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Isaiah 64:1-2  Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountains would tremble before you!  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!

It is hard for us not to identify fully with how faithful Isaiah feels as he pens these words!  Our world is in such a mess, and even countries that have in their past history, times when God’s powerful and gracious hand has been very evidently at work, even such countries are now experiencing Satan’s effective influence in the hearts of people in a way that affects their whole culture and dominant worldview!  We can feel very discouraged, frustrated and defeated.  Why doesn’t our Sovereign God do something to demonstrate his power?

But a moment’s reflection enables us to focus on the way our God often carries through his plans, his usual modus operandi.  When Elijah was a fugitive, fleeing from the wicked and powerful Queen Jezebel, the LORD showed him his mighty power over wind, rocks, earthquakes and fire, but finally spoke to him with just a ‘gentle whisper’ (1 Kings 19:11-12).  When the Prophet Zechariah was discouraged by the opposition he faced in carrying out the LORD’s work, he was reminded: “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple; his hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the LORD Almighty has sent me to you.  Who dares despise the day of small things, … ?” (Zechariah 4:9-10a).

And when God achieved the greatest impact on all human history, he did it by sending his Son to be born of insignificant humble parents in a cattle shed in a little town in a politically insignificant country.  When Jesus comes again to wind up human history, it well certainly be in the way Isaiah longed for, but, until then, let us be conscious of the sure and certain way he is working out his eternal purposes through humble, insignificant, seemingly unimpressive people like you and me, and the frail little old lady who can do little more than sit in her rocking chair and pray.

– Bruce Christian