The Call of God
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).
Many people today wonder if they can hear the call of God. Does God actually call people today, as He called the prophet Isaiah, and others in the Scriptures? There seems to be a great distance between us and the stories in the Bible. The people in the Bible seemed so close to God, as if heaven itself were just barely separated from their world and could come breaking through at any time. We might read the Scriptures and conclude that visions, miracles, and the voice of the Almighty were happening nearly every day, to everyone. On the other hand, in our modern world, God seems distant and remote. Yet we still reach out for something of God that we can experience for ourselves. Of course there are those people who do not reach out for God and who may question His very existence. There are even those who claim to believe the Bible, and study it rather diligently, yet who disbelieve any direct involvement of God in our lives today. God used to do those things, they say, back then, but He has since gone mute and no longer speaks to us today. The Age of Signs and Wonders has passed away, they claim with much conviction and authority. But we have to ask why the things that have been written in Scripture have been put there for us, if not to show us something about God that will always be true. God does not change. The Bible does not show us a God who is distant. He is always there, even when we cannot see. Isaiah the prophet saw the veil lifted from his eyes so that He could see the glory of the God of Israel.
God’s call often comes during difficult times. The prophet Isaiah saw this vision of God at a difficult moment in the history of God’s people. The people of Israel were divided kingdoms and were facing the rise of powerful empires, like Assyria and then Babylonia, who would swallow up all other nations. King Uzziah had just died when Isaiah saw His vision of the Lord. Uzziah had been a progressive king and the people of Judah, with their capital in David’s city of Jerusalem, had prospered during his long reign (See 2 Chron. 26). But in spite of the long reign of Uzziah and all of his seemingly successful projects, the spiritual life of the nation was continuing to deteriorate. God was about to do something to judge the people for their ongoing sins of idolatry and unfaithfulness to the covenant He had made with the nation of Israel. God called Isaiah to announce the beginning of the period of captivity. Isaiah received this call at the end of a period of hope and prosperity under King Uzziah. But the future looked dark as the storm clouds of God’s judgment began to gather. Every generation has its good times as well as challenging periods. This generation, I believe, is much like the generation in which Isaiah lived. We have been enjoying some years of peace and prosperity that may be giving way to a period of trouble and perhaps even Divine judgment. God does not call His servants only during the times of peace and relative ease. God may have a difficult work to do during dark times!
God calls us to first see His glory. Before receiving his prophetic calling, Isaiah saw a vision of God!
“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 (Isaiah 6.1-4).
It is no accident that when Isaiah saw the Lord, He was seated on a throne. Uzziah the king had died, but the true King of Israel, and the ruler of the whole earth, was not dead! When the people of God had been in captivity for many years, everything Isaiah would prophesy coming to pass, the prophet Daniel would also see God seated on His throne in glory (See Daniel 7.9-10). Centuries later the heavens were opened to the Apostle John and he also saw a throne in heaven (Revelation 4-5). This throne is the central fact of all reality. God is always seated on His throne, ruling over this world and all of its inhabitants. We must also see this throne, if only through the eyes of faith. Were we able to peel back the veil separating heaven and earth, we would still see this Throne, and the One seated there! God first means to have us see that He is really in charge of everything. Our knowledge of God must begin at His Throne. Much of our anxiety and doubt in life comes from a failure to see clearly the glory of God.
The call of God will make us uncomfortable. Isaiah was immediately confronted with the holiness of God.
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.” (Isaiah 6.5)
Isaiah saw this vision of the Lord in the Temple, probably because he was a priest serving there in the Temple Solomon had built. The Temple was a larger version of the Tabernacle that God had commanded Moses to build. The Tabernacle and the Temple were built to remind the people of Israel of the holiness of God. Because God is holy He is completely separate from sin. Anyone who would approach the presence of God, as the priests were called to do, had to be holy. God had commanded the priests to wash themselves and to present the blood of animal sacrifices. Only once a year, on the Day of Atonement, did the High Priest go behind the veil into the Most Holy Place where the Ark of the Covenant was kept hidden – the very seat of the presence of God. But I do not think even the High Priest saw what Isaiah saw! In the presence of God there is always an awareness of God’s holiness and of our unworthiness. Isaiah probably thought he was a dead man because he had seen the Lord and he knew he did not deserve such a vision. God’s presence and call will make us feel a sense of unworthiness because there is no one who is righteous and holy before God.
But this feeling of unworthiness is not the end of God’s dealing with us, as it was not the end of Isaiah’s experience in the presence of the Lord:
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.” Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me” (Isaiah 6.6-8).
In the presence of God there is mercy. In Isaiah’s time this mercy was provided through the altar of sacrifice where atonement for sin was made with the blood of bulls and goats. But these sacrifices all pointed to the one sacrifice of Christ, who has taken away our sin with His own blood. There is a way for us to stand in the presence of God having been completely cleansed from all sin. God’s call includes the provision of forgiveness and salvation from all sin. And this complete salvation will also sanctify us and make us willing participants in God’s purpose. Those who know they have been cleansed will also offer their bodies as living sacrifices (Romans 12.1-2), saying “Here am I! Send me!”
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