Scripture Daily

Context No. 229 of 4322 · Isaiah

Context · Reflection

Isaiah 6:6-13: in context

6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. 7He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.” 8I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!” 9He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ 10Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.” 11Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without man, the land becomes utterly waste, 12and the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many within the land. 13If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed, as a terebinth, and as an oak whose stump remains when they are cut down, so the holy seed is its stump.”

This is the moment right after Isaiah's vision in the temple, where he saw the Lord high and lifted up and cried out that he was a man of unclean lips among a people of unclean lips. These verses are the answer to that cry and the sending that follows.

The cleansing comes first, and it is gentle. A seraph flies to him with a coal taken from the altar and touches it to his mouth, and says his guilt is taken away and his sin forgiven. Then Isaiah hears God ask, whom shall I send, and who will go for us, and he volunteers before he knows the assignment: here I am, send me. Only after his yes does the job arrive, and it is crushing. Go and speak to people who will hear and not understand, whose hearts will only grow duller under your words, and keep speaking until the cities lie in ruins and the land is emptied of people. When Isaiah asks how long, the answer is, until it is all waste.

It is a call to a lifetime of preaching that will look like failure. Yet the vision does not end in the ashes. When the great tree is felled, a stump is left in the ground, and the last words name it: the holy seed is its stump. Even the total loss keeps something alive underground. What have I already said yes to, or would I still say yes to, if I knew it might look like failure for the whole of my life?

Sources