Savior, Rend the Heavens
Isaiah 63:16-64:8
A couple had toiled and labored hard for many years to build their dream house. Over time they furnished it with quality pieces of furniture as they could afford them. At long last the delivery truck carrying the last purchase, a new bedroom suite, was pulling into the driveway. With obvious delight, the wife flung the front door wide open and exclaimed: “Finally! I’ve been waiting twelve years for this!” The deliveryman looked at her with a startled expression and said: “Don’t blame me, lady. I just got the order this morning.”
Blame – it does seem to be a common problem in our fallen world. We like to point the accusing finger at others for the problems and misfortunes that we face. At times we may even blame God for the predicament that we’re in. Such was the case with the children of Israel in our Old Testament lesson for today. In the past, they had been attacked by ruthless enemies like the Assyrians. But now there was a new enemy on the rise – the Babylonians, who were conquering everything in sight. And so the children of Israel were in terror for their very lives, and they were blaming God for their misfortune.
In reality, though, they themselves were the culprits. You see, the Book of Isaiah was written at a time when Israel was not particularly interested in hearing God’s Word. They were too enamored with the religious philosophies and the lustful practices of the pagan cultures around them. For that reason, God warned them that they were going to wind up exiled in Babylon. In other words, it was their own sin that had gotten them into trouble. In fact, in our text Isaiah said: “WHEN WE CONTINUED TO SIN AGAINST YOUR WAYS, O LORD, YOU WERE ANGRY.” Apparently, God’s people were continuing in their sin, without any contrition or sorrow about it. And the end result was God’s anger at their sin. To put it another way, unless they would repent and turn from their wicked ways, God was going to cut them off and depart from them.
Strangely enough, instead of heeding His warning and repenting of their sin, they started to blame God for it. In verse 17 they cried out: “WHY, O LORD, OD YOU MAKE US WANDER FROM YOUR WAYS AND HARDEN OUR HEARTS SO WE DO NOT REVERE YOU?” Talk about the height of audacity! They were actually accusing God of making them sin. But maybe that’s not such a far cry from the way we feel at times. When we’re faced with financial problems, or our relationships get messed up and we’re strung out with stress, we too may blame God. After all, we’re not that much different from ancient Israel. Like them, we too act as if we aren’t particularly interested in hearing God’s Word. At least it would appear that way, when we don’t take time to read our Bibles each day, or attend Bible Class each week to grow in our faith, or have Advent Devotions with our family.
My friends, when that happens, like the Israelites we can become intrigued by the lustful practices of the sinful society around us, and it ranges anywhere from engaging in impure sexual thoughts and relations to partying to the point of excess. It’s reminiscent of the man, who once wrote to Dear Abby and said, “Dear Abby: I am in love and I am having an affair with two different women. I can’t marry them both. Please tell me what to do, but don’t give me any of that morality stuff.” Abby wrote back and this was her answer: “Dear Sir: The only difference between humans and animals is morality. Please write to a veterinarian.”
That’s what happens when we ignore the counsel of God’s Word. Like Israel in our text, we become enamored by the false philosophies of the world around us, so that we get desensitized to sin and stop standing up for the truth. And that’s when the Law of God thunders in our ears, condemning us for our sin and warning us that we deserve to be exiled from His presence, that unless we too repent and turn from our wicked ways we will be cut off from God.
Well evidently the Law had the proper effect on the Israelites, because by the end of our text they penitently said: “All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” My friends, that’s the same confession you and I need to make every day. Our sin makes us so unclean, that even the best and most honorable things that we can do are like filthy rags before God. As a matter of fact, the word ‘unclean’ was often used to refer to leprosy, that hideous disease that twists and distorts and eats away at a person’ flesh. If you saw the movie ‘The Kingdom of Heaven,’ when the king’s mask was taken off his face, you know what I mean. What a graphic picture of what sin does to our soul. Our iniquity not only twists and distorts us, but it eats away at our faith, so that we are not worthy to be touched by God’s love, deserving to be isolated from His kingdom. That’s why Isaiah went on to say: “We all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away.” In other words, our sin separates us from God, the source of life, and our soul then withers like a leaf and blows away!
A few years ago an experiment took place on the Delaware Turnpike. The state decided that for three weeks it would operate on an honor system. If a motorist did not have the correct change when he came through the toll booth, he could go through a special gate, receive an envelope, and mail his toll back to the state. Of the 26,000 envelopes which were passed out, only 582 were returned, and most of them did not contain any money at all. This is a classic illustration of the dishonesty of most people. The dishonesty of his people was the root cause of Isaiah’s grief, anger, and frustration in our text. We have an honest God dealing with dishonest people. And for that reason we deserve only His anger, punishment, and rejection.
And yet, fortunately for us our God is not only honest and just. More importantly He is gracious and merciful. Instead of being the cause of our sin and the blame for our problems, He is the source of their removal and our rescue from them. For in His mercy He does not mete out the anger, punishment and rejection that we deserve. Rather, He has withheld it from us and has taken all of our blame upon Himself and gotten rid of it for good. Likewise, in His grace He has given us what we don’t deserve – the healing of the leprosy of our sin and forgiveness from it, which makes us not twisted and distorted, but pure and holy, righteous and beautiful in His sight. And all of that He has done through Jesus Christ our Savior.
That’s what Isaiah was talking about in our text, when he said: “Oh, that You would rend the heavens and come down, O Lord, that the mountains would tremble before You!” Isaiah was asking for a theophany – a manifestation of God’s presence in the form of an earthquake to shake up their enemies or a fire to melt away their misfortunes like wax. Basically, he was asking God to come to the aid of His people and rescue them from their problems.
However, God answered Isaiah’s prayer in a much better way. He didn’t just provide a theophany, a manifestation of His presence. He actually became present in human form, by taking on our flesh and blood to rescue us from our sins. Because of our sin, it was as if God had stretched out an impenetrable curtain across the heavens and hidden Himself from His children. But when the fullness of time had come, He tore that curtain in two and came rushing to our side to love us and save us. In essence, that’s exactly what happened that First Advent, when Jesus was born in Bethlehem. God came down to earth in human flesh and ripped our sins to shreds like a flimsy garment, doing away with them forever.
Yes, when Jesus came to earth to suffer and die for us, He rent the heavens wide open, unlocking the doors so that we can freely come into His kingdom. He removed the doom of sin and death, so that we could be released from our exile and set free from guilt. For that reason, we are no longer unclean and untouchable. Instead, God has not only touched us and made us whole, He has fully embraced us with His forgiving love in Christ Jesus.
We could picture it this way: in the ancient near-east, on his wedding day the bridegroom would push aside the veil of his tent and enter into the bridal chamber to consummate the marriage with his lovely new wife. Well, that’s what Jesus accomplished by coming to this world and dying to save us – He made us His lovely bride. But best of all, some day He will rend the heavens once again and come down to take His bride, the Church, to the bridal chamber of heaven where we will consummate the Marriage Feast of the Lamb forevermore. That is the promise that is ours by faith in Jesus, our Advent King.
S. D. Gordon, in his book What it Will Take to Change the World, tells about a couple, who discovered that their young son, Steven, had lied to them. Steven, had skipped school for three consecutive days. He was found out, when his teacher call his parents to inquire about his well-being. The parents were more upset by his lying than his missing school. So they came up with a rather severe punishment. For the next three days, one for each day of his sin, he would stay in the attic by himself, including eating and sleeping there. So young Steven headed off for the attic and the bed prepared for him there. It was a long evening for Steven and perhaps even longer for mom and dad. Neither could eat, and when dad tried to read the paper, the words seemed foggy. Mom tried to sew, but couldn’t see to thread the needle. At 2:00 a.m. as both of them lay awake in bed, thinking how lonely and miserable Steven must be, finally the father said: “I’m going to the attic.” He found Steven much as he expected – wide awake with tears in his eyes. The father said to his son: “Steven, I can’t take away the punishment for your lies, because you must know the seriousness of your sin. But your mother and I can’t bear the thought of you being all alone here in the attic, so I’m going to share your punishment with you!” The father lay down next to his son and the two put their arms around each other’s necks. The tears on their cheeks mingled as they shared the same pillow and the same punishment for three nights!
What a beautiful picture! Two thousand years ago, Jesus rent the heavens wide open and came down to rescue us. He came not just to share our punishment with us, but to take for us and to take it all away. He came to show us that our God is a God of grace, who pardons us for Jesus’ sake. And that’s why we look so forward to the day when He’ll come down to earth again to bring us home. May that be our undying prayer, not only this Advent season, but every day of our lives. For Jesus’ sake, Amen.
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12/06/2005