"While
ye have the light, believe on the light, that ye may
become sons of light. These things spake Jesus,
and he departed and hid himself from them" (or: "was
hidden from them"). "But though he had
done so many signs before them, yet they believed not on
him: that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be
fulfilled, which he spake,
Lord,
who hath believed our report?
And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
For
this cause they could not believe, for that Isaiah said
again,
He
hath blinded their eyes, and he hardened their
heart;
Lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive
with their heart,
And should turn,
And I should heal them.
These
things said Isaiah, because he saw his glory; and he
spake of him." (John 12:36-41.)
In this
double reference to the prophecies of Isaiah, there is
very little difficulty in relating the former of the two
to the Lord Jesus. Isaiah 53 is taken for granted by most
as referring to Him. We know the content of that
wonderful chapter. But it has not been so commonly
recognised that, according to the words that we have
quoted from John's Gospel, Isaiah chapter 6 is just as
definitely related to the Lord Jesus.
That
chapter, as we know, contains the commission of the
prophet to go and do what is mentioned here: "Make
the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy,
and shut their eyes; lest..." - and so on; and John
says that Isaiah said these things, 'because he saw His
glory, and spake of HIM.' That One, "high and
lifted up", whose "train filled the
temple", was, if this Scripture is true, none other
than the Lord Jesus. It is a most impressive statement,
this, that Isaiah said these things - not 'WHEN he
saw His glory', although that is true - but 'BECAUSE he
saw His glory'. The effect of the vision was seen in his
utterance. What he saw became his life-work and message.
In this
event, or crisis, then, in Isaiah's life, to which John
refers, the prophet saw CHRIST'S glory. And so our
occupation is to be with the vision of the exalted Lord:
its character, and its effect or consequence.
GOD'S ULTIMATE PURPOSE: THE
SECURING OF A PEOPLE
But
before going further, I want to say something by way of
bringing quite definitely into view what it is we have
before us. It is something which needs to be said again,
and with renewed definiteness and strength. It is a
matter of the greatest importance that we should realise
that, while the Lord is seeking to save people in this
world, and to conform the saved to the image of Christ,
He is all the time doing these things with the object of SECURING
A PEOPLE AS A VESSEL FOR A CONSUMMATE PURPOSE.
The
saving and the building up are not the ENDS to
which God is working, as ends in themselves. They are but
WAYS AND MEANS to an end. All through the ages -
and this is a thing which, I should say, it is impossible
not to see in the Bible throughout - God has been in
quest of a people, with a view to making them a vessel
and the instrument of a purpose which lies along the line
of their salvation, and their constitution. If this
truth, this fact, of an all-governing purpose is not
recognised, there will always be a serious constitutional
deficiency, weakness and limitation, in the Christian
life and in the Christian work. There will be frustration
and defeat in the Church, if it is not dominated by this
outstanding reality, that God is doing everything in
relation to a purpose.
So,
while with all our hearts we are committed to evangelism,
and committed with all our hearts to helping people in
the Christian life, if we have any more of 'heart' to add
to that, it is in relation to God having a vessel, a
people - not individual Christians, as saved and growing
spiritually, but a PEOPLE - to serve Him in
relation to that full purpose of His heart.
God's
purpose, of course, has many aspects and many phases. God
has moved down the ages in what we may call a 'phasic',
or 'phaseal', way. The different parts of the whole have
required, for their introduction or their recovery,
particular instruments and special emphases. That is
perfectly clear in the instruments that God Himself has
chosen. The prophets represent different aspects of God's
purpose. They are all, shall we say, different voices in
the choir. Jeremiah, for instance, may be the profound
bass, the deep rumbling of God's judgment, yet from a
broken heart; Isaiah may be the tenor, clear as a bird;
Ezekiel may be the baritone, between the two and
combining the two. I think you will find that there is
some truth in those definitions.
But they
are all parts of the one great choir, and they are all
occupied with one theme; and the one theme of all the
prophets, all the voices, all the instrumentalities of
the Scriptures, is: God's full thought concerning a
people for His Son, a people by whom His Son will
administer His eternal kingdom.
We must
honour every voice, and every note, and every
instrumentality that God raises up. We must recognise
that God has variety. In His sovereignty he has a right
to choose and to use what He will. There is no place for
any rivalries or jealousies. But it is very necessary for
us, as one instrumentality among many, to know what our
note is, and just where WE stand in this sovereign
'working of all things after the counsel of His own will'
(Eph. 1:11).
So, the
word at the commencement of these meditations is this. We
are not here just presenting some special messages on
some special subject, however good or valuable that might
be. Our meditations are to be in relation to the whole
purpose of God, and it is that purpose which must
dominate.
Now,
perhaps you do not recognise the point of that. It is
possible - so possible, that it becomes in a very large
way actual - to enjoy the teaching, and all the
accompaniments of it, to enjoy the benefits and the
values, and to say: 'Well, I find a great deal of help or
blessing in that'; and yet not to have recognised the
fundamental meaning of it, as to just why the help or
blessing is found. Why do we find the Lord in it? Why the
life? Why the light? Why all this that we are enjoying?
It is not just something in itself. I venture to say that
that very well might not be so, but for the fundamental
purpose. It all springs out of that. And it is of the
greatest importance that we should not just be deriving
blessings and benefits, enjoying ourselves with the
fruit, but should ourselves be part of the very ROOT of
the thing, and the root of the thing should be in us.
So, if
you can say to your own heart: 'Well, I have found
blessing, I have found help; I like to read the messages;
I meet the Lord in them', perhaps that may challenge you
- and I hope it does - to ask yourself: Why? Why? Let me
say again quite clearly: It lies in the very object for
which this instrumentality has been brought into being by
God Himself. We must understand that.
Forgive
these solemn and somewhat fierce words, but we must get
right to the heart of this. And so we are led to this
vision which the prophet Isaiah had. We begin by taking
some account of THIS instrument, THIS vessel
- Isaiah himself.
NOT MEN, BUT INSTRUMENTS
We need
to realise that, when we are reading these books - the
books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and others - we are
not just reading history - either history actually, or
history prophetically, predictively. You can read your
Bible like that. You can be occupied with the phrase 'In
the times of Moses', or 'In the times of the kings', or
'In the times of the prophets'... and so read it as
history. Or you might read it as biography: Abraham,
Moses, David, Isaiah and the rest. But I want to impress
this upon you - YOU MUST NOT READ YOUR BIBLE JUST IN
THAT WAY. After all, what is the real value
of the Bible if it is no more than history or biography?
You must read your Bible - and I am thinking at the
moment particularly of Isaiah - in the light of INSTRUMENTALITIES
IN RELATION TO ONE PERSISTENT PURPOSE. The purpose is
one right from the beginning; it persists all the way
through the ages; and these people - these men, and this
nation - are only in view at all, they only have their
being, their place, and their name, because they are
instruments, chosen and raised up of God, in relation to
that one persistent purpose.
We must
be very clear about this. We must have it very definitely
in our minds, when we read our Bible, that these are not
necessarily 'men', AS SUCH, at all. They have a
great name - yes: Abraham has a great name, and so has
Moses, and so has David, and so have the prophets. They
have a name, and we call them by their name. But we need
to realise that it is not the office, but the FUNCTION,
that gives the value and the significance to anybody
in the Bible. God did not just choose an Isaiah, as a MAN;
God chose an INSTRUMENT for His purpose, and
that instrument, shall we say, 'happened' to be Isaiah.
It is not something official; it is something which
represents a spiritual function, an instrumentality.
In the
workshop of God - and it is a very big one - there are
numerous instruments. God has His design before Him. And
in relation to that design - for different parts, for
different aspects, at different times, in different
places - He selects His instruments. It is in relation to
that particular part of the whole. Well, it does not
matter whether He calls that instrument by a certain
name, does it? That really does not matter at all. If you
were in a workshop with a master-workman, he might point
to something and simply say, 'I want that', without
giving it its name at all. If you knew the names of these
different instruments, he might mention the name and say:
'Bring me so-and-so'. But he would very likely point to
the thing and say: 'I want that for the moment; give me
that.' It is the purpose that it is to serve, not the
name that belongs to it, that gives it any significance
at all.
Do you
see the point? In the workshop of God, the
instrumentalities, and the purpose for which they have
been brought in, are the things that matter. It is not
the labels that you put on them, not the names that you
give them - that is man's way of doing things. It is the
purpose that they serve. And as for Isaiah - well, we
must call him something; he must be known by some name,
because he served the purpose; but it is not his
biography, it is not his place in history - it is his
spiritual function, his spiritual purpose, the SPIRITUAL
PRINCIPLE that he embodies, that is THE thing.
Men try to make names for themselves, get a reputation,
be placarded as of some importance. God is not a little
bit interested in that: all that matters to God is the
purpose that they serve. Our names are written in heaven,
and that is the very best place for them. Men want to
have them written up large on earth. God writes our names
in heaven. We may not know our name until we get there.
But, when we have enunciated the principle, we do not
forget that Bible names were so often a synonym for the
bearers' work.
Now,
when you come to this sixth chapter of Isaiah, you meet
with a man. But, before long, you find yourself not in
the presence of the man Isaiah at all: you find the man
falling down, dropping away, as it were, and crying:
"Woe is me". It is the exalted Lord who is in
view: everything now is focused upon Him, everything now
is related to Him. All is concerned with Him - "the
Lord, high and lifted up". And all purpose is
centred in Him, not in Isaiah or anyone else. He comes to
dominate the situation.
A TRANSITION FROM EARTHLY TO HEAVENLY
That may
sound like a simple statement. But as we go on, we shall
see that it is a fact of the greatest significance.
Isaiah says: "In the year that king Uzziah died I
saw the Lord..." When we come to that presently, we
shall see that this marks a tremendous transition. From
something that was big, great, important, dominating,
fascinating in this world, there is now a transition to
something far greater - to Heaven itself.
The
meaning of it all is - THAT WHICH IS ABOVE. The
whole explanation of Isaiah or of any other man - be he
one of the 'major' prophets, be he any great name in the
Bible - is that Throne, that exalted Lord. And so the
Apostle John wrote: 'Isaiah said these things because he
saw HIS glory'. He said 'these things'. It was
not just that Isaiah said SOME of the things that
are contained here, in the commission of the Lord. The
whole life of this man, and ALL his ministry,
right on to the end, right to the end of this book, came
out of his having 'seen His glory'. What a law that is
for life, for ministry - 'because he saw His glory'!
We shall
have more to say about that when we speak of the results.
But what we are to be impressed with, right at the
outset, is this: that it is not the men, not the
instrumentalities, that matter; it is the purpose. And,
from Heaven's standpoint, WE are greater or
smaller, according to OUR oneness with that
purpose. OUR significance is in proportion to OUR
vital relationship with that purpose: that is, that
His glory should fill the whole earth. That is, as you
know, a part of the statement of the seraphim in the
vision: "the whole earth is full of his glory"
(Is. 6:3). As you will see from the margin of the Revised
Version, the Hebrew is literally: 'the fullness of the
whole earth is his glory'. The earth is the place for the
fullness of HIS glory. That is God's purpose for
the place of His Son. So the man must go out, become
insignificant, and cry 'Woe!' Any instrumentality that
does not correspond to the glory of Christ must fall down
and be adjusted.
'Because
he saw His glory' - that explains Isaiah. The Lord never
chooses persons AS SUCH, whoever they may be. The
choice is governed by purpose. God does not choose anyone
just as a person. He does not even choose
instrumentalities as things in themselves. There is a
sovereignty about God's choice. Very often He chooses
something that is altogether without reputation, or
standing, or acceptance; something altogether rejected by
men. He has His purpose in view all the time.
And if
He does choose a man like Paul, with great natural gifts
and abilities, He will deal with that vessel in such a
way as to make him know - whatever other people may say
about him or think about him - that before God he is
nothing. It is not what other people say about a person:
it is what that person knows himself or herself to be in
the presence of God. There is no man, I think, who was
more in agreement with Isaiah in crying: "Woe is
me", than the Apostle Paul. For indeed he did cry
that - 'Woe is me' - "O wretched man that I
am!" (Rom. 7:24). It is not that God is looking for
big men or important people, AS such. He needs
men, He needs women, He needs people; but He is looking
for an instrument - an instrument that is in perfect
harmony with the purpose that He has in hand.
INSTRUMENTS SHAPED TO THE PURPOSE
That
carries us a bit further. The instrument must be one that
is shaped according to the purpose. It has had to be
forged and formed in fire; shaped to the purpose for
which it has been sovereignly chosen. And that means a
long secret history between God and His vessel. You
cannot just go out and preach 'truths', give out in a
second-hand way about the things of God. The Lord have
mercy upon us all in this; it explains so much. But when
real purpose IS governing, the thing has got to
go through us, and we have got to go through it. The
instrument has to be shaped and formed according to the
purpose of its election.
And I am
not thinking only of individual instrumentalities. It is
equally true of collective instrumentalities - a people.
If they are vitally related to the purpose, they will go
through the truth, and it will go through them. They will
not get away with mere doctrine, mere mental grasp of
things. They will go through it. And they will either
draw out, because it is too hot and too difficult, or
they will yield, and allow God to form according to the
purpose. To be a part of such a people, such an
instrument, such a vessel (and it does not mean that you
need all be in the same place, but wherever you are),
means that God is going to keep very close accounts with
you in the light of purpose. And this thing is going to
reach into your life, wherever you are; and you are going
to have experiences - strange experiences - that you
would never have, but for that purpose.
When the
Lord chooses vessels - be they individuals, or be they
collective - they may go through experiences of very deep
perplexity, of great disappointment, of much
disillusionment, even to the point of utter hopelessness.
It was true of the prophets, it was true of Paul.
Everything may at times appear to be hopeless, and that
is no exaggeration. The measure of your vision will
determine the measure of your experience. To see in great
dimensions is to have experiences of great heights and GREAT
DEPTHS. Paul knew what it meant to 'despair of life';
to touch great depths of death in order to touch the
greater depth of the power of his resurrection.
GOD MAKES ALL PROVISION
But
note: although such vessels or instruments may go that
way - and I am keeping close to the book all the time -
He meets those vessels with what is necessary for the
fulfilment of the purpose of their election. Here is
Isaiah: I ask you, why five chapters of tragedy before
chapter 6?
Why was
the vision given? It was given because the situation,
from every human standpoint, was a hopeless one. Man
could well despair when king Uzziah died. The tragedy of
king Uzziah! We will speak about him again in a moment.
And the state of things in Uzziah's day! It brought this
prophet to utter despair. And then, just think what it is
that he has to do: 'Make this people's ears heavy...
close their eyes... lest they should see and hear, and
understand and believe, and return...' (6:10). What a
life-work! What a hopeless prospect!
To be
able to face a situation like that and go through with
it, a man needs some vision of a throne above. This
vision was God's meeting of the need of a chosen vessel,
in relation to His purpose, in a day when things were as
dark and as well-nigh hopeless as they could be. Yes, God
meets the need, which arises out of the very situation to
be dealt with; God has His provision, and He makes it.
Sometimes, with our biggest questions, our most awful
disillusionment, our deepest despair and hopelessness, we
seem to touch bottom, and we say: 'Is it possible, this
great purpose of God concerning the Church? Is it really
possible?' And then the Lord gives a new opening of the
eyes of our heart concerning His Throne, His position
above all, His glory, and we go on again - until it all
comes back, and we touch bottom once more! That is the
history of such a vessel.
THE PERILS OF BLESSING
Now, all
this is contained in this incident in chapter six.
Isaiah's life, up to the time of the vision, had been
entirely related to king Uzziah (otherwise known as
Azariah). Perhaps for at least twenty-five years - the
last twenty-five years of Uzziah's life, out of the
fifty-two years of his reign - Isaiah was completely
under the shadow of this man. You can read about it in 2
Chronicles 26. What a beginning Uzziah had! - a grand
beginning, a great beginning; so full of promise.
Everything seemed to be set fair for a glorious period of
history. Isaiah was brought up in that. The triumphs of
Uzziah brought the nation and the kingdom,
geographically, almost back to the limits of Solomon's
reign - that is, to the limits of the covenant made to
Abraham. It was a wonderful reign.
As I
say, there is no doubt that this young man - you can see
from his writings that he was an idealist - was under the
fascination of this great man, this wonderful man,
Uzziah; he overshadowed everything for him. Isaiah's life
was wrapped up with that of the king. God blessed Uzziah,
and prospered him, and gave him victory, and gave him
territory: "his name spread far abroad, for he was
marvellously helped..." And then... and then...
tragedy of tragedies - read it: "But when he was
strong, his heart was lifted up so that he did corruptly,
and he trespassed against the Lord his God; for he went
into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the
altar of incense" (2 Chron. 26:15,16).
How much
we could say about the perils of prosperity, the perils
of popularity, the perils of blessing - even God's
blessing! And how much we could say about the unsafety of
the best of men. How unreliable we are - I mean 'we men'!
How dangerous it is for God to entrust us with blessing!
There is much in that. The point is that there came this
moment, this turning-point in Uzziah's life, when, with
all the good that there had been, with all the blessing
and enlargement that God had given him, he assumed
something - and then he presumed.
It is
like so many things, and so many people - yes, so many
instrumentalities: a good beginning, bidding fair to
accomplish some great thing for the glory of God, with
much Divine blessing, and much Divine enlargement; and
then... at a certain almost imperceptible point, it
becomes something in itself, and begins to trade upon its
position, upon its reputation - even trade upon the
blessing of God! There comes in a secret pride of having
become something - of course for the Lord, and by the
blessing of the Lord; assuming that the blessing of the
Lord overlooks secret sin, and presuming upon that;
spiritual pride creeping in. That is the history of
Uzziah; and that is the history of many a greatly blessed
and used instrumentality of God.
THE HOLINESS OF GOD
Uzziah,
then, presuming upon his position and God's blessing, as
we see, committed this presumptuous act: he went into the
Holy Place, where the Altar of Incense was, to offer
incense. The high priest, with eighty other priests,
implored him, begged him, warned him, telling him in most
definite terms that that was neither his place nor his
office. The priesthood saw through the act to the
spiritual significance - presumption. And then, as he
stood there, censer in hand, ready to offer the incense,
with his anger rising, God smote him! The leprosy broke
out upon his face, and the priests made haste to thrust
him out of the Temple; and from that day to the day of
his death he lived in a lazar house - a leper!
What
about Isaiah? - the man who had been living, fascinated,
under the shadow of all the preceding glory; to whom
Uzziah had been the very model, the life dominating his
whole horizon? Here is his idol shattered! He knows that
that man is in a leper asylum for the rest of his life!
Do you
see the significance of this vision? "Holy, holy,
holy, is the Lord...".
For a
ministry like this, to serve God's full purpose, you must
be horizoned by nothing less than that One on the Throne.
You must have no other vision; no fascination or
heart-captivation with that which, under testing and
under trial, will break down - and will let you down. It
is very necessary, in order to fulfil this purpose, that
we get away from earth and from men, and get to the only
Man - the Man in Heaven. Everything for Isaiah was saved
by that vision. How he might have been shattered! How
devastating this whole thing would have been finally for
this young man, if he had not seen Another, whose glory
eclipsed the human glory which, up to that time, had been
the greatest glory of which he knew. Such a vision is a
tremendous thing for our deliverance in the day of
disillusionment.
DELIVERANCE IN DISILLUSIONMENT
For we
shall all undoubtedly suffer much disillusionment as we
go on. There may be great Bible teachers, and great
figures in the Christian world, whom we admire. I have
done that: I have been a young man, and have done my
hero-worshipping of the great Bible teachers, the great
leaders, the great Christian statesmen, and so on. And I
have lived to know that you dare not put your trust in
men - in "princes". You will find, sooner or
later, that, at best, that is not safe ground. And while,
in many cases, it is not a matter of sin, yet, in many
cases, the Lord does allow these 'idols' in the end to
pass out under a shadow.
The
point is that you may come to a time when you are
disillusioned, when you discover the human weaknesses and
defects in those you thought were absolutely trustworthy
and reliable. And many people today are out in the
shadows, out in some backwater, in their Christian lives,
because of becoming disillusioned or disappointed with
certain Christians, or certain things. They looked for,
and thought they had found, perfection, and they
discovered they had not.
Now this
is a contingency, a possibility, that we have got to
face. If we have not really seen the Lord Jesus as the
answer, if our anchorage is not firmly in Heaven with
Him, we shall be shattered in that day, and our faith
will break down. What we need is this seeing of the
exalted Lord and His glory; and this seeing is essential
to our salvation, not only as believers in God, but for
those of us who are Christian workers, in order to get us
through. If we have not seen the significance and the
meaning of the Man in the Throne, we shall just go to
pieces under the duress of disillusionment and
disappointment.
That
does not mean - God forbid! - that we should develop a
spirit of mistrust about servants of God, and be always
looking for their faults, watching where they are going
to break down. God forbid that there should be anything
of that. At the same time, whatever we may think about
God's servants, let us remember that they are but frail
vessels, and that, if we are to go through and fulfil
God's purpose, it is necessary that we should have seen
the only infallible One, the only One who can really be
relied upon never to disappoint. The Lord Jesus will
never be the occasion of a disillusionment - never!
Now, you
see, Isaiah had been related to Uzziah in this way:
enamoured, fascinated, captivated. And then he became
involved. Disillusioned, stripped and denuded, in such a
day he needs something: he needs saving, he needs
rescuing, he needs hope; he needs, in the midst of the
wreckage, to see purpose. The purpose has not gone; it is
not all in vain, not all hopeless. The God who had called
him in relation to His purpose, met his need; and so the
vision was his salvation - and his ministry.
We leave
it there for the time being. Let us remind ourselves that
we are not talking about Isaiah, we are not talking about
Uzziah; we are not talking about the prophecies of
Isaiah, we are not talking about the vision that Isaiah
was given. We are talking about Another, whom John says
Isaiah saw: 'he saw HIS glory' - the glory of
our Lord Jesus.