Page 17 - Isaiah Student Worktext

Isaiah got the call. It may appear that the call was somewhat vague. ‘Whom shall I send?’ could apply
to anyone, and I believe it DOES apply to anyone. It takes obedience, and Isaiah answered, ‘Here am I,
send me’.

Church that should be our answer. We should present ourselves for service. ‘Wherever He leads, I’ll
go’.

Then, once we’ve accepted the call, the details get more specific. God said, ‘Go and tell this people’ and
what he is being called to tell them is not going to be pleasant.

Isaiah is called to say things that will offend people. It will seem pointless because he will tell them that
they will keep on hearing, keep on seeing, but nothing will change.

Sometimes we feel like we are wasting our time because what we say doesn’t seem to make a
difference. But we STILL need to tell them.

V. 10 Isaiah is told that the hearts of the people will be made dull. It’s almost like God doesn’t want
them to hear and to change.

Sometimes God sends a messenger specifically to harden the hearts of the people.

That seems pretty foreign, but Jesus did the same thing. ‘Jesus said He used parables so that people will
not understand…’ Matthew 13: 11, where He quotes this verse.

Even Jesus’ disciples didn’t ‘get’ it many times, but one of the reasons Jesus taught in parables is so that
people would remember. They may not have understood the parable of the sower, but they would
remember the story. As they reflected on it, it may have come to them.

V. 11 Isaiah asks ‘how long’ it will be necessary to ‘harden the hearts’ of Israel? God’s answer is not very
encouraging: until the cities are laid waste and without a man. In other words, preach the word until
the judgment of the Lord has come to pass.

For me and you, this may mean that our predicaments won’t change until we’ve hit rock bottom. Israel
was promised that a remnant would always remain, and that promise hasn’t necessarily been made to
any other people.

But I believe it IS made to believers. He will never leave us or forsake us.

V. 12-13 Think of it like this: I have cut trees down before, either for firewood or just because the tree
was in the wrong place. If I don’t specifically take an action to keep it from growing back, it will grow
back.

God may indeed cut down our tree…but it’s pretty rare that He would take an action to keep it from
ever growing again.

From the stump of what He has cut down, more growth can come. That is what the ‘1/10’ referred to in
V. 13 is about. The holy seed, the remnant, shall remain and flourish, until the cycle is repeated.

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