Words'nTone

As far as my feeble memory can strain, when Isaiah 6 is preached and/or referred to, why is it that I never hear any reference to the following verses in the text? They always stop at the end of verse 8; the preacher never continues with verse 9 and following. We get to verse 8:

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’”

And then we never hear what “we” are being sent to do. Per the preacher’s call for application, what are being asked to volunteer to do?

“He said, ‘Go, and tell this people: “Keep on listening, but do not perceive; keep on looking, but do not understand. Render the hearts of this people insensitive, their ears dull, and their eyes dim, otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and return and be healed”’” (Isaiah 6:9-10).

As the preacher once said, “We selectively ignore the difficult texts.” Ironic thing was, the same preacher had just “selectively ignored” the difficult portion of the Isaiah “Send me” passage. I am guessing that verse 9 and following doesn’t serve the purpose of the one preaching. We like God asking us, “Who shall I send?” And we (can self-righteously) think ourselves like the one originally being asked, that is, the Prophet Isaiah, and respond with humility, “Here am I. Send me.” And in so doing, infer to the crowd, I have already responded, what about you? We—or the preacher, anyway—supply the content of the “sending,” never even taking into consideration what God intends in the text (vv 9ff.). For sure this must be one of the most abused, misrepresented, poorly proof-texted texts of Old Testament Scripture I can think of. And, it is probably one of the most important, given that our Gospel is defined by it in the New Testament. All four Gospels quote it in pivotal places where the Gospel of the Kingdom is defined and/or explained (Matthew 13; Mark 4; Luke 8; John 12). And, it is always the tough verses of Isaiah 6 that are referred to, vv 9ff. Even Luke ends his Acts of the Apostles with Paul quoting the tough verses of Isaiah (Acts 28). The Isaiah 6 “send me” text is just one example of the poor exegesis and self-serving proof-texting that happens on a regular basis on Sunday mornings. We tread on dangerous ground.

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