Isaiah 6: "Here I Am, Send Me," the Call of a Holy God

Introduction

Benjamin Chor is a pastor of a sister church in Paris, in the 18th arrondissement, and the father of two children. When he asks them to take out the trash, they get very creative: "Dad, I can't, the trash is too heavy for me," or, his favorite, no answer at all. Ten minutes later, the trash is still there. But there is one answer he has never heard: "Dad, send me."

In the Bible, we find the same responses to God's call. Moses asks God to send someone else. Jeremiah says he is only a child. Jonah doesn't answer and runs the other way. One man asks Jesus if he can first go and bury his father. And then there is Isaiah, who says: "Here I am. Send me."

This message was preached at Église Baptiste Toulouse Métropole as part of its missions convention, the series "On t'appelle !" ("You're being called!"). Starting from Isaiah 6:1-8, the preacher asks three questions: who sends, who answers, and, more surprisingly, who is to be pitied.

Outline of the message

1. An empty throne, another throne far higher

The vision takes place "in the year that King Uzziah died." Uzziah reigned 52 years over Judah: a secure and prosperous reign. Some people had never known any other king.
At the end of his life, out of pride, he went into the temple when he had no right to. Despite the warnings, he dug in his heels and ended up struck with a disease.
His death comes at the worst possible moment: a great power, Assyria, is rising and threatening to invade the surrounding nations, including Judah.
"A throne is empty, and yet Isaiah saw someone on another throne, and a far higher one."

2. Who sends? A God who is three times holy

The seraphim, creatures who would terrify us if they walked into the middle of our worship service, don't even dare to look at God: they cover their faces with their wings.
"Holy, holy, holy": in Hebrew, repetition expresses the highest intensity. God is absolutely, perfectly holy.
Eight centuries later, John sees the same six-winged creatures, who say day and night: "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come" (Revelation 4:8). It is the same song in the presence of God.
Nowhere do we find "love, love, love" or "mighty, mighty, mighty." Those in the throne room first proclaim God's holiness, and the temple shakes.
The illustration of the restaurant in the dark, in Paris: you eat in the dark, thinking you are eating well, then the light comes on and your napkin is filthy. "God's holiness is that light that is going to shine on Isaiah and tell him: but you are dirty, you are dirty."

3. Recovering a right fear of God

Our age likes a friendly God, a life coach, a friend who encourages. "Beware of making up a God of your own invention. A God who is all love but not holy. A God who has a paradise for everyone, but a hell for no one."
God's holiness keeps us from making light of sin. When we lose sight of it, we move the boundaries: "I only criticized my coworker," "sex before marriage, everybody does it," "I didn't really lie," "I'm only holding on to a little grudge."
The fear of God is not the fear of a child before a violent father. It is the fear of the electrician: he isn't afraid of working with electricity, but he fears it enough not to touch a live, exposed wire. "We play with God's holiness."
The people feared Assyria. God is, in effect, telling them: you fear the wrong person. In an anxious world, where social media brings bad news every day, "there is One on a very high throne whom you should fear far more."

4. Mission begins in the heart of God

"Whom shall I send?" It is God who asks the question. It is not Isaiah volunteering on his own, nor a missions committee launching one more activity.
"Our God is a God who sends. It is part of his nature." In the midst of the judgment announced, he sends in order to save: a holy seed will rise again from the people (Isaiah 6:13).
Isaiah is like a prototype: God sent his Son into the world, not to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him (John 3:17). Then Jesus says: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (John 20:21). The Father sends the Son, and the Son sends us.
Kings and empires have changed, but neither God's holiness, nor the sin in our hearts, nor his will to send in order to save has changed.
"Mission is not an option for the church, nor an activity for a few enthusiasts. It is the heart of a holy God who cannot bear that his glory should not be known everywhere."

5. Who answers? A forgiven man

Isaiah is a prophet, and he could have accused his people. Instead he looks at himself first: "Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips." He is not like the person who, during a sermon on sin, thinks of the neighbor.
"The real obstacle to our availability for mission is not your lack of talent or your lack of motivation, it is your sin." And God takes that obstacle away.
The seraph himself does not touch the coal, he takes it with tongs: this holy and powerful fire is not reserved for angels, but for a man, for humanity. He lays it on Isaiah's mouth, exactly where the problem was, since Isaiah is to be God's spokesman.
The coal comes from the altar, the place of sacrifice. Isaiah's forgiveness came at a price, just as ours did: seven centuries later, the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, at Golgotha.
Isaiah promises nothing, does nothing, negotiates nothing: he receives grace. Only then does he hear the question, and he volunteers.

6. Signing before reading the contract

When he was a banker, the preacher would read a contract before signing: the length, the salary, the bonuses. Isaiah signs without having read it. He says "send me" before even knowing where.
The Céline Dion song "J'irai où tu iras" ("I'll go where you go"), which his sister blasted on the radio in the 90s, sounds like Isaiah's answer. But the verses are about coconut trees, beaches, and palm trees in the wind. Often our "here I am" hides a "send me, but to Toulouse, where there's wifi and a bakery not too far away."
"If being sent depends only on your own interest, be careful."
Isaiah's answer is not a feat, it is the natural answer of someone who has received everything. Paul says it: the love of Christ compels us (2 Corinthians 5:14).
"Guilt doesn't produce missionaries, it produces exhausted people." The problem may not be a lack of motivation, but a lack of vision of God's holiness. The remedy is not to try harder, but to look again at the throne and the cross.
Our eyes look more at our phones and our shows than at the cross. Blessed is the one who delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on it day and night (Psalm 1:2): you can't taste the benefits of the cross with only the verse of the day.

7. Who is to be pitied? No one

After the signing, God reveals the content of the contract: a hard message, a people who will hear without understanding, and this "until cities are waste" (Isaiah 6:9-12).
In churches, we often look at missionaries and think: "I'm glad it's them and not me." The preacher sees this as a poor understanding of the Christian life.
"Receiving a call from God is not a punishment, it is a privilege." If mission is a chore, like the trash for his kids, you will never say "send me."
Isaiah saw the hand of God as few men have: an angel goes down to the camp of the Assyrians, who have to flee (Isaiah 37:36), and King Hezekiah, who is ill, receives fifteen more years of life (Isaiah 38:5).
Benjamin Chor served for ten years in West Africa. He went through suffering there, but he saw healings, conversions through dreams, and people holding firm under persecution. "I had a front-row seat to what God was doing."
"The most beautiful thing is to turn to the holy God and say: Here I am, send me, I am at your service because you are going to fulfill me."
A former banker, he has never found anywhere else the joy of seeing people turn to Jesus. To those wrestling with a call: "You are not going to have a miserable life. You are going to have an exciting life." And to future missionaries: don't fall into the trap of playing up hardship to win support.

Key takeaways

God is three times holy: his holiness keeps us from making light of sin and gives us back a right fear of him.
Mission does not begin in a church program but in the heart of a God who sends in order to save.
The real obstacle to being sent is sin, and God removes it through sacrifice: the altar sacrifice for Isaiah, the cross for us.
"Here I am, send me" is not a feat, it is the natural answer of someone who has received grace.
Being called by God is not a punishment but a privilege: no one is to be pitied for serving him.

Personal application

Which image of God dominates your life: a friendly coach or the three-times-holy God whom Isaiah saw?
In which area have you moved the boundaries of sin by telling yourself "it's not that serious"?
When you say "send me" to God, what is behind it: real availability or conditions of comfort?
How much time do you spend contemplating the cross and meditating on the Word, compared with the time you spend on your phone?
Do you look at missionaries with pity, or as people who have received a privilege?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

What does "holy, holy, holy" mean in Isaiah 6?

In Hebrew, repetition expresses the highest intensity: God is absolutely, perfectly holy. Benjamin Chor points out that this threefold proclamation returns in John's vision in Revelation 4:8, eight centuries later. Those in the throne room first proclaim God's holiness, and the temple shakes.

Why does Isaiah say "Woe is me" before God?

God's holiness acts like a light that reveals the dirt. Isaiah understands that he and his sin cannot stand in God's presence. He doesn't look first at the sin of the people, he looks at his own. For the preacher, the real obstacle to being sent is not a lack of talent but sin, and that is the obstacle God removes.

Should we pity those whom God sends on mission?

No. Mission has its difficulties, and Isaiah's was a hard one, but receiving a call from God is not a punishment, it is a privilege. Benjamin Chor, who served ten years in West Africa, testifies to having seen healings and transformed lives: "You are not going to have a miserable life. You are going to have an exciting life."