This week’s passage is dramatic. It helps us grasp how the Father-God relationship works, & how it’s deepened; which leads us to joy!
Isaiah 63 and 64 are about God being our Father. It’s astonishing that the Creator of the galaxies wants little, not always impressive people like us to call Him Father. And it suddenly struck me again while preparing this: I have a Father; I – we!! – can look up on a starlit night and know we’re at home; our actual Father made all this! And here’s something to pray: that the Spirit will help us hold on to the taste of that Father’s goodness. In Isaiah 63:7ff we see a deliberateness about how the prophet remembers God’s goodness: `I will tell of the kindnesses of the LORD, the deeds for which He is to be praised, according to all the LORD has done for us— yes, the many good things He has done for Israel, according to His compassion and many kindnesses`; and he goes on (vv11-14) to list them specifically.
We can create such a record too; it strengthens our thankfulness, which is something spiritually crucial. Recently my wife and I were looking at old photos, and they reminded us of God’s goodness; so out of that we made a list, to thank Him for what was so good and also what could have gone very differently and badly. Here maybe is another practical take-away for each of us: one day this week, in our time with God, make such a list of God’s `kindnesses` & use it in worship? It will deepen our sense of having this Father!
But then again: some of us feel very differently about God’s Fatherhood. If we’ve had (through no fault of our own) bad relations with our human father (I did), it can have emotional consequences we need to recognize and work on; both externally, in our attitudes to other authority-figures or father- and mother-figures (and everybody needs these); but also internally, because a real part of who we are comes from them, and so as Dallas Willard says, to reject and stay angry with them is to reject and stay angry with part of ourselves. But more importantly, problems we have with the idea of `father` can mess up how we relate to our Father in heaven. (`If He’s anything like my father I sure will hate Him.`) There may well be a link between experiences of an absent or problematic father and atheistic disbelief in the presence of any heavenly Father. At any rate, one disconcerting part of fatherhood is we define what `father` means for our children. I made sure to teach my own children that they had two fathers: one is very good at what He does; the other, well, let’s say he tries. (Which got quoted back at me when we fell out.) But importantly, people like myself who had problems with our fathers have to choose to work at rejoicing in God being our `Abba`, our `Daddy` (Rom 8:15). So, maybe another practical thing to take from this passage…
But something else is happening here. What about when this supposedly faithful Father has dropped out of picture? Isaiah is writing for a time when they’ve apparently lost Him (63:15b). Evil forces have demolished what matters most to them: Jerusalem has been destroyed by pagans (63:18, 64:11). `You have hidden your face from us… Will You keep silent?… Where are Your zeal and Your might? Your tenderness and compassion are withheld` (64:7, 12, 63:15).
This happens. Isaiah is writing in the first place for those who haven’t functioned as God’s people at all (64:6); but there are broader implications; really hard things do happen to those who are really God’s children. And before going any further let’s say something important: This passage is about just one reason why this may be, and certainly doesn’t apply to all of us. Some of us face this `dark night of the soul` and the reason is not like Isaiah 63. We’re facing what biblically we can call a wilderness experience, and the reason is that there are ways we will grow there that can’t happen anywhere else. Think of Exodus: Exodus doesn’t end when the people are saved from Egypt, nor do they go straight to the promised land. God’s got Israel out of Egypt, now He wants to get Egypt out of Israel. So He leads them into the wilderness; because (as 1 Peter makes clear) there is maturing that happens there which can happen nowhere else. (Certainly not in heaven where there will be no difficulties to train us!) It must be so, otherwise God who loves us so massively would never let us go through these things.
But that’s not the situation in Isaiah 63, and this chapter is one we’ll sometimes need: might this situation here be me, might this be why at this moment Father feels so distant?
First then let’s note Isaiah’s way of praying! He’s not just recalling God’s goodness, but turning those memories to prayer (64:3-5a) – `telling God about God` – saying to the Father, this is the kind of thing you’ve done and do! Daniel (9:4) does the same thing in the same exile crisis: `I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and confessed: “Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments…”’ So as Isaiah recalls God’s kindness (of which the cross ten chapters earlier is the summit!), he goes on to say: Father, this, this love, this forgiveness, this involvement, this power, is the kind of thing you do!
But then there’s a necessary step forward. 63:10 about `grieving God’s Spirit` raises the question: have I possibly gotten myself into this place? And we can ask as always: does the new testament tell me more, about what grieves the Spirit? Yes, in Ephesians 4:30-31. And might there be other ways? Have I neglected time with God in His Word and prayer, grieving Him just as it will grieve our spouse if we neglect time with them? Have I been casual about something He’s commanded us to do? Am I just not living for the gospel – the one thing Jesus emphasised in His final great commission? And Isaiah gets dramatic & emotional as (on Israel’s behalf) he faces up to such questions (63:15-16).
But then look how the passage develops: `You come to the help of those who… remember Your ways. But when we continued to sin against them, You were angry` (64:5). And Isaiah faces the consequences: `You have hidden your face from us, and made us waste away, because of our sins.` Facing reality: we’ve gotten ourselves into this mess where Father seems nowhere (64:1-10). Father replies, `It’s true` (65:1-2), and a bit later, `I called but you did not answer, I spoke but you did not listen.` That is, don’t blame God! He hasn’t hardened your heart (as 63:17 might imply); you’ve grieved His Spirit…
Like I say, sometimes we’re in the wilderness but what these chapters are recounting isn’t us, isn’t why at all. We see in Numbers that people can be in the wilderness for two reasons: sometimes because of our own sin and stupidity, but sometimes, as with Israel on their journey, because that’s where we’ll grow. But sometimes we need realism (`Examine yourself` says Paul in his instructions for communion, 1 Cor 11): is this me??
What then? Well, 63:16 is crucial: `You are our Father and Redeemer`; God inspires us to look beyond the old testament – or back to chapter 53 – & know that every single wrong and stupid thing I’ve done has been paid for and I can always start afresh with Him. `How then can we be saved` (64:5)? First by faith in what this Redeemer has done, His 150% forgiveness; and alongside that faith (like the `double doors` in Jesus’ gospel, Mark 1:15, and Paul’s, Acts 20:21), repentance. `No one calls on Your name or strives to lay hold of You`, says 64:7; repentance involves that determination to `strive` to call on His name and make Him my priority, my Lord; not because that could ever earn His forgiveness (that would be absurd), but simply because repentance would be unreal otherwise…
And it’s wonderfully true that He is Father, He is our Redeemer, and we can always start afresh! Next week we’ll see how ch65 goes on to the sheer glory of what He does for His repentant people (vv17-25). Father has glory beyond all imagination stored up as each of us repents and puts our obedient faith in Him. But the best commentary on this chapter is the story of the lost, prodigal son (which could equally have been the lost daughter), Luke 15. When the rebel son comes home, having wasted his Father’s resources, expecting at best a cold reception and discipline, he’s astonished to find that his Father `ran to him, threw his arms around him and kissed him`! It wouldn’t be good for us if Father did that while we’re choosing not to face the issues, choosing to be far away: but when we repent and return, we find He’s running to meet us; He welcomes us back; and (Lk 15:23) the party begins!
Hallelujah! Father God is with each of us as we read this; and maybe some of us hear Him speaking to us through it, because He longs for our relationship to be back in shape, with all the joy that will bring to us, and, astonishingly, to Him! Maybe it’s time to pray, to thank Him; and perhaps to tell someone else what this means for us…..
