The Making of a Prophet

"Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news
My head's been wet with the midnight dew
I've been down on bended knee talkin' to the man from Galilee
He spoke to me in the voice so sweet
I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel's feet
He called my name and my heart stood still
When he said, "John go do My will!" - Johnny Cash

    In the first several chapters of Isaiah the reader is confronted with conflicting prophecies of both suffering also also joy and happiness. This conflict is probably brought out best in Chapter 6, where Isaiah receives a vision from God in the temple shortly after the death of King Uzziah of Judah. According to 2 Chronicles 26: 16-23, Uzziah had been a extremely successful king, winning wars and gaining wealth and becoming popular among the great nations of the world, until he became unfaithful and contracted leprosy within the temple. Therefore, Isaiah is having this vision at a time of great uncertainty. His vision is quite beautiful, with several seraphim (angelic beings) each having six wings: "with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!" (Isaiah 6: 2-3). Note how the seraphim are crying, yet they bring good news, again showing the conflicting themes in the book. After seeing this, Isaiah cried out for forgiveness, because he was unclean, and then one of the seraphim flew down and took a hot coal from the altar and placed it on Isaiah's mouth saying, "Behold, this has touched your lips, your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged." Here we find the notion that forgiveness comes with suffering, both in how Isaiah feels guilt for his sin and also with the live coal touching his mouth (The book makes it unclear whether the coal actually burned him). Often in our lives, we find that it is suffering that brings happiness and sometimes even success. In the same way, just forgiveness only comes after remorse for wrong doing.

      Isaiah then says, "Also 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" (Isaiah 6: 8). And God sends Isaiah out to preach to the nation of Israel. And among these prophecies are the exile of Babylon and the coming of Jesus, all coming from a man who thought himself unclean and most likely worthy, yet when God called him not only did he go, he enthusiastically volunteered himself. Which is probably why Isaiah preaches that people should humble themselves, as seen when he says, "Therefore, Sheol has enlarged itself and opened its mouth beyond measure; their glory and their multitude and their pomp, and he who is jubilant, shall descend into it. People shall be brought down, each man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled" (Isaiah 5: 13-14). What is the message that we can grasp from all  of this? It is that those who are humble are in the best situation to point out hypocrisy, yet the humble should not let their humbleness and insecurity fool them into not speaking. Those who are humble and afraid of speaking because they either think that they might be wrong or they are not worthy to tell other people how to live their lives, actually have the clearest vision as to what is right and wrong. Not only can they tell that they have sinned, but they feel sincerely bad for their sins. Therefore let us not be dismayed by our personal foibles, when we can either try to help out another human being or when attempting to shout at the top of our lungs at at a society that has lost all virtue and tell them of the consequences of their iniquity. When we feel that god is calling us to speak the truth, we must reply, "Here am I! Send me."