ISAIAH 6:8-13
CALLED TO A REWARDLESS MISSION
[John 12:37-43]
The prophet knew that the entire nation needed the same kind of awareness of God and cleansing of sin he had just received. So he responded that he would willingly serve the Lord. Isaiah the prophet volunteered himself to be God’s messenger. However, the message he hears is harsh. Moreover, it is coupled with a command to dull the people’s senses so that they are not able to change their actions and be healed or redeemed.
The effect of unheeded preaching is hardening that leads to destruction. [The implication is that its effect is extended to all the nation that would not heed, even though all did not come and hear.] The proclamation of the Word of God brings either obedience or hardening. There is a point of no return in refusing to obey God’s Word. Israel had reached that point. It had determined to go its own way and it did not matter what God said. They might give lip service to God but obedience from the heart had been lacking for some time.
I. THE COMMISSION TO PROCLAIM, 8-11.
Let’s briefly review verse 8 again. Then 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!
Isaiah heard the need and volunteers to fulfill the call. His response is Send me, that is, Lord, give me commission and full instruction. Send me, and then, no doubt, You will stand by me. It is a great comfort to those whom God sends to know that they go for God, and may therefore speak in His name, as having authority, and be assured that He will uphold and strengthen them.
Upon acceptance of the call the mission command follows beginning in verse 9. And He said, Go, and tell this people: Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.
God takes Isaiah at his word, and here sends him on a strange errand—to foretell the demise of His people and even to ripen them for that ruin—to preach a message from God that if not heeded would bring a hardening of hearts. Yes, they will hear him, but that is all. They will not learn from or heed his message because their hearts had become calloused (hardened) beyond repentance. They will not understand him, meaning, they will not receive any painful conviction, nor apply their mind that they might understand him. They were prejudiced against the true intent and meaning of what he says, and therefore they will not understand him, or pretend they do not.
This hardening of hearts is a type or a foreshadowing of the Jews in the days of the Messiah. They then would obstinately reject the gospel, and therefore be rejected of God. These verses are quoted in part or referred to six times in the New Testament. Jesus quoted part of this verse to explain that Israel in His day could not believe because they would not believe (Matt. 13:10-15; Luke 8:10; John 12:37-43). In spite of the warning of spiritual judgment they hardened their heart against the Christ. Though spiritual judgment makes the least noise, and is usually unobserved, yet of all judgments it is the most dreadful.
Verse 10 tells the effect of Isaiah’s preaching. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, And their eyes dim. Lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed.
Responding as he did in verse 8, Isaiah probably, thought that his serving the Lord would result in the nation’s cleansing. However, the Lord told him His message would not result in positive spiritual response. The people had not listened before and they would not listen now. The Lord did not delight in judging His people, but discipline was necessary because of their disobedience.
In fact the people, on hearing Isaiah’s message, would become even more hardened against the Lord. Their hearts were so distant from God that they simply could not perceive the truth, nor would they respond to the truth. Their eyes, ears, and heart, the faculties for perception and response, would become dulled and apathetic or insensitive.
Instead of his preaching resulting in admission of guilt and a turning to God it would result in a more obstinate refusal to recognize their true need. The turnings to God were too demanding for their liking.
There is no easy gospel. There is no cheap grace, no good word that gives assurances to those who drop by hoping for a quick and comfortable deal. And that leaves in these undiscerning cases only judgment and its terrible consequences. Even the prophetic Word preached by a prophet of God will not compel the free will of man to do what is right in God’s eyes.
The repentance and return of sinners brings spiritual and moral healing of heart, eyes and ears. If they determine not to be made better by the ministry of the Word of the Lord, they will be made worst by it. They will get further and further from repentance and recovery instead of nearer and nearer. God sometimes, in righteous judgment, gives men up to blindness of mind and strong delusions, because they would not receive the truth God proclaimed to them in love (2 Th. 2:10–12).
There are not only inner consequences for rebellion but external consequence that occur in the world at large.
II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF TURNING GOD OFF, 11-12.
Then I said, Lord, how long? And He answered, Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people, And the land is utterly desolate, (12) The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
I can almost imagine Isaiah thinking... ‘now hang on a minute, I though I was going to preach and the people would listen... erm, can I reconsider.’ Isaiah was probably hoping that eventually people would get responsive, so asks, how long will it take?
Yet Isaiah’s responsiveness to the message also implies that he was ready to speak whatever God wanted him to say. He wondered how long he would have to go on delivering a message of judgment to which the people would be callous. The Lord answered that Isaiah was to proclaim the message until His judgment came, that is, till the Babylonian Exile actually occurred and the people were deported from the land (12), thus leaving their ruined cities and desolate fields (v. 11). They had sold out their children’s and grandchildren’s future for the self-gratification of the present.
At times God must destroy a generation before He can continue to work out His purpose of salvation. The people had walked too far along the road of sin and rejection. Since such stubborn rebellion would continue on for generation after generation if not dealt with, God must deal with it in harsh judgment.
Spiritual and inner judgments often bring earthly judgments upon persons and places along with them. This was partially fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians, when the land, being left desolate, enjoyed her seventy years of Sabbaths; but, the foregoing predictions being so expressly applied in the New Testament to the Jews in our Savior’s time, doubtlessly also points to the destruction of that people by the Romans in 70 A.D.
III. CONSOLATION EXTENDED, 13
In 6:13 God explains His plan for a remnant (a holy seed) of faithful believers. Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, And it will again be subject to burning, Like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump.
When would the people listen? Only after they had come to the end and after enduring their punishment turned in humility to God. This would happen when the land was destroyed by invading armies and the people taken into captivity. Though Isaiah did not live that long, God meant he should keep on preaching even if he did live to see Judah’s downfall and recovery.
Isaiah, perhaps discouraged by such a negative response and terrible results, was then assured by the Lord that not all was lost. A remnant would be left. The tenth that remained in the land (v. 13) refers to the poor who were left in Judah by Nebuchadnezzar (2 Kings 24:14) after captivity (most of them were laid waste, Jer. 41:10-18; 43:4-7), or those who returned from Babylon to rebuild the land. (Each group was about a tenth of the total population.)
God compared the remnant to stumps of terebinth and oak trees. From this stump or holy seed a believing remnant would remain and others would come to believe. Though Judah’s population would be almost totally wiped out or exiled, God promised to preserve a small number of believers in the land.
At the dark moment in Israel’s history, when its hardening and destruction are pronounced without possible relief, we still find the light of God’s forgiveness. Hope is always God’s last word. A remnant is God’s way of bringing salvation even in the face of judgment.
[Though far the greater part should perish in their unbelief, yet to some his word should be a savor of life unto life. Ministers do not wholly lose their labor if they be but instrumental to save one poor soul.]
When will we listen to God? Must we like Judah, go through calamities before we will listen to God’s Words? We could ask that question of America, but since America is not here, I ask it of you. When will we listen to God? Consider what God may be telling you, and obey Him before time runs out and you too no longer obey His Word.
CONCLUSION
Without repentance things go from bad to worse. It is one thing to receive a calling from God when you know people are going to listen and repent, but Isaiah is told that instead the people will ignore him and the land will be left in ruins, only a few will survive.
Even though Isaiah’s calling was a miserable one, he still accepts it and is faithful to it. [Although Isaiah has to prophecy the destruction of the people, he is also used mightily by God. It is Isaiah who prophecies that Cyrus, a Persian ruler, will come to reign, over a hundred years later, and will rebuild Jerusalem. Josephus, the historian, actually records that Cyrus was shown Isaiah’s prophecy, and it was that that caused him to order the restoration of Jerusalem to begin. ]
A young MISSIONARY IN Central America was tempted to give up. He wrote to friends and family; "I go about on fishing boats through the day. At night I sleep on piles of hides on the deck. The people do not seem to be interested in the gospel message I bring. Sometimes the adversary tempts me to discouragement, in the face of seeming lack of success." Then he added, "I take courage and press on anew as I remember that God does not hold me responsible for success but for faithfulness.
The prophet Isaiah also may have been tempted to give up his difficult assignment. The Lord told him that the result of his efforts would be that the people would hear but not understand, and see but not perceive (Isaiah 6:9). Their hearts would be dull, their ears heavy, and their eyes shut (v.10).
Put yourself in the shoes of Isaiah or that missionary. Would you have pressed on or given up? Is faithfulness enough, or do you think your work must be recognized as successful before you feel satisfied in serving the Lord?
The prophet and the missionary did what God asked them to do. They preached God’s Word and trusted in His purposes. You too can be a faithful servant. Do your best and leave the results in the hands of the Lord.
Oh, let us be faithful to Jesus,
The faith we confessed let’s renew,
And ask Him this question each morning:
"Lord, what will You have me to do?" -Pangborn
We can gain encouragement from Isaiah’s faithfulness and God’s promise to preserve His people. If we are faithful to Him we can be sure He will be faithful to us. The world crowns success. God crowns faithfulness.
