READING: Isaiah 6-7 – Isaiah’s Commission & The Virgin Conceives

VERSE FOR THE DAY 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!” … “Look! The virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall name him Immanuel.” (Isaiah 6:8, 7:14)

In the year of Uzziah’s death, Isaiah had a vision of the LORD. He said, “The hem of His robe filled the Temple,” as God sat on His throne in the high heavens. Seraphim attended him as they cried to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” Isaiah 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!” One of the seraphim came with a live coal taken from the altar and touched his mouth and said, “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed.” Then he heard the Lord saying, “Whom shall we send?” and Isaiah responded, “Here am I; send me.”

Would that all of God’s servants had lips that were touched with the fire from the altar of God’s mercy!

Isaiah then began his prophetic ministry that ended with his being sawn asunder, probably by Manasseh, the son of Hezekiah. He was told to go speak to people who would not listen. When he asked how long, the LORD replied, “Until cities lie waste without inhabitants until the LORD sends everyone away.”

Chapter seven has one of the most important Messianic prophecies in 7:14. While this had an application to King Ahaz, who was frightened out of his wits by Pekah the son of Remaliah and his cohort Rezin King of Damascus, who was told by Isaiah that when a virgin conceived in the usual way, and the child she had was grown up enough to know to refuse the evil and choose the good, the two kings you dread will be deserted. “And the LORD will bring on your people and on your ancestral house such days as have not come to pass since the day Ephraim departed from Judah – the King of Assyria.”

Ephraim departed from Judah when Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, foolishly said to the people who asked him for relief from the burdens Solomon had put on them, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” At that time the kingdom was divided, with Jeroboam taking ten tribes away from Jerusalem and David’s dynasty. There were wars between the northern and southern kingdoms and invasions of each of these petty kingdoms. But Isaiah said what God would bring on both Judah and Israel would be far worse when the Assyrians would be invited by King Ahaz himself. Israel was taken into captivity within the sixty-five years the LORD had said the northern kingdom would be no more. Ahaz died before this happened. Hezekiah faced Assyria alone.

Ahaz was an evil king; Hezekiah, his son, was the best king since Solomon’s early days.

Hezekiah called on the LORD for help when Assyria came into Judah.

All is better when God reigns.

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PRAY FOR YOURSELF:   

Almighty Father, I pray for my role in the church, that I may be a willing servant of Yours, and that I may be a blessing to others in the church, my family, my neighborhood, and my job. This is my prayer, in Jesus’ holy Name, AMEN!

MY PRAYER FOR YOU (and for me)

Father, I pray for all who read these words that we may hear you say, “Whom shall I send?” and may each of us respond, “Here am I; send me!” and answer the call for workers in Your vineyard! And it is in Jesus’ holy name that I pray, AMEN!