I’d like to spend the next week or so looking at the book of Isaiah.  Isaiah is one of the longest books in the Bible but I feel like it often gets overlooked.  It is full of a combination of great prophecy and a truly good synopsis of the way the people of Israel acted toward God in the Old Testament.  Let’s look together at one such synopsis in Isaiah 64.

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
    that the mountains would tremble before you!

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!

For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
    you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.

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.

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?

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.

No one calls on your name
    or strives to lay hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us
    and have given us over to our sins.

Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
    We are the clay, you are the potter;
    we are all the work of your hand.

Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;
    do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look on us, we pray,
    for we are all your people.

The people are struck with the goodness of God then forget and fall into sin.  They feel far from God after a season and pray to Him once again for help and to remember them.  This pattern is broken when many of the prophecies of Isaiah come true through the birth of Jesus and eventually His death and resurrection. That’s the beauty of this book.  Even in the midst of the rebellion and sin of the people of Israel God is at work on a plan to redeem them and us forever.  That is such a great picture of the love and grace of our great God.  It’s again summed up in Romand 5:8 – while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.  Today be reminded of the amazing grace of God and live your life for Him as a means of thanks for His incredible gift.

In His Grip,

Pastor Dave