Isaiah’s Commission
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “For how long, O Lord?”
And he answered:
“Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
13 And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”
My Understanding: God gave Isaiah, his servant, a vision in which he gave him his calling. Isaiah saw all the glory of God in the heavenly temple. He saw the Lord seated on his throne, high and exalted. There were heavenly beings which were flying above the Lord in all humility, in awe of God, and in worship of him. They called to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty.” The doorposts and thresholds of the temple shook at the sound of their voices. This was indeed an awe-inspiring scene for Isaiah to witness the majesty, glory, and awesomeness of Almighty God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
The vision of this heavenly scene brought Isaiah to his knees in humility before Almighty God, in recognizing his unworthiness to even be allowed to see such a breathtaking scene. He confessed his sinfulness and humanity before God when he acknowledged that he, and the people he lived among, were people of unclean lips. Oh, how this kind of “fear” of God, i.e. respect, awe, honor, humility before, and deep confession and acknowledgement of sin in the presence of such an awe-inspiring God, is so lost today. If we could all see our sinfulness in comparison to God’s glory, what a difference that should make in our lives.
Because of Isaiah’s humility and submission to God and his acknowledgement of his sin before such an awesome scene of God’s glory, God was able to use Isaiah as his servant and witness to what the Lord would show him, to what he would tell him, and to what, in response, Isaiah was to tell the people of God. God cleansed Isaiah’s unclean lips with a live coal, representative of sacrifice made for sin on the Day of Atonement in the Most Holy Place. God also touched the lips of Jeremiah when he told him that God would put his words in Jeremiah’s mouth. I believe the cleansing of Isaiah’s lips had a similar significance.
Then, the Lord asked two questions: Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” I believe the “us” is the same as the “us” in Genesis when God said, “Let us make man in our image.” The “us” clearly speaks of a triune God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The question is really a two-fold question, the first half having to do with God’s call upon Isaiah’s life (and our lives, too), and the second has to do with Isaiah’s (and our) response to that call. When Isaiah heard the call of God on his life to go and to be his “mouth”, i.e. his witness, servant and prophet of God, he responded without hesitation, “Here am I. Send me!” And, even after he found out the job responsibilities, he did not back down nor did he appear to have any second thoughts at all. His only question was “How long?”
As true believers in Jesus Christ, we are all called into God’s service as his servants and witnesses. The New Testament makes it clear that all those who follow the Lord Jesus Christ as his true disciples are to be his witnesses, are to shine the light of the gospel to those in need of hearing the gospel, and we are to make disciples of all nations, teaching them to obey all that God has commanded of his servants, the church, his saints. We are not called of God just so that we can go to heaven one day. We are called to serve him now while we are still on the earth. We are all given different gifts, and we are to exercise the gifts God has placed within us for the edification and the building up of the Body of Christ, his church. So, none of us can use the excuse that we are not called or that we don’t know what our specific calling is, because we are all called and we are all to be his witnesses and servants.
So, when we come to faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and His Holy Spirit comes inside us to dwell and to make us his temple, we are his witnesses, i.e. we are the Lord’s representatives on the face of this earth, as though the Lord Jesus is making his appeal through us. We are “Jesus” to the world because He lives within us in the person of the Holy Spirit. And, it is then he empowers us for his service and cleanses us so that he can use us for his purposes and for his glory. Because of what Jesus Christ did for us in cleansing us from our sin and in filling us with His presence, we should, like Isaiah, be in the same kind of humility and awe in the presence of Almighty God, which is daily, because His presence is inside of us, and we should answer a resounding “Here am I, send me” whenever he asks us to do anything in his service, no matter what he asks us to do. We should be willing to be whoever God wants us to be and to do whatever he wants us to do or to say and to whomever he would call us to minister to in whatever manner in which he would call us.
Isaiah’s commission was to go to the people of God and to say to them whatever God gave him to say. God told him ahead of time that the people’s response would be that they would hear, but not understand, that they would see, but not perceive, that their hearts would become even more hardened at the words of God through Isaiah so that they would close their ears and their eyes to the truth of God’s word. And, again, we are all given a similar commission in scripture as we are told to encourage (inspire; urge; incite; nurture; persuade and foster) our brothers and sisters in Christ in their walks of faith so that they don’t fall into sin’s deceitfulness, and to do what is for the edification (instruction; education; improvement; enlightenment) of the Body of Christ in order that they may be built up in the faith and may live holy lives, pleasing to God. And, sometimes we will get the same results as Isaiah, because people, even Christians, might want to live their own lives their own way and won’t want to hear what is for their strengthening in the faith.
Yet, our hearts, if we truly love Jesus Christ as we say we do, should respond to the call of God on our lives to be his servants and witnesses, even to go to hard-hearted and rebellious believers who have gone the way of the world and are resisting the convicting power of the Holy Spirit in their lives, and to say to them what God gives us to say. We should all say, “Here am I, send me!” And, then be willing to hear and to do whatever God has for us, that is within his perfect will, and that fits with his divine character and purposes for mankind.
Speak, Lord / An Original Work / May 8, 2011
Speak, Lord, for Your servant’s list’ning to You.
Let me hear You speak in love and in truth.
Guide me, I pray. Teach me Your way.
Speak, Lord, while I bow before You now.
Speak, Lord, fill me with Your peace and Your joy.
Let Your Holy Spirit’s work now employ.
Strengthen within. Keep me from sin.
Speak, Lord, words that lead to victory.
Speak, Lord, so that I might walk in Your ways.
Let Your love o’er-flow in my heart today.
Be my desire. Set me on fire.
Speak, Lord, comfort me with Your presence.
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