Rend the Heavens

Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,

    that the mountains might quake at your presence—
^2 [a] as when fire kindles brushwood
    and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
    and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
³ When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
    you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
⁴ From of old no one has heard
    or perceived by the ear,
no eye has seen a God besides you,
    who acts for those who wait for him. Isaiah 64 ESV

What is the last big event that you attribute to God working?  Do we really “know” God?  Isaiah is asking God to make His presence so real that adversaries and nations would know the Lord.  Later in the chapter, he recounts how Israel has sinned and why God has been silent.  He tells of the desolation of the country and the city where they once worshiped God.  Moving past the shame, he now remembers God.  He remembers that God is the potter and they are the clay.  He is acknowledging that God has the freedom to do to them whatever  God desires.  This is a statement of total brokenness before the Lord.

Have you ever heard a person under great stress let out a heavy sigh?  The low sound and force of the wind escaping from their mouth let you hear the intensity of their duress.  So, this is the sound of Isaiah’s first word, “Oh”.  In our video age we can try to replicate his emotional state.  Here the words and subject matter carry the imagery to which we identify with him.  He is in great anguish.

However, this is not just a weighty cry of desperation, rather it is a focused petition toward the ONLY one who could change their situation.  He is asking God to break the veil between Heaven and Earth. Rend or part the threshold between what is seen and unseen, between the spiritual and the physical.  Isaiah is asking for God’s glory to be manifest.  God answered this prayer, at least twice.  After the 70 years of exile were over, God positioned men to revive Jerusalem.  But the full manifestation occurred in the life of Jesus.  For John wrote in his gospel that glory of God came to earth and dwelt among them.  Jesus broke the barrier into the physical realm and people saw God.

The last comparison invites all of us to participate. No eye has seen or ear heard of a God who acts for those who wait for Him.  Not waited as in the past tense, but “waits” in the present ongoing action.  This is the realm where faith is tested.  Every crutch of our own understanding or self-will, is revealed during our waiting.  For God loves to move when He receives all of the glory, either from our own lips or from the praise of others who observed his ways.

So God rend the heavens.  Move on behalf of our need. We want your name to be great in our lives and in the world.  Move us to the desperation that looks to your hand and to your voice for guidance.  Oh that your Name would be great in the world