Last Wednesday a man in his late 30s called to talk about changing his career. He is a devout Christian, strongly committed to his family, and very active in his church. A couple of years ago he spoke with his pastor about it, but he didn’t feel the urgency then that he feels now. He is experiencing what might be called a holy unrest. He has become more and more involved in the life and work of his church. He has found that the job he trained for and worked successfully in no longer has the luster it had at the beginning. Not only that, the company he is working for may be on the skids. So, he is considering options for the future.
We discussed options he has thought about and why they would or would not work for him. He knows he has to consider his family, location, his educational background, etc. He is considering a field that would involve more training, maybe even seminary and he wanted to know what I thought. More and more people are completing degrees later in life. Some of you know that I completed my Ph.D. when I was in my 40s.
Of course, this man is also asking what God wants of him, but as we all know, it is not always easy to discern. He asked if I have read Oswald Chambers who asks the question “Are you waiting or are you pushing?” This man could push if he decided to. In his management position he has learned how to do that. But he realizes that with God there is value in waiting.
Life’s crises and conundrums can provide significant openings for God to get through to us. In his book Seeing the Invisible, A.B. Simpson wrote, "So faith begins where human hopes and prospects end, and man’s extremity is God’s opportunity."
You may be at a crossroads in your life. You may be stuck in a situation with no obvious way out. It is beyond your control. Be assured that God knows who you are and where you are. He has direction for you. He may not be asking you to change your occupation, but he wants to be sure you understand your vocation. And you have begun at the right place by coming into God’s presence here today.
Our Bible passage helps us to see that in a crisis God can reveal things to us that we never thought likely.
• God can help us see who he is.
• He can help us see who we are.
• He can help us see what he wants us to do.
And Isaiah, the writer of our scripture passage today, was facing a crisis.
This is our second message from Isaiah, the 23rd book in the Old Testament. Last Sunday, from Isaiah 1, we heard that the only course of action for a nation that forgets God is to repent. (1:16,17).
A. Who God is. The very first line of Chapter 6 identifies the crisis Isaiah is up against. Something happened that changed his entire life. The King died. King Uzziah had been king for over 50 years. He had been a good king. We read that "as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper." We know that he expanded trade with other countries. People experienced more prosperity than anyone could remember. He had improved the infrastructure of Judah by building towers, digging cisterns, and supporting agriculture. Here was security. Here was prosperity. This was the only king Isaiah had known. And for Isaiah, a 20-year-old, the future looked secure.
Unfortunately, in the last years of King Uzziah’s life, success and prosperity got to him; he rebelled against God, was smitten with leprosy, and he died. Suddenly, Isaiah’s hopes for a secure life were dashed. He thought the future was bright; but now it was uncertain. He was shocked and disoriented at the death of his king.
For some people 9-11 was like that. In a moment of time, the world changed. It was no longer stable. A clear sky didn’t necessarily mean a nice day.
If you go back to 1963 you get to the assassination of Pres. Kennedy. Sue and I had been in Japan only a few months, teaching English. On the night of JFK’s death, students from the college where I taught rang our doorbell and told us how sorry they were that our president had died. People around the world had great hopes in this 46-year-old president. He had inspired people with the words, "Ask not what your country can do for you; rather, ask what you can do for your country." Jim Bishop in The Day Kennedy was Shot wrote "He had been a fair prince indeed, bringing youth and sophistication and an air of confidence to the throne." When he died, many could not believe it. Russian president Kruschev broke down and wept when he heard it. He wandered around his office for a week like he was in a daze. Who would the world look to for leadership? His death was hard to accept.
The crisis you face may not be of such massive proportions, but research shows that personal crises often trigger a new spiritual sensitivity and dependency upon God. They may have to do with health, work, age, moving, or death. Whatever our crisis may be, we can learn from Isaiah’s experience. First he learned who God is.
Sovereign God. During Isaiah’s crisis, he must have gone to the temple or at least his vision was about being in the temple, to sort things out and to meet God. A political leader was gone. Hope had disappeared. The throne was empty and enemy kings could move in. But wait. No. God came to him in a vision and Isaiah saw that the throne was not empty. Someone was on it. And the vision Isaiah saw was of a throne that was occupied. He saw God on the throne, high and lifted up. Yes, the throne on earth may be empty, but God is on the eternal throne. God is sovereign. And if God is on the throne, then an enemy king can’t rule and terrorists do not have the upper hand. Ps 113:4: "The Lord is high above all nations, and his glory above the heavens."
Holy God. And Isaiah experiences God with his senses as he sees with his eyes the Lord sitting on a throne, hears the voice of the living God, smells the smoke of God’s anger, tastes the burnt coals, and feels the shaking of the temple frame. John writes in 12:41, "Isaiah ...saw God’s glory.” And the overwhelming impression of God that Isaiah experiences is that God is holy. The song of these heavenly beings, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts,” reverberates throughout the temple and it made an indelible impression on Isaiah.. We find the words "The Holy One of Israel" 25 times in Isaiah and only six times in the rest of the Old Testament. Holiness refers to what is separate from all common or ordinary use. God is absolutely distinct from any share in the ordinariness of the world. I Sam 6:20."Who is able to stand before the Lord, this Holy God?" And He is on the throne. He rules heaven and earth. Isaiah had vision of a Holy God. When his world fell apart, he saw God.
When the threat of chaos and failure arrive at your doorstep, what do you see? Do you see everything spinning out of control or do you see a vision of God, a God who rules, a God who is holy? Sometimes we are tempted to turn away from God when things don’t go our way. Don’t let it happen. Isaiah put himself in a place where God could speak to him. In times of crisis, that is what you need.
B. Who we are. Isaiah also learned who he was.
In my phone conversation last week, the man told me, “I’m really not the best expert in my field.” While I’m sure he has done a good job where he is, this whole process has caused him to consider who he is, what his qualifications are. Most of us have been there. You prepare a resume. What do you put on it? It makes you think about who you are. You have heard of people who add things to their resumes they have never done. (I read some inflated resumes when I was head of the department.) Applying for a job makes us think about who we are.
Sinful. We have probably all been in the presence of people who made us wish we were better than we were. Maybe they were stronger or smarter or kinder or more spiritual than we are and we realize how small or insignificant we are compared to them. For Isaiah, his vision of God helped him to see not only how puny he was, but how sinful he was. And he said, “Woe is me!” The Living Bible says, "My doom is sealed, for I am a foul-mouthed sinner." The words “Woe is me,” really mean “Be silent.” He couldn’t join in the praise because of what he was like. What could he say before this holy, righteous, glorious God?
Surrounded by sin. And there is more. It wasn’t only he who needed help. The people around him were cut from the same cloth. His society was saturated with sin. He realized he was no better than they were. He was in the same fix. I remember a line from the first movie of Herbie. A gal in a car was pounding on the window and said to this hippie guy, “Help, I’m a prisoner.” And he said, “We’s all prisoners, Chicky Baby.” And that is the way it is. We all need release from our sin and guilt.
Unworthy. But that is not all. Isaiah knew that anyone who sees God with his eyes would die. And he had just seen God. He had stepped inside the throne room. What would happen to him? He deserved death. And he uttered the cry of a guilty man. If he was going to live, if he was going to be of any use to Almighty God, something had to be done about his sin and guilt. And then it happened.
One of those heavenly beings came to him with a live coal and touched his lips to cleanse him. What an expression of grace. Remember that Isaiah believed that anyone who sees God would die, but God allowed him to live by offering the grace of cleansing. And it’s true for all of us. We would all die eternally, if God didn’t offer his grace to us through Jesus so that we can be cleansed of our sin. When we recognize our sin and unworthiness and ask for his cleansing then we are set free to do the will of God.
Finally, Isaiah got a vision of what God wanted him to do.
C. What God wants us to do
Have you ever received something good you know you didn’t deserve? Maybe you got a better grade than you should have. You knew you hadn’t worked that hard. Maybe you got promoted at your job ahead of schedule. Maybe you got a special price break on something you bought. That was Isaiah’s experience, he didn’t deserve it, but God had changed, cleansed and commissioned him and when God asked who will go, he answered, “Yes.” Isaiah was now ready to be God’s mouthpiece, to take God’s message to God’s people, no matter the cost.
You see, we dare never forget that God is a missionary God. God called Abraham some four thousand years ago and promised not only to bless him and his family, but through his descendants to bless all the families of the earth. His passion for reaching people becomes even clearer when Jesus came. And after his death and his resurrection he commissioned his followers to go to all nations with the Good News and make them his disciples.
Unfortunately, Isaiah had no guarantee that anyone would listen. The people Isaiah was called to speak to had closed their ears. They had closed their eyes. Isaiah could see. Isaiah could hear. But the people he was to speak to could do neither. He knew that and that is why he cried out, “How long?” He would experience not just the fire of cleansing, but the pain of rejection. And that is true for us as well.
Missionaries face the possibility of being misunderstood. Evangelists wrestle with the reality that people they preach to don’t seem to care. Pastors struggle with members who seem eager to commit themselves to all kinds of other things, but when church duties call they make excuses. Sunday school teachers anguish over students who are indifferent. How long should they put up with it? How long should they continue? Until God says it’s enough, until he releases us. The commission God gives is one that lasts until God closes the curtains.
In that sense, then, I want the man I spoke with last week to understand that, yes, his occupation might change. What he does with his hands, his mind, his training, to make a living may change a hundred times, but his vocation, his determination to serve a holy and sovereign God will not. When he was baptized, he committed himself to doing the work of Jesus and to that commitment God has called him to be faithful.
And that goes for everyone of us. I know the Bible says not to look back, but let me suggest that every Sunday when you leave the entrance you look back once more to be reminded that you have entered to worship and you depart to serve. You serve a sovereign God. You serve a holy God. That is your vocation.
Go to the downtrodden. Go to the brokenhearted. Go to the imprisoned. Go in the awareness and in the gratitude that God has called you by his grace.
In some ways, this passage is sad because people did not listen to God’s message. Does it mean that there is no hope, that this work is always up hill? No. Look at the last line. “The holy seed is its stump.” There we see a glimmer of hope. We thought our Sacred Lily of India bulbs were dead, but then late this summer we found a small shoot in our flower bed and small bulbs under them. Here was a sign of new life.
In a few weeks we will celebrate the birth of Christ. Isaiah refers to that prospect as a root out of dry ground. Don’t give up on the work God assigns you. And make sure you are ready to celebrate when the time comes.
