| Just a Thought! |
Just a Thought! is a weekly devotional sent out each Monday to stir your thinking about the things of God.
Below is a sample of a previous devotional sent out in the past year.
Subscribe here to receive it weekly in your mailbox.
"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!" He said, "Go and tell this people: 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'"" (Isaiah 6:8-9).
If the sight that Isaiah saw in the first seven verses was not grand enough, the Lord now gives him the opportunity of a lifetime. An opportunity that many people throughout the millennia have only dreamed about – to hear the voice of God.
Then I heard the voice of the Lord
The Hebrew word for "heard" used here is not just a casual hearing like you would hear the manager's voice at your local supermarket making a staff announcement. You know it is there and that something is being said, but you ignore it. The word here means to hear intelligently, often with the implication of obedience. Isaiah understood that when God spoke, it was not something to be taken lightly, or just cool to hear, it was something that needed to be listened to intelligently and then obeyed.
We have no idea what the audible voice of God is like, but we do know that He still speaks to us today through His Word, the Bible. And, like the audible voice of God that Isaiah heard, the written word of God is also something to be "heard" intelligently and obeyed.
Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?
These were not questions that God needed to have answered by someone else, but were rhetorical questions that He already knew the answers to. However, He wanted Isaiah to give the answers himself, not for God's sake, but for Isaiah's and the later readers of this text. God asks us questions today too and even though He already knows the answers, He still wants us to answer them ourselves.
An interesting thing to note here is that Isaiah has worded the second question in the plural, "Who will go for us?" Isaiah recognised that God is plural in His being, yet singular in His desire and will. Jesus confirmed this fact Himself when He was on earth, when He stated that He and the Father are one (see John 10:30). Therefore we can rest in the fact that it is not only Jesus that desires something for us, but the Trinity as a whole. The desires of the Father for our lives is the same as those of Jesus, which are the same as those of the Holy Spirit. With the Trinity on our side, who can resist, and who can stand against us when we do the will of God?
Here am I. Send me.
Have you ever been in a situation where it felt like your boss was overlooking you and not giving you the project that you thought you were capable of doing? The boss goes around the office asking everyone else to take on a project and ignores you, and deep down inside you are feeling as though the boss does not appreciate you or your work? Then you pluck up the courage to say something, the boss relents and gives you a project, and you go out of your way to make it the best work you have ever done?
I think in a way this expresses the emotions here with Isaiah. He knew that God had everything in control and knew who He would send, but I think in a way Isaiah wanted to make sure that God knew how he felt – that he was willing to do the will of the Lord. Isaiah was making a wholehearted commitment to the work of the Lord. If you follow the life of Isaiah after this point, you can certainly see that to be the case.
When you answer the call of God on your life, are you wholeheartedly committed to that work? Do you go about the work with the attitude expressed by Paul in Colossians, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men" (3:23).
The Commission
The rest of Isaiah 6 goes on to deal with Isaiah's commission from God. For each of us, our specific callings and purpose in life may differ, but at the end of the day, we are to recognise where that calling comes from. It comes from God who is highly exalted, seated on His throne and in control. From God who is holy, holy, holy, and whose glory fills the whole earth. Are you doing the work of God wholeheartedly and for His glory?
Just a Thought!
© 2009