How Long, O Lord?
Opening Prayer
Show me, Lord, the whole earth full of Your glory. Keep this vision before my eyes.
Read ISAIAH 6:1–13
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8 Then 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!”
9 He said, “Go and tell this people:
“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
11 Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”
And he answered:
“Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12 until the Lord has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
13 And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
“Isaiah saw a vision of God that absolutely overwhelmed him. Most of all he saw two things: God’s utter majesty and his own sinfulness” (Bryan E. Beyer).
Think Further
I read this short chapter twice slowly and then I allow myself to sit silently, my mind like an old photographic plate in utter stillness, overwhelmed by the majesty of what Isaiah saw and by the enormity of what he was called to do. Compared with the 37,000 words in his book, Isaiah has very little to say in this chapter. His Fellowship of the Burnt Lips is open for me to join as well.
Isaiah responds to God’s call and then (observing the TNIV punctuation very exactly) it would appear that verse 9 is his message and verse 10 is God’s explanation. The appalling contradiction is that he is “told to be a prophet in order to thwart and defeat the essential purpose of being a prophet” (Abraham Joshua Heschel, 1907–1972). His dilemma is that there is “no way of saving the sinner but by the very truth whose rejection will condemn him utterly” (Derek Kidner, 1913–2008). Six times in the New Testament this passage is alluded to or quoted, to the same effect: If I turn out the light, I cannot complain of being in the dark. Isaiah’s astounding reply to this commission is to ask for how long he is to continue (as he did for decades).
The chapter concludes with 90 percent devastation, with a further devastation of the remaining 10 percent—but from the shattered stump there is a shoot. We will meet this shoot again very shortly. The rest of Isaiah’s book develops this counterpoint of storm and shine. The prophet, like the preacher, stands on the crossroads between heaven and hell. He is not an entertainer. “The prophet’s word is a scream in the night. While the world is at ease and asleep, the prophet feels the blast from heaven” (Abraham Joshua Heschel).
Apply
How is your experience of God like Isaiah’s? Are you willing to serve anywhere, anytime?
Closing prayer
Deliver me, dear Lord, from presumption and from despair, the two forms of hopelessness. Give me, dear Lord, constancy and unwearying steadiness in walking the high, hard path of hopefulness.
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