by T. Austin-Sparks
Reading: Isaiah 6:1-12.
"The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: [but] Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country [is] desolate, your cities [are] burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and [it is] desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, [and] we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?"
This is a familiar portion, yet it has a message; the power and fullness of which may never have reached our hearts.
May the Lord call us to a full realisation to see and distinguish the particular issue which is bound up with this portion of Scripture so often used as an introduction to worship and made relative to worship, and often to services - particularly to what is called "missionary service". Neither of these in themselves are the subject of this chapter, they may be relevant, but they are not primary.
The whole question in this chapter is HOLINESS, everything else is set within that and has no place apart from holiness; worship and service are governed by that. The governing factor is holiness.
The conditions surrounding the prophet were very unholy. It was a state of things which was fast heading up to imminent judgment. While other nations and people were brought into the range of judgment specifically, it was to the Lord's people in general. Judgment was to begin in the house of God.
It is very important to remember this. We think of judgment on nations and sinners, but it begins at the house of God. Judgment was imminent, it was hastening on because of the advanced state of unholiness.
What comes in with Isaiah 6? The Lord seeking to secure for Himself an instrument to stand over against that judgment, as outside of it, and proclaiming it, warning, entreating, as representing His mind in contra-distinction to the state of things as they were. Isaiah is that instrument here.
Before going on we can point out that that is God's method continually and ever, right on to the end. Always when a condition contrary to the mind of God is reaching a point which necessitated movement of God in judgment, God has procured an instrument to warn and proclaim against it, but also to embody God's thought about the state of things so utterly contrary, but which has been lost sight of in a more general realm.
I believe this is such a time as that; there is an advanced stage on earth heading right up to judgment, and I believe the judgment is going to begin at the house of God, and before long people who bear the Lord's Name will have to stand and account for the trust deposited with them. In the meantime the Lord would have an instrument, a vessel which will stand with Him over against the course of things, and the inevitable issue. So we see that prophecy is a spiritual faculty; therefore it is not an office, but a spiritual function. What the Lord must have in a day of darkness heading for judgment is a vessel with spiritual understanding; the prophetic element. Isaiah was called for this, and we see what is necessary - separation.
"The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, [and] Hezekiah, kings of Judah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth: for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: [but] Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward. Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even unto the head [there is] no soundness in it; [but] wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country [is] desolate, your cities [are] burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and [it is] desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, [and] we should have been like unto Gomorrah. Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose [is] the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts?"
This is a familiar portion, yet it has a message; the power and fullness of which may never have reached our hearts.
May the Lord call us to a full realisation to see and distinguish the particular issue which is bound up with this portion of Scripture so often used as an introduction to worship and made relative to worship, and often to services - particularly to what is called "missionary service". Neither of these in themselves are the subject of this chapter, they may be relevant, but they are not primary.
The whole question in this chapter is HOLINESS, everything else is set within that and has no place apart from holiness; worship and service are governed by that. The governing factor is holiness.
The conditions surrounding the prophet were very unholy. It was a state of things which was fast heading up to imminent judgment. While other nations and people were brought into the range of judgment specifically, it was to the Lord's people in general. Judgment was to begin in the house of God.
It is very important to remember this. We think of judgment on nations and sinners, but it begins at the house of God. Judgment was imminent, it was hastening on because of the advanced state of unholiness.
What comes in with Isaiah 6? The Lord seeking to secure for Himself an instrument to stand over against that judgment, as outside of it, and proclaiming it, warning, entreating, as representing His mind in contra-distinction to the state of things as they were. Isaiah is that instrument here.
Before going on we can point out that that is God's method continually and ever, right on to the end. Always when a condition contrary to the mind of God is reaching a point which necessitated movement of God in judgment, God has procured an instrument to warn and proclaim against it, but also to embody God's thought about the state of things so utterly contrary, but which has been lost sight of in a more general realm.
I believe this is such a time as that; there is an advanced stage on earth heading right up to judgment, and I believe the judgment is going to begin at the house of God, and before long people who bear the Lord's Name will have to stand and account for the trust deposited with them. In the meantime the Lord would have an instrument, a vessel which will stand with Him over against the course of things, and the inevitable issue. So we see that prophecy is a spiritual faculty; therefore it is not an office, but a spiritual function. What the Lord must have in a day of darkness heading for judgment is a vessel with spiritual understanding; the prophetic element. Isaiah was called for this, and we see what is necessary - separation.
