Isaiah 6: 8-10

Isaiah’s Commission

⁸ Then 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!”
⁹ He said, “Go, and tell this people:

‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive;
Keep on looking, but do not understand.’
¹⁰ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive,
Their ears dull, and their eyes dim,

 Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
Hear with their ears,
Understand with their hearts,
And return and be healed.”

Last week's passage was so vivid--as I'm sure it was for Isaiah in experience it--that I'm having a difficult time remembering that this was a vision. But, when God sends a vision of Heaven, complete with the Seraphim, you don't choke that up to just another dream. Truly, visions are much more than that, and what happened to Isaiah in his spiritual cleansing almost defies what we can believe. Yet, this is something that we all need to grasp--God, putting a call on our lives, purifying us for His service and sending us out. From my study Bible:

"Isaiah's vision has made him painfully aware of his sin and has broken him, in this way God has prepared him for his cleansing and his commission."

Verse 8, "Then...."  As if having one of God's supreme angels literally touching him with a censor of cleansing and forgiveness wasn't enough, now, Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord. "Who will go for Us?" That 'Us' strongly suggests the Trinity were issuing a joint call. And Isaiah, broken, yet--I'm thinking--with the greatest clarity he has ever experienced, says, "Here I am. Send me!"

"Here I am Lord, Is it I Lord?
I have heard You calling in the night.
I will go Lord, if You lead me.
I will hold Your people in my heart."

--"Here I am, Lord" ("I, the Lord, of Sea and Sky"), Daniel L. Schutte, lyrics

I remember being a newbie Christian and also answering the call to serve as a Stephen's Ministry leader (a lay caregiving ministry). We had a formal commissioning ceremony after two weeks of training. They played this song, and the words burned on my heart (in the best way!). It was as close to an Isaiah experience as I have known. My mission to teach and encourage others in their caring for people in difficult situations was not nearly as daunting as the task that was laid before the prophet, however.



Isaiah's call was to speak to the people of Judah--God's chosen, yet seemingly hopelessly lost people. Verse 9 says that Isaiah was not going to give Judah words they could use but, rather, words that would confuse. In my study Bible, I have this explanation for verse 9 starred and underlined: "Isaiah's message was to be God's instrument for hiding the truth from an unreceptive people. Centuries later, Jesus' parables were to do the same." A wild call, indeed, but Isaiah would be in the best possible company:

"And He said, 'To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest it is in parables, so that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.'"

--Luke 8:10, Jesus speaking

To what extent was Isaiah to influence? Verse 10 is a must-look-at-the-Hebrew-meanings verse! "Render the hearts of this people "insensitive" or "fat," in the King James'. 'Fat' means "to shine, i.e. (by analogy) be (causatively, make) oily or gross." [Strong's] Isaiah would not be making the hearts of the people shine like the stars. No, no.... God's Word would literally slip off their oily hearts. Wow! "[Render] their ears dull or "heavy," in the KJV. Again, heavy as in so full of the wonderful words of life? No. "To be heavy, i.e. in a bad sense (burdensome, severe, dull)." [Strong's] ; "[Render] their eyes dim or "besmeared" (KJV), meaning "smeared over, blinded." [Strong's]

"That, forasmuch as they would not be made better by his ministry, they should be made worse by it; those that were willfully blind should be judicially blinded: “They will not understand or perceive thee, and therefore thou shalt be instrumental to make their heart fat, senseless, and sensual, and so to make their ears yet more heavy, and to shut their eyes the closer; so that, at length, their recovery and repentance will become utterly impossible...."

--Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Bible

If God didn't have everything under His control, you might think this was a crazy plan. But, God knew exactly what He was doing, as He even told all of Israel--through their great leader, Moses--that this precise situation would come about in their lives:

"The Lord alone guided him,
And there was no foreign god with him.
He made him ride on the high places of the earth....

But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked—
You are grown fat, thick, and sleek—
Then he forsook God who made him,
And scorned the Rock of his salvation....

The Lord saw this, and spurned them
Because of the provocation of His sons and daughters.
Then He said, ‘I will hide My face from them,
I will see what their end shall be;
For they are a perverse generation,
Sons in whom is no faithfulness.'"

--Deuteronomy 32: 12-20 (The Song of Moses), excerpts

It's all there, isn't it? Amazing! What is discouraging is that the "perverse generation" is not completely gone. There are still those who listen and look, but do not find or understand. The "fatness" of the world is clearly evident. My church's recent sermon series on Romans brought this to light this past Sunday, as one of our pastors spoke on Romans 8. It's as if we hold up our hand in God's face, denying His presence in deference to our own wants and pleasures:

"For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God."

--Romans 8:5-8

Again, wow, what a calling for Isaiah! People who "would be made worse by" his ministry, to quote Matthew Henry. Going up full force against the flesh. But, with a mighty calling comes a mighty hand. God was abundantly faithful to Isaiah, granting him a long ministry, and providing him with words that though they may not have penetrated the hearts of all Judah in his day certainly were not lost words. Jesus and His disciples referred to Isaiah so many times in their ministries. Questioning the fulfillment of prophecy? Just note Isaiah's words and the happenings in the New Testament. I digress a bit, but this whole chapter is such a great study in and of itself in receiving a call from God and His preparation of His servants for such a calling.

Yet, a question remains....

"Lord, how long?" God's calls are not forever.... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: theatlantic.com

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Next week: Isaiah 6: 11-13

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).

Isaiah 5: 18-23

  

¹⁸ Woe to those who drag iniquity with the cords of falsehood,
And sin as if with cart ropes;
¹⁹ Who say, “Let Him make speed, let Him hasten His work, that we may see it;
And let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near
And come to pass, that we may know it!”
²⁰ Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
²¹ Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes
And clever in their own sight!
²² Woe to those who are heroes in drinking wine
And valiant men in mixing strong drink,
²³ Who justify the wicked for a bribe,
And take away the rights of the ones who are in the right!

The last of the six woes come in today's passage of Isaiah 5. They read like proverbs, and, not surprisingly, many of the cross-references for our verses do link back to the Book of Proverbs. They are pretty self-explanatory, as one would expect a proverb to be. Appreciating the punch and poetry of Isaiah!....

• Woe #3 (vs 18): Useless flaunting with brazen mocking

The visual imagery is terrific. While a cord of three strands is not quickly broken apart (Ecclesiastes 4:12), a cord of falsehood (worthlessness; uselessness; vanity, in other translations) is snipped with ease.

"The Lord is righteous; He has cut in two the cords of the wicked."

--Psalm 129:4

Judah is not only characterized as being blatantly sinful, but it has made great effort, as dragging something of weight and heft, to make sure its sinful lifestyle is being maintained--for all to see! As if their pursuit of sin is not enough, the people do so mocking God with every step. Look at verse 19: "...Let the purpose of the Holy One of Israel draw near...." That name for God that Isaiah has used and will use in his prophecy is here used as if by a taunting "I-dare-ya" grade-schooler. "You've got judgment for us? Bring it on!" Guess they forgot about what it says in Deuteronomy 6--what our Lord later quotes in the Gospels--about putting God to the test. Not sure those thoughts aren't still out there.

"Know this first of all, that in the last days mockers will come with their mocking, following after their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all continues just as it was from the beginning of creation.'"

--II Peter 3: 3 and 4

 

• Woe #4 (vs 20): Ill-thought substitutions

Sometimes [OK, a lot of times!], when I'm cooking, I will have to make a change in the recipe I'm following. That item I thought was in the pantry, fridge or spice rack just isn't there when I reach for it. Time for a last-minute substitution [or deletion!] There are times when you can whip up missing ingredients from other sources or else choose to alter your dish's flavor profile with something different. And, then, there are times when you make an ingredient substitution and you just get it wrong! It's not just distasteful--literally. It's more likely trash-bound. This is God's point.

When you "call evil good and good evil," you get it wrong! It's not just confusing, it's what Proverbs 17:15 calls "an abomination to the Lord." To how many things can we look at in our society today and apply this thought? Something that was once an "evil" that, over time, with insistent persuasion and re-framing (as if "dragging iniquity with cords of falsehood," perhaps?) has become something perfectly acceptable?

"'The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear [healthy, sincere], your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!'"

--Matthew 6: 22 and 23

Judah's spiritual blindness had led the nation into a dark period of its history, indeed!

• Woe #5 (vs 21): "Wise in their own eyes"

If my Mom is reading today, she is nodding her head up and down, with maybe even a little "uh-huh" thrown in. I do, now, understand about this, being a parent myself. We spend our lives learning--actively or passively, well or not so much. But it is over the entire course of our lives. Yet true wisdom is not something we can inherit or pursue on our own.

"Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you thinks that he is wise in this age, he must become foolish, so that he may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness before God. For it is written, 'He is the one who catches the wise in their craftiness'; and again, 'The Lord knows the reasonings of the wise, that they are useless.'"

--I Corinthians 18: 18-20

Bottom line: We fall short! Surprise--not. Our best reasoning is not good enough to be considered wisdom. We just don't have it all. But, God's people thought they were wise enough to think and to stand for themselves. We all get caught up in the deception that we can be wise on our own, yet, enough living in the world will show you how "useless" this thinking is. Just not smart! Love how Matthew Henry put it in his commentary: "...They think themselves able to disprove and baffle the reproofs and convictions of God’s word, and to evade and elude both the searches and the reaches of his judgments; they think they can outwit Infinite Wisdom and countermine Providence itself." Back to the hits of 1979....

"What a fool believes he sees  
No wise man has the power to reason away  
What seems to be is always better than nothing  
There's nothing at all but what a fool believes he sees...."

--Doobie Brothers

• Woe #6 (vs 22): "Drunkin' bribin' judgin'"

Don't drink and bribe! As if bribing a judge in and of itself was not enough of an issue, mix in impaired judgment to your bringing your bribe to a judge. It was working in Judah, and God had had His fill. 

In all seriousness, there is quite a list of cases in which the rights of the righteous ones have been denied. How long, yes? How long.... There are hearts pained with grief, horror and bitterness over seeing righteousness "lose." Is this woe still "on the books"? Does God let righteousness lose? Though James repeats that the unrighteous "...have condemned and put to death the righteous man...." (James 5:6), he also teaches us what to do--looking to prophets, like Isaiah, as role models.
 

"You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful."

--James 5: 8-11 (italics mine)

"Therefore...." There's that word again! God explains what's coming down in the face of judgment.... 'Til next Wednesday!

Photo: gamesmuseum.uwaterloo.ca

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Next week: Isaiah 5: 24 and 25

Note: I read from the New American Standard Bible translation,
specifically, The MacArthur Study Bible (NASB).
I will quote other sources if used in a post.
I also use Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible
(with notes from the King James Version).