Sermons

Isaiah 6:8–13 (Listen)

Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord

8 And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” 9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

  “‘Keep on hearing,¹ but do not understand;
  keep on seeing,² but do not perceive.’
10   Make the heart of this people dull,³
    and their ears heavy,
    and blind their eyes;
  lest they see with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
  and understand with their hearts,
    and turn and be healed.”
11   Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
  And he said:
  “Until cities lie waste
    without inhabitant,
  and houses without people,
    and the land is a desolate waste,
12   and the LORD removes people far away,
    and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13   And though a tenth remain in it,
    it will be burned⁴ again,
  like a terebinth or an oak,
    whose stump remains
    when it is felled.”
  The holy seed⁵ is its stump.

(ESV)