November 27, 2005 Isaiah 63:16-17 , 64:1-8
You, O LORD, are our Father, our Redeemer from of old is your name. Why, O LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you? Return for the sake of your servants, the tribes that are your inheritance.
1 Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! 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! 3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. 4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. 5 You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, you were angry. How then can we be saved? 6 All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. 8 Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand. (NIV)
It was New Year’s Eve - 1989. Some friends and I went to a local hill in Watertown called “Octogon Hill.” It was a very steep hill - a local favorite for sledding. It just so happened that it had sleeted earlier that evening - so there was an inch of pure ice over about a foot of snow. Along with about five other friends, we decided that we would all jump on a sled together and go down the hill. As we ascended the hill full of laughter, we descended, or at least I did, full of terror. For as we began our descent down the hill, we quickly learned that we had no brakes. I’ll never forget the feeling of sheer terror that I had - being completely out of control going down this hill.
That is one feeling that none of us like to have - the feeling of being out of control. That’s why it bothers some people to know that God is in control. Whether you like it or not, it’s true. Isaiah today compares His power to that of a potter with clay. Just like a potter can form the clay into anything he likes - an ashtray, a lamp, or whatever - God can do anything that he likes. Today we are going to behold some specific power that the potter has.
Behold the Power of the Potter
I. He can make you waste away
First of all, let’s look at a little history behind this text. This was written by Isaiah in the middle 700’s B.C. Assyria had just come from the west under King Sennacherib and wiped out the Northern Kingdom of Israel, taking it’s people captive. Nobody could stop him, until he reached the portals of Jerusalem - the capital of the Southern Kingdom. Standing on the threshold of Jerusalem, the king delivered a letter that basically said to King Hezekiah - “give it up! Has any god delivered them from me yet? Have they rescued Samaria from my hand? How then can the Lord deliver Jerusalem from my hand?” Solemnly, Hezekiah went to the Lord’s temple, laid it before Him, and prayed. That night, the angel of the Lord went out and put 185,000 of the Assyrian soldiers to death.
The Israelites had been on the brink of disaster, and yet the Lord delivered them. After seeing what had happened to the Northern Kingdom, God wanted the Southern Kingdom to take note and change their ways. The Israelites of the north had been worshiping foreign gods, committing adultery with their prostitutes, and living completely godless lives. In the same way, the Southern Kingdom had often followed in their northern brothers’ footsteps. You would think, at this point - the Israelites would repent of their lifestyles - especially after coming so close to disaster. But instead, what happened? Isaiah said, All of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away. 7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; Instead of repenting, the people of Israel became more sinful. They reasoned to themselves, “if God saved us when we were living immoral lives, then He will continue to do so.” They had a false sense of security that God would take care of them no matter what kind of lifestyles they led - no matter what the prophets of God said.
Why weren’t the people repenting? How come they didn’t take heed? Isaiah knew why. Why, O LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts so we do not revere you?. . . 7 No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us and made us waste away because of our sins. God - the Potter - took an active role in shaping His clay - by hardening the hearts of the Israelites so they couldn’t repent and wouldn’t repent. (Isaiah 6:9) Isaiah knew that God was making them blind so they wouldn’t repent.
It sounds foreign to us - to hear about a God who we consider to be a God of LOVE - the God who wants all men to be saved - the God who forgives - take an active role in hardening the hearts of someone. But consider some of the other things God has done in the history of the Bible. He put 185,000 Assyrians to death in one day. He sent the rich man into an eternity of hell - to suffer and burn without quenching his thirst. He put to death first born sons of the Egyptians just to release His people from captivity. Why would I mention these instances? To try and show you something. God is not only a God of love. He is also a God who hates sin and punishes sin.
That is the very reason that God did what He did to the Israelites. Isaiah said, “when we continued to sin against them, you were angry.” Notice how the Israelites had acted - they CONTINUED to sin against God’s laws. After God sent prophet after prophet after prophet - they continued to ignore them and God. And so the LORD had enough - He was angry. He decided, “if you want to ignore me, then I am going to give you what you want.” The Potter made the clay hard and unusable.
Now, why on God’s green earth would we even want to look at this aspect of God this morning? Think about it. If God didn’t want us to know this about Himself, then He wouldn’t have given us Isaiah chapter 64 and other similar Scriptures. There is a purpose behind it. What is it? If we think that God has no end to His patience - that God would never punish anyone - then our sinful natures will say - “I can live however I want.” If God had not revealed this side of Himself, the devil would paint Him as an unfair God who has no sense of justice - who is indifferent to evil - which couldn’t be further from the truth.
The truth is the truth. God hates sin. God has a limit to His patience. Therefore, let the truth be heard - and fear it. There may be some people in your life - or maybe you yourself - who are on the brink of a similar disaster. These are the kind of people who have continually ignored the warnings of the Word - and continued to live in a lifestyle that is contrary to what they know is right. It might be the teenager who has continually gone out drinking, even though he knew he shouldn’t. It might be the preacher who tells his people, “God doesn’t mind it when you disobey your parents,” even though he knows God’s Word says otherwise. It might be the cousin who brazenly tells everyone, “we’re living in sin,” referring to her adulterous relationship. It might be the woman who refuses to come to worship. It might be you. These are the kind of people who look at sin as “no big deal.” They think of God’s laws as “optional” or at least of “minimal importance.” It’s these kind of people that are testing God’s patience more than “normal.”
God doesn’t want us to think that if we make one wrong turn, He will fly off the handle and harden our hearts against Him. But on the other hand, He does want us to respect His power. Even the seemingly “smallest” sin, if repeated willingly and continually, can begin the hardening process. Whenever we willingly do a sin which we know is wrong, we are hardening our hearts against the Lord. We need to take every sin seriously - as an offense against God. If we don’t confess our sins to God, and just continue in our actions, we will grow farther from God. A sin that used to be an exception will become a lifestyle. And then, God may take over the hardening process. Then it will be too late. Since we are only the clay of the Potter, he can make us waste away in our sins. Scary thought, but we still need to see this - for it’s true.
II. He has power to redeem
Isaiah knew his people were in grave danger. They couldn’t pinch themselves and wake up. It was beyond that. There was only one hope - and that was to remind God of who He was - their “Father,” their “Redeemer from of old.” God was the Father and the Redeemer of Israel ever since day one. That word for “redeemer” was a familiar one in the Old Testament. The “kinsman-redeemer” had the responsibility of buying back his family’s lives or goods that had been sold in earlier years. Throughout the history of the Old Testament, God had bought the Israelites back from slavery. He had brought them from slavery in Egypt. He had delivered them from the hands of the Philistines. He had given them victory over Sennacherib of Assyria.
So Isaiah prayed, Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you! 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! 3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down, and the mountains trembled before you. 4 Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. Isaiah was praying that the Lord would take the Israelites out of their coming bondage to the Babylonians - that God would show Himself as their Redeemer one more time. He wanted the Potter to use His power to save His clay - not to destroy it.
Now that we are living thousands of years later, we can see God’s answer to Isaiah’s prayer. Even though most of the Israelites were beyond hope since God had hardened them, in His mercy He still allowed a remnant to return. Under the direction of Cyrus, King of Persia - three groups of Israelites returned from Babylon. It might not have been a miraculous sight - like tearing apart the heavens - but He nonetheless preserved the Israelites by allowing a small remnant to return.
It wasn’t until 400 years later that God answered Isaiah’s prayer in full. On a lonely night in Galilee, God tore the heavens open and overshadowed a lowly virgin with the power of His Holy Spirit. Nine months later, the heavens tore open to announce that birth to the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem. If that wasn’t enough - He saved His best for last. In His justice, He took out all of the power of His wrath on His Son. As Jesus hung on the cross, God had the light of the heavens be shut out. The earth shook, rocks split in two, the temple curtain tore in two, and even the dead raised from the dead when Jesus died. At that point - even the unbelievers had to acknowledge that Jesus was the Christ. The centurion standing near Jesus even said, “surely, this was the Son of God!” God came down in power. He redeemed His people in the full sense of the word. He didn’t just save them from a temporary bondage in a foreign country. He ripped their bodies up from the decay of death. He tore the steel fisted grip of the devil off of their souls. He saved them from eternal hell. The Potter used His power to redeem his people.
Every morning we wake up, every day that we walk, every night that we talk, every Sunday morning that we come to sing praises to Jesus - let us stand in awe at this power of the Potter. Just think of where we would be, if God had not saved us from our destiny. If God had not taken the grip of the devil off of our souls - there’s no way we would be here. We would be living to please ourselves in this selfish sin filled world - wanting nothing to do with God - had God not sent His Holy Spirit into our hearts. We would be ugly in God’s sight - full of sin - if HE hadn’t sent Jesus to cover our sins. If His power of the Holy Spirit would leave us for one second - we would fall from faith and become haters of God. But every day - God continues to keep us in the faith His Word and sacraments. That, my friends, is a miracle.
As we begin this new church year with the season of Advent, we are reminded that every day that goes by is one day closer to Second Coming of Christ. In light of this, we also, like Isaiah, need to continue praying for those who are rejecting the Lord. We need to keep praying for those living in adultery - for those caught up in drug addiction - for those who are excusing their sins and living in defiance of God. We have no power to convert them or change their lives. Only by the power of the Potter - which comes through His Word - will they turn from their unbelief to repentance and faith in Jesus. If God could convert us - and keep us in the faith - if He could bring us back to faith after the many times we have sinned against His Word - if God could take a murderer of Christians and turn him into the most hard working evangelist in the world - if God could take a murderer and an adulterer and make Him a King after His own heart - if God could take a prostitute and change her into a forerunner of Christ - then the Potter has the power to convert anyone. This is the power that we need to use.
When Benjamin Franklin “discovered” electricity, many people probably thought he was insane. Flying a kite in the middle of a lightning storm doesn’t seem to be the smartest idea. Throughout the ages people were terrified of lightning - only looking at it as an act of nature that could hurt and destroy. But Ben suspected that lightning was an electrical current in nature, and he wanted to see if he was right. His famous stormy kite flight in June of 1752 led him to develop many of the terms that we still use today when we talk about electricity: battery, conductor, condenser, charge, discharge, uncharged, negative, minus, plus, electric shock, and electrician.
In a similar way, many people look at God like that lightning. They are born with only a natural knowledge of God. They know there is a God out there who is powerful - for they see the way that He created the mountains, storms, sun, moon and stars. They are naturally afraid of such a God and don’t want to get too close to Him. We too, realize that God is powerful - and we respect that power. We have seen glimpses of that power of the Potter today. He has the power to make people waste away in their sins - when they rebel against Him and refuse to follow His will. This power scares us. But we also realize that God’s power can be used in a positive way. God has used His power to save from sin through the life and death and resurrection of Jesus. That is how God would rather use His power. God grant it to that end as we near the End. Amen.
