"Maranatha" Sermon: Isaiah 64:1-9a

“Maranatha”
[Isaiah 64:1-9a]
November 30, 2008 Second Reformed Church

Maranatha!

The prophet Isaiah prophesied during the Assyrian conquest of Israel – about 740 B.C. And his prophecies condemned the divided kingdom and said that God was going to send Israel into captivity, and she would remain there until the rise of Cyrus the Persian, whom God would use to restore the nation. These things all happened over the ensuing hundred and fifty years or so. His prophecies also spoke of the coming Savior that God had promised back in the Garden to our first parents. These prophecies would come to pass some seven hundred years later.

Throughout the book of Isaiah – and all his prophecies – he reminds Israel that it is her own sin that has caused her destruction. She had no one to blame but herself for the fall of the nation. But he also reminds her that God continues to be faithful, and if they repent and turn from their sins and follow after God, He will forgive them and restore them, according to the promises and the prophecies that He inspired.

Chapter 64 of Isaiah actually begins in the midst of a prayer. Beginning in verse fifteen of the previous chapter, Isaiah prays that God, the Holy God from Heaven, would look down upon His people with compassion, because He is their Father. Isaiah admits that Israel has sinned so greatly that Abraham would not recognize them – Israel, herself, would not recognize her if she would look at what she has become. So, Isaiah asks that God would return – that He would not harden them forever, but that God would change them and make them the people He called according to His Name once again.

The first four verses of chapter 64 have Isaiah asking that God would reveal Himself like He did in the past – that He would come down to earth, tear open the heavens, cause the mountains to quake, the brush and water to catch fire, and all the nations to know that the God of Israel is the One True God.

Isaiah is asking that God would come again as He did on Mount Sinai, where Moses received the Ten Commandments. We may remember what happened, “Now when all the people saw the thunder and the flashes of lightening and the sound of the trumpet and the mountain smoking, the people were afraid and trembled, and they stood far off and said to Moses, ‘You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.’ Moses said to the people, ‘Do not fear, for God has come to test you, that the fear of him may be before you, that you may not sin.’ The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the thick darkness where God was” (Exodus 20:18-21, ESV).

God did not come to earth in the days of Isaiah, and He did not come with all of the natural disturbances that He did in the days of Moses, but we remember during this season of Advent that He did come, quietly, about seven hundred years after Isaiah.

Paul reworks Isaiah’s words as he writes, “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him” (I Corinthians 2:9, ESV). What has God prepared for those who love Him?

In the years after Jesus’ crucifixion, some people in the Church wondered if He would really return, as He promised. Would Jesus keep His Promise? Or were they wrong to believe in Him? John assures his readers that they are not waiting in vain – we are not waiting in vain – and, though the first Advent was quiet, as God came as Isaiah’s “Suffering Servant,” the second Advent will be more like God’s appearance on Sinai, as He returns as the conquering King. And this is what he has prepared for all those who confess faith in Jesus – all those who love God, “And now, little children, abide in [Jesus], so that when he appears we may have confidence and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of him. See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears, we will be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (I John 2:28-3:3, ESV).

God has come. God will come again. And He is keeping every promise He ever made. Maranatha!

In verses five through seven, Isaiah confesses, on behalf of the whole nation, that if they had followed after righteousness – if they had lived as God called them to live – they would have found joy in God, but, instead, they sinned. And it was not just sinning once, but, as we see through the Old Testament, Israel sinned and sinned and sinned again – just like you and me.

And God was rightly angry with Israel – punishment had only begun – exile would follow for them. And Isaiah asks the question, “We have sinned generation after generation, will Your Anger, God, ever be satisfied? Will there ever be salvation for those who confess and repent and turn back to God?”

And the answer, which the prophet well knew, as David put it, “[The Lord’s] anger is but for a moment, and his favor is for a lifetime. Weeping may tarry for the night, but joy comes with the morning” (Psalm 30:5, ESV).

Isaiah is correct, as he presents the sin of Israel before God: Isaiah says that Israel has become unclean – which meant that she would be cut of from the temple. The best deeds she did were like filthy garments. Israel faded away in her sin like the leaves on the trees in the Fall – we see them now, changing colors, and eventually, dying and falling to the ground, where the wind blows them away. Israel had neglected the worship due God – she had been unfaithful in the temple and to the priests – she had not called out to God – so God had turned His Face from them and allowed them to wallow – to melt – in their sin.

Yet, we may wonder if the prophet has gone overboard in questioning the possibility of salvation. Perhaps he questioned because he was on the other side of the cross from us. But we should have no doubt – whereas God turned from Israel for a “moment,” we remember the mysterious horror that occurred on the cross, “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’” (Matthew 27:46, ESV). Somehow, God the Father turned – forsook – abandoned – the Son – while God’s Full Wrath – not for the sin of one man, or for the sin of one people, but for the sin of everyone who would believe in Him throughout time and space – while all that Wrath descended upon Jesus – He was separated from the eternal intimacy He had forever had. We cannot begin to imagine the horror He endured.

Because Jesus endured Hell on the cross, the answer to the prophet is, “Yes, Isaiah, yes Everyone who repents and believes in Jesus will be forgiven. There is no question, no doubt, no hesitation – Jesus has paid it all.” As Peter said, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and your will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 38b, ESV).

God has come. God will come again. God has taken on the punishment for our sins, so everyone who believes in Him is forgiven. Maranatha!

As we turn to verses eight and the beginning of verse nine, we see that Isaiah may have been voicing the despair of the people and not his own despair over the possibility of God’s forgiveness. He calls out to God, calling Him, “Father.” Isaiah was given the wisdom to know that God has chosen and adopted a people for Himself, so we are the sons and daughters of God, and He is our Father.

Isaiah also calls God, “the potter,” His creation being the clay. We are whatever God creates us to be. All things happen according to His Plan, and since He is our Father, we can have hope in Him, even in the midst of our affliction. In the midst of what would be almost two hundred years of war and destruction and exile, the people of Israel, if they repented of their sin, could look to God in hope, knowing that He is Sovereign and He is Father. And that is true for us today.

Paul wrote, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his
grace, which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mysteries of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:3-10, ESV).

And the author of Hebrews wrote, “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. Besides this, we have earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good. For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it” (Hebrews 12:7-11, ESV).

God has come. God will come again. He is the Sovereign of Creation, and the Father Who loves His children. Maranatha!

This first Sunday of Advent, let us remember the lessons of this part of the prophets prayer: God came to earth 2,000 year ago in the Person of Jesus Christ, and He will keep every promise and prophecy ever made. Jesus took the whole of God’s Wrath upon Himself, so all we who believe in Him would be forgiven. And God is our loving Father, so no matter what we endure, for our sin, for fatherly discipline, we have hope: Come, Lord Jesus!

Let us pray:
Almighty God, on this first Sunday in Advent, we remember the prophecies of Your first coming, and we thank You for the witness of Isaiah amidst the invading Assyrians. Cause us to stand strong on Your Word and in the hope of Your coming again. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.