Call to Commitment

Remember: We will not be writing the whole portion of Scripture in the article, so you will have to have your Bible open and follow along, as I attempt an expository lesson. 

8. An expository study of Isaiah, chapter 6

I wonder if Isaiah had any idea how many people in all the world and at different times would read and marvel at this account of his calling. It is probably the chapter of this book that is most preached, only exceeded by chapter 53. It is the personal testimony of the calling from the Almighty that began his prophetic ministry. His calling was timely, necessary and purposeful.

Men disappoint us

He was being prepared during the long reign of King Uzziah, which was for the most part good. As happens in the case of so many who taste the blessing of God and experience success, Uzziah became proud and thought himself indispensable. He took the responsibility out of God’s hands and went beyond his limitations. He was not the only king, who attempted to presume the duties of a priest. Israel’s first king, Saul, made that fatal error and immediately lost favor with God. The road of self-importance is a dangerous one to take. Uzziah became a leper, was placed in quarantine and his son took on the administrative responsibilities.

…And he died, like the poor mortal being that he was. Show us, Isaiah, the true picture of our life and end every one, and help us, oh God, not to forget: “All flesh is grass and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades” (40:6, 7). In the year of Uzziah’s death, God raised up Isaiah, to bring the necessary word from God, a living word that accomplished His purposes for Israel in that day and continues over the centuries to this day. This is the word that was so honored by Jesus and His apostle, Paul. It was the one book that was preserved in its entirety in a cave above the Dead Sea for over 20 centuries.

7. An expository study of Isaiah, chapter 5:17-30

It would seem that the Lord is a good deal gentler in judgment with Israel, than He is with pagan world powers. A little later in Isaiah (13:20-22), in the destruction of Babylon, for example, it is depicted as a place totally uninhabited forever. Not even shepherds will use it as a place to rest their flock, never mind to feed them. The nomadic Arabian would not stop to pitch his tent. Instead, it would be a place, where wild desert creatures, owls, ostriches, hyenas, and jackals would make their caves and nests undisturbed. In another example, the Lord, through Ezekiel, said of Tyre, “I will scrape her debris from her and make her a bare rock… and you will never be found again” (Ez.26:4,21).

However with Israel, God, in judgment, remembers mercy. The Lord will be exalted and men will be abased, and where the rich possessed the lands, the lambs would graze and the nomad would eat (v.17). What once was regulated by the rich landowner, has now become pastures for open grazing. It is quite a contrast with the total destruction of other countries. To this day, 250,000 Arabic Bedouins pitch their tents and feed their flocks in the open fields of Israel.

Remember: We will not be writing the whole portion of Scripture in the article, so you will have to have your Bible open and follow along, as I attempt an expository lesson.

6. An expository study of Isaiah, chapter 5:1-16

This message is sung by the prophet. Intimate love between God and His people is the theme of the entire revelation of God in the Bible. Isaiah, the prophet, sings to his well-beloved source of inspiration in this “Gospel of Isaiah” (v.1). John, the beloved disciple, wrote his Gospel of intimacy (“I have called you friends,” John heard Jesus say), based on the word that he found in the Old Testament. He learned it from Isaiah and the Psalmist, from the Song of Solomon, from the beloved Daniel, from Abraham, the friend of God (Is.41:8), and from Moses, whom God spoke to, “just as a man speaks with his friend” (Ex.33:11). What John personally experienced of the holy love of God, from being at the Savior’s side, had already been declared in the sacred Scriptures. It was the purpose of creation.

Isaiah receives from the Lord and he ministers to the Lord in song. It reminds me of Psalms 45, which is called A Song of Love: “My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my verses to the King…” The heart of the Psalmist overflows, as God fills it with revelation concerning the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. What the Lord gives him, he returns to the King. In the primitive church, their primary purpose was to minister to the Lord (Ac.13:1), and from that intimacy, the church was edified and ministry flowed out to the world.