Reading: Isaiah 6:1-10
Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?
We have in this chapter the call of Isaiah (it is a summary) and his ministry (also in summary form). His recorded work is a very large book, one of the three major prophets (the others being Jeremiah and Ezekiel) of the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible. His was a long service for God, over decades, during the reigns of four kings of Judah – Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. Modernist theologians like to speculate on there being three Isaiahs, but this is a wrong idea from the 18th century. Jewish tradition is only of one Isaiah, the Dead Sea scrolls discovered in 1947 show the work in one writing, and the New Testament refers to Isaiah the prophet.
What a splendid name the prophet had – Isaiah, meaning “salvation of the Lord.” We know when his call came to be a prophet for the Lord, because King Uzziah died in 740 BC. Uzziah had been a good and faithful king for many years. But (as Second Chronicles records for us) when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, to his destruction, because he sinned against the Lord his God by entering the temple to burn incense on the altar of incense. This was the privilege of the priesthood alone. God struck him down with leprosy until his death. But what happened to Uzziah is so typical of mankind. People have a tendency to feel that they are strong, and can make all of their own decisions without having any dependence on God, and without even any reference to God. Thinking that they are strong they become in reality weak and unclean. That is the condition of mankind without God’s help.
The call of Isaiah
At the end of King Uzziah’s reign, Isaiah saw the Lord seated on a throne. An earthly king, with a successful reign whilst looking to the Lord, but then a disastrous time after doing something forbidden, had died. But Isaiah saw the heavenly king, and was about to be commissioned to serve Him. The King of heaven was high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Whilst Uzziah spent his last days as a leper and isolated, the Lord of glory was seen by Isaiah in the place of honour.
We are told of angelic beings honouring the Lord of glory. Seraphim (“burning ones”) stood above the throne. Each one had six wings – two covering the face, two covering the feet and two for flying. We do not normally see the angelic world, but they are there, as real as we are. We do not see the wind when it blows, but no-one would ever deny the reality of a wind! They cried out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” Does three mentions of God’s holiness refer to the three Persons in the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit? God is holy – different in essence, different in function, different in standards from the world we know. If He is different, and we become allied to Him, we should want to be different from the world. Indeed, Israel was told by Moses to be holy. I was once sworn at by a Jewish man when offering a Gospel tract in door-to-door work. I told him that the Lord ordered Israel to be holy because He is. (Leviticus 19)
The door posts were shaken by the angel’s voice, and the house was filled with smoke. Isaiah knew that the things of God are to be taken seriously. Now in verse five, we read what Isaiah said when God was about to commission him. “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.” What Isaiah said then is worthy of analysis. His state before God was short of the mark. “Woe is me!” is not a cheerful comment. He knew that in his natural state, he was a sinner. In fact, like all of us since Adam’s rebellion against God, he was a sinner by nature, and he knew it. Just like with one’s own garden, nothing needs to be done to find unwelcome guests like weeds growing. So, in our lives, we are already sinners against God, because of our Adamic nature. The gardener has to do something to gain improvement – he removes the unwanted weeds, and works carefully to have the crops and the flowers as required. So we have to do something, and the first thing is to realise that God’s analysis of ourselves is correct. He is an offended God, because we naturally sin against Him. But just like with the gardener, something has to be done to bring about improvement for God’s pleasure. We have to be forgiven and cleansed and accepted by God, and in the way He has specified. Men fool themselves when they imagine, as they so often do, that God is unmoved by their disobedience of Him and acting in ignorance of Him.
But Isaiah was honest and straightforward. He knew both of his own uncleanness before God, but also that all Judah was the same. And if all the people of Judah were sinners, that was because they were people with Adamic nature. And if they had Adamic nature, do did everyone else, and today, we all start life with the same nature, and therefore also must be changed by God to be acceptable in His service.
Isaiah saw the Lord – his words are these: “For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. One day very soon, Jesus will return to the earth in glory. Not only will He be the Lamb of God, but He will be the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and will be the great King in Jerusalem, and King over the whole earth. Isaiah has so much to say in the eighth century BC about the Lord, so he sometimes called the evangelical prophet, and rightly so. Did Isaiah see Jesus as King in His glory? He does claim to have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
Now one of the seraphim flew to Isaiah, taking a coal with the tongs from the altar, Isaiah’s mouth was touched but it, and the seraph announced, “Take note – this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.” Something miraculous happened here: the ministry of the seraph, the removal of Isaiah’s sin, and no pain in the process! But this is a lesson to us all. Even someone destined to become a prophet for the Lord had to be radically cleansed. The lesson is that we must be cleansed so that we are fit for service to the Living God.
Now verse 8 gives us God’s call to Isaiah to serve Him. We note the pattern of change to be made right for godly service. Isaiah as a man was made in God’s image, but because of Adam’s sin, it is a spoiled image. Then he was cleansed, and after that, he was ready to hear the call of God. So it is with us. Whatever is the type of service for God, we need to be cleansed and then called. Isaiah lived before the Passion and Resurrection of Jesus. But he would serve the Lord looking forward to these things. We benefit, having the Word of God informing us of what Jesus came to do on our behalf, dying for all of our sins and rising again from the dead as our eternal Saviour and Lord.
The Lord spoke to Isaiah – and we look closely at the wording – “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” The subject is both singular and then plural. The Lord asks who will be sent by Him, and then also asks as to who would go for “Us” – so is this a reference to the Godhead, Father, Son and Holy Spirit? There appears no hesitation by Isaiah. He said, “Here I am! Send me.” This willingness is commendable. Are we ready for immediate service to the Living God, to go in in His name, to say what He wants and go where He desires?
The Lord sees mankind as needing Him, and needing to know their own condition. He could just write in the sky, or speak audibly. But it’s God’s usual way of communicating that He chooses to use people who belong to Him to speak on His behalf. This is illustrated here. Today, God commands all men to repent and turn to Him through the Person and work of His Son.
Now Isaiah is called, and we are informed of his work. The Lord said to Isaiah, “Go and tell this people.” So Isaiah knew that Israel must be addressed. They were not to be left to themselves, but be informed, and whatever the result.
It seems a strange message, and perhaps it is a summary of the predicted result. Whatever Isaiah would broadcast for the Lord, this is how the people would respond. “Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.” Ideally, everyone should listen to God, and rush to admit sin and weakness and want to be reformed and fitted for worship and service.
But God is all-knowing, and so Isaiah will realise that whatever is put to the people, this will be the result. And if a positive message comes from God for people, which they ignore or oppose, judgement will be upon them. This happened to Judah. And so, the same formula is repeated in verse 10,
“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.” Men’s hearts are dull, and their ears are heavy, and their eyes fail to see, concerning what God requires of them. Therefore, as these features are the opposite of what God requires, then Israel is under God judgement to begin with, as is everyone else also.
But what about ourselves? This raises the question that we should ask ourselves. Before God, is my heart dull or do I understand what He requires? Are my ears heavy or am I hearing what God wants to say to me? Are my eyes shut (this is a matter of the will) or do I see what God wants to show me? I am highly jealous of the people whose hearts warmed to Jesus, hearing His very words and seeing the Lord of glory!
Jesus quoted these words recorded in Isaiah in Matthew-Levi 13, being the reason for speaking to the multitudes in parables. The same is recorded in Mark 4 and Luke 8, while John 12 also provides this quote, because the people could not believe.
Paul quoted this portion of Isaiah’s writings at the close of the Book of Acts, adding that the Gospel would now go to the Gentiles, and they were going to hear it. Finally, Paul quotes once again this passage in Romans 11, stating that the elect (the believers within the people of Israel) have obtained what was sought – acceptance with God – but the rest were blinded. This makes a total of six quotes in the New Testament – which is a lot – and therefore all the more reason why we should pray that it will please the Lord to bring some Jewish people in these days to open their eyes, hear with their ears, and soften their hearts to recognise Jesus as God’s Messiah and the only Lord and Saviour of men.