The Gospel of Isaiah: Ch. 65:24, Divine Radar

The Gospel of Isaiah: Ch. 65, Divine Radar.

WANTED: An imaginative scribe who can write exquisite poetry. A faithful, articulate believer in Yahweh who can switch from one extreme to another at the Lord’s command… from a sublime vision of God’s glory, to a ridiculous demonstration of shameful nakedness; from confronting the people over their sinfulness, to comforting people with hopefulness; from being an outspoken messenger one minute, to a living object lesson the next; from having one foot in the immediate surroundings one minute, to one foot in the future messianic realm the next. Must be adaptable, thick-skinned, and extraordinarily brave. Person who answers, “Here I am. Send me!” will be especially considered. (from The Jerusalem Post, 740 BC).

“Before they call, I will answer; before they are finished speaking, I will have already heard.” (Is. 65:24).

God Hears Us Think. Let’s talk about the hearing ability of God, who is a spirit and doesn’t actually have ears. The Hebrew Bible is full of references to God’s ability to hear humans when they pray, when they seek to be heard by God. It is a matter of faith that God has the ability and desire to listen to us. Once again, we are outside of human understanding. The fact is that God’s hearing transcends words. Our prayers don’t have to be carefully constructed as if from an English professor. God first listens to the heart, then the words. He is able to listen to what is going on in the heart before He hears the thoughts of our mind. God’s radar is constantly in the “on” position, ready to listen to whatever we have to say, with or without words. God’s fingers, in other words, is constantly on the pulse of the heart. God’s ears are always open, even if He doesn’t actually have ears.

“Lord, you know everything there is to know about me. You perceive every movement of my heart and soul, and you understand my every thought before it even enters my mind. You are so intimately aware of me, Lord. You read my heart like an open book, and you know all the words I’m about to speak before I even start a sentence! You know every step I will take before my journey even begins.” (King David, Psalm 139:1-4, TPT).

God is Constantly Listening. We trust that God hears our thoughtful prayers, even before we speak. “It shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are still speaking, I will hear.” (Isaiah 65:24). A common refrain in the Psalms is the firm belief that God would hear their prayers: “His ears are attentive;” “Does He who implanted the ear not hear?” “I have called aloud to the Lord with my voice, and He heard me.” “The Lord will hear when I call to Him;” “Blessed be the Lord, because He has heard my supplication.” “God surely listened.” And we have a standing promise from the Lord… “Call to me and I will answer.” (Jer. 33:3).

God Understands Wordless Prayers. Perhaps we assume through faith that God listens to us, that he hears our prayers when we are able to articulate them. But what about praying without words? When we are unable to put words together, or the times when words are simply not enough to communicate what is on our heart? Are wordless prayers a legitimate way to be heard by God? Yes, the Scripture is clear that God hears our groans and sighs, our tears and laughter, our growls and our heavy breathing. If all we can do is groan or cry, remember that God knows each of us at the heart level, He knows what we mean to say if we had the words. God hears our hearts.

“Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.” (Matt. 6:8).

(1.) God Hears Groans. In biblical terms, a groan and a sigh are interchangeable; a wordless sound uttered in pain, grief, or distress; a visceral sound full of deep emotion but without language; a personal expression of inner disturbance; the Greek word for groan is rooted in the word for ‘to give birth;’ a deep wordless prayer offered to God when in distress or difficulty. “Prayer is language used in relation to God. God speaks to us; our answers are our prayers. The answers are not always articulate. Silence, sighs, groaning – these also constitute responses.”   (Eugene Peterson). Ever since the world was marred, God has been listening to and understanding groans. Ever since sin entered the world, groans have been woven into every aspect of life on earth. Creation groans; Jesus groaned; the Holy Spirit groans; believers groan. God has been listening to people groan for a long time… “Now it happened in the process of time that the king of Egypt died. Then the children of Israel groaned because of the bondage, and they cried out; and their cry came up to God because of the bondage. So God heard their groaning…” (Exodus 2:24). Long before that, God heard the miserable groaning of Hagar as she ran away from Sarah to the wilderness: “Behold you are with child, and you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, which means ‘God hears.’ Because the Lord Yahweh has heard you in your misery.” (Genesis 16:11). So it’s okay to groan. It’s not sinful to sigh. We don’t need permission from anybody, no less God, to groan and sigh to God when the situation calls for it. So many of the psalmist’s prayers were composed amidst groans. The key is not to get stuck there, but to offer your groans to the Lord and ask Him for His presence in your distress, and to eventually turn your groaning into dancing. Groaning can actually be a spiritual gift in which we are afforded a way to express our thoughts and feelings at the deepest level to a God who always stands ready to listen and respond.

“And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as His adopted children, including the new bodies He has promised us.” (Romans 8:23). Along with all of creation, we also groan. We groan inwardly, and sometimes outwardly, as we wait for the redemption of the world. We are waiting, sometimes impatiently, for the time when we won’t have to suffer the consequences of a fallen world. We hope for the time when we will fully participate in the life of Christ within us. We groan that we might experience some of the fullness of our status as God’s children. We yearn for the time when sin will be eradicated, and pain, and suffering, and violence, and injustice. We long for the day when we won’t be challenged by temptation and spiritual warfare. We wait for the time when our world-weariness will turn into spiritual rest. O, to live in an untainted world, where sorrows cease, when mourning turns into dancing, when we joyfully sit at table with other believers at the wedding feast of the Lamb. When only a groan or sigh will articulate to God what is on your heart, groan away. God listens and understands.

(2.) God Hears Laughter. God created us with the ability to laugh, and it is one of His greatest gifts, right there next to music. There will be those joyous times when we laugh our prayers to God. When we direct our prayerful laugh to God, He listens and it gladdens God’s heart. When He created us in His image, laughter was a part of the package deal, since we know God is a God of joy. If we couldn’t laugh, how could we express joy and gladness? How could we lighten our hearts along with God’s? Of course, there are many kinds of laughter, and some of them are downright devious. This was called the “laughter of fools” by the Preacher in Ecclesiastes 7:6, and could include the laughter of ridicule, of derision, of arrogance. But could we even call that laughter? Thomas Howard had these pearls of wisdom in his remarks to his college students: “I myself have wondered, now and again, whether a sense of humor is not a sort of natural capacity in us humans that’s some sort of a reflection of holiness. Humor has something to do with humility – pompous people can’t laugh. And with simplicity – sophisticated people can only offer tinkling and silvery mockery. And with purity of heart – lechers and gluttons can only leer. And with grace – clods and oafs can only grunt. And with charity – egotists are seldom amused. I think the saints are full of merriment. I want to introduce my children to at least the early reaches of those hilarious regions that we call Glory.” 

(3.) God Hears Exhales. “Let everything that has breath praise the Lord!” (Ps. 150:6). When Creator God breathed His breath of life into the nostrils of Adam and Eve, man’s natural response was to exhale that breath back to God. To exhale was to acknowledge and accept God’s gift of life, and to participate in it. Sometimes our prayers are merely exhales of gratitude. Our breathing in and out reveals our desire to cooperate with God in the business of life. We have come a long way in our relationship with God when we are constantly aware of the gift of breath, and we breathe to the glory of God. The Lord listens to our heart when we breathe, and is glad when we breathe out with thanksgiving and joy. “The Spirit of God has made me, and the breath of the Almighty gives me life.”  (Job 33:4). The power of God’s exhale is profound and life-giving. He breathed His life at the creation of the world, and He has been breathing it out ever since. Since breath is another word for Spirit, we believers have all received the spiritual exhales of God as he renews our spirit. Mankind can speak with God via the exhale, and God can communicate with man through His exhale as well. As we exhale prayers to our God, may it remind us of the power of His exhale upon us. And may we remember that God inhales our prayers to Him.

(4.) God Hears Tears. Life blends together the bitter and the sweet. “Joy and woe are woven fine, a clothing for the soul divine,” said William Blake. And tears are a part of each. Tears will come in heartfelt repentance, as James said in 4:9, “Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.” But then with the miracle of forgiveness, tears may come soon after in the midst of rejoicing in God’s mercy. We weep with sorrow, we weep with joy. We grieve in tears, and we laugh with tears. Tears are one of the most expansive and articulate expressions provided to mankind. One minute Jesus tells His followers, “Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh.” And the next minute He tells them, “Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep.” (Luke 6:21,25). Joy and woe are woven fine… Weeping has a distinctive voice, with a language all its own. Tears are an articulate expression of sorrow and grief, of repentance and guilt, of pain and suffering, of fear and distress, of joy and wonder. And fortunately, “Tears are a language that God understands.” (Robert Smith). When Ishmael (which means “God hears”) and Hagar began their seemingly hopeless trek in the wilderness, God reached down in mercy because He heard the boy crying (Genesis 16:11). When David reveals that he soaked his pillow with tears and drenched his bed with weeping (Ps. 6:6), he doesn’t need to talk about the depth of his distress. When Job states that his face is flushed and swollen with weeping and his eyelids look like the shadow of death, his grief and pain are obvious to all (Job 16:16). On the day that Yahweh asked the people of Israel to shave their hair off in humiliation, to wear sackcloth and to mourn with many tears, it is clear to everyone that Israel needs to repent of their sinfulness. When the priests were ordered by Yahweh to stand between the Temple courtyard and the altar and do nothing but weep, they graphically expressed their fear of God’s judgment, for all to see (Joel 2:17). When Jeremiah personally witnessed the desolated Jerusalem, he described the city in poetic terms, Jerusalem sobbing through the night with tears streaming down her cheeks. He laments the fall of God’s city, and asks Jerusalem to cry aloud before the Lord, to let her tears flow like a river, giving no relief to her eyes. Could Jeremiah, the weeping prophet, have expressed his sorrow over Jerusalem’s demise any better? (Lam. 1:2, 2:18).

(5.) God Hears Shouts. To shout, from the Hebrew word ruwa – means to mar or break; figuratively, to split the ears or break the eardrums with sound; the making of a loud noise; used by soldiers just before rushing into battle, a battle cry; the signal used to begin the battle with an enemy; used by worshipers as a cry of joy and adoration; an expression of victory or triumph over an enemy; a spontaneous expression of praise and exultation. Sometimes our best prayers don’t have words. Sometimes our most heart-felt prayers to God are punctuated without language. And God lovingly listens to every nonverbal prayer. Shouting has been one of those expressive nonwords that are as effective as language. Shouts, sudden and loud outcries, as an individual or in a group, are exclamation points to heightened emotions and meaningful thoughts. Consider that the Lord will return with a shout (1 Thess. 4:16). Consider that we will all shout for joy when His glory is revealed. (1 Peter 4:13). Consider the momentous defeat of Jericho, when the soldiers and priests marched around the city walls and brought the walls down with a thunderous shout directed by Yahweh. Consider that “David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.” (2 Samuel 6). What do those wordless shouts sound like? Maybe an extended “O!”, or a “yay!“, or perhaps an ancient version of the classic guttural “booyah!” Perhaps these days a joyful shout could simply be a loud “Yes!” How many times in the Psalms are we instructed to cry out, to give a shout? Too many times to recount here… Shout for joy! Shout with passion! Shout to God with the raucous sounds of joy! Lift up your shout to God! Make a joyful shout! Shout joyfully to the Rock! Shout out your praises! Shout with a voice of triumph! Make a joyful noise! David and the psalmists were unafraid to show emotion in their praise of Yahweh. And shouting was just another way of expressing their praise of God without the use of words.

(6.) God Hears Growls. A Biblical growl, the Hebrew word hagah, is an expansive word that can mean growl, murmur, moan, mutter, meditate; this word has been used in the moan of grief (Is. 16:7), the growl of a lion (Is. 31:4), the thoughtfulness of meditation (Ps. 1), or even the murmurs of a dove (Is. 38:14); this growling or murmuring can be in the context of pleasure, grief or anger. “The word meditate comes from the Hebrew word hagah, which is a bodily action. It involves murmuring and mumbling words, getting the feel of the meaning as the syllables are shaped by larynx and tongue and lips. Isaiah used this word for the sounds that a lion makes over its prey. A lion overs its catch and a person over the Torah act similarly. They both growl quietly in pleasurable anticipation of taking in what will make them more themselves, that which will make them strong and lithe and swift. There is a certain kind of writing that invites this kind of reading, soft purrs and low growls as we chew on its meaty morsels. Such writing needs a special kind of reading – a dog-with-a-bone kind of reading.” (Eugene Peterson, Conversations, Ps. 118). Nonverbal actions like this may be wordless, but that doesn’t mean they are meaningless. Many actions that don’t involve language do involve a deep response to God, and so are full of thought and feeling, and are thus profound and meaningful. Some things are better expressed without words. Some actions are worth a thousand words. Sometimes our prayers sound like growls as we prayerfully eat God’s Word. The Lord loves to listen to this kind of prayer offered to Him.

(7.) God Hears Gestures. When our body talks, God listens to what it has to say. Physical gestures can point to spiritual truth, or it could stimulate spiritual truth. Body movements often reflect the status of the heart. The posture of one’s body can be a sign that communicates a message to God, a prayer in the form of body language. Physical movement can also stimulate an emotion or thought, and the muscle memory used is often a spiritual muscle. Do you want to signal to God that you submit to Him, that you adore Him, that you want to give your whole life to Him? There are gestures that can communicate these positions of the heart that don’t need words. Down through Judeo-Christian history, body language is vital to spiritual life and expression. The body can speak clearly without words.

LIFTING THE HANDS. We lift our hands to celebrate, to praise and adore, to acknowledge His lordship, to intercede for loved ones, to entreat the Lord in humility, and even to confess our sins to God. A survey of some of the Scriptures reveal that lifting up our hands is an important gesture and speaks volumes.

1. “In your Name I will lift up my hands.” (Ps. 63:4);
2. “May the lifting up of my hands be like the evening sacrifice.” (Ps. 141:2);
3. “Lift up your hands in the sanctuary and praise the Lord.” (Ps. 134:2)’
4. “Hear my cry for mercy as I call to you for help, as I lift my hands toward your Most Holy Place.” (Ps. 28:2);
5. “I spread my hands to you; my soul thirsts for you like a parched land.” (Ps. 143:6);
6. “Lift up your hands to Him for the lives of your children.” (Lam. 2:19);
7. “In every place of worship, I want you to pray with holy hands lifted up to God…” (1 Tim. 2:8);
8. “Let us lift up our hearts and our hands to God in heaven, and say, ‘We have sinned and rebelled...” (Lam. 3:41).

PROSTRATE TO THE GROUND. When a defeated soldier is brought to a conquering king, the captured foe lays his body out, face down, fully on the ground. That physical act acknowledges the fact that he is in subjection to the king, that he submits to his power and authority. To lie prostrate in worship is to acknowledge much the same thing, that the worshiper is humbly in full submission to God the King. To lie prostrate in prayerful worship is done out of reverence and a healthy fear of God’s might and authority over us. Interceding for the people of Israel after the Golden Calf debacle, Moses fell prostrate before the Lord for forty days and nights. He fasted the whole time he was prostrate, because he “feared the anger and wrath of the Lord.” (Deut. 9:18-19). Moses acknowledges his subservience to Yahweh by his physical gesture. Even more telling was the time when all the people on Mt. Carmel saw the fire of heaven come down at Elijah’s request, ‘When all the people saw this, they fell prostrate and cried, “The Lord – He is God! The Lord – He is God!’ (1 Kings 19:39). Prostration is a rather radical, visual way to signal one’s submission and respect to God. It would be interesting to try this posture in private prayer, no less in community worship.

KISS OF PEACE. We are told a number of times in the Epistles to greet fellow believers with a “holy kiss.” (1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; Ro. 16:16; 1 Thess. 5:26). This gesture was a sacred greeting that symbolized the love and unity believers experienced in their spiritual fellowship. It was a sign of peace. The holy kiss signaled mutual affection, the desire for peace between individuals, and was done on the cheeks of the believers. Peter emphasized this kiss’ origin in the love of God to the degree that he calls it the “kiss of love.” (1 Peter 5:14). This kiss of peace reminds us of Judas’ treacherous kiss, and we understand even more deeply his profound betrayal, demonstrating a supposed kiss of peace merely to point out the doomed Lamb of God. The kiss of peace on each cheek was a traditional greeting in the Middle East. The Christian Church continued that tradition, and it continues to this day in  the Eastern Orthodox Church. When someone offers a kiss of peace, that person is saying that she or he has a clear conscience with that other person, that any division has been healed, any wrong has been forgiven, any bitterness is in the past. When Judas betrayed Jesus with a kiss of peace, his betrayal was grotesque and doubly hurtful (Luke 22:48). The kiss of peace in the Orthodox liturgy is done just before the Eucharist, for Jesus clearly stated that peace with others takes priority over the duties of worship (Matt. 5:23-24).

KNEEL. The Hebrew word most often translated as “bless” is barak, which means to kneel down, to adore with bended knees. It is an act of humbling oneself as we exalt the Lord and revere His Name. Kneeling is a sign of adoration and reverence, of humility and respect. We kneel low to raise God high.

1. “Come let us bow down in worship, let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” (Ps. 95:6);
2. “For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth derives its name.” (Eph. 3:14);
3. “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other… Before me every knee will bow.” (Is. 45:22-23);
4. “As surely as I live, says the Lord, every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.” (Ro. 14:11);
5. “Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Phil. 2:9-11).

DANCE. Using one’s whole body in self-expression, moving in a way that matches the speed and rhythm of a piece of music, is an ancient art form in worship. The purpose of this physical movement is to express an emotion or an idea, a thought or a feeling. Dance honors the Person for whom you are dancing. Dancing has been a part of Judeo-Christian worship since ancient times. Believers have been known to dance in order to rejoice, to adore, to celebrate, to lament, and even to act out a story.

1. “For everything there is a season… a time to mourn and a time to dance.” (Eccl. 3:4);
2. “Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King. Let them praise His Name with dancing and make music to Him with tambourines and harp.” (Ps. 149:2-3);
3. “You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy, that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O Lord my God, I will give you thanks forever.” (Ps. 30:11-12);
4. “This son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! So they began to celebrate. Meanwhile, the older son was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing.” (Luke 15:24-25);
5. “David, wearing a linen ephod, danced before the Lord with all his might, while he and the entire house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouts and the sound of trumpets.” (2 Sam. 6:14-15).

Use your body when you want to talk with God. He loves to listen to body language, because gestures can often be more profound than words.