Isaiah's Call and Ministry

September 7, 2025 Background Scripture: Isaiah 6:1 – 13; 7:1 – 7; 20:1 – 6; 38:1 -22 Lesson Passage: Isaiah 6:1 - 8; 38: 1 - 5 Isaiah is considered the greatest of the writing prophets. The volume of his writing is more than the others. The timespan covered by his writing is greater than the others. The Book of Isaiah is sometimes considered a miniature version of the bible. The bible contains sixty-six books, thirty-nine in the Old Testament and twenty-seven in the New Testament. The Book of Isaiah contains sixty-six chapters. The first thirty-nine chapters seem distinctly different from the last twenty-seven chapters. Some have even referred to this as First and Second Isaiah. The fortieth book of the bible is the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The fortieth chapter of Isaiah introduces the reader to the Suffering Servant of God. The bible closes with the Book of Revelation declaring the unveiling of a new heaven and a new earth. As the Book of Isaiah closes, he wrote about a new heaven and a new earth. In the Background Scripture, Isaiah shares with the reader the year and the circumstances surrounding his calling of God to be a prophet. His calling consisted of two things as with other biblical callings, he reported what he saw and what he heard. Isaiah was given a heavenly vision of God's throne room. The vision convicted him because of his own unholiness. One of the seraphim used a live coal from the altar to purge Isaiah of his sin. It was then that Isaiah heard and accepted the call of the Lord to be His messenger. With that commission, God sent Isaiah to the king of Judah to assure him that God would protect His people. Throughout his ministry God used Isaiah to make bold proclamations of things that only God could do. In some cases, God used Isaiah as a visible example to His people of the message God sent that was not always received by His people. Some of those examples required great humility on Isaiah's part. On one occasion, Isaiah was required by God to walk around in public naked and barefoot for three years. It is true that we can see a person's glory but not know their story. Some of the assignments God gave Isaiah would be quite challenging even today. We don't always respond as we should to God's assignments. Even when God is clear, our decisions are not always firm. We vacillate between apprehension and rebellion. We are apprehensive because we recognize the awesomeness of God communicating directly with a sinful person. We rebel because rebellion is easy. Our flesh naturally rebels against the Spirit of God. Isaiah was used mightily by God even after being apprehensive about God's calling on his life. God gave Isaiah some bold proclamations to proclaim to the political powers of his day. Some of those proclamations spoke of healing to the hopeless. Some proclaimed doom to the proud and irreverent. Isaiah' s greatness as a prophet of God has nothing to do with glorying in human ability and intellect. It was Isaiah's humility and submission to God that caused God to elevate him to such a status. Isaiah's call and ministry is a reminder for us that God is always faithful to His word. What God speaks will come to pass. Our worthiness has nothing to do with God's faithfulness. Our humility and submission to the will of God allows us to be used by God to accomplish His will on earth. There are many today who wear the title of prophet; I don't question their calling of God. I do question whether they would submit to the type of assignments God gave Isaiah. Again, Isaiah's calling was more than vocal proclamation. Sometimes Isaiah had to visibly live the message God sent to His people. Oftentimes, the message God sends involves more than giving a speech. We see this in Isaiah's call and ministry. Robert C. Hudson August 29, 2025