| They wanted God to rip the skies open and come down like he did at Mt. Sinai. Mountains would shutter and oceans boil. What a God we have and what miracles he can do─He is about ready for another awesome act─this one will be greater than the opening of the Red Sea─It’s all about opening prisons and rivers in deserts─all about a nation coming home from prison. It was about nation building. The real question was about their sin. They were polluted, rotten and infected with unrightness. Were they hopeless? They were ready for the potter to reshape their lives. Their sacred places had been torn down and destroyed by the heathen, and Zion was a ghost town, overgrown with brush, nettles, briers and weeds. How long before God would rend the heavens and do something and how long will God keep quiet? They spoke their minds and said, “are you just going to stand there and be silent and keep punishing us?” |
1Oh that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
Oh God, that you would rip open the skies and come down. That you would make the mountains shudder before you and flow like lava.
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THAT ARE CONCLUSIVE AND FINAL:
Psa 18:7-10 Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because he was wroth. There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down: and darkness was under his feet. And he rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind.
2As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!
The consuming fire of your glory would set ablaze the world like a brush fire and boil the oceans dry.
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THAT RATIFY THE TEXT:
Eze 38:22-23 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD. Read: Eze 39:27-28; Dan 4:1-3
3When thou didst terrible things which we looked not for, thou camest down, the mountains flowed down at thy presence.
When God came down on Mt. Sinai, he did marvels─earth trembled─heavens dropped─people shook─he worked unexpected miracles.
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THAT BEAR OUT THE TEXT:
Jdg 5:4-5 LORD, when thou wentest out of Seir, when thou marchedst out of the field of Edom, the earth trembled, and the heavens dropped, the clouds also dropped water. The mountains melted from before the LORD, even that Sinai from before the LORD God of Israel. Read: Exo 34:10-11; Psa 105:27-36
4For since the beginning of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.
No ear had ever heard nor eye ever seen─what a God we have─and he is ready to do another awesome act greater than opening the Red Sea.
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THAT SPEAK VOLUMES ABOUT THE TEXT:
Psa 31:19 Oh how great is thy goodness, which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee; which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men!
Heb 11:16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
Lam 3:25-26 The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
5Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness, those that remember thee in thy ways: behold, thou art wroth; for we have sinned: in those is continuance, and we shall be saved.
God was ready to meet those who were willing to work righteousness. They had sinned and kept right on sinning. After so long a time the question was, is there any hope─can we be saved?
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THAT SHED LIGHT ON THE TEXT:
Jer 31:18-20 I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God. Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth. Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spake against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the LORD. Read: Psa 112:1; Act 10:2-4
6But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
We are infected with sin and as impure as a ministerial cloth─defiled and polluted as a rotten corpse. We are as a faded leaf and the wind of our transgressions blew us away.
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THAT VERIFY THE TEXT:
Eph 2:1-2 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Psa 1:4 The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
7And there is none that calleth upon thy name, that stirreth up himself to take hold of thee: for thou hast hid thy face from us, and hast consumed us, because of our iniquities.
No one would rouse himself and invoke your name, therefore you turned away from us and turned us over to our iniquities. We were left to stew in our own brew.
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GIVE COUNTEREVIDENCE TO THE TEXT:
Eze 22:30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.
Isa 59:2 But your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you, that he will not hear.
8But now, O LORD, thou art our father; we are the clay, and thou our potter; and we all are the work of thy hand.
We are clay and God is the potter─they were ready to be shaped into a vessel of honor.
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THAT CONFIRM THE TEXT:
Jer 18:2-6 Arise, and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words. Then I went down to the potter’s house, and, behold, he wrought a work on the wheels. And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter: so he made it again another vessel, as seemed good to the potter to make it. Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? saith the LORD. Behold, as the clay is in the potter’s hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel.
9Be not wroth very sore, O LORD, neither remember iniquity for ever: behold, see, we beseech thee, we are all thy people.
They are asking God not to be furious with them─don’t hold us guilty forever.
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THAT CARRY WEIGHT REGARDING THE TEXT:
Psa 6:1 To the chief Musician on Neginoth upon Sheminith, A Psalm of David. O LORD, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
Jer 3:12 Go and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, Return, thou backsliding Israel, saith the LORD; and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you: for I am merciful, saith the LORD, and I will not keep anger for ever.
10Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.
Your sacred towns look like a desert─your cities have become a wilderness─everything that was beautiful was burned down, and our cities are filled with scrub brush and thickets of briers.
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THAT MAKE THE CASE:
2Ki 25:9 And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the king’s house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great man’s house burnt he with fire. Read: Psa 79:1-7
11Our holy and our beautiful house, where our fathers praised thee, is burned up with fire: and all our pleasant things are laid waste.
Our sanctuary and sacred objects are all gone─everything that was beautiful is destroyed. Zion is a ghost city and Jerusalem is overgrown with sage brush, nettles and weeds.
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THAT INDORSE THE TEXT:
2Ch 36:19 And they burnt the house of God, and brake down the wall of Jerusalem, and burnt all the palaces thereof with fire, and destroyed all the goodly vessels thereof.
Mic 3:12 Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.
12Wilt thou refrain thyself for these things, O LORD? wilt thou hold thy peace, and afflict us very sore?
How long God before you rend the heavens and do something? In view of what has happened how long will you keep quiet? Are you just going to stand there and be silent and keep punishing us?
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THAT LEND EVIDENCE TO THE TEXT:
Psa 74:10 O God, how long shall the adversary reproach? shall the enemy blaspheme thy name for ever?
