Isaiah 64

One of my favorite books of the Bible is Isaiah. I have many favorites, but this one is definitely at the top of my list. Such hope! So many wonderful promises! Such encouragement! Because it's absolutely so wonderful, I want to share a little from one of the chapters that I've just read.

"Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down!" (Isaiah 64:1a)

Does that sound familiar to you? Have you ever cried out for God to come down and rescue you from a set of circumstances that are threatening to overwhelm you? Or is that just me? I read the beginning words to this chapter and immediately was hooked. Isaiah shouts out the very words that I myself have cried at times.

I've learned over the years that often I'm crying out for rescue because I just don't like the pain of where I am. It's not killing me ... although it may feel like it. I just want to be rescued. I don't want to  learn. I don't want to grow. I just want to feel better. Yet, my God is in control. Because I know that to be true, I can also know that I am where I am for a reason, for a season, for a purpose. 

"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 64:4)

This is a promise! Our God acts for those who wait for Him. The interesting thing is that in the Hebrew, the word "wait" is closely related to the word for "piercing". Waiting often feels like a piercing, doesn't it? Because it is! We learn and grow in the wait, and in the meantime, a piercing is happening. A piercing of our ...

... control                                                                              

    ... plans
        ... wrong beliefs
            ... false idols
                ... pride
                    ... arrogance

In our wait, we see the things that we look to for our deliverance. We see the things that offer so much but can deliver so little. We see that often we're just looking for God's rescue but not for a true relationship with Him. He asks us to wait so that He can pierce and do away with all the things that entangle us. But He surely acts in this piercing. Surely!

"But now, O Lord, you are our Father;

we are the clay, and You are our potter;

we are all the work of Your hand." (Isaiah 64:8)

He's got this, sweet friends! If you're in the process of calling on the Father to come down and rescue you, if you're in the process of a piercing wait, KNOW that He is our Father. He is sovereign and good and continuing His work. 

A good potter doesn't leave the lump of clay as a lump of clay. He molds it, perfects it, fires it, and brings the work to completion. Our good Father? Our heavenly Potter? He won't bring you "this far" and then leave you on your own to finish it. That's His job! And He'll do it! He has promised us that!

"And I am sure of this, that He who began a good work in you

will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ." 
(Philippians 1:6)

So, what do we do with all this? 

• We understand that our God is good.
• We understand that our God is sovereign.
• We understand that because God is good and sovereign that we can trust Him where we are.
• We understand that we must not quit or grow weary in our wait.
• We understand that our God is working, even though we don't see the whole picture.
• We understand that there will be God's perfect completion at God's perfect time.

God's Word is perfect for our every need. Be active with it!!

My I AM

I love God's name. Jehovah. Yahweh. The Great I AM. It can be confusing to read through the Bible and see all of His different names. Jehovah Jireh - the God who Provides. El Roi - the God who sees. Elohim - Creator. Adonai - Lord, Master. El Shaddai - God Almighty. Jehovah Rapha - The Lord your Healer. El Elyon - God Most High. Abba - Father. Not different Gods. Each name highlights a different aspect of His character.

All of those names have been who I've seen Him to be, who He's been with me. Times of brokenness called for Him to be Jehovah-Shammah, the Restorer. Times of turmoil called for Him to be Jehovah-Shalom, Peace. But, always, from the very beginning I needed to be rescued -- from the dangers around me, from the sin within me. Jesus. My Savior. My Yeshua.

Reading through the Old Testament, God reminds me of my brokenness, of my sinful choices, of my total need to be saved. And I didn't just read it. I lived it. I still fight living that way. All the way through, He hints of a coming rescue. There's light ahead!

Because of His incredible grace, God doesn't leave me in a state of helplessness and destruction. He doesn't create me to fight these battles on my own. The mourning, the ashes, the death -- these are real aspects of our lives here on earth. Because of His great love, He extends Himself to me. He is the true definition of a knight in shining armor, an armor He Himself is, coming to rescue His love from the devouring dragon. Don't you just love it?

The King of Kings, the powerful God who has named the stars, who holds all of time, history and future in His hands -- He came for me, for you!!

How great our need was! How powerful His love was (is!). He made the payment. He served the sentence. Did I deserve His forgiveness? Did I deserve His free gift? I wish I could say that I did, that there was a little bit of wonderful within me … but nope. Nothing in me deserved what He did for me, what He continues to do for me. 

I might want to point out something good within me -- how nice I am to animals, how I don't cheat on my taxes, how I politely let someone go before me. But if I'm really honest, if I truly inspect myself, I see that all of that doesn't go to the depths of me. The me inside the depths of me is ugly, is broken, is 100% self-centered. And that is the basis for the brokenness in my life.

It doesn't have to stay that way.

Jesus came to change all of that!

His suffering, His death upon on the cross. His resurrection. It all meant something. It all provided the means for me to become whole in spite of my brokenness by sin. It brought me into God's presence -- holy and clean, for the first time in my existence. He did it all so that He could be for me all that I need. Comfort. Help. Rescue. Provision. Healing. He is my I AM. He is all that I need, all that my heart desires. 

My freedom. His glory. 

My I AM.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDoABiTx42I (courtesy of Crowder)