Post B2WFdwHfuLB0mHE5qq by SuperLutheran@poa.st
 (DIR) More posts by SuperLutheran@poa.st
 (DIR) Post #B2WFdwHfuLB0mHE5qq by SuperLutheran@poa.st
       2026-01-21T19:23:17.710881Z
       
       0 likes, 1 repeats
       
       1 Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,    that the mountains might quake at your presence—2 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 64:1-4The prophet begins this chapter by expressing his longing that God would come down and fight against the nations. Then he recalls the fires on Mount Sinai and the way in which the people trembled, as if to say "Please! Do that but for all the pagans surrounding us!"But then he speaks of God the Deliverer, who does great things for those that wait for Him. I find the proximity of the fourth verse to be telling regarding Isaiah's thought process. He asks God to come down and thinks about a time far off when He did so...but then declares, against his own yearnings, that God is faithful to all who trust Him. It seems to me that in the midst of writing, the prophet remembered that our Lord DID come down within living memory, destroying the Assyrian army. Though it was not sin for him to express his desire for God to act, it is almost as though he reassures himself that God *has* acted, and thus he may trust in God's future deliverance. On our end, it is encouraging to see that even Isaiah had his moments of weakness and forgetfulness. Yet this also admonishes us to do as he did: when we long for our Lord to do something, we do well to actively remember when He has answered our prayers and showed us His care. This applies chiefly to remembering Christ and His Passion, but it also calls us to remember the times He has answered our prayers in our lifetimes - when we needed extra money for bills, when we asked for safe travels, or for safe deliveries for our infant children, etc. Thus we are reassured that He will continue to be faithful.