Those Who Wait

---

For Meditation

This Advent we'll be looking at some classic texts from Isaiah that millions of Christians all over the world will be reading and pondering this December.  This first text is one of the readings that the historic church has often read on the first Sunday of Advent. It takes place at the time when God's ancient people have returned from exile in faraway Babylon, only to find their home back in Israel in ruins (64:10-12).  We begin Advent with a stark recognition that the people of God often find themselves in places of desolation, and there are many times when God feels absent or silent (64:7).

And yet, our text declares that "God acts on behalf of those who wait for him" (64:4). Advent is the season of waiting. What we are waiting for? We are waiting for God to act in at least three ways. First, we put ourselves in the shoes of the ancient people of God waiting for the coming Messiah to rescue them. Second, we wait with all of God's people for the Messiah to return and to make all things new. Finally, we wait even now for God to act in the ruined places of our lives where we experience desolation, emptiness, or the destruction of sin. Past, future, present. In Advent, we wait for God to do something. 

As you prepare for worship this week, consider what you are waiting for. What are you longing for God to do? Where do you need God to act? Ask him to give you a posture of expectant waiting this season. 

Isaiah 64:1–12

¹ 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.
¹⁰Your sacred cities have become a wasteland;
even Zion is a wasteland, Jerusalem a desolation.
¹¹Our holy and glorious temple, where our ancestors praised you,
has been burned with fire,
and all that we treasured lies in ruins.
¹²After all this, Lord, will you hold yourself back?
Will you keep silent and punish us beyond measure?