Back to Isaiah, we come to chapter 6 which contains the well-known call to Isaiah:

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” (Isaiah 6.8, ESV)

There’s a lot packed into the chapter. It starts:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6.1 – 4, ESV)

“In the year King Uzziah died.” Isaiah 1 opens with a list of kings Isaiah served under, beginning with Uzziah, one of the good ones. He was good…until he wasn’t. This blog on Mentoring tells his story. So his death would have been a sobering event for Isaiah. He goes into the Temple where three things happen:

• Isaiah saw the Lord (1 – 4)
• Isaiah saw himself and confessed sin, receiving absolution

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”(Isaiah 6.5 – 7, ESV)

• Isaiah responds to God’s call (8)

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” (Isaiah 6.8, ESV)

So Isaiah was sent…to fail:

And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”

Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. (Isaiah 6.9 – 12, ESV)

Isaiah’s ministry to the masses failed, but his real ministry was to “the remnant.” Please read The Remnant blog in its entirety. It refers to an incredible (secular) essay from 1936 which contains this description of Isaiah’s ministry:

In the year of Uzziah’s death, the Lord commissioned the prophet to go out and warn the people of the wrath to come. “Tell them what a worthless lot they are.” He said, “Tell them what is wrong, and why and what is going to happen unless they have a change of heart and straighten up. Don’t mince matters. Make it clear that they are positively down to their last chance. Give it to them good and strong and keep on giving it to them. I suppose perhaps I ought to tell you,” He added, “that it won’t do any good. The official class and their intelligentsia will turn up their noses at you and the masses will not even listen. They will all keep on in their own ways until they carry everything down to destruction, and you will probably be lucky if you get out with your life.”

…There is a Remnant there that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and braced up because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society; and meanwhile, your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the Remnant, so be off now and set about it.” – Albert Nock, Isaiah’s Job, published in Atlantic Monthly in 1936.

In the meantime, this introduction to Isaiah’s ministry contains a useful template for our daily times with God:

• See God
• See yourself, confess, and receive forgiveness
• Receive God’s marching orders.

My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD; In the morning I will direct it to You, And I will look up. (Psalm 5.3, NKJV)