joining hands with
empires more powerful than Assyria or Babylon. So often she is difficult to
distinguish from unjust rulers. Yes, many of us are secure, but often it is a
security not in God but in what we have mastered with our hands, walls made of
sand. Yes, we may be fed, but so much of the world is not, and the earth and
many of its people are crying out.
And where is
God? If only God would show himself as he once did, with fire and wonder! If
only God would show our enemies—would show us—that God still performs miracles
to save us. If only God would finally live among us and make things right, once
and for all! Hasn’t enough time passed?
Maybe we too
have whispered this prayer from Isaiah:
“Oh, that
you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze
and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
and cause the nations to quake before you!
For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.”
that the mountains would tremble before you!
As when fire sets twigs ablaze
and causes water to boil,
come down to make your name known to your enemies
and cause the nations to quake before you!
For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.”
The prophet
continues:
“Since
ancient times, no one has heard, no ear has perceived,
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember your ways.”
no eye has seen any God besides you,
who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.
You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember your ways.”
This is who
God is: God works for those who wait for him, and helps those who gladly do
right and remember God’s ways.
Throughout the
book of Isaiah we see what it means to wait for God, to gladly do right and
remember God’s ways. It means to be still and trust God. It means to release
unjust burdens and cancel debts, to care for strangers and welcome them into
our homes, to not hide from our families.
Now that I
have spoken those words, I find the prophet’s next words to be almost
comforting. They speak on my behalf as someone who needs to wait upon God, to
gladly do right, and remember God’s ways.
Verses 5-7:
“But when we
continued to sin against them, you were angry.
How then can we be saved?
All of us have become like one who is 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.
No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you,
for you have hidden your face from us
and made us waste away because of our sins.”
How then can we be saved?
All of us have become like one who is 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.
No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you,
for you have hidden your face from us
and made us waste away because of our sins.”
The prophet
cries that God has hidden from God’s people because of the people’s sins. That
is why God will not come down; that is why God has not acted and helped God’s
people. That is why God’s people have decayed.
How then can
we be saved?
The prophet
looks not to other people, and not to himself, but to God for salvation.
Verses 8 and
9:
“Yet, O
LORD, you are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD;
do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look upon us, we pray,
for we are all your people.”
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
Do not be angry beyond measure, O LORD;
do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look upon us, we pray,
for we are all your people.”
The
prophet’s hope is in God—the parent who gave birth to and has guided Israel;
the potter who has sculpted her into a beautiful jar fit for service; the one
to whom Israel belongs, the one who is responsible for Israel.
We are here
tonight because we know that God did answer the prophet’s prayer: God did come
down, though in a way no one expected. The mountains trembled beneath singing
in the sky, and mighty leaders quaked at the news that a King would be born—that
God would come in the most vulnerable of forms, as a baby. God did act on
behalf of those who waited for him, and did help those who gladly did right and
remembered his ways.
But we are
in Advent, not Christmas. First we must wait. This is why some people don’t
sing Christmas carols during Advent—they wait until Christmas, or until they
can hold out no longer, whichever comes first. During Advent we wait with
Israel, given a promise that God will bring salvation, but uncertain if the
promise will be fulfilled.
What helps
us identify with Israel is that we are in a similar situation. We too are
waiting—for Jesus to come a second time, and for God to completely deliver us
from sin and transform the world, replacing weeping with laughing. And like
Israel returning home from exile, we too may find that home—this age we live
in—is not as we imagined it to be. We are glad to be home, don’t get me wrong, but
it is not the home we were hoping for, at least not yet. Jesus has not yet
returned. And some of us may wonder where God even is, why God does not seem to
be doing anything, and if Jesus ever will return.
Like he did
to Israel, the prophet encourages us in our time: wait for the LORD, and he
will act on your behalf. Gladly do right and remember God’s ways, and God will
help you. Find your strength in quietness and trust, and as you watch for the
morning, shine your light by sharing with those who have little and by comforting
the restless.
Advent
reminds us that we are called to wait for God. This isn’t passive idleness, or
complete absence of thought; when we wait for someone, we keep our eyes out,
alert and expecting to find that person around the corner. If we don’t wait, we
might miss the arrival. If we don’t wait, we might not be ready to welcome the
homecoming. Maybe, through our waiting for God, we begin to reflect the
character of God, and so become vessels through which God works in the world.
As we wait
for the promised day when Jesus comes down for a second time, may we find that
through his Spirit he is present with us individually and as the church, making
his name known, causing the nations and mountains to tremble, and doing awesome
things that we do not expect. May God forgive us anew for times we have failed
to live up to our calling, and may God fulfil in us God’s word because God is
our Father and our Maker, and we are God’s people.
Many
Christians practice a form of worship called waiting worship. After I close, I
invite us to spend some time waiting, together, for God. By waiting together
here for a short time, we can strengthen each other to become people who wait
with our whole lives. If you feel prompted to speak a word for the whole group,
you are welcome to do so. We believe that when we wait for the LORD, God acts--though
in ways we may not always understand. Our time of waiting will end with our
final song. May we be refreshed in the Lord’s presence as we wait for him.
