Also 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.” Isaiah 6:8
Isaiah’s Call
Chapter summary. Isaiah now reports his own grand vision of God and his call to prophetic ministry. The focus of the vision is God Himself, “high and exalted,” and worshiped as holy by seraphim, a special order of angels. Isaiah is overcome with a sense of his own sinfulness, but is cleansed by a coal from the altar. Isaiah responds by eagerly volunteering to serve as God’s messenger. The offer is accepted, but Isaiah is forewarned. God’s people will not respond. When Isaiah asks how long this condition will persist, he hears a glum reply. Judah will be deaf to God until the land is desolate and empty. Yet enough life will remain in the stump for new life to spring up again.
God appeared to Isaiah in 739 B.C., the year King Uzziah died. According to tradition, this may have been the actual year in which, across the Mediterranean, Rome was founded along the river Tiber.
Isaiah’s call came before his three sermons were preached. The sermons are reported first in his book to help us understand the society in which Isaiah lived and the impact of his vision of God as “holy, holy, holy.” Seeing God, Isaiah also sees himself and realizes in horror that he is a sinful man living in a corrupt society. But God has not shown Isaiah himself to condemn him. God’s purpose is to cleanse. Isaiah is symbolically cleansed and his guilt set aside with fire from the altar of sacrifice (Atonement). Forgiven now, Isaiah volunteers when God asks for a messenger and is commissioned for his prophetic ministry.
Isaiah’s mission is to speak to a people who will refuse to respond. In fact the prophet’s call to repent will harden Israel’s heart (cf. “Pharaoh’s Hard Heart,”). The people will remain hardened until, a century after Isaiah’s death, the land lies ruined and the people are dragged away into exile.
6:1 King Uzziah died in 740 B.C., signaling the end of an age. This good king would be eventually replaced by wicked Ahaz; the relative prosperity of the first half of the 8th century would be replaced by the Syro-Ephramite wars and the Assyrian campaigns into Israel.
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.
6:2 Seraphs The Heb word means “burning ones.” These are apparently a distinct order of angelic beings, not to be identified with cherubs or other orders. Their role here is to call to each other, uttering constant reminders that God is “holy, holy, holy.”
The Syro-Ephraimite War took place in the 8th century BC, when Assyria was a great regional power. The smaller nations of Syria (often called Aram) and the northern Kingdom of Israel (often called Ephraim because of the main tribe) formed a coalition in defense against the oncoming threat.
2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.
6:7 Isaiah had a personal Day of Atonement before the Lord. Taken away: This word alludes to the Israelite practice of symbolically placing the sins of the people on a scapegoat and driving that goat into the wilderness. The Hebrew word translated purged means “covered” and is the same word that is translated atonement. The word refers to the process of killing an animal and spinkling the blood on the altar for atonement.
7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”
6:8 Whom shall I send? God knew the answer and had already chosen Isaiah. But the question provided Isaiah with the opportunity to volunteer. God values our service, but more than anything we can do, He values our willingness. Just as God protected Isaiah’s freedom of choice by asking rather than commanding, so He protects His own today. As many commentators have observed, the only appropriate response to being forgiven is to eagerly offer our service. But the Lord will not force you to serve Him; we must volunteer.
Send me: God uses human beings as His messengers. Only at certain times does He use angels in a direct way to reveal His will to humankind. Isaiah’s willingness proceeded from a grateful heart; he wanted to serve the God who had forgiven him.
8 Also 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.”
6:9, 10 Paradoxically, Isaiah’s preaching to the religious and arrogant people who keep on hearing was destined to make… their ears heavy (42:20). Only the humble would understand the Lord’s message. The more the prophet would proclaim the word of God, the less response he would get from the people This was a call to a very discouraging ministry. In truth, the call of God is for faithfulness to Him, to His word, and to the call itself.
9 And He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 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.”
6:11 Understandably, Isaiah’s expression to the Lod was one of incredulity. The wondered how long the people would continue to be unresponsive to his words of truth from God.
6:11, 12 The answer was grim. Waste… desolate: These words describe the coming judgment of God on Judah that would lead to the nation’s captivity under the Babylonians. Removed men… forsaken places describe the desolation that would follow the conquest by Babylon.
11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate, 12 The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
6:13 But… consuming: After the coming of Babylonian invasion, the part of the land and the people who remained would be scorched again. This describes the return from the Exile and the subsequent troubles of Judah in the land. A tenth is one of Isaiah’s expressions for the “remnant”; it is only a small percentage of the Israelites. From Israel’s blasted stump, God would produce a holy seed (11:1), for He cannot deny the nation He has chosen. An immediate fulfillment of this prophecy occurred in Isaiah’s time: King Hezekiah repented and showed himself to be part of the holy seed. Ultimately, the holy seed would issue in the Beautiful Branch (11:1). This is the promise of the Savior Jesus.
13 But yet a tenth will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump.”
The Vision and Call of Isaiah
6 1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 So I said: “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.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.” 8 Also 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: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 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.” 11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered: “Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate, 12 The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. 13 But yet a tenth will be in it, And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down. So the holy seed shall be its stump.”
Why I Love Isaiah 6 by Daniel Yeh