When, in Isaiah 6, in ancient Israel in that dramatic year that King Uzziah died, the prophet was given to see the awe-full revelation of a greater King, Isaiah thought he was a dead man. It occurred in the temple and the event was attended by angels and such Glory of God that human eyes could scarcely comprehend nor shaking hands, later, barely convey on parchment. The place trembled and shook, the vision at once compelling and overwhelming.
In that moment’s flash of Isaiah’s seeing the Lord, in X-ray-like exposure he also saw himself. He saw too the city and nation in which he was embedded, whose life and lifestyle too did not bode well for survival within the hands of a holy God. He believed he was a dead man walking - or crouching; that they all were.
But there came an act of mercy through one of God’s ministering beings that in itself declared, in effect: ‘Not to worry, Isaiah!’ For with God’s revelation also came God’s redemption. The angel took a live coal from the temple-altar of sacrifice and with it purged the lips of the prophet - an objective act of purification, related to the sacrifice of another, cleansed all that was past and brought clarity of preparation for all that was ahead for him.
The great and holy One of Israel had come down to his people, initially to Isaiah, that day to be with him, to converse with him and to convey his purposes for the nation and of Isaiah’s role in the revelation of those plans. The God - whom Isaiah would further reveal as Immanuel (God with us) and Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace - had not given up on His people, nor His world. But there was a lot of work yet to be done.
Unworthy Isaiah was made worthy so that God might have a conference with him as to His plans to make worthy the nation once more so that He through them might touch the world.
I used to think that God’s question was more rhetorical - and only from the perspective of heavenly beings: ‘Whom shall I send - and who will go for us?’ . . . that the ‘us’ was more about the counsels of the Trinity, or about God with angels wondering, seeking an earthly messenger. And that may well be. But perhaps it’s more intimate than that. God asks Isaiah in effect: ‘Now, between the two of us, whom shall I send; who will go for us?’ There is a stratagem of relationship where God and his commissioned ones (human: prophets, priests, kings, the church, a mission board or team) talk together about the who and how of reaching out to lost people in broken, desperate places.
A loving, purpose-full God sends human messengers forth to declare his truth and reveal his plans - and to model His loving, righteous ways. As with Abraham, the father and founder of the by-then idolotrous, wandering-at-heart nation, Israel, God reveals that He wants to bring all of the world's peoples (and all places and things) back in line with God's original creation purposes - that He wants to bless all the peoples of the earth; and that He wants to do it through His People, all of them His servants - individuals, a nation, a Church that unique reveal and bridge His mercy and grace to all.
This calling and sending of individuals, a nation, pre-eminently in a Son and His Church, reveals the mission-heart of God, who through such frail instruments is re-creating all that has been distorted, marred or thwarted, vis a vis original Creation purposes. Isaiah is to speak for God - and so today are we as His Church, Christ’s Body on earth. Like him, we too are to go and (by the total witness of our lives and our lips) to call out to those who will hear, who will see their own need for cleansing and restoration for (and to) the purposes God has uniquely called them.
God comes still to us - as individuals, as His People, the Church today. We worship His holiness and power. We bow before Him. We acknowledge again our unworthiness to be near Him, let alone to serve Him. We are in awe that in fresh and powerful, still compelling ways, He reveals Himself and ourselves anew to us. And we remember that He comes near that (such privilege !) He might again release us to the tasks of showing and telling His purposes - His love, mercy and grace - everywhere, in all of life, to all people.
In that moment’s flash of Isaiah’s seeing the Lord, in X-ray-like exposure he also saw himself. He saw too the city and nation in which he was embedded, whose life and lifestyle too did not bode well for survival within the hands of a holy God. He believed he was a dead man walking - or crouching; that they all were.
But there came an act of mercy through one of God’s ministering beings that in itself declared, in effect: ‘Not to worry, Isaiah!’ For with God’s revelation also came God’s redemption. The angel took a live coal from the temple-altar of sacrifice and with it purged the lips of the prophet - an objective act of purification, related to the sacrifice of another, cleansed all that was past and brought clarity of preparation for all that was ahead for him.
The great and holy One of Israel had come down to his people, initially to Isaiah, that day to be with him, to converse with him and to convey his purposes for the nation and of Isaiah’s role in the revelation of those plans. The God - whom Isaiah would further reveal as Immanuel (God with us) and Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace - had not given up on His people, nor His world. But there was a lot of work yet to be done.
Unworthy Isaiah was made worthy so that God might have a conference with him as to His plans to make worthy the nation once more so that He through them might touch the world.
I used to think that God’s question was more rhetorical - and only from the perspective of heavenly beings: ‘Whom shall I send - and who will go for us?’ . . . that the ‘us’ was more about the counsels of the Trinity, or about God with angels wondering, seeking an earthly messenger. And that may well be. But perhaps it’s more intimate than that. God asks Isaiah in effect: ‘Now, between the two of us, whom shall I send; who will go for us?’ There is a stratagem of relationship where God and his commissioned ones (human: prophets, priests, kings, the church, a mission board or team) talk together about the who and how of reaching out to lost people in broken, desperate places.
A loving, purpose-full God sends human messengers forth to declare his truth and reveal his plans - and to model His loving, righteous ways. As with Abraham, the father and founder of the by-then idolotrous, wandering-at-heart nation, Israel, God reveals that He wants to bring all of the world's peoples (and all places and things) back in line with God's original creation purposes - that He wants to bless all the peoples of the earth; and that He wants to do it through His People, all of them His servants - individuals, a nation, a Church that unique reveal and bridge His mercy and grace to all.
This calling and sending of individuals, a nation, pre-eminently in a Son and His Church, reveals the mission-heart of God, who through such frail instruments is re-creating all that has been distorted, marred or thwarted, vis a vis original Creation purposes. Isaiah is to speak for God - and so today are we as His Church, Christ’s Body on earth. Like him, we too are to go and (by the total witness of our lives and our lips) to call out to those who will hear, who will see their own need for cleansing and restoration for (and to) the purposes God has uniquely called them.
God comes still to us - as individuals, as His People, the Church today. We worship His holiness and power. We bow before Him. We acknowledge again our unworthiness to be near Him, let alone to serve Him. We are in awe that in fresh and powerful, still compelling ways, He reveals Himself and ourselves anew to us. And we remember that He comes near that (such privilege !) He might again release us to the tasks of showing and telling His purposes - His love, mercy and grace - everywhere, in all of life, to all people.
