2023-12-05 Waiting with Expectation

First week of Advent, 2023

Isaiah 64 v1-9 - Waiting with expectation

• Advent is the start of the new church year:
  • Time of preparation and waiting for Christ:
    • Past - Christ has come
    • Present - We are here: Already & not yet
    • Future - Christ will return
• Why this passage today? Sometimes we feel the OT is detached from the NT, so let's bring these things together.
  • Popular conception of OT vs NT: "Old Testament justice", wrath, etc. We may think the "NT" ethics of Jesus sound good but are inconvenient in practice.
  • Greg Boyd: "Jesus is what God looks like when there are no clouds in the way."
• Isaiah has three main parts: Before, during, and after the exile. Chapter 64 is a lament continued from chapter 63.
• 64:1-3 - They are desparate for God to come. Why? They consider themselves God's people but have been conquered and their temple destroyed. They are seeking restoration and questioning God.
• What do we do when we are facing hardship and don't see God working in it? Where is God?
  • v7 - "You've hidden your face from us"
  • v12 - God, will you keep silent? No matter how hidden God seems, He is our father.
  • v8 there is a shift: But after all this, you are the Lord.
• Bonhoeffer - God is not a cosmic solver of our problems. "Before God, and with God, we live without God" - in the perpetual presence of God who lives with us and suffers with us rather than solving all our problems. He may feel distant but is close and connected to us.
  • God doesn't always work in Isaiah 64:3 ways - the Israelites are asking Him to work the same way but (verse 4) we are to wait for him.
• Advent is active waiting
• 64:9 - ending in hope that God will mold and care for us.