St. Matthew’s Ev. Lutheran Church + Benton Harbor, Michigan

The 1^st Sunday of Advent, November 28, 1999

Isaiah 63:16b-17, 64:1-8

“Oh, That You Would Rend the Heavens and Come Down!”

By Pastor Timothy H. Buelow

^16b You, O Lord, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. ¹⁷ Why, O Lord, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance. ¹ Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! ² As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you! ³ For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. ⁴ Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. ⁵ You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? ⁶ All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. ⁷ No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. ⁸ Yet, O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.

Have you ever prayed a truly desperate prayer? Isaiah did. That’s what our text is—a truly desperate prayer that God would intervene in a world that seems hopelessly bent on its own destruction. In many ways, our world and our land seem no better off spiritually than the frustrating, desperate land Isaiah lived in. Today, as we begin the season of Advent and a new church year, we want join Isaiah in his prayer to God: Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down!

1. Why Isaiah Prayed His Desperate Prayer

Israel was a sinful wasteland. In Isaiah’s time the people of Judah were in complete and thorough rebellion against God. It seemed that nothing could change that. Their rebellion against God was so regular that finally God had decided, ‘If you insist on hardening your hearts against me, then so be it. I’ll concur. May you be hardened in your unbelief.’

That’s what happens when people harden themselves again and again against God. “I’ll sin just this once,” people think to themselves, “Then, afterwards I’ll repent and when I really need it, God will accept me back.” But it doesn’t work that way. To deliberately sin against God assuming we can repent later is to harden ourselves to God. And those who harden themselves, finally won’t be able to repent. That’s what we call a ‘hardened sinner.’ That’s the ultimate “playing with fire.” That’s why God repeatedly says, “Now is the day of salvation!”

Israel had tried to play that game with God. It wasn’t long before they had hardened themselves to him. Again and again they sinned against him and then came back in half hearted repentance. Soon enough, they didn’t even bother to fake repentance. Having so hardened themselves to God, God finally hardened them. Isaiah prays, ⁵ You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? ⁶ All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.

Isaiah knew what sorrow lay ahead. Israel would continue to refuse to repent. God’s patience would not endure. The invading hordes would come from Babylon as instruments of God’s wrath and take them all captive: men, women and children. The nation that had once been God’s prize jewel, would be swept away!

Israel was bewitched. No matter how much he proclaimed God’s law, no matter how beautifully he proclaimed the Gospel, nothing changed. No one listened. No one repented. Things only grew worse. That is why Isaiah so desperately prayed, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! ... You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved?

By God’s grace, we have not abandoned God as have the Israelites of Isaiah’s time. Not yet, anyway. So that we never do, we have to remember: there is basically nothing different about us and these ancient people of God. By nature, each of us is God’s enemy. Every one of us loves to wander and go astray. It is by God’s grace alone that we believe and follow our Savior. It’s a miracle that God has kept us from becoming bewitched and hardened, just as God had miraculously preserved a small remnant of believers in Isaiah’s day.

But along with faith, God has also given us the burden of Isaiah. We, too have been given the lot in life of living in and praying for a nation and world increasingly bent on its own destruction. Sadly, so many have hardened their hearts to the real, and true and faithful answer of God. Even so many churches have stopped preaching the truth of God’s Law and Gospel, and only help to harden people in their sin and indifference. Like Isaiah, we still have the water of life, but we have so much trouble leading horses to it, much less getting them to drink. In desperation Isaiah cried out in prayer. In frustration we join him in prayer: How can our nation and world be saved from their plunge into destruction? Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!

Isaiah never saw the answer to that prayer in his lifetime. But God still heard his prayer, and answered. 2000 years ago, the Lord rent the heavens and did himself come down, and made his dwelling among men as “Immanuel — God with us.”

2. What Isaiah Prayed in His Desperate Prayer

Even under the worst of circumstances, Isaiah didn’t give up hope. We can see that in the fact that he still turned to the one who could help him. And we can learn a lot from how he prayed, about how we ourselves should pray in these latter days.

Isaiah began with a humble confession of sins. And—note this well—he includes himself: ⁶ All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. He asks the Lord for an answer he admits he cannot find or discern or produce himself. ^5b But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? ...⁷ No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins.

If your anger actually causes us to sin, God, since we by our sin caused you to become angry, “How then can we be saved?” is the gist of his baffled question. But he doesn’t just want an intellectual answer. He wants help. He pleads for himself and his nation. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!

Do something Lord! Change things. Come down here and unstop the ears and open the minds of this people! Demonstrate your reality to the heathen both within and without Israel. Show the whole world that you alone are the living God.

Do you ever feel like Isaiah? We have cause to. But we also have cause to share Isaiah’s hope that the Lord will hear and respond. We have the same wonderful, loving God who still cares. You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance. (vv.16b-17)

“As a father has pity on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him.” God, the Father of Isaiah and Israel is our Father too. He is our creator, who made us that he might shower his love upon us and take us to his home. He has not forsaken us but mercifully feeds and clothes us. He gives us work and the ability to carry it out. He protects us and fills our lives with good things. Not only has he made us. He became our Father in a very special way when we were baptized.

He is also the Father of our nation. He mercifully allowed the establishment of these United States. He has guarded and protected us in time of war. And he has given us the peace we now enjoy. God, the Father of this nation, has an active interest in keeping this country free, so people can freely hear his word. We can have hope and confidence that God wants to hear and answer when we pray on behalf of our nation and community.

Isaiah was especially mindful that his heavenly Father was also his Savior. In his desperate prayer, he reminded the Lord of his own faithful promise to send His Son and redeem Israel. ‘Lord, you are the Redeemer, you repeated the promise to all our fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to Moses and David. You’ve shown us your will to save us Lord through the marvelous things you have done for us in the past For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. (3,4)

You rescued us from Egypt with the awesome plagues. You divided the Red Sea and led us through on dry ground. You brought down the walls of Jericho. You gave us victory over all our enemies as we took possession of the promised land. Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down [once more], that the mountains would tremble before you!

The Lord heard Isaiah’s prayer—and answered. The answer didn’t come in Isaiah’s lifetime, but when it finally came, it came with awesome, with worldwide significance. The answer to Isaiah’s prayer is still celebrated with the greatest fanfare and pomp, and it still offers us the greatest hope as we pray for deliverance. From the devastated people of Israel, from the land that was laid waste by the Babylonians when they refused to repent, came the answer. Christ, born in the city of David in the land of Judah came to redeem the world. CHRISTMAS was God’s answer to Isaiah’s desperate prayer. God awesomely interfered in the events of human history—and in a few short weeks, the whole world, whether they realize it or not, will be acknowledging the 2000^th anniversary of God’s wonderful answer to Isaiah’s prayer. God himself “rent the heavens and came down”—humbly, born of a virgin, giving up His heavenly throne, his majesty and inconceivable wealth, taking on the likeness of man. Now He sits forever on David’s throne, exalted as the “Wonderful Counselor, The Mighty God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace,” ready to hear our desperate prayer, and preparing once again to rend the heavens and come down.

He has rescued us through faith in him. Through the Gospel He has shaped a new people, far more glorious than the Old Kingdom. O Lord, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand (v.8). He has re-formed the fractured shards. He has softened our clay by the Gospel. He is molding us in His own image, and His new people will never pass out of existence, until he rends the heavens and comes again to take us to be with him forever.

May we pray Isaiah’s prayer, not desperately, but with all the hope that is ours this Advent season, knowing the answer has already been given. He sent His Son for us at Christmas. May He shape each of us during this new church year, as once again we celebrate the life and work of our Savior. Through the Gospel, may we be molded into beautiful vases, containing all the treasures of salvation. And may the contents cause us to carefully polish the exterior to a sparkling shine, until we look up with joy to see the miracle once again, as our Lord visibly rends the heavens and comes down, to create a new heaven and a new earth—the home of righteousness. Amen!