When God “Comes Down” Here
March 14, 2004
 
	When I was a kid, about once or twice a year some friends of my parents would 
drive up from Peoria to visit. This was pretty cool for me because they would bring their 
sons, Chad and A.J. The three of us would get to sleep downstairs in the family room in 
sleeping bags. The parents would hang out upstairs, glad to be rid of us for the night, and 
we would hang out downstairs, talking, goofing around, wrestling, and generally being 
glad to be on our own, away from our parents.
	And then reality would rudely interrupt our delusions and our talking. Often it 
was the sudden realization that there was a shadow near the top of the stairs—a shadow 
indicating that we weren’t in fact quite as alone as we thought and that our parents 
weren’t quite as distant or as ignorant as we thought—a shadow indicating that they were 
probably fairly well aware of what was going on downstairs. 
	Although we quieted down immediately after seeing the shadow, it was too late to 
avoid hearing those words: “Don’t make me come down there!” Words which every child 
understands, words which promised that our parents were about to get up close and 
personal with us in a way that we didn’t want, words which promised that we were “this 
close” to getting what we surely deserved. 
	I don’t know if that’s the feeling we’re intended to have when we read that 
billboard as we’re heading south on I-71 out of Cleveland—the one with the black 
background and the white letters saying, “Don’t make me come down there.—God”, but 
it is for certain that the Bible uses the words “come down” (or something very similar) to 
speak about God and his relationship to us here on earth.
	Much of the time it appears as though God is about as interested and about as 
connected with what’s going on down here on earth as Chad’s and A.J’s and my parents 
were. Out of sight, out of mind, you know. 
	It’s almost as though people think that we and God inhabit two separate universes. 
He’s upstairs—and focused on what’s going on upstairs—and we’re busy downstairs. Or 
maybe people view God like some tall giant who is vaguely aware of an anthill way 
down below him—but unable to and uninterested in seeing what each individual ant is up 
to.
	Maybe that’s the way that some people felt shortly after the Flood when they 
decided to ignore God’s commands to spread out and fill the earth. They decided that 
instead they would stay together and would build a great tower to their own glory. But we 
read that “the Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building” 
(Genesis 11:5). Like a tall giant bending down or like someone viewing something 
through a magnifying glass, God does not have to guess about what is going on “down 
here” on earth. He inspects closely and makes sure that he has all the facts.
	God makes this clear later in the book of Genesis when he speaks to Abraham 
about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and he says, “The outcry against Sodom and 
Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they 
have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me.” (Genesis 18:20-21) 
	Actually, this is sort of what we like to see, isn’t it? This God isn’t like a parent 
who sits around upstairs and when someone stands at the bottom of the steps and shouts, 
“Mom, Chad called me a name!” lazily accepts the accusation as fact and says, “Chad, 
knock it off or you’re going to get it.” No, this God checks out the facts for himself. This 
God doesn’t guess what happened—he knows because he has come down to see for 
himself. The God who “comes down” is a God who is interested in us, in what’s going on 
around us, in what we’re doing.
	There’s something else that we might find encouraging about having a God who 
“comes down.” Because he inspects what’s going on down here, he knows what people 
are up to. Because he comes down and finds out what people are up to, he can also—
well, he can do what the psalmwriter asked him to do when he wrote, “Part your 
heavens, O Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth 
lightning and scatter the enemies; shoot your arrows and rout them. Reach down your 
hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of 
foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful (Psalm 144:5-8)
	God can give people what they really deserve, right? Because not only is he a 
knowledgeable God who has come down to see what is happening, he is also a fair, just, 
and righteous God who will come down to punish those around us who are doing wrong, 
those around us who have failed to realize that just because God is in the heavens, that 
does not mean that he is unaware and uninterested in what is going on down here on 
earth.
	God’s investigation of  the people building the tower of Babel led him to say that 
he would “go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other” 
(Genesis 11:7). And that’s just a taste of what God can do when he comes down in 
judgment. The psalmwriter used far more picturesque terms, didn’t he? He spoke of God 
“parting the heavens”—suddenly revealing himself—“sending forth lightning…shooting 
arrows, reaching down his hand. He spoke of God “touching the mountains, so that they 
smoke.”
	In fact, that’s exactly what God did at Mount Sinai when he came down to speak 
to the Israelites. We read: And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate 
them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, 
because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the 
people. Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you 
do not go up to the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall 
surely be put to death.’” (Exodus 19:10-12) And then just a few verses later we read: 
Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The 
smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, the whole mountain trembled 
violently, and the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder. (Exodus 19:18,19)
	There was a distinct message here, wasn’t there? If you’re a terrible sinner, you’d 
better hope that God doesn’t “come down here.” 
	But for those people, there’s no way around it. Maybe God won’t come down 
with smoke and fire on some mountain, but he will come down, for Jesus himself told 
Pontius Pilate, “In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the 
Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” (Matthew 26:64) Speaking of that day, 
Paul writes, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, 
with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God…” (1 Thessalonians 
5:16). In Matthew Jesus explains that a bit further when he says, “For the Son of Man is 
going to come [down]  in his Father’s glory with his angels, and then he will reward 
each person according to what he has done” (Matthew 16:27) Considering what some 
people have done, it’s no wonder that Revelation speaks of Jesus’ coming down at the 
end of time and says, “Look, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, 
even those who pierced him; and all the peoples of the earth will mourn because of him. 
So shall it be! Amen.” (Revelation 1:7)
	Finally then justice will rule. Whether thinking of the judgment he sometimes 
comes down to bring to individuals or whether thinking of the judgment he will come 
down to bring to a sinful earth—a judgment that will cause “all the peoples of the earth” 
to mourn—we might be inclined to say “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!” (Isaiah 64:1-2) or perhaps simply some of the closing 
words of Revelation, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20)
	But not so fast.
	Because when God comes down as he did at the Tower of Babel, when he comes 
down as he did to look at Sodom and Gomorrah, when he comes down to take a look at 
what’s going on here on earth, when he takes a close look…he takes a close look. And 
like someone looking through a microscope, he sees everything. He sees each and every 
flaw. Every single time you’ve sinned jumps out at him like a cancerous cell jumps out at  
a scientist looking through a microscope. Every single time you’ve dirtied his good name 
jumps out at him like a tiny, dirty smudge jumps out at a drill sergeant who is bending 
down to look at the shine on a recruit’s shoes. Every single time you’ve acted as though 
God was up in heaven, unaware of what you were doing down here on earth, God has 
been like the parent standing at the top of the stairs who hasn’t missed a thing, hasn’t 
missed an ounce of your disobedience.
	Yes, when God comes down and inspects us closely, we have to admit what he 
sees—that “all of us [including myself] have become like one who is unclean, and all our 
righteous acts are like filthy rags” and therefore when judgment comes down “we all 
shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away” (Isaiah64:6)
	“Don’t make me come down there” the billboard says with a forbidding tone—
and for good reason. 
	Praise God, then, that he already has come down. Praise God that he has come 
down like a parent rushing downstairs upon hearing the terrified, helpless crying of their 
child. In our Old Testament reading for this morning God spoke to Moses and said, “I 
have indeed seen the misery of my people…I have heard them crying out…and I am 
concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them…” (Exodus 3:7). 
God was speaking to Moses about the misery of the Israelites who were crying out 
because they were in slavery to the Egyptians, suffering with no hope of escape.
	But he could say the same thing about our cries—cries from those who were 
pinned down by the guilt of their sins and the hopelessness of ever getting up and out 
from under them. 
	As God came down to rescue the Israelites from the Egyptians, he has come down 
to rescue us from the devil, sin, and eternal death in hell. He did so by sending his Son 
down. How far down? All the way from the perfection and glory of heaven to the 
sinfulness and squalor of earth. Like the Christmas hymn says, “He came down to earth 
from heaven who is God and Lord of all, and his shelter was a stable and his cradle was a 
stall” (Christian Worship: 50, verse 2). And he came down even further than that. Jesus 
even went down to suffer hell while he was on that cross, being “crushed [down] for our 
iniquities” (Isaiah 53:5). 
	And praise God that for all the times when he did come down, there was one time 
that he did not come down. We read that when Jesus was on the cross, “The chief priests, 
the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. ‘He saved others,’ they said, ‘but he 
can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and 
we will believe in him.’” (Matthew 27:41-42) 
	How easy it would have been then, how tempting it must have been for Jesus to 
come down, to bring judgment on the people, and then go up, go up to heaven not to be 
heard from again until he came down again on Judgment Day with smoke and fire and of 
course, judgment of the most fearsome kind.
	But instead Jesus stayed up on the cross so that we who believe in him might one 
day go up to heaven.
	Therefore we are also assured of something else. We are assured that God 
continues to “come down” today for us as he did for the Israelites. That is, we are assured 
that God knows and hears what is going on “down here” with us and will come down 
when necessary to deliver, protect, and comfort his people.  
	So the next time you see that billboard on I-71, the next time you see the words 
“Don’t make me come down there”, let them be a reminder to your sinful nature that God 
doesn’t miss anything, and that he will come down on Judgment Day. But let them also 
be a reminder that God already has come down here in the person of Jesus, that he did so 
to save you from your sins. And let it be a reminder that Jesus will come down one more 
time, not with judgment, but that he will come down here one more time in order to take 
you “up there” to heaven. Amen.