“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!”
~ Isaiah 6:8
Dear James and Ellen,
Do you remember where you were and what you were doing when a devastating incident – such as a natural disaster, a criminal attack or an untimely death, occurred? Your grandmaa and grandpaa are thankful that they have never gotten caught up in a natural disaster. Your grandpaa remembers the day and where he was when he was told that John F. Kennedy had been shot. When your grandpaa on November 22, 1963 went to pick up his paycheck at Forbes Wire and Steel – which is the name of the place where he was working at the time in Wilmington, Delaware, your grandpaa was told that John F. Kennedy had been shot. Your grandmaa had gone with your grandpaa when he went to pick up his paycheck from Forbes Wire and Steel. Your grandmaa’s dad had died from a heart attack just a couple of days earlier. The evening before your grandmaa’s dad had his fatal heart attack, your grandpaa had asked your grandmaa’s dad if he could marry your grandmaa. After your grandpaa left that evening from the house where your grandmaa was living to go to the house where he was staying before he married your grandmaa – which was where Phil Kelleher lived with his grandma, your grandpaa remembers being awakened by Phil’s grandma who told your grandpaa that your grandmaa was on the phone – that she wanted to talk to him. Your grandmaa was having on the morning of September 11, 2001 a chemical physical in a Newark, Delaware clinic as part of the preparation for having hip replacement surgery in Philadelphia – at Rothman Institute, when New York’s Twin Towers had a plane fly into each tower. Your grandmaa at one point asked the doctors who were attending her if talking between them about a plane flying into a building was to make her more nervous during the physical that she was taking.
Do you remember what are in the dreams that you have? Isaiah vividly remembered a vision that he had. Isaiah recounts in his Isaiah Book – in Isaiah 6, having a vision that dramatically changed his life. Isaiah remembers having this vision the year that Uzziah died. Uzziah was through most of his 52 year tenure of reigning over God’s specially chosen guy and gals – the Israelite people group guys and gals, who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem, a godly and powerful king. Uzziah died in 740 B.C. The commission that Isaiah received in a vision from God – as God the Father, preceded Isaiah’s preaching ministry to the guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem. The vision that God – as God the Father, gave in 740 B.C. to Isaiah was an extraordinarily dramatic vision that was filled with heavenly imagery. Isaiah clearly saw in his vision the Lord sitting on a throne in His heavenly temple. Isaish in this same vision saw seraphs – with each seraph having six wings, hovering above the Lord as the Lord sat on His throne in His heavenly temple. The seraphs were covering their faces with two wings, covering their feet with two wings and flying with two wings. Isaiah in this vision could hear the seraphs calling back and forth to each other – saying how holy, holy, holy the Lord Almighty is and that the whole earth is full of the Lord Almighty’s glory. At the sound of the seraphs’ praise to the Lord, Isaiah in this vision saw the doorposts and thresholds of the heavenly temple – where the Lord was sitting on His throne, begin to shake and the heavenly temple begin to fill with smoke. When this vision that Isaiah was having became uncomfortably real to him – as he knew his own uncleanness and the sinfulness of God’s specially chosen guys and gals which he was one, Isaiah was sure that he was facing imminent death because of facing God in this vision. Isaish – instead of being killed in this vision, had one of the seraphs touch his lips with a live coal that the seraph had carried in its hands from the altar to him. After touching Isaiah’s lips with the live coal, the seraph told Isaiah that his guilt had been taken away and that his sins had been atoned. Have you ever had this kind of a dream? Your grandpaa has had some really strange dreams but nothing as bizarre as this dream that Isaiah had.
If you suddenly hear the voice of God – as God the Father, talking to you – even if it is in a dream, what would you do? Isaiah’s response was immediate when he heard God – as God the Father, calling for a volunteer to do His bidding on planet Earth. Isaiah scribed in verse 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!”’ God – as God the Father, through the vision that He gave to Isaiah, told Isaiah to tell His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem that they would never understand what they were hearing from Him and that they would never perceive what they were seeing Him do. God – as God the Father, told Isaiah through the vision that He was giving him that his preaching would make the hearts of His specially chosen guys and gals calloused, their ears dull and their eyes become closed. God – as God the Father, told Isaiah through the vision that He was giving him that He did not want His specially chosen guys and gals turning back to Him and being healed by Him. When Isaiah asked God in his vision how long he would have to preach to His specially chosen guys and gals who were living in the land area of Judah and in the city of Jerusalem, God told Isaiah that He wanted him to keep preaching until every city in the land area of Judah was barren, every field ravaged and every guy and gal sent far away because of having rebelled against Him. What would you do if you heard your pastor preach a sermon notifying you that there is no longer hope for any guy, gal or kid who is living on planet Earth? Would you want to be that Isaiah-like preacher?
Isaiah 6 (895)