“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.
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