Ep. 174. Isaiah 64, 66 | Rend the Heavens
EPISODE 174
REND THE HEAVENS: ISAIAH 64,66
"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." There is none like the God of heaven. Reading these opening verses of Isaiah 64 stirs up all sorts of emotions in me. It gives me pause and causes me to wonder how other people think of God. He has no form that we should imagine him, yet we all try to attribute some sort of shape to him. Do you imagine him as timid, benevolent, fatherly, more like a judge, bright, bearded, full of grace and mercy, full of indignation and wrath, or any combination thereof? I like the verses that show him in power. I like the idea of the sky being split apart at the appearance of his presence. I like the idea that the mountains would quake and tremble before him. I can picture the earth heaving back and forth like water boiling in a pot, and I love it.
To me, God's commanding presence shapes everything I believe and know about him. God, in his power, is opposed to the proud. His opposition to the proud should not be laughed at or scorned. He is the epitome of power and, therefore, the epitome of everything opposed to the proud in heart. But he also gives grace to the humble. Only when we rightly comprehend his power are we prepared to rightly appreciate his grace. Grace, from a weak man, is unimpressive and unmoving. Grace, from the one who shakes the mountains by showing his face, is weighty in its comprehension. A weak god promising justice inspires no confidence, but the one who clothes himself in clouds of darkness and bends the heavens to come down, that God can provide the justice he promises. That strong, powerful one can lavish on mankind more love than the one too lowly to be of any account.
We serve the one true God whose power lends itself to everything true about him. In part, he is worthy of worship because he can thunder from the heavens. He is worthy of allegiance, in part, because he can pull the needy one from the pit and scatter the enemies of the righteous. I wish we thought about these verses more often with awestruck wonder. I am confident it would lead us to a deeper understanding of and appreciation for our glorious God and King.
ADDITIONAL READING: Micah 1:3-4; Revelation 20:11; Psalm 144: 5-6; Psalm 68:8; Nahum 1:5-6; Psalm 18:7-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-10; Psalm 14:1-4; Psalm 53:1-3; 1 Kings 8:27; Isaiah 1:10-17; Amos 5:21-22; Revelation 19:11-16
