Wednesday, July 9, 2025 PM

The Lord Speaks in Isaiah’s Vision and Call

Okay, well, let's have a word of prayer, and then we will turn our attention to Isaiah chapter 6. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this evening that you've given to us. Lord, you truly are a good Heavenly Father, blessing us in so many ways.

Lord, we thank you that we can trust you. Thank you that you give us one day at a time to learn how to trust you and to follow in your ways. And I pray that you would increase our appreciation for you, our thankfulness, that you would grow us in our worship, and that you would encourage us by your word tonight.

We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, Isaiah chapter 6, and we're going to be reading verses 8 through 13. Isaiah chapter 6, beginning in verse 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. And he said, Go. And tell this people, keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. 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.

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. The Lord has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

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. Well, so far in Isaiah chapter 6, the Seraphim have spoken.

They have the chorus that they call out to one another. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. And Isaiah has spoken, and he has confessed his sin, and prophesied his doom.

He has said, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the king, the Lord of hosts. And so now, in this passage, verse 8, we have the Lord himself who speaks.

So the Seraphim have spoken. Isaiah has spoken, but now the Lord himself speaks. And we remember his position. We remember his authority. He is the great and high king. He is lifted up in glory and in holiness.

And so now he speaks. But he speaks in a way that we are to understand brings forward all that we've already noted in the first seven verses about his glory, about his power. And we have the right and proper establishment, therefore, of the relationship between the creator and the creature.

This is now that that's been established. Isaiah hears the Lord. God is glorified in authority and holiness in this passage. And man is humbled, shown his need for grace. And that is where God's voice is clearly heard, where God is exalted and man is humbled, where God is glorious and man is given grace.

That is when the word of the Lord is given. That is when the word of the Lord is heard and received and understood. The voice of the Lord goes forth by the prophet in verse 8, telling of Judah's punishment in verses 9 and 10, which accomplishes the Lord's purpose, according to verses 11 and 12.

And all of this makes way for the keeping of his promise that he gives in verse 13. Now, before we get into the particulars of this passage, we need to think about the way that the Lord operates, because this is important for the vast majority of the book of Isaiah, this theme, that the Lord does his work by his word.

The Lord does his work by his word. By his word, he creates and he decreates. He calls to himself and he exiles away. He lifts up and he tears down, all by his word. He does his work by his word. The power of God's word is a major theme in Isaiah, and it's one that Judah needed to be reminded of.

It is one that all mankind should be reminded of. Here are some passages from Isaiah, and I think some of them will be familiar to you. So, Isaiah chapter 30 and verse 21. Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way, walk in it.

Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left. Chapter 40, verse 8. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. Isaiah 46, 10. God declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times things that are not yet done saying.

So, he declares and he says, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Chapter 48, verse 17. Thus says the Lord your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord your God who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way that you should go.

And then he talks about heeding his commandments, following his instructions. And then Isaiah 55, verses 10 through 11. For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth in bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. And so it's important to remember that the whole life of Israel was to be lived by God's word.

I mean, his word is what shaped them into a nation. When he brought them up out of Egypt by his promise and by his word, he took them out into Sinai and what did he give them there? But his word that shaped them in how they were to live in the present and directed everything they were to think about what was yet to come.

Their entire lives were shaped by the word of God. So they were to live by God's word and God's word made sense of their world. God's word made sense of their purpose, their family structures, their calendar, their political arrangements, their worship practices, their daily habits, all of it was defined by God's word.

His word was to dominate their every day in every way. His word was to reign over them and in them. And this is the point of Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 1 through 9. God said, now this is the commandment and these are the statutes and judgments with the Lord your God has commanded to teach you that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess.

So Moses had just given the Ten Commandments again. This is Deuteronomy, the second giving of the law. And God says you're about to cross over the Jordan. You're about to go into the land and here's how you're supposed to live.

That you may fear the Lord your God to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life and that your days may be prolonged.

So fearing the Lord, thinking of him first and thinking of him most goes hand-in-hand with knowing what he has said in his word and following it. And not just you, but your children, not just your children, but your grandchildren and make sure that this is passed along from generation to generation if you want your days to be prolonged in the land.

Verse 3, therefore hear O Israel and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly as the Lord God of your fathers has promised you, a land flowing with milk and honey.

Again, hearing and carefully observing the word of God is essential for Israel to have things go well for them. They will not multiply greatly and enjoy the land if they do not follow the word of God.

Verse 4 is the famous passage in the Old Testament. This is the John 3 16 of the Old Testament of Jewish life. Hear O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one. That is Deuteronomy 6 4. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

And these words, so how does that come forward in the life? These words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.

You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and be as frontlets between your eyes. So no matter what you do with your hands, no matter where you look with your eyes, no matter what you take hold of to possess, and no matter what you think about and desire and set your affections upon, all of it has to be informed by God's word.

And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, meaning everything that I own and the place that I come and go from has to be understood in the light of God's word. And so, this is saying his word has to dominate every day and in every way.

Now, I wanted to go through that because what is the judgment that we just read? God sends his prophet, and what do the prophets do? They preach the word of God. They say, thus saith the Lord. And he's saying this right now to you because you're not listening to what he's already said previously, right?

You've not listened to what he said in Exodus. You've not listened to what he said in Leviticus. You've not listened to what he said in Numbers and Deuteronomy. So, I'm here saying it to you all over again, right?

The prophets came and proclaimed the word of God to the people whose lives, whose blessings, whose continued living in the land was entirely dependent on God's word dominating their thinking and their lives.

Now, the judgment is this. Keep on hearing, but do not understand. Keep on seeing, but do not perceive. Make the heart of this people dull and their ears heavy and shut their eyes. And that's the judgment.

So, for a people whose lives are so defined by the word of God, for God to send a prophet on a mission of judgment of saying, you might be able to pick up sounds with your ears, but you're not going to understand truly what it means.

You're going to be able to see a prophet and he may do some strange things. He may use some stunning visuals and you're going to see that, but you're not going to understand and you're going to watch me keep my part of the covenant and I'm going to bring covenant judgments upon you that were supposed to be signs to tell you to repent.

The unexplainable famine, the strange disease, the influx of mercenaries and foreigners, the great poverty coming upon your land and all of these were signs. All of these are signs according to the old covenant that you all need to repent and you're going to see it all and you're not going to understand and perceive and figure out that these are acts of God calling you to repentance according to his word.

It's an awful judgment then for God's word to bring deafness and blindness to this people, but how long had they already shut their eyes so they didn't have to see? How long had they already stopped up their ears so they didn't have to hear?

It's an awful thing that God would grant the desires of the heart to the rebellious. Now, when we think about that, it is not to be so great a surprise to us that when God sends his salvation, when God sends his salvation, it is the second person of the Godhead, the word who in the beginning was with God and he is God, but he is called the word and the word becomes flesh and tabernacles among men and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, tabernacled among us.

Now, the language that we have in the Gospel of John says the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, this is verse 14, the glory as of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth.

So the word, and we think of word, we think of something that we hear, but we also, John says, we beheld his glory. So not only are we hearing something, we're seeing something.

You see this?

And he is full of grace and truth. John bore witness of him and cried out saying, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me is preferred before me for he was before me and of his fullness we have all received in grace for grace for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten son who was in the bosom of the father, he has declared him back to seeing and hearing. So the judgment that God brings upon Judah was, you're going to hear, but not understand, you're going to see, but not perceive.

The salvation promised in many ways throughout Isaiah and come to bear in the New Testament is none other than God, the word made flesh, and he comes so that sinners see and sinners hear. And not just seeing, but they perceive, not just hearing, but they understand the grace of God comes to bear upon the lives of those who are in sin and then they are saved.

And so the new creation and the new covenant centers on the arrival of God's word. When God's word shows up, he comes in all of authority. He comes as king, he comes as the judge, he comes as the teacher, he comes as the master, he comes as the shepherd, he comes as the bridegroom.

Every single conception of Jesus Christ is one that is expressed in terms of authority. Even in coming as the servant of the Lord. If we read about who the servant is in the Old Testament, is someone who comes with great authority.

And so when we think about who Christ is and the centrality of God's word, our lives are to be lived accordingly. Lived by God, the word revealed in God's word. It is through Christ that we make sense of our world, that we understand our purpose.

Our family structures, our calendar, our political considerations, our worship practices, our daily habits are defined by Jesus Christ,.

God the word.

And everywhere in the scriptures, the father speaks of the son by the spirit, which is why we are so grateful to have them unfailingly delivered to us that we may see and know and follow Christ. And so it is he who is to dominate our every day in every way, because he's the one who reigns over us.

Isaiah’s Cleansed Call and the Trinity in Salvation

Now let's take a look at verse eight particularly and consider the prophet. When he says, 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.

Now, Isaiah has heard and seen a lot already, but now the Lord speaks and there is a call upon him. And the fact that Isaiah, who has identified his corporate guilt with Judah, I dwell among the people of unclean lips and yet God forgives Isaiah, he covers his sin, he atones for his sin.

Isaiah finds himself cleansed and standing right before the holy face of God. And so God speaks and do you see that Isaiah sees and he perceives, that Isaiah hears and he understands? Whereas the people to whom he's being sent will not and will not.

We are reminded of the grace of God in this. Isaiah stood there as guilty as Judah, that was not contested. Isaiah was a guilty man, unclean, sinful before God, but it was by the mercy of God that he now stands clean and forgiven.

And now he hears and understands and sees and perceives. Now, when God says, whom shall I send and who will go for us? What do you find interesting about what the Lord says? We have the first person, singular, and then the first person, plural, and it kind of reminds us of Genesis 1 .26, where God creates man in his own image, but he speaks in the plural as well, in our image, according to our likeness, but also singular, according to the image of God, singular.

Let us make man in our image, right? And so, when we recognize that, we're thrown back to creation, thrown back to consider the purpose of man. We're thinking about the need for man being made in God's image to bring glory to God.

And this question, whom shall I send, who will go for us, is answered by the prophet, and as the prophet goes forth and preaches throughout the book of Isaiah, what are we going to find but redemption and recreation by the Son and the Spirit?

There's a plurality in our salvation. Each person of the Trinity has a special contribution to salvation, but in unison, we are saved by the triune God. And of course, the example is that the Son is the one who took upon flesh for us and for our salvation and died upon the cross.

Not the Father, not the Spirit, right? The Father sent the Son to do this, and the Son pleased the Father, and the Father and the Son sent the Spirit, the gift, and the Spirit, He is our comforter who dwells with us and indwells us today, right?

We know where the Son is, He's at the right hand of the Father, and where is the Spirit? Indwelling the saints. And so we recognize our salvation in a triune fashion, and we have the plurality of God invoked here when the Lord sends out His prophet.

The response of the prophet is simple, here am I, send me. So he desires to send his word, and he seeks a herald to declare it, he seeks a messenger. Now, Isaiah's lips have been recently been cleansed, prime candidate.

So God has saved Isaiah and He's made him fit for this calling, fit for this duty. And so, Isaiah having received this gracious act of God, mercy straight from the altar, he is therefore ready and willing to go forth with this message and mission.

The grace of God not only makes the man ready in nature, but also makes him ready in desire as well. Isaiah has stood before God as a representative of Judah, standing in the place of the nation before God in the throne room, and now he will be sent to the nation as God's representative to them.

As a prophet, he is a mediator of God's truth. Now, what does he say? He's present and accounted for, he's ready and willing to do whatever the task is that the Lord has for him. He stands in that position having been atoned for.

And God by his seraphim has said that your guilt has been taken away, your sin has been atoned for, it's been covered, it's been paid for. And so, Isaiah belongs to the Lord for whatever he wants him to do.

Here we are, purchased by the blood of Christ, accounted for, ready and willing whatever the Lord asks of us. Why did God redeem us? We know the answer to that is for his glory. It's for his glory. And that's why he made us in the first place, it's also why he redeems us, it's why he saves us, it's for his glory.

Made in his image from the beginning, renewed in his image in Christ, we are here for his glory. And so we recognize God as our creator, as our savior, he is in every way our master. Here am I, send me.

We can relate to Isaiah in this. We have that same desire, that same approach as we think about what God has for us. Now, what is it? I don't know. What was the mission, what was the task? Isaiah didn't know, he just says, here am I, send me.

What is it that God has for me to do? I don't know. Where am I going? I don't know. How long is it gonna take? I don't know. But God I know, right? He's the one who has made me. He's the one who has saved me.

My maker, my redeemer, my Lord, my comforter, my father, my friend, I know him. So the answer is yes. I don't know where I'm going, I don't know what it's gonna be about, how long it's gonna be there, but here am I, send me.

And the reason why we can say that with all confidence is because of who God is. Who God is brings us to that point of willingness, whatever God has for us to do. Next time we'll look at verses nine and 10 and following and can think about Isaiah's particular mission to Judah.

Now let's close with the word of prayer. Father, I thank you for the time that you've given us in your word tonight. I pray it's been an encouragement to us to have your word given to us, a word that testifies so brightly of your son Christ.

And we thank you that we can have confidence in you as our Lord to do whatever it is that you're asking us to do. And we thank you that you love us and care for us.

In Jesus' name we pray.