Isaiah 64:1-9
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!
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.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
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.
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.
Today we are at the beginning of a new year in the Christian church. And one of my habits over the years has been to choose one of the readings to preach on for the course of a year. Last year, I did the Epistle reading. So we read through all of those epistles, Paul's letters, Romans, Corinthians and all that stuff. This year, I'm planning on working through the Old Testament reading all year long. Now, the reason I do this is one, it's a good discipline. For me, that means that I don't just get to preach the passages that I like the most, the ones that are easiest to easiest to preach from, or my favorite hobby horse of the day. But it also allows me you guys to get an understanding of all of God's Word and how it works. So rather than focusing just on the gospel all the time, now we get to see some Old Testament theology, and how it relates to a New Testament Church, how it's different from what it would have meant for them, when it was written, as we understand it, and interpreted through Christ. Now, as we look at this reading, the reading from Isaiah, it actually seems a little odd. It seems to me, like Isaiah is kind of complaining, doesn't it? It's like, oh, that you would run the heavens and come down. A little bit like, Hey, God, get down here. It's time to do something. Right? Does that seem a little weird to you? Does that seem odd that someone might complain? To God? Is it okay for us to do that? I think for many Christians, the idea of complaining to God seems sacrilegious. Almost as if we're supposed to always be peaceful, always feel joyful and happy and grateful. And never really expressed that anything might be going on that's wrong. Or sad, or painful. And part of that, I think, is because we don't really like the word complain. Any parents knows the word complain? Because they have kids who do it all the time? Mom, I'm bored. Brussel sprouts? Again? I love Brussels sprouts, by the way. Really, are we there yet? No kid has ever said those things right? It would never complain about that sort of thing. That's not the kind of complaints we're talking about. When we talk about praying to God, that kind of complaint comes out of almost insolence, rather than trust. There's a different kind of complaint that I think every parent wants from their kid though. It's the time when their child comes up to them and says, Dad, I'm sad. I have a hug. And you go to them what's wrong? Tell me about it. And they do. Every parent wants that, right? They want their children to come to them when they have something that they need, when they're hurt when they're sad. And they don't say Stop complaining, your life is fine. Right. And I think that's something similar for what Isaiah is saying for us. That we have a father in heaven, who wants to hear about our entire life, and the good and the bad. In fact, that's what Luther says when he's he explains the opening to the Lord's Prayer, Our Father who art in heaven. He says, With these words, God tenderly invites us to believe that he is our True Father, and that we are His true children. So that with all boldness and confidence, we may ask him as dear children ask their dear father. This means that we can go to God and complain. And the Bible gives us a pattern to do that faithfully, so that we don't go as the insolent kid. But as the faithful person who needs and seeks comfort from God. And that is what Isaiah 64 is a good example of, for us. A way to complain to God faithfully and ask for him to come down and save us. And so it begins with an address just Like any prayer, this one's pretty short. It's just the word. Oh, right. You can imagine Isaiah looking up into heaven being like, oh, that you would come down. It's just like our prayers, the dress can be pretty short. Next, it moves on to the request. Oh, that you would rent 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. Isaiah is asking something very simple, that God would come down with power and might be behind this is the complaint of the situation that's going on. It's actually after our reading that Isaiah describes what's been happening and why he's so upset. Verse 10, it says, Your holy cities have become a wilderness. Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem, a desolation, our holy and beautiful house where our fathers praised you has been burned by fire, and all our pleasant places have become ruins. Will you restrain yourself at these things? Oh, Lord, will you keep silent and afflict us so terribly. Isaiah has in mind, the coming destruction of Jerusalem, much of the book of Isaiah looks forward to the day when Babylon will come and do just that. They will tear down the walls of the city, they will destroy the temple where God has been worshipped for generation after generation, and leave Israel in desolation. And take off all the best and the brightest into Babylon, to serve the Empire there. Isaiah turns to God and says, In the face of this, come on, God, come down, look around at our suffering, look, what you have done to us, you have afflicted us and hurt us. Come on and fix this. Render the heavens and come down.
When we pray to God, complaint prayers, it is just fine to tell him all the things that are hurting us to the request is ran to the heavens, oh, God, and come down and fix my life. Because there are things that hurt, there are things that are wrong. And what I think it's really important for us to say as Christians is that it is okay to be unhappy with where your life is. It's okay to be hurt, and in pain, and it's okay to mourn when life is terrible. And we should call upon our God, and ask him to fix it. Because that is what he asks us to do. He wants us to turn to him and say, God, this is terrible. My life has become a desolation, a wilderness, ran the heavens and come down.
And what we do is, we trust in the promise that he will and that he comes to be among us. And that is what Isaiah does next. He has an expression of trust in God's historic action. It says, When you did awesome things that we did not look for you came down the mountains quaked at your presence. From an old no one has heard or perceived by the year. No, I have 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. So we have here is an allusion to the promises and the actions that God has done in the past. For Isaiah and ancient Israel, that those were the stories of the Old Testament. God had done things to save them when they were not expecting it. He came down and did mighty and powerful acts began with Abram when God chose him and gave him a promised land. It happened with Moses Since when he called him out of the fields in the burning bush and sent him to Egypt, to bring all of the people out of the promised land into the Promised Land, even though they worshipped the gods of Egypt. It happened when God fed his people with manna and quail in the wilderness. Or when they came to the promised land, and they walked through the Jordan River on dry ground. It happened when they marched around the city of Jericho, and God knocks the walls down while the people shouted. And it happened when an angel came to Gideon, who was hiding in a well terrified, he might be spotted, and the angel called him to lead an army. And it happened over and over and over again, God would come down and fix things for Israel. Now, for them, that promise meant something different than it means for us. Ancient Israel was a people God's people had borders. They had a nation, they had a king and a government, which means they had to be defended by spears and shields and swords. So it's not so with us. We don't ask God to come down and set a wall of spears around our properties. Kind of weird, right? Yeah, it'd be no fun. But we do ask him to come down and fix some other things. To destroy the powers of sin, death, and the power of the devil at work in our lives. We can call out those same promises that he gives to us, not so much through Moses, but that God's Son, Jesus Christ did rend the heavens and come down, but he came down to be a human being amongst us to enter into our flesh and blood and live like us to die on a cross and rise from the dead, to break the power of the devil, thin and the world over us forever. We can point to that historic action and say your promises for me are true, because Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. And we can trust in the future promise that God will fulfill what he has said that that same Savior will rend the heavens and come down on the clouds with power and might and fix everything. He will raise us from the dead, He will make the world new. And all things will be good and perfect forever. We can trust this promise. And when we cry out to God in complaint, we can follow this example. And remind ourselves of God's promises by speaking them to him, just as Isaiah did. What Isaiah does next is quite interesting. He then talks about being sinful. He says, Behold, you're angry and we sinned in our sins. We have been a long time and shall we be saved. We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind will 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. Here Isaiah acknowledges that God's people were sinners, that they had turned away from worshipping Him that they had started following false idols. And some of them even move them into the temple, if you can believe it. And for Israel, that meant exile to God would spit them out of the promised land. We also when we turn to God and complaint must remember that we too, are sinners. As we confess later on in our servant in our service, we sin in thought, word and deed, and we justly deserve present and eternal punishment. And we know that we know that from sin comes its consequences. And that's why life is pretty terrible. So that when God brings in difficulty and disaster in our life turns hard. Well, we're sinners, and that's part of living in a sinful world. And yet we can still trust that Jesus came to forgive our sin and take it away. So that this time of pain and sadness will not last forever, and that Christ will return. So the final piece of this is the expression of trust. Even though we're in the midst of terrible difficulty, we know we can trust in God's promises. Verse eight says, But now Oh, 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, oh, Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please, look, we are all your people. This is the final movement in a faithful complaint prayer is that even in the midst of this difficulty, the pain and problem and all of that, we turn and we say, God, I know you've got a plan. I know that I am a part of your people you have chosen me. I trust that you will fix it. And we certainly can trust our father to do that. And we know that because you were chosen in your baptism. You are united with Jesus Christ when the water was splashed on you. And he chose you as your own. Which means that just as Jesus faced the terrible difficulty going through the cross, through the grave to the resurrection, we can trust that the promise is the same for us. Even when we face a cross, through the grave, the resurrection is coming. God may fix the problems we face now. Life may get better. But we know the ultimate promise is the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the gift that he gives us. It's okay to complain to God. It's okay to cry out to Him when life is difficult and painful. We must remember to do it faithfully. Isaiah gives us this pattern of calling on God. Offering up this complaint describing our situation is remembering God's promises and speaking them to him and confessing our own sin and expressing trust that he will solve this problem. In Jesus name, Amen.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai