Isaiah cries out for God to come and visit the earth with such magnificence, such ferocity, that the mountains quake, and absolutely everything recognises exactly who God is. This is revival. He prays for God to come down and impact himself and those around him (God…who acts on behalf of those who wait for him), and those who do not know God, or are against God (make your name known to your enemies).
Isaiah wanted God to make an entrance. He knew God was everywhere, and that he didn’t have to ‘come down’, in that sense, but just to bring a bit of his Kingdom with him to show what people are missing out on. And he wanted the people of Israel to remember that their God was with them. So he asks God to come in such a way that people have no choice but to take notice – God’s people and God’s enemies.
Isaiah prophesied the coming of a Saviour to earth. Did the people Isaiah spoke to and the following generations think that God would make the kind of entrance that he did about 700 years later?
Verse 2 says 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!’
He wants God’s coming to cause such a stir, that people have to react. Isaiah uses the example of fire, twigs, and water – talking about natural occurrences. In the same way, it is only natural for people to react to God when he comes into contact with them.
We see this in Acts chapter 2, when God sends his Holy Spirit. God moved in a way that no one expected but its effect was massive – 3,000 lives in a single day!
For Isaiah, his passion was for that in his time, God making a move that turned people back to him. Is that kind of impact what we are looking for from God for now?
Isaiah has confidence in his God’s power to come into this situation and make a difference.
1. He’d seen it before, E.g.
2. His faith and closeness with God told him that God works for those who follow him.
3. He’d met with God, Isaiah had entered God’s throne room and seen that God wanted to forgive, and that he still loved his people.
Isaiah knew that there was nothing that could compare with God – the only one who ever has, will or could act SO perfectly for those who follow him.
This is the confidence that we should have.
We have seen God working. Haven’t we? (Wait of reaction)
We have met with God – maybe not in quite the way that Isaiah did, but we have God’s Spirit inside us and we believe that he works for our good.
And we have the Bible – the word of God promises that he will deliver, he will provide, heal, protect, comfort and strengthen.
Do you have confidence in your God, that he can do what Isaiah asks for, today?
Isaiah’s passion is clearly evident. – ‘rend the heavens and come down’ – don’t waste any time getting here, we need you now! He’s desperate for God to come and change his nation’s situation. There is sin, disobedience, threat of foreign attack, complacency, unwise leadership. Does that sound familiar? Have you seen these things? Some of these things, we can see in our place of work, or study – we don’t need to look at a newspaper, or hear about another country.
Isaiah intercedes on behalf of those who don’t know God, or have turned their backs on him. He is pleading to God on behalf of his family, neighbours, friends, bosses, the rest of the country and other nations.
Isaiah was put in a position where he could see these things going on – and we’ve been given the same responsibility, to look at the things round us, and the people around us, and passionately intercede in prayer for God to change these situations and lives.
But it doesn’t start outside. It starts with us. Here and now.
Firstly, do we have anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God? How can we intercede for others if we have not yet confessed these things ourselves?
And secondly – do we have the passion that Isaiah had? – do we cry out for God to come down and impact our lives and the lives of those around us? Do we see the need for it?
Passion to see God move can cover anything. Anything that concerns you. Two examples:
• My best friend concerns me. (explain why… non-Christian etc)
She concerns me, but am I concerned enough to ask God to come down and impact her life so that her mountains tremble, and she desire’s to know God for herself?
• The situation with Iraq concerns me. (explain why)
But we can’t stop war if the powers say that’s what’s happening; only God’s intervention can bring peace in this situation.
Am I concerned enough to ask God to come down and make a difference? To stamp his mark in such a way that individuals and nations not only take note, but tremble before him.
Why should I be concerned? Why was Isaiah concerned? What should I be concerned about? Am I concerned for others? Am I concerned for God’s will to be done? Or am I just concerned about myself? If I’m just concerned about myself, then how can I be concerned for my friend? Or how can I be concerned about war? We need to see through God’s eyes, and have love for God and for other people to be able to be passionate about these things. It can be so easy to look to our problems, when God has given us responsibility to intercede for others. If something concerns you, take it to God ask him to influence the situation. If something important doesn’t concern you, ask God to show you why.
We need to be passionate and motivated about things that matter to God. And we only know these things if we spend time with God, or wait on him.
But how can we come into God’s presence? Do you find it easy? Do you sometimes feel that you don’t have what you need to be there, or you don’t have what God desires of you? Isaiah felt the same, but God brought Isaiah into his presence, and showed him that he was able to make him clean and acceptable to be in God’s presence.
Isaiah talks about how we are sinners – how we can never live up God’s standards and our efforts always have, and always will fall short.
The acts that we see as righteous are, in fact, nothing near presentable to God.
Because Romans 3.23 says ‘for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’.
Despite our efforts, intentions, our promises, and our actions, we can’t bring offerings that are righteous enough to present to the most perfect, awesome, holy God.
Romans 7 verse 15-23 from the NLT says:
By ourselves, we can’t get to God, because we have put things in the way. Greed, selfishness, ambition, hurts, idols, other people and so on.
Are these the mountains that Isaiah is asking God to make tremble before him?
But God says we can approach him whole and blameless.
Because he is our Father, and he loves us, he wants us to be holy. He states in Leviticus, and its quoted in 1 Peter, ‘Be holy as I am holy’. So because this is God’s desire for us, yet he knows it is impossible for us to manage it by ourselves, he has given us a way that makes this possible.
The rest of Romans 7 says 24Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?[3] 25Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.’
And there are other verses in the New Testament that also say this. (acetate) I’ll put them there and you can refer to them
Hebrews 10:12-20 says how Christ was the only sacrifice that we required, and because we love God, we are being made holy, and have confidence through the blood of Jesus to enter God’s presence.
And 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that we may become the righteousness of God through Jesus dying for our sins.
Simply put, our way to God came through Jesus’ death on the cross, taking our place. And through his resurrection, proving that he has power over sin and death. This power means that sin is removed from those who love him and when we enter into God’s presence, we can come with confidence, knowing that we are presentable to God.
Pete gave me a copy of the cd that his band in Cheltenham has produced, and some of the lyrics on there kind of sum this up, they go,
‘I got a million reasons why I praise you, I got a million excuses why I let you down. But in your forgiveness I find there’s peace. In your grace I am walking in bliss.’©
We are being refined, God has placed his Holy Spirit in us, and like a potter moulds clay, he is perfecting us and shaping us.
I remember using clay in school. Now granted, I’m not a potter, or anything near arty. But the clay wasn’t the easiest thing for me to work with. It was awkward, and I couldn’t get it to keep its shape for some reason, and it never turned out how it was meant to. Sometimes we can be awkward to work with, and not want to go a certain way, but because we love God, he has promised that we will be made holy and perfect in his sight. And this is a promise that we need to hold onto when we don’t see it happening.
Isaiah’s request for God to move powerfully returns at the end. When he says ‘12 After all this, O LORD, will you hold yourself back?
Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?’ The best way to answer the question seems to be with verse 1: ‘1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!’
God wants to come down, he wants to change us, he wants to make a difference in Agapé, in our friends lives, places where we work, in Risca, Abertillery, Cardiff.
And if we also want these people and places to know God, if we think we’ve got something that they need, we must be passionate about inviting God to come down.
The CEV version puts Isaiah 64 like this:
’1Rip the heavens apart! Come down, LORD;
make the mountains tremble. 2Be a spark that starts a fire causing water to boil. Then your enemies will know who you are; all nations will tremble because you are nearby.
3Your fearsome deeds have completely amazed us; even the mountains shake when you come down.
4You are the only God ever seen or heard of
who works miracles for his followers.’
Let that be our prayer this week. Let it be our request to God.
Lets pray:
• Give us a real passion for your will to be done
• Give us concern for the people and situations that need your intervention
• Thank you for your forgiveness, for your love that meant your son took our place, and died for our sins.
• Help us to see where you are moving and give us opportunities to be a part of the work you are doing.
• That we give you the praise and worship that you deserve, for there is no God like you, who works on behalf of those how follow you.
