These two passages are perhaps two of the most famous passages from the book of Isaiah. The first is often called “Isaiah’s Commission” and relates the story of how Isaiah came into the temple one day and actually had a vision of God sitting upon a throne. In the Old Testament, however, this was NOT a good thing! Because of God’s holiness, if you actually saw God, you’d die. In fact, that’s what Isaiah says, “Woe is me! I am lost … my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” And yet, God surprises Isaiah. Isaiah is not only permitted to see God, but is sent on a mission – to go and tell people the message God gives him.
The bad news (you have to read verses 9-13), is that God tells him that people won’t listen or believe him! But God sends him anyway. God isn’t willing to give up on his people, and in the end, God’s promise will survive even if nobody is willing to listen or believe.
In fact, it’s still like that even towards the end of the book of Isaiah in the second passage (53:1-12). This chapter, describing the “Suffering Servant” of the Lord, is most often read by Christians as a way of understanding how Jesus was the ultimate Servant of the Lord by taking our sins upon himself and suffering in our place. Even so, the chapter begins with the words, “Who has believed what we have heard?” It seems like Isaiah is pointing out that no matter what God does and no matter what God says, people often refuse to hear and refuse to believe.
Yet in the end, God’s faithfulness endures! If human beings could undo God’s plans by their own un-holiness or by walking away or by refusing to believe, we’d be in trouble indeed. But Isaiah’s message is that God never gives up on us. God never stops speaking to us. And in the end, we can depend upon God’s salvation because God is faithful even when we’re not.
Isaiah 6
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the LORD sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. 2Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3And one called to another and said:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory."
4The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. 5And I said: "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
6Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out." 8Then I heard the voice of the LORD saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I; send me!"
Isaiah 53
Who has believed what we have heard?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2For he grew up before him like a young plant,
and like a root out of dry ground;
he had no form or majesty that we should look at him,
nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3He was despised and rejected by others;
a man of suffering and acquainted with infirmity;
and as one from whom others hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him of no account.
4Surely he has borne our infirmities
and carried our diseases;
yet we accounted him stricken,
struck down by God, and afflicted.
5But he was wounded for our transgressions,
crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the punishment that made us whole,
and by his bruises we are healed.
6All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have all turned to our own way,
and the LORD has laid on him
the iniquity of us all.
7He was oppressed, and he was afflicted,
yet he did not open his mouth;
like a lamb that is led to the slaughter,
and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
8By a perversion of justice he was taken away.
Who could have imagined his future?
For he was cut off from the land of the living,
stricken for the transgression of my people.
9They made his grave with the wicked
and his tomb with the rich,
although he had done no violence,
and there was no deceit in his mouth.
10Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him with pain.
When you make his life an offering for sin,
he shall see his offspring, and shall prolong his days;
through him the will of the LORD shall prosper.
11Out of his anguish he shall see light;
he shall find satisfaction through his knowledge.
The righteous one, my servant, shall make many righteous,
and he shall bear their iniquities.
12Therefore I will allot him a portion with the great,
and he shall divide the spoil with the strong;
because he poured out himself to death,
and was numbered with the transgressors;
yet he bore the sin of many,
and made intercession for the transgressors.
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