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Prophet With a Message of Hope
141
Jerusalem suffer a siege that would have resulted in her downfall if
God had not miraculously intervened. The divine protection was
being removed, and Assyrian forces were about to overrun Judah.
[113]
Isaiah Sent When God’s Plans Seemed to Be Failing
But the dangers from outside were not as serious as the dangers
from within. By their apostasy and rebellion the people who should
have been light bearers among the nations were inviting the judg-
ments of God. Many of the evils of the northern kingdom, which
Hosea and Amos had denounced, were fast corrupting Judah. In
their desire for wealth, many people were adding house to house and
field to field. See
Isaiah 5:8
. They perverted justice and showed no
pity to the poor. God declared, “The plunder of the poor is in your
houses.”
Isaiah 3:14
. Even magistrates turned a deaf ear to the cries
of the poor, the widows, and the fatherless. See
Isaiah 10:1, 2
.
With wealth came love of display, drunkenness, and revelry. See
Isaiah 2:11, 12
;
3:16, 18-23
;
5:22, 11, 12
. And idol worship itself no
longer provoked surprise. See
Isaiah 2:8, 9
. The few who remained
true to God were tempted to despair. It seemed as if God’s plan for
Israel was about to fail.
It is not surprising that when Isaiah was called to bear God’s
messages of reproof, he shrank from the responsibility. He knew
he would meet resistance. As he thought of the stubbornness and
unbelief of the people, his task seemed hopeless. Should he in
despair leave Judah undisturbed to their idol worship? Were the
gods of Nineveh to rule the earth in defiance of the God of heaven?
Such thoughts as these were crowding through Isaiah’s mind as
he stood under the portico of the temple. Suddenly there rose up
before him a vision of the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up,
while “the hem of His robe filled the temple.”
Isaiah 6:1
, NRSV. On
each side of the throne the angels united in the solemn invocation,
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His
glory!” until pillar and cedar gate seemed shaken with the sound,
and the house was filled with praise.
Isaiah 6:3
.
Isaiah was overwhelmed with a sense of God’s purity and ho-
liness. “Woe is me!” he cried, “for I am undone! Because I am a
man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean