JULY 15 ISAIAH 5-8

Isaiah 5-8



There are lots of old jokes floating around about serving the Lord. Perhaps you’ve heard some of them:



The farmer calls out to the preacher in the coffee shop, “Hey, Preacher, I wish I had your job.” “Why’s that?” the preacher asks innocently. “Well, you only work one hour a week!”




Then there’s the young seminarian, who says to his wife, “Honey, I think I’m hearing a call from God.” “Where to?” his wife asks. “Hawaii.”



The truth is, of course, that the call of God is seldom cushy and never easy. God called Moses, and he faced forty years of stress and stubborn people. God tapped out David; then, after killing Goliath, went to work for a king tried to kill him. When Jesus re-instated Peter, he told him “by what kind of death he was to glorify God” (John 21:19). And here’s what God said to Ananias about the future apostle He had just blinded, “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my Name” (Acts 9:16). Nobody said that ministry was a bowl of cherries.



Now it’s time for Isaiah’s call. First, Isaiah 5 completes the description of how morally bereft God’s people had grown. When I count the number of times I see the word “Woe!” in Isaiah 3 and 5, I find seven, the number of “perfection.” This is to say that things were perfectly awful in Israel.

Finally, in chapter 6, Isaiah shares his testimony. Uzziah was a half-way decent king, as Judah’s kings go. The year he died, Isaiah was worshipping in the temple when God gave him a vision of the heavenly throne. “Holy, holy, holy,” cried the angelic beings attending God. Isaiah’s response was shame and horror; “Woe is me; I am lost; I am a man of unclean lips...” (6:5) Isaiah humbled himself before the Lord, and the Lord responded with grace. One of the angels flew to Isaiah with a hot coal from under the altar, touched it to Isaiah’s lips and pronounced him clean! Then God said, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for me?” (6:9) and Isaiah responds famously, “Here am I! Send me!” End of story...usually.



Seldom do preachers go on to describe what God was calling Isaiah to do. I dare you to read Isaiah 6:9-13 and ask yourself: “What would I say to that assignment?”



In chapters 7-8, Isaiah describes his first approaches to the King Ahaz, Uzziah’s grandson.  Much of this is confusing without a good commentary, but notice the harsh words Isaiah must say in 7:18-25 and 8:5-10.  Yet, sprinkled amid these words are words of hope that peer into God’s future messianic blessing:



In Isaiah 7:14, he promises that “a virgin will conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name, Immanuel.” Matthew does not hesitate to see this as Jesus! (Matt. 1:23)



In Isaiah 8:14, he says that the Lord will become “a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling.” Peter applies words to those who refuse Christ (1 Peter 2:8).



Tomorrow, we’ll find even more prophetic peeks at the Messiah, Jesus!



Your fellow traveler through the Word,

Pastor Gary