Tearing Open The Heavens

    In Isaiah 64.1, Isaiah the prophet uttered an anguished prayer to God: “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence” (NRSV). Such words are hardly surprising, considering the difficult time in which Isaiah lived. God’s people had splintered into two rival kingdoms (Israel and Judah) and often warred against each other. The moral character of the kings who ruled Judah, Isaiah’s country, was a jarring sequence of good (Uzziah, Jotham), horrific (Ahaz), then excellent (Hezekiah). The people they led did not have hearts for God: “There is no one who calls on your name,” Isaiah says later in Isaiah 64.7. Additionally, Judah faced repeated invasions from foreign armies intent on devastating Judah (2 Chronicles 28.5-6, 17-20, 32.1). God’s people desperately needed Him to come down in a powerful way and teach His people to fear Him, as He did in the time of Moses at Mt. Sinai.

Roughly 700 years later, God answered Isaiah’s prayer. At the beginning of Jesus’ work to spread His good news, when He was baptized by John in the Jordan river, Mark records this: “And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him” (Mark 1.10, NRSV). God did rip open the sky and descend, just as Isaiah asked. However, instead of shaking mountains covered in terrifying smoke and lightening, God’s Spirit came like a gentle bird onto His Son. Jesus was the one Isaiah longed for, the divine presence Who brought ordered righteousness to the chaotic wickedness of the world.

2020 is a year of difficulty. Many are disturbed by the bitter division within our country, similar to the division between the Israelites of Isaiah’s time. Many are fearful for the physical health of their loved ones and themselves. Many are feeling the effects of sudden economic disruption. Many are angry at acts of unjust violence. Many are frustrated at a lack of effective and godly leadership. Perhaps you long for God to dramatically descend and fix it all, just as Isaiah did.

How comforting it is to know that God has already descended in the person of Jesus of Nazareth! He has already crushed the power that Satan once enjoyed over humankind (Luke 10.18). He has already disarmed mighty spirits who subjugated us, and He did it through an act of profound weakness: dying on a cross (Colossians 2.14-15). Jesus is returning to earth someday to raise the dead, judge His enemies, and abolish death forever (1 Thessalonians 5, 1 Corinthians 15). Therefore, whatever gathering darkness appears in our culture or our personal lives is actually the last gasp of an already defeated enemy. When God seems remote and silent, let’s remember that He has torn open the heavens. He has done “awesome deeds that we did not expect” (Isaiah 64.3). Glory to His name!

~Nathan Combs