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Isaiah, Paul of the Old Testament (2 of 10)

Focus Text: Isaiah 55.7-11

Citing the third paragraph of yesterday’s message - Isaiah’s “call” went like this: “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!’ And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: ‘Woe is me, for I am undone! Because 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 live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.’” (Isaiah 6.1-7).

We took note of the fact that Isaiah was humble and as such a man who recognized his limitations. However, we can also deduce something else of his character from his call. Notice that in the vision, one of the seraphim flew to Isaiah with a live coal in his hand and touched his lips. This symbolism was directly connected to Isaiah’s response to his call, the portion of the response where he said, “I am a man of unclean lips.” After touching Isaiah’s mouth, the heavenly messenger said, “Behold this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away and your sin is purged.” The other fact that we can deduce from these matters is that Isaiah was a contrite man, a prophet with a penitent heart. We know this because in any and every age, repentance has always been a part of God’s formula for forgiveness. Had Isaiah not been of such a heart, God could not have used him as He did and certainly forgiveness would not have been symbolized as it was in this vision.

Isaiah knew the power of repentance in response to God’s word. He wrote, “Let the wicked forsake his way, And the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, And He will have mercy on him; And to our God, For He will abundantly pardon. ‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ says the LORD. ‘For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.’” (Isaiah 55.7-11).

Man’s need for repentance and God’s longsuffering and forgiving nature were all part and parcel of Isaiah’s call and his subsequent ministry. As we used to say in Alabama, Isaiah knew he had a “hard row to hoe!” However, he also knew that the message of forgiveness was a timeless message that could reach even the hardest of hearts; it had reached his and he depended upon that same message to positively affect his hearers. This is a timeless example for all teachers!

Questions:

1. What is a seraphim?

2. How do we know that Isaiah was of a contrite heart?

3. From the focus text, what confidence did Isaiah have in God’s word?

4. What connection was there between God’s word and the need for repentance as indicated in the focus text?

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