Whom Shall I Send
Isaiah 6:1 – 8
You know I think that many people have scriptures that mean more to us than the others. They are verses that symbolize or define our faith for us. The Spirit just speaks to us differently, more personally in those words more than others. For example, my wife is partial to Jerimiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”. God spoke those words to the nation of Israel when they felt isolated and alone to give them hope. It resonates for her during difficult times.
My Mother was partial to the Beatitudes, part of Jesus’ Sermon on Mound where He describes God like natures that should be in all children of God. “Blessed are the peacemakers”, she would say, “for they shall be the children of God”
With that said I have to be very honest and open with you today because the scripture that we just read is very personal to me. Over the years when I have been at crossroads in my life I have found myself praying the words of Isaiah “Here am I Lord send me” where you want me to go, where you need me to go and I will go.
For me, the need to seek the direction of God goes back many years. I remember the summer before my senior year in high school while attending the state Student Council retreat at Kenyon College in Gambier, as we walked back to the dorm at the end of one evening’s activities I found myself compelled to go into the dark chapel. As entered I heard the voices of some of the other kids whispering in amazement “look he is going in there in the dark”. But there in the dark, with just myself and God was where I wanted and needed to be. This was the first time that I can remember asking God to send me where he wanted me to go. “Father send me” I prayed.
Years later I remember being the primary provider for our young family, our son Jordan would have been about 5. I was unemployed and needing the direction of God to send me to where He wanted and needed me to go. Once again I found myself in another dark sanctuary, this time at our church in Bexley, praying those same words, Father send me where you need me to go, not where I would want to go. Long story short, I believe that lives were changed, maybe even saved by the place that God sent me next.
These are just a few of the examples in my life where I leaned on this scripture to find the humility and strength to rely on God’s intention of where He needed and wanted me to go. But enough of my past, how can this scripture change the lives of others?
The Book of Isaiah begins with him criticizing the wickedness of the nation of Judah and the degenerate city of Jerusalem. As we come to Chapter 6 we see God choosing Isaiah to be His voice to the people Judah with a divine commissioning ceremony for the person who will eventually be called the “greatest Evangelist to Israel.”
In our lesson, Isaiah receives a vision of God seated on His high and exalted heavenly throne. That the train of His robe filled the entire temple was a symbol of total power and authority. Even the seraphim, the angels who minister in God’s very throne room, maintained positions of reverence, covering their eyes and their feet while flying so that they wouldn’t touch or see the holiness of God. They called out to one another saying:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory”
This three-fold emphasis of God’s holiness is meant to be emphatic and profound and conjures up the authority of the divine Trinity. The only right posture for Isaiah, as the seraphim demonstrated, was to bow in worship and exaltation. Deference to the King of Kings was the only thing that made sense.
The very foundations of the room were shaking and the room was being filled with smoke, the same smoke that lead the nation of Israel through the desert, the same smoke rising above the holiest of holies in the tabernacle, smoke symbolizing God’s glory and presence filling the entire place. Isaiah couldn’t take it anymore, being immersed with glory, perfection, and holiness, he cried out,
“Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts”
In the persence of God’s perfection and holiness, Isaiah was overwhelmed by his imperfections and sinfulness. It so frightened him that he thought that he was going to die. He recognized that he was unclean and that his people were unclean. But this was exactly what he needed, to see just how holy and wonderful God is, before he could see his inadequacies and his need for change and sanctification.
Only when we see God for who He really is, can we rightly deal with the true state of our own hearts and our own souls. It is only in the light of God’s glory that we can see our unworthiness of His love and direction. Yet it is through His grace and power that we receive it none the less.
In Isaiah’s case, one of the seraphim, an attending angel, took a burning coal from the altar and touched it to Isaiah’s mouth. The act symbolized the holy cleansing and sanctifying of Isaiah. This encounter with the grace of God was so incredibly relieving and moving that it was something he would never forget and something he was eager to share with his people.
Now up to this point however, God had not yet spoken. Isaiah had only seen the indications of his holiness, his majesty, his transcendence, his power and authority as he was bowed down before him. But then fittingly on Trinity Sunday God, asks the rhetorical question on behalf of the Holy Trinity, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”. Rhetorical questions need no answer, they are statements of declaration, of expected intent. Isaiah is not being asked to “go for us” but rather he has been chosen!
The honor of his selection by the Godhead must have been unimaginable for someone that sees themselves as unworthy of God. Yet Isaiah confirms his choice and willingness immediately and he responds, Father Here I am, Send Me.
Dear ones, God doesn’t force us to serve, but He works in our hearts so that we desire to go for Him. We should come to see within ourselves the attitude that Isaiah possessed, of willingly taking God up on His direct to serve the kingdom of God.
You see we never know what the Father has in mind for us when he chooses us to go where he needs us to go. Most of us will never have to respond to a call to lay down our lives for God and country but some must. Most of us will never here the call to serve as shepherd for a flock in a church, but some do. Most of us will never be asked to leave home and be a missionary somewhere in the world, but some will. But we all will be asked to respond to the call to be a Christian witness in the place that we have been sent. Will you accept that direction and say Here I Am!
Hear the Good News my friends…….
God is always looking for faithful men and women that He can send and empower to accomplish His will and purposes on this earth. As Christians he has given us a commission to be active in making disciples and to teach them everything that He has commanded.
God’s method in building His kingdom is by using willing and obedient servants, people who avail themselves to God’s call upon their lives. For most of us, we will be called to be witnesses to the gospel in our work place, in hospital rooms, in nursing homes, in the home of sick friends, in funeral homes, in the stores and marketplaces, in restaurants, in meeting the needs of strangers and even in our own homes and churches.
When God’s Holy Spirit works in our hearts, minds and souls, convicting us of our sins, failures and shortcomings we, like Isaiah, are left saying, “Woe to me, I am unworthy of the task!” Our sin leaves us alone, afraid and immovable.
But upon the altar of the cross, Jesus’ perfect sacrifice for us assures you and me that “our guilt is taken away and our sin atoned for!” The Holy Spirit touches our heads with the cleansing waters of baptism; our mouths with the bread and the wine, the body and blood of Jesus in Communion; and touches our ears, minds, hearts and souls with His precious life-giving Word bringing us forgiveness and freedom.
For most of us our personal encounter with God will not be as dramatic as Isaiah’s. But for all true believers in Jesus, there will come a time and place where we will have a personal encounter with the Father in which he will ask us to go for him to his people that are in need of feeling the power and righteousness of his presence in their lives just as we have come to feel it and to respond to it.
In 2014 I had an encounter with God, through the voices of three people over three days asking me the same question “is God calling you”. That too was a rhetorical question, a declaration that told me that God had a new place for me to go. He said “my people need you to go and be their shepherd and to guide and counsel them on their journey of faith. Will you go for us?”
Even though I felt and still feel unworthy for the call, I knew and trusted that like Isaiah, God qualifies and sanctifies those that he sends in his place. So as it has always been since my first encounter with the glory of the Father, I answered “Here am I, Send me”.
That answer has led me to this place, in this time, with his people. Friends God is calling to each and every one of us all to be his presence and his purpose to his people. When he asks “Whom shall I send? Who will go for us” are you willing to say Here Am I, Send Me?