Episode 343: No Eye Has Seen | Tim Henderson

Introduction

Alright. Good morning, friends. How are you guys doing? Hope you're doing well. Delighted to be with you this morning. We are gonna be, not in the passage that Brian just read to us, but in Isaiah chapter 64 this morning. So if you have a Bible and you wanna break it out to Isaiah 64, it's the very end of the book. We'll also have all the relevant texts on Scripture but you might on screen rather but you might wanna be able to jot things down.

Isaiah, I don't know how much you know about Isaiah but it's one of the richest books in the entire Old Testament. We go to it all the time. Among other things, it contains a number of poems about people that are suffering. Oftentimes in Isaiah, they're suffering because of things that they did. They're under judgment and they're longing for restoration and they're waiting. And it feels to them like they're waiting a very long time. Because of that, Isaiah is traditionally one of the books that we look at during Advent because Advent is a season of waiting. Sometimes waiting and suffering. Sometimes waiting for a very long time.

And so we're gonna look at Isaiah 64, just the first nine verses. There is, you guys, there's so much gold in here. We're just gonna walk through it a line at a time, just try to peel it apart and I hope to ask you some questions in a way that guides you on a little bit of self-discovery that you might discover part of what is here because as I've told you a hundred times, it's always my goal to teach you, convince you that this book is full of treasure and that you can find it. So this thing here, this is really a record of warning and judgment and restoration and hope. And so we don't just wait, right, but we wait in hope.

Cry for God’s Coming

Let's take a look at what it says here. We'll kick it off in Isaiah 64 verse one.

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you.

What is that? When Isaiah has this cry, oh, that you would rend the heavens, what is he asking for there? What's that phrasing invoke? What he's basically saying is I wish that you would open the curtain that separates you from me. I wish that you would tear through the veil. I wish that you would unlock the door between you and me and come through it because I need your help. That's what he's saying. Right? They are struggling, they are suffering, and they're crying that God would come.

Then he says this bit about the mountains trembling before them. We'll have more on that in a minute. Okay? But notice what else happens besides trembling mountains.

Images of Divine Intervention

Verse two:

As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down and make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you.

One of the, maybe distinguishing characteristics of Isaiah is that he's very fond of using images and then using them repeatedly and then using them differently. He does it all the time. He'll pick an image and just hit it and then drop it and hit it and drop it. Each time, it's like a new facet, a new angle.

Here's some of the ways that he's talked about fire in the past. In chapter 29 he said, the Lord Almighty will come with thunder and earthquake and great noise, with windstorm and tempest and flames of devouring fire. In chapter 30, he said, see, the name of the Lord comes from afar with burning anger and dense clouds of smoke. His lips are full of wrath and his tongue is a consuming fire. And in chapter 33, the peoples will be burned as if to lime. Like cut thorn bushes, they will be set ablaze. And it's not hard to see that Isaiah uses fire the way the Bible very often uses fire. It's a picture of judgment. Right? It's God's coming. Sometimes it's purifying. Sometimes it's very often in Isaiah consuming, devouring, reducing to lime, strong language.

Here in Isaiah 64, it's a little bit different because this is the fire that boils the water and what he's depicting is not so much the destructive work of the fire, but the impact of the fire that causes the water to churn. And this idea of the waters that are boiling and roiling and trembling, if you will, he alikens that to the land that trembles, the mountains that quake when the Lord comes.

All told, what he's saying is that would you come and either completely destroy our enemies, as you often say in fire, or at least disrupt things, shake the world. Right? And then but in any case, it is about the defeat and elimination of their enemies, of those that are oppressing them.

Then he switches from this hopeful present tense, oh, I wish you would do this, do these things in the future, to a fond remembrance of the past. Look at what he does in verse three.

For when you did awesome things that we did not expect, you came down and the mountains trembled before you.

He's talking about something very specific here. He's remembering the time that the thing I'm asking for actually happened. When you came down, there's fire everywhere and the mountains trembled. Do you know what he's talking about? What is the historical event that Isaiah is alluding to when he says that? Do you remember what it is?

Remembering the Exodus

Okay. Sodom warriors, that's not bad. That's Genesis 19. That's a little bit earlier than this. Because Sodom was judgment but it wasn't a rescue. He's remembering a rescue when he came down. You know what this language is? Moses. What did we say? Mountain. It's Moses on the mountain. It's the Exodus. It's if you, I'll go to Exodus 19.

Here's the exact scene. Here's where he's borrowing his language from. It's when God finally calls his people out of their slavery in Egypt to this great exodus and he meets them in Sinai, makes a covenant.

Exodus 19:18

Mount Sinai was covered with smoke because the Lord descended on it in fire. You're hearing this. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace. The whole mountain trembled violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. Then Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

Right? He comes down, there's a fire, the mountain shakes, and in Isaiah 64, Isaiah is saying, do you remember when you did that? Do you remember when you came down and the mountain shook and everything was on fire? Well, right now, everything's a disaster. Would you do that again? Would you do now what you did then? Would you come back because we're lost, we cannot find you, and we don't know what to do? Would you rend the heavens? Would you come down?

And then he says this, verse four:

Since ancient times, no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any god beside you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him.

You come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.

The Unseen God and the Hope of Rescue

I'm reading a book right now, it's called Dominion by Tom Holland. And his point is that the world is indelibly marked by Christianity. And at this exact moment in the sermon during the first service, my wife shouted out, it's not Spider-Man. And I said, what? And I thought my wife was having an aneurysm. I'm like, what just happened here? And so let me explain to you that the author of this book is named Tom Holland. And there's an actor named Tom Holland who portrays Spider-Man. These are not the same person. Okay? So if you have any confusion over that point, different guy, alright?

Some guy named Tom Holland who cannot shoot webs, who is an atheist, and he's a historian, and he's written a book despite the fact that he is not a believer in Christ. Holland observed that the world is completely saturated by Christian thought that did not used to exist. That people walking around that are not Christians, that would not give 2¢ for Jesus think things that they would never think if it were not for the spread of Christianity throughout the nations.

Here's the description of his book from Amazon. That they're making the point, hear this, the world's indelibly marked by Christianity. There are things that you think that you would not think, things that are obvious to you, but which would not be obvious, which would not be obvious to anyone if the God of Isaac, Abraham, and Jacob had not revealed himself most fully in the person of Jesus Christ.

Here's the description of the book from Amazon. Today, the West remains utterly saturated by Christian assumptions. As Tom Holland demonstrates, our morals and ethics are not universal, but are instead the fruits of a very distinctive civilization. Countless concepts are deeply rooted in a Christian seedbed from Babylon to the Beatles, Saint Michael to me too. Dominion tells the story of how Christianity transformed the modern world. And that's what the book is. It's just like a largely, it's a history of Christianity. As he walks through the gospel through the centuries, you can see what the world was like before Christianity rolled into town and how it leaves people thinking other different things.

This thing that Isaiah is talking about is one of those ideas. The notion that God would act mercifully on behalf of a person or a group of people, to you is like, yeah, that's what he does, that's how it works. But what you have to understand is nobody used to think that. Nobody. The gods are capricious and they do as they please, and it would be delusional for you to think that the gods care about your suffering. What do they care? Who are you to attract their attention, much less to invite their help?

The fact that you think that this is obvious is only because of how incredibly successful this message is spread throughout the world and shaped our imagination about what God is like. And what Isaiah is saying is I know nobody thinks that you're like this, but we know what you're like. You've revealed yourself to us, and you do act on behalf of those who wait for you. Or at least you did. At least you have.

And what Isaiah is saying is, would you do it again? You are the Lord, the Lord, the gracious and compassionate God. You're slow to anger. You're abounding in love and faithfulness. Would you be those things again for us?

That's—I know nobody's ever heard of this. No ear has ever dreamed this up, but we know what you're like. Would you do it for us?

The Condition of Humanity

Now, there are right now millions of people in the world who need rescue. Several of them are in this room, and many of them deserve it. It's a warranted claim. It's a legitimate want. You could just think perhaps of a child caught in trafficking or an adult with cancer. There's no one to blame. They're not culpable. There's just need.

And what Isaiah is saying is that nobody really thinks that you'd ever come to help such a person, but you are that kind of a God and so we ask you for your help. That might even describe you right now or someone that's very important to you, that you long for help, for rescue, you need him and you are his faithful one. That's what he's saying.

However, there's a huge problem, right? Look at where he goes next. There's a rub in our passage because according to verse four and five, whom does he rescue? To whose help does he come? Go up one more slide if you don't mind. I want to see the passage right there. Who does he help? Whose help does he come to? You guys?

It says, you come to the help of those who gladly do right, who remember your ways.

A problem for Isaiah is that is a condition they have not met. Look at what he says next. When we continue to sin against them, them by the way is the ways of God. When we continue to sin against your ways, you are angry. How then can we be saved? All of us have become like one who is unclean and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. We all shrivel up like a leaf and like the wind, our sins sweep us away. No one calls on your name or strives to lay hold of you, for you've hidden your face from us and have given us over to our sins.

Human Sin and God’s Mercy

You guys, a God who acts on behalf of his people, his innocent people, was a novel hope. No one had ever heard of such a thing. But God's character is such that he said he would help those who walk faithfully before him. But Isaiah is saying, even that is not gonna do us any good because we don't walk faithfully before you. So what about us? What are we supposed to do? Like, where do we go? How does this help me? We're lost. We're a mess. And as he describes their condition, he uses two images. Okay, take a look at these.

First image is that of filthy rags. He says, all our righteous acts are like filthy rags. Translators are somewhat famously shy here. Does anybody know what it actually says? All our righteous acts are like literally what it says in Hebrew is used menstrual cloths. And the translators are like, you know what, we're just gonna, we'll tidy that up a little bit.

He says, our righteous acts, he says, when we're standing before you, when we are at our best, this is our righteous acts, when we are at our best, it's like we are dressed in used bloody rags and we have no claim to your mercy.

Second image, look at this. He says, tell me if you notice what he's doing. This is an homage. He says, we all shrivel up like a leaf and like the wind, our sins sweep us away. That is an allusion to a very famous passage in the Old Testament. Do you recognize it? You know what that is? It's the gateway to the Psalms. That's Psalm 1. Psalm 1 famously says that there are certain people, right, that are like a tree planted by a stream of living water. They're green or not living water, a stream of water. They're green. They flourish. Their leaf does not wither and the fruit doesn't fail. And it's contrasted, that's the righteous, it's contrasted to the wicked who are like chaff dried up and the wind blows it away.

What he's saying here, we have no basis to claim tree status. We are the shriveled leaves. Our sins have left us dead and dry. And as such, we cannot expect you to rescue us. We have no basis to demand justice from you.

Now, whether you identify yourself as those who gladly do right, who have walked faithfully with him and need his intervention, or as those who are like, I got nothing. I can't make any claim. I can't demand anything because of the way that I've lived. Because this misery, this suffering, if I'm being honest, I brought it on myself.

Whether you're either camp, notice, and in fact, Isaiah is in the second camp, he still cries for mercy. He doesn't just give up and walk away, he still cries out.

Look at what happens. Look what the next verse is, verse eight.

Yet, despite the fact that we have no claim, yet you, Lord, are our father. We are the clay, you are the potter, we are the work of your hand.

Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord. Do not remember our sins forever. Look on us, we pray, for we are all your people.

Isaiah makes no claim for himself or for his people on the basis of what they have done, but solely entirely upon who God is. He is a father and he is rich in mercy. He loves to show grace. He's kind to the undeserving.

God's Mercy and Human Response

Curious, how many of you have read or seen some adaptation of Les Misérables? Is this a known story in this world, in this community? People told me when the musical was on Broadway and all was on, everybody's like, you should see it, you should see it, you should see it. And I was like, I don't think I'd really be that interested, so no thank you. And I didn't watch it for years. And then I finally did, and when I did, I was like, you dummies, why didn't you tell me that it was a gospel story? Like the whole thing is so rich. It is such an—I mean, I don't know that there are very many stories ever told that more richly incorporate the gospel than Les Mis. It is a brilliant work.

If you don't know the story, it opens up with a man named Jean Valjean, who had stolen a loaf of bread and was sentenced to prison, hard service, hard labor in prison. He ends up being in prison for nineteen years and then he's released. And when he's released, you know, he has nothing and he needs food, he needs a place to stay, and so he goes to try to find somebody that would be merciful to let him in and let him eat their bread and nobody does. Finally, this bishop welcomes him in, graciously and kindly brings him in, feeds him, gives him a bed to sleep in, and in the middle of the night, Jean Valjean pays him back, paying the bishop back by knocking him unconscious and stealing his silver and escaping into the night.

The next morning, Jean Valjean is apprehended and the police bring him back to the bishop with the silver and then this happens. So, Brian, if you have the sound, and if we can darken it a little bit, and then play the scene.

[Scene from Les Misérables with the bishop and Jean Valjean.]

It's an incredible story. If you've never seen it or read it, there's a million opportunities that you could grab. That's Liam Neeson version. It’s a gospel story; it’s a story of mercy. Jean Valjean's life is radically transformed.

But what I want you to see here, that right there is a depiction of mercy to the undeserving. But of course, it is not with silver or gold that we were redeemed, but with the precious blood of Christ. This passage here, right, here go back to verse four.

Since ancient times, no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any god besides you who acts on behalf of those who wait for him. — Isaiah 64:4

Do you know where that verse gets picked up in the New Testament? Do you recognize the echo of it in the New Testament? Do you remember where it is?

Yes, First Corinthians. Jessica's right. It’s First Corinthians chapter two. In First Corinthians chapter one, the whole passage is about the cross. It's about the shocking, surprising, absurdity, the foolishness of the cross, that this plan that God is working out in front of for all to see, nobody saw it coming. It was so ludicrous, so completely unforeseen, so completely unforeseeable, just looked to everyone like total idiocy, right?

The most shocking thing of all about the mercy of God is what he was willing to pay to purchase it. This is what he says, this is Paul in First Corinthians 2:8,

None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him, but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. — 1 Corinthians 2:8-10

Against the fact that God would care to rescue anyone, and that he would rescue the guilty, and that he would rescue the guilty at the cost of crucifixion, that was beyond the wildest dreams of the madmen. It is completely insane. No one had ever dreamed of such a thing.

Where does this come from? And yet, so it is. And this year, as we enter into Advent, as we wait for some for him to come for Christmas morning, for rescue from whatever has trapped you, I hope this—the wonder of it all, the impenetrable ridiculousness of it all—will hit you fresh and it will give you hope and that as you wait, you will become convinced that his heart for you is good.

It might be this morning that there is some particular burden that you are carrying and if so, we build time every week, we invite you to come down, you have to fight with these wreath things but you know, you'll be okay, come down and take a moment to be alone with him. Or you can come to the straight edges, we'll have folks that'll be their pleasure to pray for you, to hear what's troubling you, and to pray with you. It is just our pleasure to say, we don't want to just hear this, but we want to respond. We don't just want to be hearers of the word. We want to do what it says, and what he says is to come to me.

It's an invitation. And as you come, you could maybe reflect on what else Paul says that he who did not spare his own Son but graciously gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things?

Let's pray. Father, you're rich in mercy and you love to be kind. If it seems normal to us, it's only because your servants have been so successful in declaring this throughout the world. But it is a strangeness that you would delight to extend grace. Oh Lord, I pray that folks here that for whom perhaps it has become blase or people who don't have the courage to believe it might actually be true, will come to you in grace. And they will find that you love them, that you're kind, that you rescue.

And Lord, that swimming in your grace, we might become like you. That our lives be marked by the lyric, love to the loveless shown that they might lovely be. By your grace, I pray that we might become a people who have experienced your love and extend it to others in ways that are shocking and confounding and surprising and beautiful and just like you.

We love you. Thanks for loving us. Amen.