Lamenting: What Will God Do? • 07.06.25
Lamenting: What Will God Do?
Isaiah 64:1-12
Wrestling with responses to sin, God’s and ours
- Call upon the God who is mighty and able to save
- Confess the breadth and depth of sinfulness
- Beseech God for mercy
Manuscript:
Good morning, church family! Today is the start of our Family Worship Sundays for the next 7 weeks. That means our K-5th graders will be joining us in the services rather than going to Harvest Kids. We’re thankful to have you here! (Introduce self + welcome visitors)
Ushers + Bibles (Isaiah 64; 740)
We’re nearing the end of our sermon series in Isaiah, with just two more weeks left. So today, I wanted to give you an idea of what is coming after Isaiah.
(One Another’s Graphic) For four weeks we will be dipping our toes into a topical study of the One Another passages of Scripture. You’ve likely heard of these passages before, but in case you haven’t, I am simply speaking of the many times the Bible gives us instructions like “love one another” or “be at peace with one another” or “serve one another”. There are quite a few of these commands, so we have grouped them together under the following headings:
- Unity One Anothers
- Humility One Anothers
- Love One Anothers
- “Other” One Anothers (the catch-all!)
I look forward to studying and discussing these with one another! (See what I did there?!) I hope it will provide some very practical instruction for how to live in a manner pleasing to Christ this summer. Since we’re going to have the kids in here with us, my goal is to help us see how these commands can be lived out at any stage of life as Christians.
Following that series, we will jump back into a study of a specific book of the Bible, two books actually – 1 & 2 Thessalonians. The title for that series is Firm Faith, because in them Paul gives quite a bit of instruction to these churches about standing firm in their faith until the day of Christ. We’ll be in these two books until later in the Fall.
Hopefully that whets your appetite for where we are going next in God’s Word this year! I’m excited to keep growing in godliness alongside of each of you. Please continue to invite your friends/family/neighbors/co-workers to come and worship the One, True God with us.
Let’s turn our attention now back to Isaiah. If you were here last week, you may recall that chapter 63 ended in the prophet’s lament on behalf of Judah over their sin that has separated them from God. As I mentioned last week, the lament didn’t end at chapter 63, it continues all the way through our text today. So, we’re going to resume our lament today and then, over the next two Sundays, we’ll get to hear God’s response in chapters 65-66.
Do you remember what it means to lament?
To lament means to express grief or sorrow.
Pastor Mark Vroegop would go further to say that biblical lament “is an expression of faith in God who hears our cries and responds with mercy and grace.” Or further as “…the honest cry of a hurting heart wrestling with the paradox of pain and the promise of God’s goodness.” (Dark Clouds, Deep Mercy: Discovering the Grace of Lament, 25)
The people of Judah, represented by the prophet Isaiah, have been lamenting their rebellion against the Holy God for it has caused him to become their enemy and to fight against them. They have been crying out to God to look down from heaven and to see their plight. They have asked him to return to them, for in God alone is their hope and they are supposed to be his holy people. This is a tall ask for a people who have been repeatedly forsaking Yahweh to pursue their idols! Those of you who have been with us for the entire Isaiah series know that we are talking about generations of unfaithfulness to God. And they had rightly reaped the consequences of their rebellion when God brought the Assyrians and Babylonians against them to carry them off into exile!
But they are hopeful that God might once again show mercy to them. Though they are unworthy rebels, they know that God is a merciful God. So, they continue to cry out to him. Let’s see what they have to say in our text today.
Isaiah 64:1–12 (ESV)
Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains might quake at your presence—
2 as when fire kindles brushwood
and the fire causes water to boil—
to make your name known to your adversaries,
and that the nations might tremble at your presence!
3 When you did awesome things that we did not look for,
you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.
4 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.
5 You meet him who joyfully works righteousness,
those who remember you in your ways.
Behold, you were angry, and we sinned;
in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.
8 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.
9 Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,
and remember not iniquity forever.
Behold, please look, we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and beautiful house,
where our fathers praised you,
has been burned by fire,
and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
12 Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?
Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?
Can you hear their desperation? Their cities have been devastated and their holy temple burnt to the ground. They have no leg to stand on. No righteousness of their own to put forth… They need God to act of his own accord… they need him to show mercy! They bring nothing to the table to deserve mercy, but that is just the point! When we talk about mercy, we mean…
Mercy –
- mercy is aid rendered to someone who is miserable or needy, especially someone who is either in debt or without claim to favorable treatment.
(Ryken, Leland, Jim Wilhoit, Tremper Longman, Colin Duriez, Douglas Penney, and Daniel G. Reid. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.)
Will God show mercy? Or will he keep silent, and afflict them so terribly? (Aka let them reap the just consequences of their sin.) This morning we are…
Wrestling with responses to sin, God’s and ours
As we have seen throughout Isaiah, and most recently in chapters 63-64, sin is a BIG deal to God. Sin defiles us. It makes us unholy. It marks us as rebels against God.
Last week, I shared that sin is both a stain on our inner man/woman but also played out in our thoughts/speech/behavior. It is like a deadly virus that has infected every part of creation. It is so serious that it must be addressed, both by God and us. Last week we heard that God’s righteousness and salvation requires the conquering and removal of sin.
Let’s continue to learn from this lament some appropriate posture/actions that we must take in our response to our sin. Beginning with what we see in verses 1-5.
- Call upon the God who is mighty and able to save
The lament continues in these verses having just laid out the problem at the end of chp 63 – the adversaries have trampled down the sanctuary and the people seem to be ruled by oppressors rather than God. Now they are calling out to God for action. “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at your presence…”
When Isaiah says this, he is speaking in a way that is wishing that God had already intervened in the past. He uses the perfect tense of the verbs, essentially saying, “If only you had broken into your creation sooner, things would be much different now!” But God hadn’t and the people still desire him to break in and save them now. It’s like they want that Messianic figure from 63:1-6 to show up on their doorstep now. They need the rescue/redemption from God that he has been foretelling throughout Isaiah.
They know that when the Creator God breaks into his creation it is marvelous and awesome. The mountains quake, as they did long ago at Mount Sinai during the Exodus from Egypt.
Exodus 19:16–20 (ESV)
16 On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire.
The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up.
The Israelites had not expected God to show up in this mighty way, but they were in awe of it when it happened. They didn’t know to look for it or expect it back then. But now they are asking for it! “God, give us this kind of powerful breaking in. We want you to make your name known to your adversaries and that the nations might tremble in your presence.” (Main points slide)
The nation of Judah has at least learned by this point that Yahweh is the One, True God. Those idols they kept neglecting God for and turning aside to had never provided anything! But history has proven, through sight and sound and eyewitness account that Yahweh is God. He alone is the God who is and who acts. There is tremendous evidence for him!
Yet they still struggled to be faithful to him! Though we read in verse 4 that he is the God who acts for those who wait for him, and in verse 5 that he meets him “who joyfully works righteousness, those who remember you in your ways,” the people of Judah were not these people! They were dead in their sin and had failed to faithfully trust him for all their days.
We should all be able to relate to their predicament. If God requires PERFECT trust in him, if his standard is joyfully working righteousness ALL our days, and ALWAYS remembering God in our ways… Then who could possibly measure up? *pause* The answer, of course, is no one!
Which brings us and them to the dilemma presented in verse 5:
“Behold, you were angry, and we sinned”
God’s righteous anger is aroused against sin, and they are sinners. Do you see the dilemma? How can sinful people be at peace with God who is justly angry at sin?
It continues with their frank admission and follow-up question, “in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?”
The dots are being connected here. How can longstanding, rebellious sinners be saved by a holy, wrathful God? This is the question we should all be wrestling with at this point. It is still a relevant question in our day for our own lives, if you have a correct understanding of who you are in comparison to the perfectly Holy God… Because we too are rebellious sinners who need God to save us!
Yet, like the Judeans, this reality should not keep us from calling upon the God who is mighty to save. Frankly, we would do well to learn from the pagan king of Ninevah who was confronted with his nation’s sin by the prophet Jonah. Listen to how this man responded:
Jonah 3:8–9 (ESV)
8 but let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and let them call out mightily to God. Let everyone turn from his evil way and from the violence that is in his hands. 9 Who knows? God may turn and relent and turn from his fierce anger, so that we may not perish.”
Even this pagan king realized that their only hope was to confess their sin, turn from it, and entrust themselves to God’s mercy. Pretty amazing! This guy got it!
Is that how you respond to the reality of sin in your life? Do you even recognize that you are a sinner in need of rescue and redemption? … That’s the starting place for every one of us. A humble self-assessment that concludes – “I have fallen short of God’s perfect standard… My sin has earned his holy wrath/judgment.” We heard such an assessment from Isaiah in verses 6-7:
Isaiah 64:6–7 (ESV)
6 We have all become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.
We all fade like a leaf,
and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.
7 There is no one who calls upon your name,
who rouses himself to take hold of you;
for you have hidden your face from us,
and have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities.
The problem in Judah was their sin had made them unclean. Even their “righteous deeds” were like a polluted garment (lit. menstrual rag). How’s that for an illustration!? God and his prophets certainly have a way with words!
Being unclean or stained with sin is a major problem when God requires absolute purity for anyone who would be in his presence. Sin is not spoken of favorably here (or anywhere in the Bible), as it causes your life to fade away.
Isaiah says that no one is seeking or calling upon God. They are all spiritually asleep and not able to be bothered with taking hold of God. There is apathy in the nation. No one grasps the dire situation they are in, where God has hidden his face from them (meaning no blessings, only curses) and that his divine discipline was aimed at them. His is an honest assessment of their sinfulness, which is the appropriate response when confronted with the holiness of God. From this we can learn to…
- Confess the breadth and depth of sinfulness
The reality of sin affects everyone. The sweeping indictment of Judah in Isaiah’s day is also true of all of humanity throughout history. All are unclean. And all our righteous deeds that we think earn us merit in God’s sight are like a polluted garment.
How humbling! God doesn’t intend to give us room for pride and self-righteousness! We are utterly dependent on him for salvation and righteousness.
The reality is that our lives are quite temporary and, if we devote them to pursuing sin, they will end in death. Not just physical death, but spiritual death. Being absent from God’s presence to bless and eternally before his presence to judge.
So many in our world like to mock the idea of hell – “Oh, at least I’ll be with my friends there! It’s going to be one giant party!” Nothing could be further from the truth. It will be a terrifying place full of God’s divine judgment and displeasure. You will have been found guilty of treason against the King of Kings and the outcome for such people will not be pleasurable at all.
Rather than being spiritually asleep, it is far better to confess your sins thoroughly and turn from them (repentance) in faith and obedience to God. Though no one called upon God’s name in Isaiah’s day, that doesn’t have to remain the case in ours. You are here today, reading this text, listening to this sermon by God’s providential grace. Will you respond to the challenges of this passage with faith and obedience? Do not remain spiritually apathetic. Call upon the God who is mighty to save and confess the depth and breadth of your sinfulness. God is merciful to turn and relent from his fierce anger, so that you may not perish.
I know this is not a popular message. It is not a feel good prooftext. It is my attempt to deal honestly with the intent of the passage so that when you stand before your Creator one day you will be ready for it. I hope you would rather hear hard messages here and now so that you might respond in faith and repentance, rather than to stand before Jesus on Judgment day and hear, “Depart from me, I never knew you.”
Confession, though painful in the moment, is a step down the path that leads to life. It is an opportunity to tell God what he already knows – that you have exchanged the truth for a lie and desire his forgiveness and mercy. Because, as the king of Ninevah so wisely understood, God is not only a Just Judge, he is also a merciful Savior! Those are the twin themes we’ve seen throughout Isaiah. And for those who are guilty before the Judge, the best response you can have is to throw yourself at his feet and plead for mercy. Own where you have rebelled against him and then ask him to forgive you and help you to change. That is what we see the Judeans/Isaiah doing in verses 8-12:
Isaiah 64:8–12 (ESV)
8 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.
9 Be not so terribly angry, O Lord,
and remember not iniquity forever.
Behold, please look, we are all your people.
10 Your holy cities have become a wilderness;
Zion has become a wilderness,
Jerusalem a desolation.
11 Our holy and beautiful house,
where our fathers praised you,
has been burned by fire,
and all our pleasant places have become ruins.
12 Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord?
Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?
Recognizing their sinfulness in light of God’s holiness leads the people to…
- Beseech God for mercy
To beseech means to ask urgently/fervently. Though their situation is dire and their character flawed, they make a bold appeal to God. They remind God that he is their Father, the Potter or Creator who made them. They are his. And they are urgently asking God to show mercy on them.
We see this in the three pleas they put before God in verse 9:
- Be not angry
- Remember not iniquity forever
- Behold, please look, we are all your people
Do they have any right to demand God adhere to these requests? Absolutely not, he is the Potter and they the clay. They have no right to demand this. But they can plead with him to show mercy!
Mercy –
- mercy is aid rendered to someone who is miserable or needy, especially someone who is either in debt or without claim to favorable treatment.
(Ryken, Leland, Jim Wilhoit, Tremper Longman, Colin Duriez, Douglas Penney, and Daniel G. Reid. Dictionary of Biblical Imagery. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.)
They certainly meet the criteria for being recipients of mercy, don’t they? And so do you… and me!
But the question that hangs over them is spoken in verse 12:
Will you restrain yourself at these things, O Lord? Will you keep silent, and afflict us so terribly?
They do not know how God will respond. They can ask for mercy, but they have no right to demand it. They can plead with God not to be angry nor remember their sin forever. However, it will be an act of grace if he chooses to resolve this tension between his righteous wrath and their sin.
They even try to get his attention directed to their identity as his people and point out the devastation that has come upon God’s holy cities and the temple, which had been burnt down! These are things that God cares about, as we have heard from the last several chapters of Isaiah. He intends to make Zion a beautiful city that radiates his glory one day!
How will that glorious future come true if they are guilty in their sin? That is the tension remaining to be resolved. As Commentator John Oswalt so beautifully puts it:
As throughout 63:7–64:7, there is no question of God’s justice, nor are any excuses offered for Israel’s persistent sinning. There is clearly no hope at all in those directions. The only question is whether God’s pity for the condition of his children and his concern for his name, which is inextricably linked with Israel, might prompt him to intervene in the hearts and lives of his people, doing in them what they cannot do for themselves. Will the Warrior from Edom (59:15b–21; 63:1–6) act to make possible the fulfillment of the promises of 60:1–62:12? (NICOT)
What a conclusion! There is only hope in the mercy of God! In and of ourselves, we have no hope for we are dead in our sin, and he is a perfectly Just Judge. God must act if we are to be delivered from our sin!
We would do well to beseech God for mercy. Plead with him urgently! The promise of the Suffering Servant from Isaiah 53 has given us great hope that God has a plan for the rescue and redemption of his people. He will not let them perish in unrighteousness but will make a way for many to be counted righteous.
Though our sin and its consequences are severe, God has provided a way of salvation for his people. He has chosen not to remember their sins forever because his Son, Jesus Christ, took our sins and the wrath they earned upon himself.
1 Peter 3:18 (ESV)
18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit,
This is the hope available to everyone who confesses their sin and believes in Jesus Christ for salvation. He exchanges his righteousness for your unrighteousness! What a great exchange! And this was always God’s plan. Of this grand redemption plan, the author of Hebrews says:
Hebrews 9:27–28 (ESV)
27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.
Everyone faces judgment, but if your faith is in Jesus Christ, then your sins have been paid for, and you have the certainty of salvation in Him! Notice the description “those who are eagerly waiting for him.” If you understand just how deep your need for salvation is, then you have every reason to eagerly anticipate Christ’s return as you live a humble, obedient life for him! He has done a miracle in rescuing/redeeming a sinner like you from God’s wrath! How could you not eagerly live for him every day of your life? *pause*
I hope you would agree, there is much for us to learn from the lament in these chapters. We must grow in our understanding of the severity of our sin as well as the necessity for God’s mercy towards us! The reality that everyone in our world needs to embrace is that God alone is mighty to save, so CALL ON HIM. CRY OUT TO HIM… Ask God to rescue and redeem you and your loved ones… and your neighbors/co-workers/etc,…
We should desire salvation from God’s wrath for all peoples, which means we must take this message of salvation to all peoples! (repeat)
How appropriate to consider this as we wrap up Missions Month and prepare for High Five Camp and a summer of Witness on Wednesday opportunities. Will you do your part to take the hope of the Gospel to our community? To speak intentionally of God’s perfect holiness, man’s sinfulness, and our need for a Savior – Jesus Christ?
But, even before you tell others about it, will you live in light of it yourself? Commit to a regular practice of confessing the sin in your life so that you avail yourself of the mercy and forgiveness of God in Christ. I love the promise of 1 John 1:9, as well as the warning that follows in verse 10:
1 John 1:9–10 (ESV)
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10 If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Don’t waste your life pretending that you’ve got it all together. No one does. We are all sinners in need of a Savior. And if we are humble and willing to confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. WHAT A PROMISE!
“But how do I confess?” Great question! Glad you asked. Confession means to say the same thing as God says about it. Here are some practical examples:
- Family – “Honey, the way I spoke to you was sinful. I was angry and self-righteous.”
- Work – “The way I responded to your confrontation was full of pride.”
- Personal – “The desires I have cultivated in my heart are lustful and immoral.”
Confession is being honest with God, telling him what he already knows, but it is for our benefit, as it humbles us and forces us to recognize where we have sinned. Confession is first and foremost to God. We have the privilege of coming directly to him through Christ!
Confession is the path to forgiveness and restoration of relationship – with God and with others! If you’ve sinned against another, go to them and confess it to them as well and ask for forgiveness. This is how we protect peace in our relationships and cultivate holiness!
The alternative is to remain under God’s righteous wrath and to have him justly judge you for your sin/rebellion. That should strike fear into the heart of every man, woman, boy, and girl. No one wants to stand before a wrathful God! Far better to beseech God for mercy by confessing and turning from your sin! The beauty of where we stand in human history is that we know the Suffering Servant has come. Jesus Christ has made a way for us to be forgiven and redeemed! We have the privilege of latching onto the beauty of truths like Ephesians 2:4-10, which says:
Ephesians 2:4–10 (ESV)
4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
So, while we will wait to see God’s response in chapters 65-66 of Isaiah in the coming weeks, we also already know the ultimate outcome from the New Testament! God will be merciful to those who seek Him! He is rich in mercy and has a great love for his people. He will bring us from death to life through Christ! And this is all due to his glorious grace, not any works that we have done. As Christians, our boast is in Christ alone this morning. That is the message we take to our broken, hurting world. The lament of Isaiah 63-64 has been – What will God do?
We already know the answer. He will send His own Son to make a way for sinners like us to be saved! The better question may be – what WOULDN’T God do to save his people? And I close with this beautiful answer from Romans 8:
Romans 8:31–32 (ESV)
31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
Thank you, Lord, for sending your Son! Thank you for hearing the pleas for mercy and having a plan to rescue and redeem. If your hope is not in Christ alone for the salvation of your soul, then please let’s talk more about that after the service today.
Christian brother or sister, be sobered by the reminder of the severity of sin. Be quick to confess it and turn from it. Be amazed at the rich mercy of God that he has lavished upon you through his Son. Then go and live a joyfully obedient life, including telling others about God’s rich mercy so they may have this hope of salvation!
Let’s pray.
Pray