Answering God’s Call
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Key Verse: “I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I;
send me.” Selected Scripture: |
ISAIAH WAS ONE OF Israel’s major prophets who lived about seven hundred and fifty years before our Lord Jesus was born. He was moved by the Holy Spirit of God to record certain events that would occur many years in the future. In our key scripture the prophet portrays a future time when, during the present Gospel Age, the earnest followers of our Lord Jesus would gladly answer the call to consecrate their lives to him with the words, ‘Here am I, send me.’
In Isaiah’s prophetic vision of chapter six he includes a description of the glorious throne of our Lord as a temple which has been lifted up and filled with the Lord’s train. It is a heavenly scene as represented by the seraphim, each having six wings. “One cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”—vs. 3
The Israelites were God’s chosen people, and had enjoyed blessed favors in their privileged circumstances. In the wonderful providence God had provided Israel was to be the doorway to this glorious temple scene. If they had been faithful, God would have blessed them abundantly in his grand plan of reconciliation on behalf of the sin-cursed human family. The whole church of God in the future spiritual kingdom could have consisted of the children of Israel.
Due to unfaithfulness the Jewish nation was removed from this special relationship as represented in the shaking of the temple doorposts, and the glorious scene becoming obscured. “The posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.” (vs. 4) The prophet elaborates further, “And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 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 convert, and be healed.” (vss. 9,10) The heart condition of the people of Israel was wrong, to which Jesus later refers.—Matt. 13:14,15
There were those among the Israelites who were faithful to the Lord, and recognized they were “undone.” (vs. 5) Realizing their own unworthiness and sinful condition they humbled themselves before God. Later Gentile converts received an invitation to share in this great work of the kingdom. It is no longer a scene dominated by Israel. The Apostle Peter, commenting about this class, says, “Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.”—I Pet. 2:9
Isaiah, who represents the called-out church of God in the vision, had his lips touched with a live coal from off the altar, making him a man of clean lips or language. This hot coal could have come from the brazen altar where the Atonement Day sacrifices were offered and would symbolize atonement for Isaiah and those he represents. These faithful children of the Most High have, throughout the Gospel Age, gone forth to proclaim the Word of God. As they have done, let us continue to answer God’s call by proclaiming this inspiring Truth.