Isaiah 6:8-10ESV

Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord

⁸ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” ⁹ And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing,^[a] but do not understand;
keep on seeing,^[b] but do not perceive.’
¹⁰ Make the heart of this people dull,^[c]
    and their ears heavy,
    and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
    and turn and be healed.”

The Word of God for the Children of God. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Amen.

It is that old familiar scene on any playground populated by young kids and their parents – the young child closes their eyes, turns their backs to their moms or dads and suddenly out of the blue they yell out: “Catch Me” as they lean out their arms as far and wide as they can and then free fall backwards.

Hopefully that young child hears their Mom’s or Dad’s voice: “Here I Am!”

And prayerfully, Mom or Dad is quick enough to catch their free-falling child.

We trust our parents to be there when we need them.

We need to not just hear of that trust but to actually feel that trust for ourselves.

We need to experience that trust then we can give that trust back to them.

Whether we fall forward or backwards, we need to know someone will catch us.

Not just catch us – some of the time (pranking us) but absolutely all the time.

So, here in our text from Isaiah chapter 6, God has just empowered Isaiah for a mission of who knows what kind of magnitude and God’s knows what purpose.

Without question, Isaiah utters these “famous first and last words” ….

“Here I am! Send me.”

These words are among the most famous of Old Testament texts.

Often, they are taught in a motivational light in an attempt to inspire people to completely leave behind whatever they were doing and to step up, to serve God.

Sadly, what is frequently left out is the mission that Isaiah was volunteering for.

But God did not try to hide His mission and message from Isaiah before he sent Isaiah back; he was straightforward.

However, behind and underneath all of that were these unwritten, but certainly implied questions and statements by God,

– “In this exact moment, I need to know how much you trust me, Isaiah?”

– “In this singular moment of your life, how far does your trust of me extend?”

– “Exactly right now, Isaiah, do you completely trust me with your whole life?”

– “Will you free-fall backwards into my arms when not having a good day?”

– “Will you always move forwards – even in those most very uncertain of days?”

– “Even when distrust of Me becomes your first desire, will you still go for Me?”

– “Even if it means Me getting behind you, subtly or not so subtly, pushing you forward against your will, into places we both know you would rather not go?”

“Think about these things, Isaiah. take what time you need. I will still be here!”

Now, ask yourself this question- How much time elapsed before Isaiah said:

“Here I am! Send me.” 

An hour? A day? “A week?”

An immediate response – no time lapse at all?

What can be implied by Isaiah’s apparent and immediate response?

Isaiah’s Immediate and Unconditional and Unquestioning Trust in the Lord?

The unsaid, immediately understood – “Yes! Lord! I know you have my Back?”

“Yes! Lord! I absolutely trust that You WILL have my Back 100% of the time?”

Do you somewhere believe maybe Isaiah had crossed fingers behind his back?

Or that his expression of ““Here I am! Send me.” was utterly unconditional?

If you had been the one called away by God in such a moment as Isaiah’s, would there be “every available finger crossed” behind your back – toes crossed too?

Immediate, Unquestioned and Unconditional Trust – given to God on the spot?

“Just like that?”

Is that exact, exacting magnitude of trust really somewhere in human nature?

Consider what we are not considering nor even aware of in that exact moment:

Sadly, what is frequently left out is the mission that Isaiah was volunteering for.

Blindly, Deafly, and Boldly, moving forward in some direction through the ages with a very specific mission known only but to God message to who knows who?

Are we really so prepared to be that trusting with what Isaiah was trusted with?

Isaiah was called to be an unpopular preacher with an unpopular message.

Despite the enormous risks – that Scripture never really specifically identifies?

For a God no one’s ever personally seen – Jesus will be born in about 800 years.

Isaiah 6:8English Standard Version

Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord

⁸ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”

Just what indescribable magnitude of trust did Isaiah possess in those days?

Just what undeniable magnitude of trust did Isaiah just communicate to God?

Essentially, God instructed Isaiah:

“{consistently, continuously, constantly} Tell your countrymen,
Listen, but the words will go in one ear and out the other.
Look, but you’ll never realize what you’re looking at, never get it.
Your hearts are going to be hard, your ears shut, and your eyes blind.”

Isaiah 6:9-10 ESV

The commentator Matthew Henry wrote of this passage, “there are many who hear the sound of God’s word, but do not feel the power of it.”

There are a few hard lessons for us to be learned here.

For starters, God’s word does not only soften us, it also hardens us.

Those to whom Isaiah was called to speak God’s words to were going to be willfully obstinate and oppositional and therefore hard toward the truth.

Considering such a magnitude of obstinance and opposition, how easy or how hard was it for Isaiah to maintain his covenant promise of unconditional trust?

If this passage of Isaiah were transplanted into 2022, how easy or hard would it be for Isaiah (for us) to maintain his covenant promise of unconditional trust?

What do you think his conversion rate was then?

What do you think or believe his conversion rate would be in 2022?

By our standards today would we hold Isaiah up as a picture of ministerial success or nothing but his wasted time, effort and money and resources?

Or would we declare him irrelevant for the times we are living in and with a brush of our 2022 theology cast him aside as unloving and non-anointed?

What this encounter with God should teach us, is that first and foremost our success should be gauged by our actual unconditional trust and obedience.

Such a magnitude of unquestioning trust and obedience to God will most certainly produce fruit, but we may not always be able to see it right away.

Still, we must ever be unconditionally prepared to fall back into the trusting arms of our Savior Jesus Christ – knowing He WILL always be there to catch us.

Isaiah’s work and message may have seemed to him incessantly grim, and a burden which grew heavier and heavier, more and more impossible to bear.

Our work and message in 2022 are not that much different from Isaiah’s and undoubtedly bear the same magnitude of burden – still we bear it up for God.

Will we be there for each other as God is always there for us in Christ Jesus?

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

Loving Heavenly Father, Author and Solemn Protector of my life. You have loved me with unconditional, immeasurable love. You are love. My life is wide open. I pray that I will be strengthened in my inner being – in my soul – with the love and trust that is wider than I can understand, deeper than I am able to imagine, and greater than I could ever know. As You encourage and embolden me, may I more fully know and trust the mystery of the Gospel as revealed in my life. In the love of Christ, I pray. Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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