Oh That the Lord Would Rend the Heavens and Return!

Isaiah 64:1-9 Isaiah prophesied during some of the darkest days in the history of the Israelites.  In his lifetime, Assyria would conquer much of Israel, coming right up to the walls of Jerusalem before being stopped.  But the end of Assyria was not the end of Israel’s troubles-- for Babylon would take their place, and conquer even the holy city.

            Much of this happened during Isaiah’s lifetime—right before his eyes.  It is in this context that Isaiah cries out to God:

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence— as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil—to make your name known to your adversaries, and that the nations might tremble at your presence! 

            O Lord, do something!  Do something mighty and powerful.  Do something that is unmistakably the work of your hands.  Do something so that people will know that you exist.  Protect your people and punish their enemies!  O Lord, do something!

We understand the sentiments of his prayer, don’t we?  The people of God were in decline and the pagan nations who surrounded them were on the rise.  Isaiah knew that with their victory would come own pagan beliefs and practices and the very existence of the people of God was at stake.

We understand the emotion behind his prayer for God’s mighty deliverance because often times it fills our prayers too.  We live in a culture and world that is in many ways unrecognizable to those who grew up in it—a culture and world where evil is on the rise and the good fading fast and Isaiah’s prayer becomes our own:  Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down!

We want the world to know who is God.  We want the violent and the perverse to be punished.  We want to see false religions that deceive so many disappear. 

And truth be told, don’t we also want it to be known that we are on God’s side and he on ours?  Isaiah did—and he knew that Israel’s past revealed a God who would act on behalf of his people and against their enemies with might and power and justice.

When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.  From of old no one has heard or perceived by the ear, no eye has seen a God besides you, who acts for those who wait for him.  You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways. 

            From the parting of the Red Sea to the destruction of the prophets of Baal, time and time again in Israel’s history, the Lord had shown himself to be a God who could be counted on the come to the aid of his people against their foes.

Their history is our history too.  The God who is revealed in the pages of Holy Scripture is our God too.  These biblical accounts of God’s might and power are not ancient fables—they are historical facts. 

We know that the Lord is the same God who caused the Flood and parted the Red Sea and destroyed the prophets of Baal and so Isaiah’s prayer for God to act with justice and vengeance in his day is not unknown to us in our day:  “smite the evildoer and punish the godless and reward the righteous!”

But it’s right here in his prayer for God to act in might and power, that Isaiah remembers something very important about God:  that the Lord is perfectly righteous and to call for his judgment upon sinners-- is to call down judgment upon himself as well.

Behold, you were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved? 

            The story of sin and faithlessness was not just the story of the Assyrians and the Babylonians-- but it was part of Israel’s story too. 

God punished them for their worship of the golden calf at the foot of Mt. Sinai.  God sent snakes into the midst of the wandering Israelites as a punishment for their grumbling.  God refused to let an entire generation of them enter into the Promised Land because of their fear.  And even as Isaiah prayed these words God had raised up the Assyrians-- and would raise up the Babylonians-- to punish his people for their sin. 

Their history was marked—not only with God acting with power and wrath over other’s sins—but over their sins too. 

That is important for us to remember when we pray for God’s judgment upon others.  God’s anger burns not just against those who commit adultery but those who lust; not just against those who murder but those who are angry; not just against those who blaspheme but those who insult their brethren.

When we join with Isaiah to pray for God’s judgment to fall upon those who do evil, we should be very careful what we pray for—for God’s answer falls on us too.

At this point in his prayer Isaiah changes direction for he realized that mankind’s sin and God’s punishment was not someone’s else’s story—but was his story too. 

So serious was Israel’s sin and lack of repentance, that if their salvation as a people depended upon their own righteousness—then it was impossible that they could be saved at all.  For their sins were an abomination in God’s sight and a stench in his nostrils and deserved his judgment as well.

We have ALL become like one who is unclean, and ALL our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. 

            There are very few passages in the Bible that more clearly portray how God sees sin than this part of Isaiah’s prayer. 

The Hebrew word that Isaiah uses that we translate as “unclean” was used for those afflicted with leprosy or some other disfiguring disease.  It describes someone with a systemic disease that goes through and through the whole person and affects every part of their lives.  And so pervasive is this sin-sickness that even the best deeds that human beings can offer to God are dirty rags so filthy that they are fit only to be burned.

This is the condition of every human being by nature and it applies to everyone and to every thought, word, and deed.  ALL are unclean—and ALL righteous deeds are polluted.

By that standard, the judgment of God on all humanity is “guilty” and the punishment is death. 

We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.  There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities. 

In the spring the trees around the church put out buds and they grew into fresh green leaves.  But now they are dried up and blown away by the wind.  Soon they will decay to the point of dust.  That’s the way Isaiah says it is with those who sin. 

When Adam sinned, death entered into the world.  God told Adam:  You are dust and to dust you shall return.  Physical and spiritual death is the consequence of sin.  So it was with Israel.

Years of living apart from God—of rebelling against his holy will—of worshiping false gods had destroyed the Israelites’ faith.  Even in that late moment they looked for deliverance in foreign alliances and in military strength rather than the Lord and because they failed to look to him—the Lord turned his face away from them.

We are no different than they were.  As Adam’s children we will all die unless the Lord comes first.  We are born into this world alienated from God, spiritually dead—incapable of calling upon God or seeking him. It is no wonder that Isaiah wondered about the possibility of salvation.  But even in that dark hour there was still hope.

But now, O Lord, you are our Father; we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand.  Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever.  Behold, please look, we are all your people.

            When Isaiah reminds himself that God is the potter and his people are the clay, he is affirming a very important biblical truth—that our very existence at this moment is an indisputable sign of God’s grace towards us. 

God does not create us so that he can destroy us.  God creates us so that he can love us and save us and fashion our lives into something that is beautiful in his sight.  God’s creation is the first act of his gracious love toward us but not the last.

Not only has God created us—he has redeemed us and brought us into his family so that we are his children and he our Father and it is that relationship of love that Isaiah counts on even in that dark hour.  Salvation would be found--not the faithfulness of the people—but the faithfulness of God towards his covenant promise of a Messiah.

So it is for us.  Isaiah promised that the Virgin would conceive and bear a Son—and she did.  Isaiah promised that he would be stricken, smitten, and afflicted for our sins in our place us and he was.  Isaiah promised that the Messiah himself would be our peace and he is. 

Because of Jesus, who is the Fulfillment of God’s ancient covenant, God’s wrath over our sins has been taken away and he has graciously answered Isaiah’s prayer by remembering our sins no more.

God is our Father and we are his children—he is the Potter and we are the clay and he will re-shape our lives into something that is beautiful and worthy in his sight so that we can be confident that when God’s judgment finally and fully falls upon the world that we will be counted as his people—the work of his redeeming hands.  Amen.