Isaiah 64:1-9 is one of the biblical texts for the first week of Advent in this Christian year’s lectionary. It is a great reminder to any who read its words of the sense of longing that should accompany the faith of those who entrust their lives to Christ. It has an element of lament that seems so appropriate for Advent this year.
The first stanza is a petition of sorts that God would reveal His awesome might by tearing open the heavens and coming down. Verse 3 ends with the phrase, “you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.” For those who keep up with the daily news from around the world, it isn’t hard to understand how these ancient Israelites might have felt. 2020 is unlikely to go down as “the best year ever” for most people, and the world seems ripe for God’s intervention.
The middle section of the paragraph eventually gets to the heart of the struggle: “we have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.” (vs.6a) When waiting for God’s coming into our lives, few things could be better responses than to do a little house cleaning – and Isaiah’s words seem to reflect an awareness of that need.
The last portion of the paragraph is both recognition of God’s sovereignty and a plea. The Lord God is our Father – and we are as clay in the hands of a potter. Perhaps there is some sense of wanting God to help them be formed into the people He desires? And the paragraph then ends with, “do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever. Now consider, we are all your people.”
Waiting is an opportunity – and in the case of the waiting of Advent, it is an opportunity to get ready for the most important guest of all to arrive and call us His own.
When we are expecting visitors to our home, it is always a part of the “waiting plan” to make sure the house is clean and ready for our guests. We would hardly sit around and fail to dust the furniture while waiting. Waiting is an opportunity – and in the case of the waiting of Advent, it is an opportunity to get ready for the most important guest of all to arrive and call us His own.
We do live in a troubled world, and it isn’t very difficult to reach the point of thinking that only God’s divine intervention will ever fix it. Nor is it difficult to think that our world is so broken, it can’t continue to go on much longer.
But no one knows when the season of Advent – waiting – will no longer be needed, for the King of Glory will have come in all His glorious might. Thus, we wait. But we wait in preparation that in these days of God’s patience and grace (2 Peter 3), we have an opportunity to do some house cleaning. We have an opportunity to allow the potter to form us as He wishes – and we wait, never forgetting that indeed, we are all His people.
Let us wait in hope!
Wye Huxford 