Eternity Daily Bible Study No. 211

Treasures From The Prophets - 8

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ISAIAH’S VISION

Isaiah 6:1-13 MKJV  In the year that King Uzziah died I then saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.  (2)  Above it stood the seraphs; each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.  (3)  And one cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of Hosts; the whole earth full of His glory.  (4)  And the doorposts moved at the voice of the one who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.  (5)  Then I said, Woe is me! For I am undone; for 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, Jehovah of Hosts.  (6)  Then one of the seraphs flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, snatched with tongs from the altar.  (7)  And he laid it on my mouth and said, Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.  (8)  And 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)  And He said, Go, and tell this people, You hear indeed, but do not understand; and seeing you see, but do not know.  (10)  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back, and be healed.  (11)  Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land laid waste, a desolation,  (12)  and until Jehovah has moved men far away, and the desolation in the midst of the land is great.  (13)  But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and be consumed like the terebinth and like the oak being felled, yet has its stump; the holy seed is its stump.

This is a terrifying vision that has in it all the elements of a prophetic call. The prophet has a direct experience of God. Isaiah did not preach just because he was trained, he preached because he had a divine encounter. Isaiah seems to have been a highly intelligent man of the priestly line who was very familiar with the royal courts.  Yet he could have been “just another good priest” but for this defining moment and call.

God demolished Isaiah during this vision and the prophet came to deep sense of his own sinfulness crying: Woe is me! For I am undone; for 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, Jehovah of Hosts.    But the angel flies down tongs in hand and says: “ Lo, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”  God does not accuse forever, rather He convicts and cleanses and removes from us that which we are ashamed of.

Then Isaiah hears the mighty voice of the Lord. “And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? “  Isaiah knowing that this vision is about him and his purpose in life in some way says “Here am I; send me! “ These are the words and this is the moment that would define Isaiah’s whole life and career and result in him eventually being sawn in two inside a hollow log (according to historians). All that we have from his pen, all the glories of the Messiah, the prophecies against the nations, the doom of wicked Israel and her return and future glory flow from this one encounter with God, this one sentence, in fact its hardly a sentence - in the Hebrew its just two words (hinni) “behold-I” and (shawlach )“send-me”. But they are two words spoken to God and they change everything.

God’s response is overwhelming to the newly called prophet: (9)  And He said, Go, and tell this people, You hear indeed, but do not understand; and seeing you see, but do not know.  (10)  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back, and be healed.  (11)  Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land laid waste, a desolation,  (12)  and until Jehovah has moved men far away, and the desolation in the midst of the land is great.  (13)  But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and be consumed like the terebinth and like the oak being felled, yet has its stump; the holy seed is its stump.

Isaiah was called to turn people into unbelievers and the land into a desolation. To preach until people totally ignored him; to call out until everyone plugged their ears and walked away. To prophesy until only a few holy souls were left in the land and the rest were ripe for slaughter. Then judgment and desolation would come and the nation God had planted would be empty and without inhabitant.

God had read the hearts of the nation and concluded that it was irredeemable, that sin and wickedness had triumphed and that only the fire of judgment and the trauma of exile could bring some good out of it, a small fraction, a tenth, a stump. A holy seed out of which the future Messiah and holy nation would come..

These verses are frequently quoted by Paul in his dealings with the unbelieving Jews and conclude the book of Acts and the transition of the main focus gospel from the Jews to the Gentiles: Acts 28:25-28 MKJV  And disagreeing with one another, they were let go, Paul saying one word: Well did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah the prophet to our fathers,  (26)  saying, "Go to this people and say: Hearing you shall hear and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see and not perceive.  (27)  For the heart of this people was fattened, and they have heard with their ears dully; and they closed their eyes; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."  (28)  Therefore be it known to you that the salvation of God is sent to the nations, and they will hear.

Israel was terrifyingly stubborn. It still is, and refuses to hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. The land of Israel is filled with the enemies of the gospel -both Jews and Muslims, neither recognizing Calvary, neither believing in the resurrection and both kicking against the goads of God the Holy Spirit. They have spurned Jesus and the righteousness of faith and set up their own righteousness instead and so peace has been taken from them – even as God works in them to bring them back and eventually glorify His name there.

Isaiah was called to speak the words that God gave him and to leave the results to God. Speaking the truth was far more important than getting people to believe or approve of the message.

Christian ministry, at its most faithful often involves suffering on account of the message. The call of Paul was similar to Isaiah’s in its inclusion of suffering. God spoke to the protesting Ananias thus: Acts 9:15-16 MKJV  Go! For this one is a chosen vessel to Me, to bear My name before nations and kings and the sons of Israel.  (16)  For I will show him what great things he must suffer for My name's sake.

The gospel is not a naturally attractive message to the World, the Flesh or the Devil or those that serve them.  There are times when faithful ministry will simply go nowhere, when the churches will lie empty and the bombs will fall and the nation be taken through the fire. I tremble for the Philippines in this respect.

We cannot shape our ministry to suit the approval of the audience. Rather we must let it be shaped by standing in the counsels of God Most High and hearing the call of God and having our lips cleansed by the seraphim around the throne. We are entering a time of turmoil, the world will not be saved by timid compromisers. The gospel is despised in the courts, wickedness abounds in the marketplace, the Serpent’s coils are strong around the kings of the earth and the time for martyrs and prophets has come. Let us speak the truth and if some hear us – well and good, yet if we are rejected and the land lies desolate and we are sawn in two inside a hollow log – we shall also have been faithful.

Blessings,

John Edmiston <johned@aibi.ph>

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