Sunday, November 27, 2011

Big Things Come in Small Packages


Focus: Hope
Function: To help people appreciate the mystery of the incarnation
Form: Narrative

Intro:
Perhaps you think this an odd passage to begin advent with.
Isaiah is praying because he and all of Israel are in trouble. God has allowed their enemies to defeat them. All the hope that the Children of Israel have for being God's children appears to have been washed away.
It is if they are left with the shell of a religious structure, with the shell of a church, with a shell, or maybe a distant memory of better times.
They are wondering how things could have gotten so bad. Why?
They are afraid and what is worse, they are afraid to even hope.
Have you ever been there?
Have you ever wondered why God just doesn't show up and prove His mighty power?
In our text this morning, Isaiah the prophet sits in an unique position. He is God's prophet and because of that, sometimes, he can see into the future. He remembers that God's people, the people of Israel, also sit in this unique position over all of the world.
They, God's people, are God's evangelists to the whole world. That was God's plan.
The OT faith was created to be the means by which God would draw the entire world to Himself through the Jewish people.
And the Jewish people believe because they have had some tremendous things happen for them by God. They knew why they should worship Jehovah God. In the past, they saw His mighty hand at work.
Isaiah, on behalf of the nation prays this prayer to God.
He reminds God of all that God has done for his people.
It is obvious to Isaiah why the rest of the world doesn't believe in God like the Jewish people.
God has done great things for the nation of Israel, and other nations simply don't have that history.
But the problem is, it seems as if it has been a very long time since God has done anything so spectacular.
Isaiah is longing for those days again. Aren't we all longing for those days?
So he prays this prayer to God.
He reminds God that when God gave them the 10 commandments, the whole mountain shook with the glory of God.
Let me re-read some of the verses from The Message:
Whatever happened to your passion, your famous mighty acts?...
Why are you holding back?
Abraham and Israel are long dead.
They
wouldn't know us from Adam.
But you, You, are our living Father!
You
are our redeemer, famous from eternity!
So, why, God, did you make us wander from your ways?
Why did you make us cold and stubborn so that we no longer worshiped you in awe?
Oh I wish that you would rip open the heavens and descend.
Make the mountains shudder at your presence.
I wish that you would shock your enemies into facing you.
Since before time began, no other nation has ever seen, heard or even imagined a God like you!
Do you see what has happened?
Isaiah knows that his people have turned their back on God. He knows that they have turned away. He knows that the people have rejected God and have began ignoring God in their everyday lives.
They are living as if God is not going to judge evil. They are living as if mankind alone sets the standard for right and wrong.
To these people, these people who claim to be the people of God, God isn't real. They have all forgotten just how powerful He really is.
And Isaiah is almost blaming God for it.
He says, “you have made us wander from your ways.”
He reminds God that the reason why the ancients feared God was because God made Himself known.
The description in Deuteronomy is awesome.
First, Moses built a fence around this mountain and gave a command that if anyone broke through the fence, they would die because of God's awesome presence. He was going up the mountain, and he wanted to be sure that the people were safe.
God is awesome. And in some sense, He is terribly fierce. He isn't tame. God is love. But He isn't tame.
So, Moses went up the mountain and God shows up.

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