The Prophet's Prayer

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“Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains might quake at Your presence—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! When You did awesome things that we did not look for, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence” (Isaiah 64:1-3).

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!

With the First Sunday of Advent, we begin a new Church Year. At the same time, we prepare for the celebration of the Festival of the Holy Nativity—the birth of Christ on that first Christmas Day. In our Gospel, we heard the account of our Lord’s triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. This is how the Church begins each year. We stand between our Lord’s first coming and wait for His second coming at the end of time. We wait and live by faith, not by sight. Our faith is nourished and made certain as we remember our Lord Jesus, who entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday to cover our unrighteousness through His atoning death and resurrection.

The faithful who came before us in the days of the prophet Isaiah also lived by faith as they waited for the Lord’s Messiah. Their faithfulness is praised in the Book of Hebrews: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). “Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son” (Hebrews 1:1-2a). The words of God spoken to the Lord’s Church through the prophets are also spoken to us. They speak to us about the Son of God; indeed, the words they speak are filled with Christ Himself.

 And we speak those words back to God. Faith turns to the Lord in prayer. Even when God appears barricaded in heaven, ignoring the suffering of His people, faith prays. Consider the example of King Hezekiah. When Hezekiah peered out from behind Jerusalem’s walls to see the Assyrian massed around his city, all appeared to be lost. No nation had been able to resist the military power of Assyria. The destruction of Jerusalem appeared imminent. The Assyrian commander taunted Hezekiah and the people. It was a desperate time. “As soon as Hezekiah heard it, he tore his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord” (Isaiah 37:1). The writer of Chronicles records, “King Hezekiah the King and Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, prayed because of this and cried to heaven” (2 Chronicles 32:20).

In such ominous times, God’s believers always turn to the Lord in prayer. In Isaiah 64, the prophet Isaiah gives us an inspired prayer as an example. It is a prayer of great comfort expressing the longings of God’s people during the disastrous years when the Babylonian armies conquered Israel. They destroyed Jerusalem and the temple, and those who were not slaughtered in the siege were taken away in chains to Babylon. But this prayer is not limited to those dark days. It is also the prayer of the Church at all times whenever she is surrounded by God’s enemies and when all appears hopeless. It is also our prayer. With the prophet we pray as we await our Lord and live by faith.

 “Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down” (Isaiah 64:1). Going beyond the plea for the Lord to look down (Isaiah 63:15), the prophet’s prayer escalates to the point of asking why the Lord has not come down. Why has God refused to break through the firmament and save His people? Surely, He has the power to tear the sky in two and attend to His people’s needs. The Lord had done it once (Isaiah 64:3-4). Would He do it again?

The plea for the Lord to “come down” with the resulting shaking and quaking (Isaiah 64:1) harkens back to the burning bush (Exodus 3:7-8), the appearance of the Lord at Mount Sinai (Exodus 19:11), the filling of the tabernacle (Exodus 40:34), and the conquest of the land (Judges 5:5). When God opens the heavens and comes to save, He brings with Him massive convulsions in nature. “Fire goes before Him and burns up His adversaries all around. His lightnings light up the world; the earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth” (Psalm 97:3-5).

The Word of God is firmly in the heavens (Psalm 119:89). But it doesn’t stay there. It rains down from heaven and brings righteousness (Isaiah 45:8) and salvation (Isaiah 55:10-11). It comes in the night to sleeping Samuel and sets in motions events that cannot be thwarted (1 Samuel 3). It is so mighty that even the strongest of prophets grows weary from holding it in (Jeremiah 20:9). And so, they arise and speak. The shepherd picks up the harp and sings the Word (e.g., Psalm 23). The tender of sycamore trees tunes his tongue to prophesy (Amos 7:14-16). The fishermen stand in the temple and preach (Acts 3-4). Apostles and prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers—they all rise and speak because the Word of God has first spoken to them. Indeed, the Word climactically descended in the incarnation of God’s Son, Jesus, the Word made flesh (John 1:14). He came in meekness, but He shall return in great power and glory. The earth quakes at His resurrection (Matthew 28:2) and again to set His apostles free to preach (Acts 16:26). The greatest earthquake will commence when He comes down from heaven on final time (Hebrews 12:25-29; Revelation 16:18).

“Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down” (Isaiah 64:1). A deist, someone who believes in a god who creates and then just leaves creation run on its own, cannot say such a prayer. But God who created the world by the power of His spoken Word has not left us on our own while He watches dispassionately detached from a distance. In difficult times, it may seem God has forgotten us. Nevertheless, in faith we pray and wait and pray. We pray Isaiah’s Advent prayer, “Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down” (Isaiah 64:1) and rescue us from our enemies. It is a prayer of longing for God’s presence among us.

The first three verses of this prayer end with a familiar refrain. “That the mountains might quake at Your presence” (v 1). “That the nations might tremble at your presence!” (v 2).  “The mountains quaked at Your presence” (v 3). It is a frightening thing to ask almighty God to come down in judgment. If even the mountains quake and melt, how much worse will it be for sinners? Thus, the Book of Hebrews declares, “Our God is a consuming fire” (12:29).

Nevertheless, we pray these words knowing full well the consequence. What a vivid picture Isaiah gives us. We have seen wildfires so hot that dry bushes simply explode. When fire heats water, it turns to vapor and vanishes into the air. And so, it is with those who oppress us. We want them simply to go away like a mist and leave us in peace. God did this in the past with Pharaoh at the Red Sea, at Mount Sinai with the image of the golden calf, at Elijah’s battle with the prophets of Baal, and throughout Israel’s history.

But we don’t merely pray for the destruction of our enemies by fire. We pray, “Come down ‘to make Your name known to Your adversaries’ and cause the nations to ‘tremble at Your presence!’” (v 2). Where the Lord’s name is, there is He. In His presence, the mountains tremble. The word Isaiah uses for tremble means “to flow.” It is thus a picture of rock turning to liquid and flowing away, and it describes how the presence of God will change the rock-hard hearts of the ungodly. Smugness and arrogance melt into fear. Such is the way of God’s judgment, the way of the Law.

It is a dangerous thing to ask God to come down in judgment on all nations, for He will judge us, too. So, the focus of Isaiah’s prayer turns from Israel’s enemies to the Church herself, to the enemy within us. As we come into the Lord’s presence, our sins are shown, and prayer becomes a confession of sins and plea for forgiveness. Our prayer is not only that this God would save us from our enemies, but also that all nations will repent and call on the name of the Lord.

Behold, You were angry, and we sinned; in our sins we have been a long time, and shall we be saved?

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” (Isaiah 64:5-6).

Israel’s prayer is our prayer. “When You did awesome things that we did not look for, You came down, the mountains quaked at Your presence.” “Oh that You would rend the heavens and come down” (Isaiah 64:3, 1). The unexpected has happened. At the birth of Jesus, the heavens were literally rent. The glory of the Lord ripped open the heavens in the presence of the shepherds. The shepherds did not melt away like molten rock, but were told by the angel, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord” (Luke 2:10-11).

Neither history nor revelation nor human experience testify to any other god who acts to save those who wait for Him. Only the Lord has been heard and seen. His involvement with the world climaxes with the incarnation of Jesus (Hebrews 1:1-4; 1 John 1:1-3). As we confess in the Nicene Creed, “He was made man.” There in the arms of Mary we see the eternal Son of the Father. There on Calvary, He endured the shame of the cross (Hebrews 12:2). A week after Easter, even doubting Thomas had to acclaim Him, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Now we wait for His second epiphany, the “manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ” (Titus 2:13).

In a real sense, we wait with the Old Testament Church. It is, of course, true that we live after the birth of Christ. Nevertheless, we pray with and as those who went before us, we live and wait and pray by faith, not by sight. Since the Lord’s ascension, we live in a time of hearing, not seeing. “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). We hear what they heard. We listen to God’s Word from the prophet Isaiah. Their prayer for deliverance from God’s enemies and for forgiveness of sins is our prayer.

Despite all our righteousness being as filthy rags, we pray with them the great “nevertheless” of the Gospel. “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. Be not so terribly angry, O Lord, and remember not iniquity forever. Behold, please look, we are all Your people” (Isaiah 64:8-9). We dare ask God to look upon us for we are His people, His children.

Israel’s prayer is our prayer. “Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that mountains might quake at Your presence.” Did God answer Isaiah’s prayer? Yes. Babylon was destroyed by her enemies. Her great walls and palaces were put to flame. The Lord brought a remnant home to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. But the full answer to this prayer took place many years later when blood and water flowed from the Eternal Rock (John 19:34; Isaiah 26:4). The moment Jesus gave up His spirit, the heavens were rent, and the mountains quaked. “The curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split. The tombs also were opened” (Matthew 27:51-52).

That Jesus successfully accomplished what God His Father commissioned Him to do is symbolized by the rending of the veil of the temple. The curtain of sin no longer separates us from the holiest of holies. Declared righteous on account of Christ’s death in our place, we can now boldly stand in the presence of God.

God has no reason to listen to our prayers. Yet, when we come to Him, we do not come to Him on our own. We come to Him in the name of Jesus, who has shed His blood to wash away our sins. God invites us to pray to Him as dear children ask their dear Father. We can pray with confidence and boldness because, in Jesus, God is our dear Father.

The Lord makes His love personally clear to us in His means of grace. He comes to us daily in His Word and Sacraments. We can have absolute confidence in the good news that He forgives all our sins through Christ’s death on the cross. We can be absolutely assured of that forgiveness through the faithful practice of Baptism and reception of His body and blood in the Sacrament of the Altar. We have every reason to be confident in the coming of Christ through the forgiveness of sins!

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.