Isaiah 6:8-10

THE PROPHET SEES THE WORLD Isaiah 6:8-13

a. THE COMMISSION Isaiah 6:8-10

TEXT: Isaiah 6:8-10

8

And 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, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

10

Make the heart of this people fat and make their ears heavy and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again and be healed.

QUERIES

a.

Why does God speak to Himself in the plural? Isaiah 6:8

b.

How does one make another person's heart fat? Isaiah 6:10

c.

Did God hope that the people would not turn and be healed? Isaiah 6:10

PARAPHRASE

Then I heard the Lord asking, Whom shall I send as a messenger to My people? Who will go? And I said, Lord, I-'ll go! Send me. And He said, Yes, go. But tell My people -Though you hear My words repeatedly, you won-'t understand them. Though you watch and watch as I perform My miracles, still you won-'t know what they mean.-' Dull their understanding, close their ears and shut their eyes. I don-'t want them to see or to hear or to understand, or to turn to Me to heal them.

COMMENTS

Isaiah 6:8 WHO WILL GO: Someone must go to the nation with this message that God is still upon His throne. Someone must deliver the message that God is going to shake old institutions and provide the real believers (all believers) with a Heavenly King and a Heavenly Kingdom. Considering the present carnal, materialistic attitudes of the people, the messenger must feel a divine compulsion and be commissioned with a divine commission. God speaks of Himself and to Himself in the plural us referring, undoubtedly, to the triune Godhead. The concept of more than one Person in the Godhead is not absolutely foreign to the Old Testament (Cf. Genesis 1:26 and Proverbs 8 where Wisdom of the Word of God is personified). The word Elohim (God) is always in the plural in the original language of the O.T. And, of course, the O.T. prophets have a great deal to say about the Messiah who will be the incarnation of the Omnipotent God. Isaiah, having been captured mind, heart and will by the divine experience he had just participated in, immediately met the challengeHere am I; send me! No man is ready to do God's special work of preaching His revelation until that man has grasped the holiness of God, his own total in-adequateness and sinfulness, and the magnificent grace of God which cleanses him when he did not deserve it! This is, for all practical purposes, the same experience Saul of Tarsus had which turned him into Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.

Isaiah 6:9-10 TELL THIS PEOPLE. hear what I am saying but. do not understand. What a strange commission. It will appear that Isaiah's ministry is a complete failure. People will hear him but not understand. In fact, the more they hear the more adamant they will be against what they hear. They will become fat hearted, smug, self-satisfied. Their thoughts will be so thoroughly world-oriented they will be deaf and blind to spiritual things. God, using some irony of His own, commands Isaiah to tell the people to continue in this condition. Both Jesus and Paul repeated this characterization of Jews in their own ages (Matthew 13:14-15; Acts 28:26-27). Because Isaiah told them the truth the people would not believe. Truth has the awesome power to harden the one who morally rejects it. The more he told the truth, the more they (the majority) refused to accept it. Noah faced the same attitude in his preaching. Jesus faced it (John 8:39-47). Ezekiel and Jeremiah faced it (Jeremiah 1:17-19; Ezekiel 2:1 to Ezekiel 3:15). How many men would be willing to say, Here am I; send me, today, if they knew that their mission would be as difficult and bereft of any apparent success (as the world measures success)? Yet we all need to renew in our minds the promise of Jesus, the servant is not above his Master. If they rejected Jesus, they will reject the messengers of Jesus. But we are not to become discouraged. God does not measure success like the world measures it. God demands faithfulnessand He, Himself, takes care of the success.

QUIZ

1.

What does the O.T. say about the plurality of Persons in the Godhead?

2.

How did Isaiah's vision prepare him to volunteer for God's service?

3.

What awesome power does truth hold for those who continue to reject it?

4.

Why would Isaiah not need to be concerned with the success of his mission?