Come Down to Make Your Name Known,
and Cause the Nations to Quake
64: 1-4
Come down to make your name known, and cause the nations to quake DIG: Why is the plea necessary? What is the believing remnant asking Messiah to do? What earthquake does Isaiah point to? How do we know these events are sure to take place? What was the LORD waiting for? What else needs to be done?
REFLECT: Where in your prayer life now do you wish God would do something? Who is waiting on who? Do you think you are waiting on ADONAI, or is He waiting on you? How does that affect your prayers? If you were in the same position as the believing remnant at the end of the Great Tribulation, how urgent would your prayers be? How urgent is your prayer life now? What is the difference?
These verses contain Isra’el’s prayer at the end of the Great Tribulation that brings about the Second Coming of Christ. The actual words of this prayer are found in four key passages of Scripture, first, in Psalm 79:1-13, secondly in Psalm 80:1-19, thirdly in Isaiah 53:1-9, and lastly here. They will plead for forgiveness and implore ADONAI to return for two days, then on the third day (Hosea 6:1-3), Messiah comes back with the title deed to the earth in His hand (see the commentary on Revelation, to see link click Ce – The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Root of David has Triumphed). The plea continues from 63:7. The believing remnant cries out: Oh, that You would rend the heavens (the sky is pictured as a piece of cloth that He would tear) and come down, and make His presence known in such a way that the mountains would tremble before You (64:1)! Zechariah 14 clearly points out that a major earthquake will accompany the Second Coming. The reason for the plea is to ask that the armies of the world who are gathered against Him will quake before Him. Isaiah uses the prophetic tense. That is, an event that is so sure to happen that God sees it as already having taken place.
As when a 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 (64:2)! Throughout the Bible, from Genesis 3:24 through Revelation 20:9, fire is intimately associated with the presence of the holy God. In no book is that more true than this one (4:5, 6:6, 9:5, 10:16, 29:6, 30:27 and 30, 31:9, 33:12 and 14, 66;15-16, 24). Just as fire makes water boil, so the presence of God will make the nations tremble. Today the Gentile nations are not conscious of the existence of ADONAI. However, as the end of the age approaches I think there will be a very real consciousness that the LORD is getting ready to break through. There was that consciousness throughout the world at the time of the birth of Christ, and several Roman historians have called attention to that fact. This is always the purpose of God’s self-revelation; that the world might know Him.
Then there is a reference to the past. For when you did awesome things (Exodus 15:11, 34:10, Deuteronomy 4:11-12, 10:21; Second Samuel 7:23; Psalm 106:22) that we did not expect, You came down, and the mountains trembled before You when God gave the Torah (64:3). The same thing will happen when He returns at the end of the Great Tribulation (see Kh – The Eight Stage Campaign of Armageddon: The Victory Ascent Upon the Mount of Olives). After the actual fighting is completed, Yeshua will physically place His feet upon the Mount of Olives. With the seventh bowl completed, a voice cries out: It has happened. This declaration will be followed by convulsions of nature including the greatest earthquake ever to occur in the history of the earth (Zechariah 14:4b-5). This will cause the city of Jerusalem to split into three divisions.
The principle is this: 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 on Him (64:4). This reveals that the LORD and only the LORD acts on behalf of those who wait on Him (25:9, 30:18, 33:2, 40:31). Remembering this, the believing remnant would ask God to act on their behalf. They had waited long enough. In truth, they had waited for far too long. It was time, and Isra’el is God’s timepiece. Paul understood the urgency of that day when he wrote: And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light (Romans 13:12).
In addition, Paul quotes this Isaiah 64:4 in First Corinthians 2:9, when he said: No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love Him. In the next verse he goes on to say: But God has revealed it to us by His Spirit (First Corinthians 2:10). Verse 9 is obviously a quote from Isaiah, but verse 10 tells us that in our day Ruach ha-Kodesh will reveal things to us. But those during the Great Tribulation, will have to wait until Messiah comes back. ADONAI was waiting for Isra’el to repent, and that is exactly what they do next.
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