Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Rend the Heavens

Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!  As when fire sets twigs ablaze and causes water to boil, come down to make your name known to your enemies and cause the nations to quake before you!  
Isaiah 64:1-2

For thousands of years, this has been the cry of those who believe in an all-powerful God, as they look at the violence, injustice and evil in the world.  I suspect every generation has had people who thought things could get no worse.  We are no exception.  As we see world rulers who seem out of control, groups who exercise violence against others who disagree with them, and individuals who seem to delight in their own wicked character, we want to scream, “God!  Come down and put an end to this!”

So….why doesn’t He?

I don’t profess to know.  But, if he had swept down from heaven and made everything right a millenia or a century ago, you and I would probably not have been born.  I do not have the mind of God.  I cannot understand how all the events of history fit together with the lives of individuals to accomplish his purposes.  However, I believe he has a plan and a purpose for each of our lives.  We see only the small segment of time in which we are caught.  We may study the past, and guess at the future, but it is only a guess.  We do not see the whole panorama, the whole pattern woven into the fabric of time and eternity.

So, we are left in the middle of what appears to us to be chaos, unable to see the plan, and we cry out…
Oh that you would rip the heavens apart,
Tear them as one rips a curtain open,
Burst through with such awesome power,
That every knee bows.
Roar like a lion.  Blaze like a fire.
Heat the pot of human events to boiling.
Cause praise to your name to come from every mouth.


I keep believing that someday this will actually happen, and the crooked will be made straight. (Isaiah 40:4) He came as a lamb two thousand years ago.  Someday he will come as a lion, and no one will stand before his roar.  No one.


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