Isaiah 6:1 In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2 Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. 5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7 He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.” 8 Then 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!” 9 He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ 10 “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.” 11 Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate.
In the great wisdom of God He gave Isaiah a sight of His inexpressible glory and a sight of Isaiah’s own vile heart and mouth before He sent Isaiah out on a great mission. We would think that God had a very “successful” ministry (in the way men think of success) set out for Isaiah because of how He manifested Himself to Isaiah and then Isaiah to himself. But God took great care to break this man from pride and humble him in the dust before Him. He took great care to show Isaiah his sin and then of the greatness of forgiveness of sin. He did this to prepare Isaiah for a truly successful ministry and that is one that is faithful to God Himself and His purposes.
After this great sight of the glory of God and his own sin, Isaiah was ready for a ministry of great success in the eyes of God and great failure in the eyes of man. How many converts did he have? That was not the purpose of his ministry. How many buildings did he build? That was not the purpose of his ministry. How many churches did he start? That was not the purpose of his ministry. The purpose of his ministry was to “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.” What was success in the ministry of Isaiah? It was to preach judgment on the people. His preaching was to be a way of hardening the hearts of people as a means of judgment.
The thought of such a ministry was not pleasant to Isaiah, so he wanted to know “how long?” The Lord’s answer was this, “Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people And the land is utterly desolate.” Isaiah was not to know what it mean to have a positive impact on people, but instead he was to be faithful to God and to bring judgment on the people by preaching the truth to them. His preaching and his message was meant to render hearts insensitive to the things of God, to dim eyes, and make their ears dull. He was not to do this for a short time, but instead this ministry was given to him as his life ministry and it was to help in bringing the nation down.
The point, once again, is to set forth an aspect of the Gospel that we don’t often think about. The very hearing of the message is grace when people hear it as the Gospel, but the minister preaching it may indeed bring judgment upon people as well. Preaching the Gospel is not such a popular thing at times, but we must be aware that we must not preach a watered down form of the Gospel (which is no Gospel at all) as this is not what converts people but also does not bring judgment upon them as well. But the point is that people must understand that they have no right to the Gospel and they have no ability to see or hear the Gospel. The hearing of the Gospel with spiritual ears is grace. Seeing the glory of Christ in the Gospel is grace. Having a non-hardened heart is grace. The Gospel of the grace of God is grace through and through. We must not denigrate the grace of God at any point in this Gospel. We do not hear because we are wise or good, but we hear the Gospel because of the grace of God.
God Loves... Himself 
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