Perspective: The Call of a Prophet

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The Call of a Prophet

Create in me a clean heart, O God,

and put a new and right spirit within me.

Psalm 51:10 (NRSV)

Woe to me!  I am unclean

A sinner found in Your presence

I see You seated on Your throne

Exalted, Your glory surrounds you

From "Ruin Me" by Jeff Johnson

Some of the Bible stories I like the most are those in which people experience God in a profound way.  Maybe it could be said that the people in such stories find themselves in what the Celts called thin places.  Thin places are the spaces where the earthly and the divine are unusually close to each other.  Perhaps what has become "thin" at such places is whatever veil separates heaven and earth.

One day, while working in the temple, a priest named Isaiah finds himself in the presence of God.¹  He sees God seated on a throne, wearing a regal robe, the edges of which fill the room.  Also in the room are a number of seraphim, flying serpentine creatures with six wings, who shout praises to God.  The temple fills with smoke, and parts of the structure shake because of the shouts of the seraphim.

Isaiah, knowing that he is in the presence of pure goodness and holiness, is overwhelmed by a sense of his own unworthiness.  He fears that there is no way that a sinner like him can survive in the presence of a holy God.  He cries out in fear, "Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!"  I do not know if, in Isaiah's day, there was any cultural significance to the phrase unclean lips, but I wonder if unclean lips might be symptomatic of an unclean heart.  Jesus once said that "it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks."²  In other words, what fills the heart overflows through the mouth.

Hearing Isaiah's lament, a seraph, using a pair of tongs, takes a live coal from the altar and touches it to Isaiah's mouth.  The creature says to Isaiah, "Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out."  Interestingly, the word seraph is derived from a Hebrew word that means "fiery serpent."³

Sometimes, the things that seem like a big deal to us are not nearly as big of a deal to God.  St. John writes, "If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness."⁴  Isaiah confesses his sin in the presence of God, so God deals with it.  Isaiah feels that he has unclean lips, so God's seraph singes the sin right off of them.  Nothing that makes us feel unworthy is a problem that God cannot handle, as long as we are willing to offer it to God.

Isaiah will need purified lips and a purified heart for what God has in mind for him.  God says, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"  God is looking for a prophet, a messenger to speak on God's behalf.

Isaiah says, "Here am I; send me!"

God warns Isaiah that the people's minds will be dull to the messages he will relay to them as a prophet.  They will listen, but they will not comprehend.  They will look, but they will not understand.  The people will ignore the words of the prophets until they find themselves in exile while their cities lie in ruins.  For example, in the midst of an international crisis, Isaiah will encourage King Ahaz of Judah to turn to God.  Instead, Ahaz will turn to an evil empire for help, and he will end up promoting idolatry in Judah.⁵

The vocation of a prophet is to speak on behalf of God.  People often think that a prophet's job is to tell the future; but, though a prophet might warn people what will happen to them if they do not change their ways, a prophet's job is simply to tell the truth.  People want to hear inside information about the future, but they often do not want to hear the truth, especially when the truth makes demands of them.  People will insist on having their own way even when it is detrimental to them.  In my opinion, the prophets are tragic characters in Scripture.  They have the words that the people need to hear, yet the people will not listen to them.

The call story of the prophet Isaiah presents us with a number of questions, many of which involve words.  What do your words currently say about the state of your heart?  What words do you need to speak to God at this time?  Are you willing to speak difficult words to the people who need to hear them?  Are you willing to listen to the difficult words other people have for you?  May God give us the courage to speak and the humility to listen.


Notes:

1. This perspective is based primarily on Isaiah 6.
2. Luke 6:45 (NRSV)
3. Blue Letter Bible: "saraph"
4. 1 John 1:9 (NRSV)
5. See Isaiah 7:1-17 and 2 Kings 16.

The photograph of the fire was taken by Wikimedia Commons user snty-talk and is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.  The photographer is in no way affiliated with this blog.