Ever Hearing, Never Understanding
When Prophets Shout Into the Void
The following is a sermon I gave this past weekend (Nov. 17, 2024) based on Isaiah 6:1-8. I was asked by some to share it in text form so I decided to simply do that here.
Did you know that Isaiah is sometimes referred to as the fifth gospel? That’s because Isaiah contains a lot of Christian hope within its passages. In particular, we find themes of death and resurrection,
In fact the New Testament quotes or alludes to the book of Isaiah over 85 times.
Much of our definition of what the gospel even IS comes from Jesus quoting Isaiah “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free…” (Luke 4:18 quoting Isaiah 61)
The book of Isaiah is one of those books that points us to Jesus. When people encountered Jesus, Isaiah was usually what sprang to mind.
Now the events of Isaiah take place hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus and deals with issues of national suffering, inequity, Lack of justice, and being lost.
Not too different from some of the issues of Jesus’ day.
The nation of Judah was in a precarious position both in Jesus’ day with Roman occupation, and also when Isaiah was written—the precarious position was just slightly different.
In both cases, though, they were a small, insignificant nation in the middle of other much larger Empires. Judah is more like Guatemala than it is like the US. A small nation surrounded by larger empires.
They were very vulnerable… and they're facing some big problems. Foreign invaders are constantly knocking on their doors.
It’s during the time of Isaiah that the Assyrian Empire comes in and wipes out the entire northern kingdom of Israel.
This hasn’t happened yet in our reading for today, but will happen later on in Isaiah, and this destruction gets interpreted as God’s judgment on the northern kingdom for how it built its society on injustice and iniquity.
The problem? Judah isn’t a whole lot better than Northern Israel was on these fronts.
In fact, the first six chapters of Isaiah are kind of dark—lots of indictments against the nation of Judah.
Essentially, it’s acknowledging that there’s a big problem in the nation.
There’s poverty, inequity, lack of caring for the neighbor, the rich getting richer while the poor get poorer… to quote the first chapter, they are a “sinful nation, people laden with iniquity, offspring who do evil, children who deal corruptly…”
And what is that evil and corruption?
Seek justice; rescue the oppressed; defend the orphan; plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:17)
In other words, they have not been caring for the poor and marginalized.
To top it all off, as chapter six begins, we learn that the King who had been in place for the past fifty years has died. So they’re in the midst of political upheaval and turmoil. (I mean, we don’t understand what political turmoil is like at all.)
The Assyrian army is on the move. The northern kingdom of Israel is readying itself to wage an attack against Judah.
It’s not a fun time in the land of Judah.
So, with that indictment and these looming threats as the backdrop, Isaiah gets swept up into the heavenly throne room, where the foundations are shaking, seraphim are hiding, and it seems as though Heaven’s about to crack apart.
Isaiah’s response is to immediately realize… “You’re in a lot of trouble, Lucy…”
He knows he’s part of this sinful nation against which the Lord is so angry and his immediate reaction is to confess how sinful he is:
[paraphrased] “yeah, I’m a man of unclean lips, of an unclean people… and we’re not being faithful to God in terms of how we’re loving and caring for our neighbor…”
And God’s like, “yeah, I’m aware. And…I’d kind of like YOU to talk to all the others about that.”
But there’s a problem… the problem has gotten SOOO bad, that it almost seems like it’s too late. It’s not just some segments of society…it’s a nation-wide problem. Which means, the entire nation needs to repent. The entire nation needs to wake up to the fact that there’s a problem.
Hm? Sound familiar? Where’s Jonah when you need him, right? He got the Assyrian Empire to repent. Surely Judah will heed THEIR warning from their prophet, right?
Yeah, well, as I’ve always said…that part of Jonah is the unbelievable part. Even God realizes that there’s nothing that Isaiah can say that will get the people of Judah to repent.
If you keep reading beyond verse 8, we get this “Go and say to this people: ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend; keep looking, but do not understand.’ Make the mind of this people dull, and stop their ears, and shut their eyes, so that they may not look with their eyes, and listen with their ears, and comprehend with their minds, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9)
Literally, God is sending Isaiah TO TELL THEM that they’ll NOT listen to him.
The life of a prophet is hard man.
Isaiah asks the question, “OK, so how long will they not listen?”
And God’s response is, “until their cities lie desolate.”
Ah. So. The way to get the nation to repent…the way to get their attention…is to let them be destroyed first. The nation is going to have to reap the consequences of its actions.
This does not sound like good news.
Judgment never sounds like it’s good news…unless, of course that judgment is being pronounced upon people we don’t like, right?
But this is Judah’s reality—the nation is going to be judged because they don’t turn from their ways.
Now…the GOOD NEWS is…God’s got a plan.
God figures their destruction is what is going to lead to them finally waking up to all the things they were doing wrong in the eyes of God.
So they go into exile and 70 years later they begin to return.
By the time Jesus arrives on the scene, we find the more things change, the more they stay the same. The nation is on the verge of destruction again. The people respond to him with the same kind of hostility that they responded to Isaiah with…only they eventually kill Jesus.
In fact, Jesus quotes that whole section of Isaiah about never understanding or perceiving when he explains why he speaks in parables. (Matthew 13; Mark 4)
So clearly…the system of punishment to get them to repent and turn back to them has not been overly successful. They just kind of keep repeating the same patterns over and over.
Humanity in a nutshell.
I mean, are we not also men and women of unclean lips?
Do we not also live in a nation and world where inequality and injustice run amok?
I think if any one of us were to be transported to the throne room of God we’d be shaking in our boots like Isaiah.
But here’s the thing we have to remember:
In the end, God forgives.
God forgives Isaiah and cleanses his lips with a burning coal. He ultimately forgives the people of Judah and brings them back to their homeland.
God forgives the people in Jesus’ day.
“Father forgive them…”
Which means…God forgives us and all the harm we repeatedly inflict on those around us.
HOWEVER, it’s important to note that does mean destruction still won’t come. There are natural consequences to actions that unless a collective whole changes, that’s just going to be reality. That corruption, greed, and not caring for the most vulnerable in our society has some natural consequences: destruction of a nation. We can look at history and see this repeated regardless of whether it’s Israel or Judah. Empires fall from the weight of their own corruption.
But like Isaiah, even when faced with imminent destruction, we—as the faithful who live with the hope of the promises of God—are called to continue to speak into a world that may or may not listen to our words of both warning…and hope.
And to remind people of our loving and gracious God who transcends all worldly kingdoms. That the kingdoms of the world, are not the Kingdom of God.
Therefore we must continue to be like Isaiah: warning about where we are headed if we do not change, and simultaneously acting as beacons of hope, reminding one another where our true citizenship lies: in God’s Kingdom.