“A
Prayer for Mercy”
Isaiah
63:15-64:12
July
(16) 23, 2023 YouTube
God and Isaiah urge Israel and all believers to remember
all the things that God has done in our lives.
When we are suffering for God, we ought to find comfort in remembering
all that God has done for us. In times of
peace and joy, we ought to give extra thanks to God for all He has done for us.
And as we remember all the things that God has done for us; we are spurred on
to prayer. As Israel looks at the
Babylonian captivity, the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem, and hears
that their sin is what sends them there, they are reminded to remember all God
has done for them and to pray.
This morning we take a brief look at their prayer for
mercy.
“Look
down from heaven and see, from your holy and beautiful habitation. Where are
your zeal and your might? The stirring of your inner parts and your compassion are
held back from me. For you are our Father, though Abraham does not know us, and
Israel does not acknowledge us; you, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from
of old is your name.”
Our immediate thought might be that the believers of Israel
are accusing God of not being Who He should be – not doing what He should be
doing. But that is not what they are saying.
The believers in Israel call out to God in prayer, asking
that God would look down upon them from Heaven – from His beautiful and holy
habitation. “God, we acknowledge the
good hand of Your discipline on us, yet we ask that You would not forget us,
but remember us in Your Mercy.”
“We don’t see Your Zeal and Your Might – the stirring of
Your inner parts and Your Compassion for us.
We are still Your children – it cannot be that You have withdrawn Your
Love for us, but it does seem as if You have.”
They understand what Peter says, “casting all your
anxieties on him, because he cares for you” (I Peter 5:7, ESV).
Israel continues by saying they call Abraham their father,
but he doesn’t know them, nor can he help them.
Israel (that is, Jacob) is their father, but he doesn’t know them, nor
can he help them. He is God Alone Who is
their Father. God Alone will never
forsake them. He will never deny
us. He will never cease to be our Father. Even though our sin separates us from God for
the moment, and we receive discipline, it is discipline from our loving Father
Who shows us mercy in our discipline.
The author of Hebrews writes, “For the Lord disciplines the
one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. 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?” (Hebrews 12:6-7, ESV).
God is the Redeemer of all those who believe. He shows mercy even in our discipline.
“O
LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we
fear you not? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes of your
heritage. Your holy people held possession for a little while; our adversaries
have trampled down your sanctuary. We have come like those over whom you have
never ruled, like those who are not called by your name.”
Is
Israel accusing God of sin? God made
them wander. God hardened their
hearts. God made them so they did not
fear Him.
God
does not sin, and God does not force anyone to sin. Humans are inclined towards sin since the
fall of Adam, and believers fight their whole lives against the inclination to
sin – until Jesus returns. What God does
do is let people choose to follow after their sin – God does not always stop us
from sinning. Sometimes God – for His
reasons – lets us follow after the sin we desire. And as we come to ourselves
after we sin, we may wonder where God was.
We may call out to God and ask Him to come down now and sanctify His
people so we would not sin again but be the heritage He created us to be.
Israel
cries out for mercy saying that they kept the Law of God for a time – they
followed God in holiness for a time, but now, in their sin – as a result of
their sin – the wicked have trampled Israel and trampled down the Temple. Solomon’s Temple – one of the wonders of the
world – the House of God – was destroyed as part of the discipline for the sin
of the people of Israel.
To
the wicked nations around Israel, it looks like God never ruled over them. It looks like they were never called by God’s
Name. “If we are being sent off into
captivity, no one will believe we are Your people.” As our own denomination
“peacefully” splits, what do the unbelievers around us think? “Show us Your Mercy, O God, our
Redeemer. Make Your Truth clear.” And as
we go through the discipline of our loving Father, the Truth will be clear, we
will see mercy, and we will grow in our love of our Father.
Paul
writes, “For all the promises of God find them Yes in him. That is why it is
through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. And it is God who
establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put
his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee” (II Corinthians
1:20-22, ESV).
And
the author of Hebrews writes, “…for he has said, ‘I will never leave you nor
forsake you.’ So, we can confidently say, ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not
fear; what can man do to me?’” (Hebrews 13:5b-6, ESV).
“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.”
Israel
turns her sights to the need for the wicked to be disciplined or punished – as
God sees fit. Israel asks God to come
down to earth in power and show the nation Who God is – just like God did in
the days of Moses and when Israel did not ask for God to do anything, but God
acted without a cry from His people.
Israel
remembered how God acted when He called Moses up to receive the Ten Commandments,
and they asked God to do likewise now:
“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).
“God,
our Father, we know we need to go into captivity for our sin, but so the
nations won’t think You have deserted us, would You bring a thick darkness and
thunder and lightning and the sound of trumpets blaring as a sign before the
nations?”
“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?”
Israel
cries out that there is no god besides God.
No one has seen or heard or perceived any god by God Who is real. He rejoices and meets with the penitent. All those who confess their sins and believe
in the Savior that God would send – Who we know is Jesus -- God will act on our behalf and save us.
Israel
asks God to show Himself as the One Who meets with the penitent – the One Who
meets with the one who truly repents. When we repent and remember Who God is
and all He has done, we know He has remembered us and will act for us as we
remember Him.
And
so we understand that God’s anger is against us for our sin, but we confess our
sin and He forgives us. He meets with us
in His Mercy and gives us His Grace so we would be declared righteous. Though our sin has been long and many, we are
saved and shall be saved forever because God, our Father, is faithful. And His
Mercy never ends.
“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.”
Now
Israel confesses who she has become due to her sin. Israel understand that sin makes a person
foul. When we sin, we are a stench in
the nostrils of God. Sin makes us unclean, and our righteous deeds are like “a
polluted garment” – specifically, the cloth used during a woman’s time of the
month.
Jeremiah
writes, “Jerusalem sinned grievously; therefore she became filthy; all who
honored her despise her, for they have seen her nakedness; she herself groans and
turns her face away” (Lamentations 1:8, ESV).
Sin
makes us lightweights, unstable, prone to follow after more sin – like a leaf
that is taken away with the wind.
Paul
says this is not how we should be: “so
that we may no longer be children, tossed to and from by the waves and carried
about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful
schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way
into him who is the head, into Christ,” (Ephesians 4:14-15, ESV).
When
we follow after sin, we are pressed to not turn back to God – to not repent of
our sin – to not receive God’s Mercy that He has given in saving a people for
Himself. The Face of the Redeemer is hidden from us as we crawl back into the
darkness and hide from the light.
Because
Israel’s union with God in the Redeemer is dampened, they are overwhelmed with
the punishment – the discipline that are facing – and they melt like wax in the
heat of the day. Sometimes we delight in sin that pulls us away from God and
our only hope is in repenting and throwing ourselves on the Mercy of God – and
He will restore all those who truly believe because He chose us and loves us.
But…
“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.”
Israel
cries out in hope for mercy, because no matter how deep their sin – no matter
what the necessary discipline – no matter how bad things look, the Lord God is
our Father. He has adopted us through
the Savior, Jesus, and we are His children, and He will never leave us nor
forsake us.
We
confess the Sovereignty of God in acknowledging that we are clay and God is the
potter. We are all the work of God’s
Hand. Everything that happens does so
according to God’s will, and God brings all things together for the good of
those who love Him.
Paul
uses the same example in looking at God’s Sovereign choice of the people who
are His forever:
“But
who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Will what is molded say to its
molder, ‘Why have you made me like this?’ Has the potter no right over the
clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for
dishonorable use? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his
power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for
destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of
mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory—even us whom he has called,
not from the Jews only but also from the Gentiles?” (Romans 9:20-24, ESV).
In acknowledging God’s Sovereignty, Israel
prays that God will be merciful – that His Anger will not be against them
forever – that He will not remember their sins forever, but that He would
remember that they are His chosen people.
All who believe are His chosen people, and He does show us mercy upon
mercy, and with regards to our sin which we repent of and confess and are
forgiven of through the work of Jesus, David writes:
“The
LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal
with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as
high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward
those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove
our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so
the LORD shows compassion to those who fear him. For he knows our frame; he
remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:8-14, ESV).
And
God says, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I
will not remember your sins” (Isaiah 43:25, ESV).
The
Father Who loves disciplines His children, but we remain His children and He
loves us.
“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, O LORD? Will you keep silent, and afflict us
so terribly?”
God
is allowing the Babylonians – unbelievers – to be the Hand of discipline
against Israel. The Babylonians destroy
the cities of God, destroy Jerusalem and Solomon’s Temple, and everything that
was beautiful about the city of God on earth – Israel – has been crushed and
destroyed.
Imagine
if the Federal Government passed a law that all the churches in the United
States had to be razed to the ground.
Burnt, destroyed, turned into rubble. What might we think or do?
Israel
called out to God and asked if He was going to do something. Is He going to restrain Himself and keep
silent. Is God’s Anger going to settle
on the Babylonians who did these things to God’s cities and Temple? Considering how great the discipline is for
Israel for her sin, she asks if God will not bring down His Wrath on these
people.
“Look
at what they are doing. Do you know what
everyone is saying about You? Are You going to do something to show Yourself
Holy in the light of this – given the severity of Israel’s discipline?”
God
will not let His Glory be trampled.
Though God allows the Babylonians to conquer, God will conquer them for
their sin. So many of the prophets ask when God is going to do something about
the wicked – and when God will discipline His people. God works in His own time.
By the end of the prayer, Israel understands the depths of
their sin and misery, and the justness of their discipline is reinforced. And
they are assured that they are the children of God, that their sin is forgiven
in their Redeemer, and God continues to show mercy to His people – even in
their discipline.
Nothing has changed.
God is giving us mercy every day and every hour.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You that You are the merciful
God. We thank You that You have chosen a
people for Yourself that You will never leave nor forsake. We thank You for showing Your Love in our
discipline. Help us to know You more fully and help us to avoid sin and to
repent quickly when we do. Forgive us, Merciful Lord. Let us evermore know Your
Love, our Father. And may we, even under discipline, show You to be the God of
Mercy. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray,
Amen.
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