Devotion:
For an audio version of this devotion, click here.
Read Isaiah 6:8-10.
God’s instructions here to Isaiah are hard for us to hear and even harder to believe! We often read verse 8 with God’s call for a prophet and Isaiah’s beautiful response, “Here I am. Send me!” and stop. Verses 9 and 10 have God telling Isaiah to go to the people with words they will not understand, because they are not to repent. What? That seems totally out of character for the God we love and worship. The sad truth is that it was too late for repentance for the Southern Kingdom of Judah. God had reached out to the people, sending other prophets in an attempt to lead the people to repentance. They had not listened, and now God was preparing to punish them.
We think of the writings of Isaiah as words of hope, and indeed they are. But the hope will come with restoration after the punishment, the exile to Babylon. If we continue reading in Chapter 6, we see God saying to Isaiah that, like great felled trees whose seeds are in the stumps, the hope for the people will be in the aftermath of their punishment. God is pointing out a great divide here between the rebellious people to whom Isaiah will speak and the faithful remnant whom God will later restore.
Personal Worship Option:
Pray today that we will listen, as the church, for God’s will for us and the way we are to live and serve in our world. Pray also that each of us will be among those who obey God and live according to the way of Christ.
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