Scripture reading: Psalm 80:1-7.

Sermon text: Isaiah 64:1-9.

Devotional

He spoke, and worlds appeared. He visited, and lives changed forever. He ruined a nation for His people, then gave them their own nation as He had promised their forefathers centuries before. He set a mountaintop on fire with His very presence, then invited their leaders to dine in that presence. Surely Israel’s God was a great God!

Unfortunately, Israel’s God hadn’t spoken for 450 years. Israel had broken the covenant God gave them on Mt. Sinai nearly 1,500 years before, leading to their defeat by a pagan nation and exile in a distant land. Although God had spoken to His people for a short time after the exile as He had before, through His prophets, eventually the prophets stopped coming, the priests had nothing new to say, and God’s intimate presence became only a memory. “Restore us!” The psalmist cried for God to restore His covenant people and renew the relationship He so graciously gave them so long ago.

“Restore us.” We enter this sanctuary with all our joys, but also with our sins, with our faults, with our failures. We enter this sanctuary earnestly seeking God’s presence, knowing that His coming will bring judgment for our sins as well as peace for our souls. We cannot experience peace without judgment and forgiveness. Yet, we still cry for restoration; we still crave God’s presence.

The Jews desperately looked for God to restore them. They had waited to hear the word, “Forgiven.” They waited for God’s presence among them again.

Few of them noticed the prophecies of an infant; none of them thought to look for God’s presence in a manger in a crowded backwater called Bethlehem.

Sermon

Things looked really bad from the author’s perspective. Although the nation had managed to survive its worst catastrophe ever, the people still seemed spiritually apathetic at best and hostile to God at worst. Many of the faithful desperately looked for God to do something — anything — to improve the situation.

This situation has repeated itself throughout the history of God’s people, both for the Jews of the Old Testament and the Church of the New Testament era. Isaiah’s words today remind us that God’s people have cried for help before. Advent reminds us that God has answered the prayers of His people to intervene in history and continues to help us regardless of the condition of the nations in which we live today.

How many times have you heard someone cry for God to do something miraculous to prove Himself? I remember an incident several years ago where some ministers had prayed for God to strike an abortion clinic with lightning. The news media swooped onto the story, especially when the day of reckoning came and went without a cloud in the sky.

Unfortunately, this incident isn’t unique. Although Isaiah wrote his prophecies in the eighth century B.C., today’s passage actually spoke to the post-exilic population of Judah in the sixth century B.C. When the people returned from exile in 539 B.C., they retained their faith in God and never again strayed into idolatry or polytheism. However, Isaiah foresaw a period of spiritual dryness that would threaten the nation with apostasy. This period would send the faithful into despair unless God did something.

Isaiah took up the cry for God to do something to fix the problem. The first few verses of  the chapter seem disjointed, as if the prophet’s anxiety rendered him almost speechless. “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.” This call to God reminded the Jews of God’s descent onto Mount Sinai to give Moses the covenant. God had decreed a covenant with his people, but His presence on the mountain had awed Israel. No other generation had seen a mountain on fire as God’s presence descended to earth.

Isaiah then reminded God that He had acted before for His people: “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.” No other nation had witnessed such a spectacular display of cosmic power. No other people had witnessed such a physical display of their deity’s might. The pagans worshiped the storms and events of nature; Israel’s God caused the events.

Isaiah also remembered that God rewarded faithfulness: “You meet him who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways.” God had given His people the Law to know how to live according to His ways. God had always rewarded faithfulness; Isaiah knew He would do so again.

However, Isaiah also recognized another fact: “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....” The history of God’s appearance on Mt. Sinai did not guarantee faithfulness among His people. God’s deliverance throughout this history of Israel did not guarantee faithfulness, nor did the record of His miracles He worked through the prophets. The people still sinned, rendering their “righteous deeds” no better than a “polluted garment.” The words here are far more graphic in the Hebrew; they refer to the rags a woman would wear during her period. No memory of God’s work or aid would keep the people faithful.

Given this terrible truth, Isaiah was not surprised that God had “hidden” His face from His people. How could Israel expect God’s deliverance when faithlessness characterized the nation?

According to Isaiah, Israel could expect God to work not because of their righteousness;  they demonstrated only unrighteousness. Isaiah had earlier asked the question, “Shall we be saved?” God would not save His people because of their own righteousness; instead, God would work for His people because of a relationship. “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.” God would save His people because He related to them as His children.

Therefore, God could not remain angry with His people: “Be not so terribly angry, O LORD, and remember not iniquity forever.” Isaiah could rely on God’s promise through David: “As far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12). God would not “keep his anger forever” (Psalm 103:9). Isaiah reminded God, “Behold, please look, we are all your people.” The relationship hadn’t changed; Israel remained God’s chosen people.

Would God answer Isaiah’s prayer? Would God come from the heavens to make things right again, restoring Israel’s faithfulness and guiding His people into righteousness again?

God answered Isaiah’s prayer, but not exactly as Isaiah had hoped. Over 700 years after Isaiah, God did not descend from heaven, lighting the mountains of Israel afire; He appeared as a baby, born to the Virgin Mary. Jerusalem, now under Roman domination, didn’t even notice His coming. When God came to Jerusalem to save His people, He suffered crucifixion at the hands of the Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities. Then, 3 days later, He rose again from the dead, vanquishing His people’s worst enemies: Sin and death. Jesus, the divine Son of God, then sent the Holy Spirit on Pentecost to indwell His people and guide them into righteous living.

Was this enough? Was Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection enough to prove God’s power in history? Was the coming of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost enough to guide His people and prove He cared for His people?

We see this mentality all too frequently today. People still ask God to perform miracles to prove His existence and confirm their faith. People like the ministers I mentioned earlier still ask God to supernaturally punish the wicked to scare people into righteousness. People still think that God should perform on cue whenever someone asks Him for a miracle, especially when a camera is recording the moment for future broadcasts.

Someone needs to remember that God’s appearance in Bethlehem triggered a new series of events in history. Jesus grew from infancy to adulthood as an ordinary man. He then performed miracles as a sign of His presence among His people. Then, when the Holy Spirit came into the world at Pentecost, believers performed miracles to demonstrate His presence in the Church. However, while God still heals people and brings people to salvation, the Holy Spirit does not exist as a command performer to entertain us.

Instead, God calls people to come to Him for salvation. Everyone who comes to Him, confessing Jesus as Lord and believing in His resurrection, receives adoption into His family; we can call God “Father” in a way unknown and even unexpected to the Old Testament believers of Isaiah’s time. St. Paul went so far as to refer to all believers as “fellow heirs with Christ” (Romans 8:17).

St. Paul then went beyond anything Isaiah’s readers had expected. Even though Isaiah had prophesied that Gentiles would join the Jews in the family of God, the early Church had to grapple with the Holy Spirit’s inclusion of Gentiles in the faith. St. Paul would later write that God’s had always intended for Gentiles to join the family, calling Gentile believers “fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).

Think about this. Every time a person is born again, anywhere in the world, regardless of nationality, race, or language, God the Holy Spirit “comes down” from heaven to indwell the new believer and guide him in righteousness. Every time a person is saved from sin, God comes on the scene. Believers in Isaiah’s time wanted God to set a mountain on fire again; instead, He sent fire upon the believers at Pentecost. That fire still burns in the Church, the Body of Christ and the people of God.

Do you need to see a miracle today to know God cares for you? Remember your salvation, when the Holy Spirit came down into your heart to guide you in life. If you’ve never experienced this miracle, confess Jesus as Lord, believing in His resurrection. Stop looking for burning mountains; experience the burning of your soul as the Holy Spirit brings forgiveness for your sins, joy to your soul, and peace to your life.