"Now Consider" Sermon: Isaiah 64:1-9

“Now Consider”

[Isaiah 64:1-9]     

December 18, 2011 (November 27, 2011) Second Reformed Church

Isaiah’s ministry stretched from 740 to 700 B. C. – about twenty years on either side of the conquest of Israel by the Assyrians.

Near the end of his ministry, we have the text that was read this morning – which is part of a prayer.  To understand this prayer, we need to turn back to chapter 63 and a vision that God gave to Isaiah.

Chapter 63 begins with God giving Isaiah a vision of a Man walking through the lands of Edom and Bozrah into Israel.  This Man’s clothes are drenched with something red, as though He had been working in the wine press, pressing out the juice of the grapes.  And Isaiah recognized that the Man was God in human form – God Incarnate, and Isaiah asked Him why He was covered with something that looked like wine.

And God told Isaiah that He, indeed, had been treading the winepress, but He was not covered with grape juice, He was covered with the blood of humanity.  God told Isaiah that He had looked for someone to save – someone to give help to – and all He saw was rebellion and sin, and His Anger was stirred up, so He took all of humanity and thrust them into a wine press and pressed them until their blood spattered all over His robe and filled the streets of all the earth.

We may remember that John had a similar vision, “Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God” (Revelation 19:11-13, ESV).

As we might imagine, Isaiah was disturbed by this vision.  God had allowed the Assyrians to conquer Israel and take them into captivity, and now God was telling Isaiah that – based on the actions of humanity – all was lost, and God would solve the problem of humanity by wiping humanity out.

So Isaiah cried out to God and asked Him to remember:  “Remember the steadfast love You have shown to Your people.  Remember the compassion You have shown to Israel.  Remember how You became Israel’s Savior.  Remember how You saved Israel in days of old from her affliction.  Yes, we have rebelled all along the way, just as Moses recorded it.  Still You fought our enemies and You saved us and You put the Holy Spirit in our midst.  Lord, in all that You have done for Israel, You have made Your Name Glorious throughout the earth.”

Understand, Isaiah did not ask God to remember because God has a bad memory.  Isaiah had nothing to offer God to sway His Judgment – Isaiah was just as much a sinner as everyone else.  In asking God to remember what He had done in the past, Isaiah and Israel remember what God had done in the past.  They remembered that God is faithful to His Covenant – to His Promises – despite Israel’s sins – He always has been faithful.

Isaiah received this terrifying vision of world-wide slaughter – which humanity, admittedly deserves.  Isaiah turned to God and said, “Now, consider, God, how you have acted in the past.”  And Isaiah understood that God knew very well how God had acted in the past and God would remain faithful.  God cannot sin.  God cannot break His Promise.  God will not break His Covenant with His people.

So, in chapter 63, verse 15, Isaiah begins to pray:  Isaiah asked God to look at His “home on earth.”  And Isaiah told God that God’s Zeal and Might were not being seen.  Isaiah understood that the most important thing to God – God’s number one objective – is to be glorified.  The primary reason God does everything that God does is to have people see God for Who He is and give Him praise. 

We may remember that when Jesus was asked what sin caused a certain man to be born blind, “Jesus answered, ‘It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him’” (John 9:3, ESV).  The primary reason God does everything that God does is to have people see God for Who He is and give Him praise. So, Isaiah tells God to make His Name glorious on the earth.

Isaiah told God that even if Abraham and Isaac didn’t recognize them, God knew each of His people.  God is forever Lord and Father and Savior of His people.  So, Isaiah asked God to intercede – which brings us to this morning’s text, as Isaiah continued to pray:

 “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!”

Isaiah asked God to come to earth – to shake the Creation as He had done in the days of old.  Isaiah acknowledged that the only hope for humanity is that God comes down.  And surely Isaiah's audience would remember God’s visitation in the wilderness:  “On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the LORD had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. The LORD came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the LORD called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up” (Exodus 19:16-20, ESV).

Isaiah knew that the only hope for humanity is that God will directly intervene and not merely sent prophets, but that He Himself would come to earth – shaking the Creation, causing earthquakes and fire – all manner of response from the Creation.  Then God’s Glory would be seen.  Then the people would respond.

That’s exactly what we see when God came to earth in the Person of Jesus, isn’t it?  With the advent of Immanuel, no one is left on the sidelines.  When God comes to earth – all Creation reacts – all Creation trembles – for one reason or another.  Herod trembled in fear and hatred – and lashed out, seeking to kill the God-Man.  Mary and Joseph, and the shepherds, and the magi, also trembled – they were filled with awe, praising God for coming to earth.

And when He returns again, the Scripture tells us that each person will have one of two responses:  Those who hate Him will cry out, “Kill me!”  And those who love Him will cry out, “Hallelujah!”

When God comes to earth, all Creation trembles.

“When you did awesome things that we did not look for, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.”

God’s Visitation is from mercy – for His Own Reasons – and unexpected.

We can never say that God has to appear – He owes us nothing; we owe Him everything.  And still, God chooses to bless us and bring us back and be merciful to us again and again.  God came to earth in the Garden, God came to earth to meet Abraham, God came to earth after the battle of the kings, and God came to earth – most blessedly – most mercifully – in the Person of Jesus. 

And He will come to earth again:  “And if the Lord had not cut short the days, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect, whom he chose, he shortened the days” (Mark 13:20, ESV).  Out of mercy, He will come – for His Own Reasons.

And it will be unexpected when He comes:  “For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘There is peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief” (1 Thessalonians 5:2-4, ESV).

God’s Visitation is from mercy – for His Own Reasons – and unexpected.

“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.”

Isaiah proclaimed in his prayer that Israel is not ignorant of God and His existence, even though God is a Spirit and cannot be seen and heard as we see and hear each other.  If God had never come to them in any other way, still they would know Him.  As Paul wrote, “For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse” (Romans 1:19-20, ESV).

Everyone knows there is a God.  Atheists and agnostics don’t really not believe in God, they just hate Him.  Everyone believes in God; it is obvious to everyone who has ever existed that God exists. 

His Invisible Attributes are also known to all who have experience of the created order. Everyone who encounters God’s Creation not only knows that God exists, but he knows what type of Being this God is.  That knowledge gives everyone the understanding that we are not right with God.  The Creation, Itself, does not reveal how to be right with God, but an honest consideration will bring anyone to the conclusion that only God can make us right with God.

 “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.”

And so, Isaiah made confession on behalf of all the people:  “God, You are right to be angry with us.  We have sinned against You.  We have continued unrepentantly in our sins for a long time, while You waited patiently.  How can we be saved?  Shall we ever be saved?  Or is this vision the end?  And now we are unclean.  Our righteousness – how dare we call it that? – the very best we offer to You – is an unclean garment – unacceptable in Your Sight.  We’re dried up, like a dead leaf, and our sin is blowing us away.”

Isaiah confessed their sin – that they have sinned, even after knowing they were in sin and being called to repentance – they continued in their sin.  And God was angry – righteously angry with them.  On their own, they were helpless and hopeless.  They were dead leaves blowing in the wind.  “How shall we be saved?”

That’s the most important question in the entire universe, isn’t it?  “How shall we be saved?”  It is the question on which the Reformation turned.

We are rightly concerned with the economy, with war, with disease – we rightly seek answers for them all.  Israel surely had many concerns and many questions as they suffered under Assyrian rule in captivity.  But all of them pale in significance when we consider that the Holy, Almighty, God of all Creation, is angry with us – and we understand there is absolutely nothing we can do to make things right – to appease Him. 

“How shall we be saved?”

“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.”

To add to the horror that Israel was experiencing, we can look and understand, as the prophet did, that most people didn’t realize that they were at odds with God.  Just like today.  Most people thought that God was on their side and all was well.  God would never let His people be destroyed!  So they didn’t pray.  They didn’t call out to God.  They didn’t seek Him and strive after Him.  In fact, they continued in their sin, and they forgot about God.  It was as though God disappeared from their collective memory, when, in actuality, the people were melting in the hands of their own iniquities.

When we first commit any given sin – generally speaking, we experience a pang of guilt.  We know what we have done is wrong; we feel guilty.  But the more we commit a sin, the easier it becomes – the less guilt we feel.  We begin to excuse what we are doing.  We think it’s not so bad.  And eventually, we convince ourselves it’s not a sin at all.

For example, why isn’t this church packed with people, worshipping God?  Is it because people don’t know there is a God?  No.  Is it because they don’t know God is worthy of worship?  No.  Is it because they are all worshipping at other churches?  No.   Is it because they don’t know this church is here?  No.  For the past three years, I have invited an average of seventy different people a month to worship with us.  We have now have taken an ad for the church which will be in the mailbox of all 27,000 residents of Irvington four times a year.

God commanded that one day in seven be set aside for the worship of God.  So every person should be in worship at least once every seven days.  But we make exceptions.  And then we regularly miss worship.  And then we decide that other things are more important, and as long as we show up once or twice a year, we will have done our due diligence.  Even the first century church – in the midst of revival and reformation – sinned against the worship of God, as the author of Hebrews is found to have enjoined:  “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25, ESV).

We know God.  We know what God has commanded.  We know we are in dire straits.  But we escalate in our sin until we are no longer men and women, but quivering blobs of melted wax, unstable in all that we are and do.

“How shall we be saved?”

“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.”

“Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down.”

The only answer is found in Who God has made Himself to be for Israel – and for everyone who will believe in – God the Savior.  God has made Himself to be the Father of His people; we are the children He has given birth to.  God has made Himself the Potter Who has cast us to be pots He has created for His use.

Now consider that God did rend the heavens and come down; being born of the Virgin Mary, in the Person of Jesus, because the only way that God could make us right with Him was to come to earth.  And the only way that God could make us right with Him was to come to earth as one of us, to live under His Own Law, and then be brutally murdered for our sins, and then physically rise from the dead to the Glory of the Father and for our salvation.

As Simeon prophesied at Jesus’ bris:  “And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, ‘Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed’” (Luke 2:34-35, ESV).

In coming down to earth, God has glorified Himself in making us right with Him by Himself:  “For all who rely on works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.’ Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for ‘The righteous shall live by faith.’ But the law is not of faith, rather ‘The one who does them shall live by them.’ Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us—for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree’—so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith” (Galatians 3:10-14, ESV).

Consider:  how might we be saved?  Through believing in our hearts and confessing with our mouths that God came to earth in the Person of the Lord Jesus and God physically raised Him from the dead.

Let us pray:

            Most Blessed, Most Marvelous, Most Wonderful God only God, who could go up to Heaven and bring You down to us or cause You to forgive Your people?  You are Sovereign over history, Sovereign over our salvation, the Most Glorious God.  And we quake in awe of Your Presence.  In the Name of Him Who was and is and is to come:  Lord Jesus.  Amen.