Verses 1-13, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.” Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.” Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate, The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. But yet a tenth will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump.”
In the presence of God, Isaiah felt undone. After spending time with God, you should not walk away feeling good about yourself...only good about who He is. It will be clear that He alone is good, and He alone has the right place of authority. We are all deserving of judgment, and the only hope we have is in God's mercy, and Him taking our away our sin by the power of Jesus' blood. Our mouths only reveal the true condition of our hearts. Matthew 12:33-37, “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit. Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things. But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.”
God asks the question, "...who will go for Us?" God doesn't need to ask questions to gain knowledge, because He is all-knowing. He chooses to involve us, and wants us to consider His questions. Isaiah, being fully surrendered, responded to God's call with a willingness to serve, saying, "Send me." The problem among many Christians today is that they have this backwards. They come up with their own plans and try to send God, showing a complete lack of faith and understanding of who God is. Furthermore, what God told Isaiah to do was to go preach to people who would not receive the truth. Not many Christians today are willing to do whatever God calls, despite how foolish they may look to the world. Fully surrendered means you are dead to your will, but alive to His, no matter what He asks of you.
Isaiah then wants to know how long must it be this way, preaching to those who refuse to hear. As he preaches the truth, their hearts harden and their ears become deaf in order to block out the message. It isn't Isaiah making this happen, but the power of the word. You see, the word is alive and powerful and creates division. When sound doctrine is shared, it will either be received in faith and produce fruit, or will be rejected by the hearer, firming up their pending judgment. The church today has become dull in their hearts, with heavy ears and shut eyes to the truth; yet so open to the foolishness of man. Pray that you see and hear, and are able to remain part of the remnant. II Timothy 4:3-5, “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
“Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.” And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.” Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate,” Isaiah 6:8-11
ReplyDeleteIsaiah was able to see the throne of God. He saw saw the angels and they cried out " holy holy holy." That this point he realized how unclean he was. An angel then came and purged him of his sin.
The Lord, asked " who will go." The Lord, who know everything, already knew who was going, but it was for Isiah to say He will go. God is not going for us to do what we are called to do. We have a chose. We need to be willing to do and go where the Lord calls us. We need to be like Isaiah saying " choose me".
Isiah was going to witness to the people who would not Him. Like many people he asked for how long would he do this. The Lord told that he would do it until the cities are laid waste without inhabitants. Many times we expect that are calling will be hard and last for so long. It may be hard for a while, but then will get easier. We almost have a plan of how things will go in our head, but this is never how they end up going. Our calling in life will never be easy. It will be hard just as it was for the people before us. Like Isiah, who spent a long time going to the people who would not listen. We will also feel like what we are doing is not going anywhere. Serving God is never going to be easy, but we need to stick it out.