God’s presence is desperately needed because we have a problem...

This week we have been examining why God’s presence can seem to be so fleeting and elusive in our lives. We have been asking the question "Why do we desperately need God’s presence?" To answer this question, we have been looking at a section of a letter that is recorded in our Bibles called the book of Isaiah.

Now the book of Isaiah was written some 2700 years ago to the Jewish people, during a time when the Jewish people had begun to question God’s presence. The Jewish people had recognized that God’s presence was not longer present. And the Jewish people responded to the fact that God’s presence was no longer present by questioning God’s nature and character.

The Jewish people were questioning whether or not God was able to deliver and rescue them from the difficulties and challenges that they were beginning to experience. The Jewish people were questioning whether or not God was even paying attention to their situation. The Jewish people were questioning and beginning to think that God had changed; that God was the problem.

The prophet Isaiah simply and clearly replied that God is not the one with the problem. Instead, the Jewish people were the ones with the problem. Instead of living in relationship with God, the Jewish people selfishly rebelled against God. Over time, the Jewish people increasingly were involved in actions and attitudes of omission and commission that flowed from selfishness and rebellion against God and that hurt God and others. And that is what Isaiah and the letters that make up the Bible refer to as iniquity and sin.

And as a result of the selfishness and rebellion of the Jewish people, the Jewish people were guilty of having a problem with God. A problem that Isaiah states resulted in separation between the Jewish people and God. And in the same way today, the reason why God’s presence is not present is not because God has changed or moved. The reason why God’s presence is not present is because we have moved; we have rejected the relationship with God that we were created for and instead chosen to run from God and run to selfishness and rebellion. Today, we will look on as the prophet reminded the Jewish people of the impact of their selfishness and rebellion had in their lives in Isaiah 59:9-10:

Therefore justice is far from us, And righteousness does not overtake us; We hope for light, but behold, darkness, For brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope along the wall like blind men, We grope like those who have no eyes; We stumble at midday as in the twilight, Among those who are vigorous we are like dead men.

As a result of God’s presence being no longer present in the lives of the Jewish people, the Jewish people were no longer experiencing a right relationship with God. The Jewish people were not experiencing God revealing Himself in practical and powerful ways. Instead of the light of God’s presence in their lives, they were experiencing the darkness of God’s absence. 

And as a result, the Jewish people were groping along the way like blind men. They were reaching out and searching for a way to be right with God while being blinded by their selfishness and rebellion. Regardless of age and stage of life; regardless of position or prominence in society, the Jewish people were hopelessly lost and were left to deal with the consequences of their selfish and rebellious attitudes and actions toward God and others.

And the reason why the Jewish people were hopelessly lost; the reason why God’s presence was not longer present in their lives; was due to the fact that God’s presence cannot and will not be present with selfishness and rebellion. God is just and God is right. God, in His justice, will not allow wrongdoing and injustice to go unpunished. For God to allow wrongdoing and injustice to go unpunished would only prove that He is unjust.

And because God is holy, just and right, He will not allow His presence to be present with selfishness, rebellion or injustice. We see this reality repeatedly play out throughout the letters that make up the Bible. Throughout the letters that make up the Bible, we see God repeatedly withdrawal His presence from individuals and nations who chose to run from God and run to selfishness and rebellion.

And throughout the letters that make up the Bible we read that the Jewish people were well aware of this reality. The Jewish people were well aware of both God’s holiness and justice and God’s right and just response to selfishness and rebellion. That is why throughout the letters that make up the Bible, we see individuals respond to an encounter into the presence of God with fear and dread. We see this happen when the writer of the letter we have been looking at this morning, Isaiah, had his encounter with God, which we read about in Isaiah 6:1:

In the year of King Uzziah's death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory." And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined!

Isaiah responds to his encounter into the very presence of the Lord by stating “Woe is me, for I am ruined”. In other words, Isaiah is proclaiming “Oh no! I am a dead man. I am as good as dead”. But why would Isaiah respond to an encounter where they get to experience God’s presence in such a way? Why does Isaiah feel like God is going to take him out? What is the problem here? We find the answer in what Isaiah says next:

Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."

 You see, Isaiah knew that the issue wasn’t with God. Isaiah knew that God was not the problem. Isaiah knew that he issue and the problem was with Isaiah. “I am a man of unclean lips and I live among of people of unclean lips”. The problem was Isaiah’s selfishness and rebellion. In the presence of God’s perfect holiness and justice, Isaiah was able to see himself for who he truly was. There was no room for excuses, there was no room for blame shifting; who he was and who God was became painfully apparent.

Isaiah recognized that he had a huge problem with God as a result of selfishness and rebellion. The same problem that the Jewish people faced. The same problem you and I face. A problem that is universal; a problem that reveals a desperate need of rescue from; a problem that is insurmountable. A problem so massively large that only God could solve.

You see, God’s presence is desperately needed because we have a problem. And that is what Christmas is all about. Christmas is about the reality that God’s presence cannot and will not be present with selfishness and rebellion. Christmas is not about us experiencing presents; Christmas is all about God providing the opportunity for all of humanity to experience God’s presence.

Christmas is all about God revealing His presence in the most radical way imaginable, so that all of humanity could know that God was real and that God was present and active in the world. Christmas is about God responding to the problem of selfishness and rebellion that created a void that separated humanity from God. A problem that no present under a tree could ever solve. A problem that only the presence of the Son of God hanging on a tree could solve. Christmas is about God responding to the problem of selfishness and rebellion with a promise.

And next week, we will discover the promise that God made to provide an opportunity for all humanity to experience God’s presence...