Rend The Heavens And Come Down Isaiah 64 Last week’s bulletin announced that I would be preaching on Isaiah 66 today. That was my plan, but I changed my mind. The more I read Isaiah 66, the more I sensed the need to set the context for the prophesies of both Isaiah 65-66. These two chapters contain the Lord’s response, His answers to what’s in chapter 64; the final prayer of Isaiah. What is interesting about this prayer, is that it’s quite similar to what Jesus teaches us in Matthew 6, which we commonly call the Lord’s prayer. God is referred to as Father. There is a request for HIs name to be made known (hallowed). There is a plea for His kingdom to come and His will to be done in their lives. And at the very center, there is a confession of sin, and a prayer for deliverance from the evil power it’s held over the lives of His people. And that is something so very easy to forget until it is too late. Sin, given an inch, will take a mile; and lay a life, a family, friendships, even a nation in ruin. This is a good passage to pay attention to as we begin a new year and new chapter of our lives. Here is how the prayer of Isaiah 64 opens. 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 which we did not expect, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence. 4 For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by 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 in doing righteousness, who remembers You in Your ways … When was the last time you prayed, or heard someone pray, “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down!” This is an impassioned version of, “Thy kingdom come,” or “Come, Lord Jesus.” “Rip open the curtains, come down and set everything wrong right. Don’t come quietly, but dramatically, so that mountains shake and people tremble.” This is a not a prayer to soften hearts to receive the gospel. It’s a prayer for God to crack the sky in two, reveal His awesome glory so that people will tremble. This is not a prayer for God to provide His people with daily bread, but with deliverance from captivity; to bring them home, to allow them to sing His praises in the land He gave them. It is a prayer for His deliverance to be spectacular so that His name will be hallowed, made known (64:2) to all the people of the earth just as it was when He sent the plagues on Egypt and said to Pharaoh in Exodus 9:16, “I have allowed you to remain, to show you My power and proclaim My name through all the earth.” “Rend the heavens, and come down,” as You did in the past, “When You did awesome things we didn’t expect.” One of the reasons we read the Old and New Testaments, and that we gather together weekly to open the Scriptures is so that we will remember the awesome acts of God on behalf of His people. If you want an excellent summary of God’s miraculous deeds on behalf of Israel, take a read through Psalms 105-107 this week. The nature of God is that He delights to save, intervene, deliver those who wait on Him to act on their behalf and provide for their daily needs and their desperate ones. We’ve seen the phrase, “Wait on the Lord,” before. It’s an expression of trust with an expectant hope and a perseverance to look to the Lord for help and strength in the present. Here are the two examples from Isaiah that we read this last month. *And I will wait for the Lord who is hiding His face from the house of Jacob; I will even look eagerly for Him. Isaiah 8:17 *Yet those who wait for the Lord Will gain new strength. They will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary. Isaiah 40:31 Here are a few examples of how it occurs in the Psalms and Proverbs. *Wait for the Lord. Be strong and let your heart take courage. Psalm 27:14 *Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him; Do not fret … because of the man who carries out wicked schemes. Psalm 37:7 *I waited patiently for the Lord, and He inclined to me and heard my cry. Psalm 40:1 *The Lord favors those who fear Him, those who wait for His lovingkindness. Psalm 147:11 *Do not say, “I will repay evil.” Wait for the Lord, and He will save you. Proverbs 20:22 Here are two final examples from the New Testament. *For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; Philippians 3:20 *Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting anxiously for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to eternal life. Jude 1:21 In this context, those who wait on the Lord are those who rejoice in doing righteousness and remember God and His ways. Did you know that the apostle Paul quotes Isaiah 64:4? He is how he renders it in 1 Corinthians 2:9 “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man. All that God has prepared for those who love Him.” Those who wait on the Lord are referred to as those who love Him. We wait for those whom we love, look forward to the time we will see them, be with them, enjoy their presence. I hope we are all waiting eagerly for the Lord Jesus to return. Speaking of love, that little expression, “Him who reJoices in doing righteousness,” reminds me of a similar phrase use in 1 Corinthians 13. “Love does not reJoice in unrighteousness.” Two other things before we move on. 64:5 tells us God meets with those who wait for Him. When I think of God meeting with us, I think of Him listening to our prayers. When I think of the Lord meeting with people in the Old Testament, I think of Moses at the burning bush, Isaiah falling before God’s throne in heaven, the Lord coming down at Sinai. When I think of the New Testament, I think of how approachable Jesus is with all who come to Him. It is not a coincidence that this word, meet, is used in Isaiah 53:6 and 53:12 to describe Christ. He met with us in our sin and intervened. He is approachable because He met us at our worst. He took our sins upon Himself. They were laid on Him. He met with them. He made intercession for us. He met with us as sinners and took our guilt upon Himself. One last thing; this prayer actually began back in chapter 63. Let’s go there for a moment. Look down from heaven and see from Your holy and glorious habitation. Where are Your zeal and Your mighty deeds? The stirrings of Your heart and Your compassion are restrained toward me. 16 For You are our Father, though Abraham does not know us and Israel does not recognize us. You, O Lord, are our Father, Our Redeemer from old is Your name. 17 Why, O Lord, do You cause us to stray from Your ways and harden our heart from fearing You? Return for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage. 18 Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little while, our adversaries have trodden it down. 19 We have become like those over whom You have never ruled, like those who were not called by Your name. If you have been following this study in Isaiah, you know this is a low point in Israel’s history. They’ve brought God’s judgment, His wrath upon themselves because they have gone after other gods, forsaken His covenant; that He would be their God and they would be His people, in a sense His priests, drawing the nations of the earth to worship Him. Throughout their history their loyalty to the Lord ping-ponged all over the place, and as Solomon’s reign ended, idolatry crept back in. When he died, the nation split into two, one kingdom to the north with ten tribes and one to the south, with two. Idolatry ruins lives and it ruins nations. By Isaiah’s time, the wages of idolatry in Israel had come due. Through His prophets, the Lord let the people know that Assyria was the instrument of His wrath against the northern kingdom. They would be conquered and carried off into exile, never to return. God also announced through Isaiah that the Babylonians would destroy Jerusalem, the temple; and take the people of the southern kingdom captive to Babylon. “Your holy people possessed Your sanctuary for a little while. Our adversaries have trodden it down …” This prayer of Isaiah, and of the righteous remnant in Babylon, is a fitting way to end this prophecy.