Sometimes you go to church and other times God takes
you to church.
Isaiah went to church, or Temple as he called it in his day of 740 BCE, and found
himself being taken to church by God.
Isaiah's life changed in almost a blink of an eye. He received a life-changing call
from God. He accepted it cheerfully. And throughout this process, he laid a
course for us in the future to see the nature of worship and how through worship God
relates to those he has called.
Isaiah's call to worship was a function of worship. My theory is any call from God,
if true in nature, is going to become, if it did not begin, a function of worship.
First Isaiah's call.
He received his call in a fairly traditional setting. History records it probably
was in the Jersualem temple and may have come during a cleansing ritual.
Isaiah, who from birth was named appropriate to his future call since Isaiah translates to
"God is Salvation" or "Jehovah saves," went to the temple
for what was probably a pretty ordinary ceremony and found himself in the midst of an
extraordinary situation.
Isaiah during the course of the ceremony saw a vision of the glory of God. He
did not get a small peek. He got an overwhelming, earth-moving, ego-shattering,
shake-down-to-your-knees glimpse of the Holiness of God.
He described his vision thusly in Isaiah 6:1-3:
"In the year that King Uiziah died, I saw Yahweh sitting on a throne, high and
lofty, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphims were in attendance
above him, each had six wings, with two they covered their faces, and with
two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to
another and said:
"Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory."
Isaiah did not run from the unexpected and extremely powerful vision. He recognized
that God was speaking to him. He also acknowledged the Divine majesty of the Lord.
Just being in the presence of God was enough to convict him. It caused Isaiah to
move on to the next phase of his worship experience with God.
He confessed with his lips his unworthiness to even stand before the glory of God.
He not only confessed his unworthiness, but Isaiah repented. He asked for
mercy for those things he knew were not right in his life.
Regardless of your own self-preception before your call, Isaiah realized when God calls
you, you then see your self in God's light. Blemishes and flaws that the world may
not notice are clear and evident under the unerring and fully illuminating light of God.
Many yield to their faults but Isaiah in a pure act of contrition, instantly confessed his
flaws and sins and asked for forgiveness.
"Woe is me! I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a
people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of hosts."
(Isaiah 6:5)
Confession and repentence is at the heart of any act of worship. The recognition
that we are of a sinful nature. The confession of the sins both known and unknown.
And the subsequent request for forgiveness. To this point, Isaiah's call is
very much an act of pure worship.
For Isaiah, church has not let out yet.
He next had a cleansing experience. He expressed it symbolically:
"Then flew one of the seraphim to me having in his hand a burning coal
which he had taken with tongs from the alter. And he touched my
mouth and said, "Behold, this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and
your sin forgiven." (Isaiah 6:6-7)
In worship God has promised if we confess and repent of our sins we will get forgiveness
through the blood of his Son, Jesus Christ. Isaiah not only serves as the
prophet who fortells the arrival of the Messiah but in this moment of insight into
the Divine nature of God, he also fortells of salvation through confession and
repentence.
Although this already was a powerful worship experience for Isaiah, one which surely would
have elicted shouting in a contemporary worship experience, God was not through with
Isaiah yet. The stage only has been set for Isaiah's call.
Worship throughout the centuries has prepared the receiver for their call. Isaiah
thus far is a step-by-step textbook of the preparation. He first made himself
open to the will of the Lord. Although he was not aware it would occcur, he came to
the temple prepared to receive a word from the Lord.
Once he came face to face with Glory of the Lord, he recognized his sins and inadequacies
and confessed and repented of them. Then he was cleansed and forgiven by God.
Here comes the call:
"Whom shall I send and who will go for us? Then I said, "Here am I! Send
me." (Isaiah 6:8)
At this point in Isaiah's life-changing worship experience with the Lord he felt something
that many have felt since him, the fire of the Lord burning deep in his bones. His worship
was more than an ordinary temple experience it was a conversion experience.
God had lifted him from the ordinary to the extra-ordinary and he knew that he not
only had to but wanted to go and do whatever God had for him to do. When God called for a
volunteer, Isaiah had no hesitation before saying "Here am I! Send me."
In the midst of this Godly excitement, Isaiah also had to face a harsh reality check. His
call was to preach God's will to a people who would stubbornly refuse to listen. This lack
of obedience would lead to the destruction of Judah's civilization as Isaiah knew
it.
But even in the pale of foreboding destruction was the light and hope God extended
by saying that He would take even a small remnant of those faithful to Him and through
them rebuild a great nation.
"Even
if a tenth part remain in it,
It will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak
whose stump remains standing
when it is felled.
The holy seed is in the stump. (Isaiah 6:13)
For 40 years, Isaiah both recognized and dutifully fulfilled God's call. He saw those
things that God had him prophesize become reality. He watched God's people not respond to
God's will. But by accepting God's call joyfully, he completed the worship process
that day in the temple.
For after any true conversion process, and I feel you would have to consider Isaiah's
receiving the call in the temple a conversion process as well as a worship experience,
come the fruits of the experience. Different people have different fruits to
display but if God has called someone, they all will emerge from that worship experience
different than they entered it. The difference will be noticeable to all that have
eyes to see and will manifest itself in service to God who has called them.
Not every call today is as dramatic as Isaiah's, but the worship process surrounding
them is so very similar that any called to God's service have to feel some form of kinship
to Isaiah.
The most similar steps are feeling God's presence in your life; sensing His majesty
and glory. Then feeling inadequate and unworthy to be standing in God's presence.
That is enough of a humbling experience to cause you to repent and ask for
forgiveness. Then with God's cleansing, we are prepared to be called to do
God's will eagerly with an evangelistic zeal that is ignited by such a conversion process
with the Lord. This is worship whether you experience it in church, at home or
driving in your car. When God makes his presence felt in your life and issues a
call, it is a worship experience regardless of where it occurs.
There is little left to be said when you find yourself in the midst of such a worship
experience other than "Here am I! Send me."
