Frustration
Isaiah 64:1-9 NIV
64 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!
3 For when you did awesome things that we did not expect,
you came down, and the mountains trembled before you.
4 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.
5 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;
for you have hidden your face from us
and have given us over to our sins.
8 Yet you, Lord, are our Father.
We are the clay, you are the potter;
we are all the work of your hand.
9 Do not be angry beyond measure, Lord;
do not remember our sins forever.
Oh, look on us, we pray,
for we are all your people.
We all moments when we struggle with frustration sometimes. Frustration happens when things don’t go the way we hope, resolutions don’t come in a quick and efficient way, when our patience gets low and our hopes and wants are left unattended.
Like this pandemic. Or hurricane Harvey repairs that still need to be done. Or injustice in our government... frustration over not getting well soon enough, frustration over not getting out of debt when you want, frustration can come over the little things or the big things, short term and long term...
frustration can build up over time, a few minutes, a few hours, days, weeks, months, years...
People felt frustration, and many other emotions in Isaiah's writing. This book was written in what scholars call the Exilic period. Isaiah was written after the land had been conquered by the Babylonians. A people separated from their land, separated from their friends and families, living life on terms they were not used to and did not like. For many years, Isaiah was written in somewhere between 586 BCE and 515 BCE so it was after Babylon conquered Israel and before the Temple was rebuilt. When Babylon conquered Israel, certain cities were destroyed, along with the major temple, and some of the people were removed from their homelands. The people of God were desperate, they had lost the building they worshiped in, and they were separated from loved ones, for years, for decades.
We may not have been separated for years, but we are going on many months. Months of having to talk to loved ones in nursing homes through windows,
months of people passing away in hospital rooms by themselves.
Months of people calling this a hoax,
months of people losing their jobs, holiday and travel plans altered or cancelled.
Months of trying to figure out new technologies,
months of trying to homeschool children or being nervous every time you dropped them off and picked them up.
Months of churches not having face to face worship and some of those that did, have to keep taking breaks because someone or multiple people in the congregation tested positive for COVID-19.
The frustration may not be all because of the pandemic, lives have changed, and this pandemic has made things more complicated. Families have changed over these months, homes don't look the same, people who used to be in the home are not anymore. Or you may have started off in March with one living arrangement now you have more people in your house than you signed up for. Jobs have changed, for those who still have them, schools have changed, little Billy catches a cold, don't you bring little Billy back in this school without a note from the Doctor saying he doesn't have COVID. Elective surgeries have changed, just ordering food has changed.
Some people feel frustration because they can look at a situation, they can look at the condition of world around us and wonder, where is God? Maybe they wonder Has God decided to take a break while we suffer? I don't see him around; does he not see us out here repeatedly suffering?
The prophet Isaiah felt like God was absent, not only absent but intentionally hiding from him and the people while they are suffering. The text says also that the people have sinned, missed the mark, fallen short of what God wanted them, what God has called them to be. It has gotten to the point that even the good things the people do are considered bad. Isaiah has asked for God repeatedly and to this point as far as he can tell God has not shown up. God isn't doing what the people want him to do in these times and the people are hurting, they are frustrated, angry even. They are caught in the middle of some bad conditions, some external factors outside of their control.... the pain and the pressure are mounting up. The people of God have an entire nation against them, they don't see God, and they don't know what to do. They are caught in the middle of some trouble and now they cannot even tell who is hurting them. They don't know if they want freedom from their pain or just vindication against those that hurt them.
Their rebellion has brought the realization that the Israelites need God.
Verses 1-3 Direct appeal
Cry out to God, come through the heavens and tear them open. This is a direct appeal to God. Not only a direct appeal but also to remember what God has done. It may feel like God is absent, but we have seen what he has done before, we can pray that he does it again. Hold on to the other times he made a way out of no way, hold on to the other times he delivered you from the hands of the enemy.
God's presence is awesome and amazing and when you have experienced it you want to have it again and again. You may feel frustrated when you don’t feel the presence of God - When you are missing it in times of trouble you want to call out to experience it again. I remember the song by James Cleveland and even though it's rough right I don't feel no ways tired. I've come too far from where I started from, nobody told me the road would be easy, but I don't believe he brought me this far to leave me. Isaiah is calling on the Lord, I need you, I have to have you, I can't live without you.
Verses 4-5 Profession of Faith
The text says from ages past no one has heard, in times of trouble we have to work our faith. That is hard to do sometimes, but when we think about it, we use faith all the time. We eat food we didn't grow or process that we bought from a building we didn't build, drive a car on the road with other drivers we didn't train, go to a doctor and take medicine we didn't make. We exercise faith all the time. The text says you meet those who gladly do right. They want the Lord, say so, act like it. Just because there are no seas splitting right now doesn't mean that God abandoned us.
Verses 5-7 Confession of Sin/Acknowledge God's anger
Isaiah is acknowledging that some of this mess they are in, and there is a confession of sin. I find it interesting that the prophet says the people sinned because God "hid himself." When I read my Bible, I see that the people of God sinned whether they thought God was around or not. God was right in their face and they sinned. Nobody is perfect but time after time they missed the mark and they overlook their individual responsibilities. It’s seems that they are blaming God for their sins as he talks about God not being there.
Like Isaiah, sometimes we get frustrated with our situations, but We have to acknowledge that we have contributed to some of our problems... some are our own fault, or maybe we did things to make matters worse. As believers, we have to take responsibility for our own actions. If we acknowledge our own actions, we can start to take steps to change our situation while we wait on God.
Act like you can change a situation until God comes and changes it
So pray as if it depends on God, work as if it depends on you. We have to be willing to be active participants in our deliverance and that starts with acknowledging that we messed up.
Theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer said that "God would have us know that we must live as men who manage our lives without him."
Verse 8 Let God mold you
When we acknowledge that we have some work to do and then start to do that work, it is that much better for God to do a work in us. God is the potter, and we are the clay, let those hands shape us, let the fire burn, let us come out of the furnace better than we went in.
This time of trouble and frustration, this too shall pass, and we will be able to look back on it with a smile and say 'I remember that... that was a wild situation but if it had not been for the Lord on my side where would I be?"
These down times are not the end times, they are half-time are you ready to play the rest of the game?
Verse 9 Urgent Petition - I just have to say it one more time, God I need you. I need you to breathe, I need you to come down here and see me. I am nothing without you God, I am lost like a ship without a sail. You are our father, and we are your children. We are family and we need some help. No problem with ending a prayer the same way you started, no problem with praying for something repeatedly.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 New King James Version (NKJV)
17 pray without ceasing,
Philippians 4:6-7 New King James Version (NKJV)
6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; 7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
God does love to visit...
· God visited Abraham in the guise of angels who sat down for a meal.
· God visited Jacob, wrestling with him in the night.
· God visited Moses in the burning bush, on Mount Sinai and elsewhere.
· God’s presence went with the Israelites through the wilderness in the form of fire and cloud.
· God visited Samuel as a boy, calling him in his sleeping hours.
· God visited Elijah in a still small voice.
God is with us...
· God is with us throughout shelter-in-place and stay-at-home orders.
· God is with us throughout quarantine.
· God is with us throughout social distancing — God is going to come close.
If you still feel some frustration with the perceived absence of God, there is picture I saw with a quote on it. Mike Tyson training with Cus D'Amato. The picture said, when you sometimes can't hear God remember. The Teacher is quiet during the test.
The Teacher is quiet when the students are taking the test, the teacher is still there, but watching while the students call back to the things they learned coming up to the test.
It is quiet because we are waiting, waiting not only on God, but on our soon coming King during this advent season. Waiting for Christ blessed arrival.
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