Monday
Monday
The Prophet’s Commissioning
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!”
Isaiah 6:8
Isaiah chapter 6 is well known to many churches as a challenging text for a missionary sermon. But its original application was much more particular; it records the call of Isaiah to be a prophet. The vocabulary of “sending” (“Whom shall I send? Send me”) makes this plain. For Yahweh sent the prophets, as later Jesus was to send the apostles, and commissioned them to teach in his name. Similarly Yahweh said of the false prophets, “I never sent you.”
The essence of Isaiah’s call was his vision of Yahweh, exalted and transcendent, seated on his heavenly throne, attended by seraphs crying, “Holy, holy, holy” (v. 3). It was a vision of the King (“my eyes have seen the King,” v. 5) and was deliberately granted him in the year 740 BC when King Uzziah celebrated his golden jubilee and died. Inevitably Isaiah would compare and contrast the two kingdoms, and his whole future ministry would be colored by his conviction that Yahweh is King, worthy to be trusted and obeyed.
Next came Isaiah’s confession of sin, his cleansing, and his commissioning. He was also warned that the people would harden their hearts and reject God’s word, so that God’s judgment would fall upon them. Jesus himself quoted these words (Matt. 13:14–15) and so did the apostle Paul (Acts 28:25–29).
Yet there was a glimmer of hope. As when a tree is felled a stump is left, so will it be with Israel. “The holy seed will be the stump in the land” (Isa. 6:13). These words introduce us to one of the distinctives of Isaiah’s message, namely that there would be a remnant of faithful disciples, gathered round the prophet himself (see 8:16–18).
For further reading: Isaiah 6