How often have we felt that way? We want God to show up big time. Our desire to see the physical representation of God manifested in our situation. Right now.
We find Israel longing for this. They were longing to see God. That He would show His power.
Isaiah 64:1-2
Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down,
that the mountains would tremble before you!
2 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!
But there was a genuine issue going on with Israel.
Isaiah 64:5-7b
You come to the help of those who gladly do right,
who remember your ways.
But when we continued to sin against them,
you were angry.
How, then, can we be saved?
6 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.
7 No one calls on your name
or strives to lay hold of you;
The reality of their condition. They were sinful. And they had turned to everything else except Him.
God had shown up for Israel for hundreds of years, from their inception to their deliverance from Egypt to Jericho to His presence in the Tabernacle and then the Temple, and many, many encounters with the living God.
Yet, their testimony was that they each went their own way.
I am reminded of the rich man and Lazarus.
When the rich man dies and is held in a place of suffering before the final judgement, he begs Abraham to go and tell his brothers before it is too late.
Luke 16:29-31
Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’
30 “ ‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’
31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’ ”
God has shown Himself, and He reveals Himself through His word.
Are we listening? Or are we waiting for more?
