I return to Isaiah 64, a marvelous chapter for your meditation. “You have hidden your face from us” (Isaiah 64:7). Out of sight, out of mind?
What can we see? Our sins. “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” (64:5-6).
Add mortality to your sins: “We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away.” Here in St. Louis the leaves have been falling for weeks, and today cold winds are blowing them away. Each leaf blown away, my mortality, your mortality.
“There is no one who calls upon your name, who rouses himself to take hold of you” (64:7). Here’s the essence of sin: Daily life without a conscious seeking of the One who created us. The specific sins we do – can you name yours? – spring from our willful wandering away from God. Fallen from Him, dried and blowing away.
God is hidden but not absent. You “have made us melt in the hand of our iniquities” (64:7). Remember the wicked witch in the “Wizard of Oz”? “I’m melting; I’m melting.” How do we theologically interpret the news? God is present, melting humanity in our sins. It’s God’s alien work that He does to bring us to repentance.
Jesus preached repentance and faith when He came from His Father to us (Mark 1:15). Advent calls us to it. “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” (64:8-9). Take hold of God’s promises, for dear life!
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