When God shows up

Christmas reflection on Isaiah 64:1-7

The other day my wife was telling me about an assembly at the school she works at. The teacher leading the assembly had told the children about the real meaning of Christmas - i.e. what it is that Christians believe. The teacher said that “God had come to earth” in Jesus Christ. For some reason, despite hearing it put like that hundreds of times before, that statement really hit me powerfully this time round.

I’ve been going to church for my entire life — since before I was born! — and I know the Christmas story like the back of my hand. At the same time, as they say: familiarity breeds contempt. But, this year, the notion that God — God himself — could actually come to us in our need was an astonishing thought.

Part of the reason it hit me this year more than before is because I feel like we so desperately need God to show up. Perhaps you feel this too: the world is in such a chaotic state, it seems that we are heading down the road to destruction — not only that, but those who are driving seem hell-bent on keeping their foot on the gas. I was thinking the other day that we are closer to nuclear war than we have been in my lifetime, and yet most people are carrying on their lives as if it’s not happening. Perhaps it’s a coping strategy: if people knew the half of what’s going on, it would shake them to the core.

Over the last few days, the verse that I’ve had on my mind is “O Lord, rend the heavens and come down”, which is from Isaiah 64. I thought it would be a good idea to explore these verses in a bit more detail to hear what God has to say to us at this time.

The Passage

Take a moment to read the passage, which I will quote here from the Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) translation:

Note: the Legacy Standard Bible is a relatively new translation of the Bible which is more ‘literal’ than my usual go-to, the NIV. It comes with a glowing recommendation from John MacArthur! I have found it to be more readable than the ESV translation and I’ve come to appreciate it. One of the things I like is that it translates ‘LORD’ as ‘Yahweh’, the name of the Lord — this was particularly helpful when preaching through Exodus recently, as the name of the Lord is such an important part of the narrative. I don’t like how English translations often gloss over this. I know you didn’t come here for advice about Bible translations, but still — if you’re looking for something different, check it out.

[1] Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down,
That the mountains might quake at Your presence—
[2] As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil—
To make Your name known to Your adversaries,
That the nations may tremble at Your presence!
[3] When You did awesome things for which we did not hope,
You came down; the mountains quaked at Your presence.
[4] For from ancient times they have not heard or given ear,
Nor has the eye seen a God besides You,
Who acts in behalf of the one who waits for Him.
[5] You meet him who rejoices and does righteousness,
Who remembers You in Your ways.
Behold, You were angry; indeed we have sinned—
We continued in them a long time—
And shall we be saved?
[6] For all of us have become like one who is unclean,
And all our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment;
And all of us wither like a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind, carry us away.
[7] There is no one who calls on Your name,
Who awakens himself to take hold of You,
For You have hidden Your face from us
And have melted us into the hand of our iniquities.

Isaiah 64:1-7, LSB

There are three aspects of the passage I want to focus on: (1) the presence of the Lord; (2) our unworthiness; (3) the one who waits for the Lord.

1. The presence of the Lord (vv1-3)

This section starts out with the verse I mentioned at the beginning — “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down.” Isaiah recognises that their need was desperate — they had “adversaries” who not only had the upper hand but who seemed to be crushingly dominant. But, Isaiah says, their dominance is nothing compared to the presence and power of the Lord. If he were to descend, even the mountains would “quake” before his presence, and the nations “tremble”.

Isaiah says that this has happened before — he may well be alluding to the way God brought Israel out of Egypt and led them into the Promised Land. Throughout the Old Testament, this is seen as the prime example of God’s power exercised on behalf of his people. But, all through history, the Lord had watched over and preserved his people. He even did “awesome things for which we did not hope” — things which were ‘above and beyond’ their expectations, things which were undeserved.

What I found so striking this year was thinking about how God literally did rend the heavens and come down. When it seemed that sin and death were triumphant, the Lord Jesus came to earth and was born as one of us. He came, even though we did not deserve it, to pay the penalty for sin and give us the opportunity to experience new life with God. Christ ascended into heaven and now reigns at God’s right hand until all enemies are subdued under his feet.

As I said in the introduction, given the state of the world at the moment I feel that we need God more than ever. We need God to rend the heavens and come down. Christmas is proof positive that God can and will step in.

2. Our unworthiness (vv5b-7)

What is even more striking is how much Isaiah says that we do not deserve it. He says that “you were angry” because of the sins of the people — sins which they continued in “for a long time”. They didn’t simply sin once and then repent, they turned aside from God and wilfully continued in sin for some time. They were therefore reaping the consequences of their sinfulness: “You have hidden your face from us, and have melted us into the hand of our iniquities.” Romans 1 warns us solemnly about the consequences of sin and idolatry - how God hands us over to experience the dreadful consequences of our sinful desires. It looks like this is exactly what happened to the Israelites.

Even their good deeds are “like a filthy garment” — their good deeds pale into comparison with the immense gravity of their sinfulness.

Does this ring any bells for you? Because it seems to me like Isaiah’s words could equally apply to Great Britain today (as well as much of the Western world). Truly, we have squandered our inheritance, we have deliberately turned our backs on God. As a consequence, we are reaping the terrible fruits of our sins.

Just this last week I watched a harrowing interview with a victim of the grooming gangs in Barrow, and read about the terrible consequences of the sexual revolution. It’s not just ‘out there’ happening to other people — it’s in our own towns and cities. I see brokenness and despair everywhere I look. People are desperate.

The worst thing is, we brought this upon ourselves. We turned away from the living God, the source of all love and life. How could we expect anything other than God’s judgement?

And yet… there is hope. Isaiah hints at it in the words, “And shall we be saved?” Apparently there are translation difficulties here, but I believe the sense could be something like incredulity that they could be saved. We have brought this upon ourselves — and yet we, even we, could be saved? This brings us to the final point.

3. The one who waits for the Lord (vv4-5a)

In spite of everything, Isaiah says, there is a God who acts. He acts “in behalf of the one who waits for him”. Who is the one who waits for him? The one who “rejoices”, who “does righteousness”, and who “remembers You in Your ways.” In other words, despite the many sins of the people, God will act on behalf of those who seek him and his righteousness.

But what does it mean to wait for Lord? Let me quote from John Oswalt’s commentary on Isaiah, which I found helpful:

In many ways, it [waiting] is at the heart of what the book [Isaiah] is about. Biblically speaking, “to wait” is to manifest the kind of trust that is willing to commit itself to God over the long haul. It is to continue to believe and expect when all others have given up. It is to believe that it is better for something to happen in God’s time than for it to happen on my initiative in my time. As was just said, waiting for God is, in many ways, what Isaiah is about. The book is about waiting for a God whose face is hidden to reveal himself to his people (8:17); waiting for the restoration of a people from long before they were even exiled; waiting for a Servant to deal a death blow to sin; waiting for a Messiah to establish his kingdom forever. But as Isaiah and his people wait, they know one thing: unlike all the gods, God will act on behalf of those who wait for him. [My emphasis]

I think this is a tremendous encouragement to those of us who can see the tragic consequences of sin, who have deep sorrow over the lives which sin has swept away. We know that the deep afflictions we have in the world at the moment are because we have rejected God. We also know that God is entirely just in afflicting us, and we have no right to expect anything from him. At the same time, we know that he is gracious and merciful — and we know that he, and only he, can save us. And we wait patiently and expectantly for him.

What should we do?

If you are reading this, I expect that you also are someone who cannot sufficiently put into words right now how deeply the world has gone wrong, and how badly we need things to change. What I believe we need to do is wait on the Lord — that is, not to sit and twiddle our thumbs, but rather to cry out to him daily to rend the heavens and come down.

I’ve been struck so much recently that what matters most to the church is not a cold obedience to the law, but simply the power and presence of the Lord in our midst. This is what I think the church has been lacking. We need our hearts warmed by the gospel and draw near to God, rather than simply seeking to follow a distant God who gives us arbitrary rules.

Yesterday I was watching this video from Sinclair Ferguson about revival. It’s a great talk and well worth watching if you have a spare hour:

One of the things he said which really struck me was recounting how he had seen as a young man the ground full of men, prostrating themselves, praying to God, begging for his presence. It really struck me that this is what we need — humbling ourselves and begging the Lord to really show up.

“Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down!” This is nothing short of what we need, and we should make this our prayer for Christmas-time and beyond.

For inspiration you might like to read one of the prayers of humility and repentance in the Scriptures, such as Daniel’s in Daniel 9:

O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, give heed and take action! For Your own sake, O my God, do not delay, because Your city and Your people are called by Your name. Daniel 9:19

But I offer this brief prayer of my own to help and inspire you today.

Lord, come and make your presence known to us, and make your presence known through us. Come in your holiness, come and transform us. Let us be instruments in your hands, that others may see and be drawn to you. Let the message of Christ ring out wherever we live. Rend the heavens and come down, we pray. We know that we are unworthy, we know that we have nothing to offer in return. We are helpless and desperate. Lord, in your mercy, for the sake of your name, rend the heavens and come down.

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