Read Isaiah 6

“Here I Am! Send Me!”

The sixth chapter of Isaiah is a record of his calling to the prophetic office. It also offers an awe-inspiring glimpse at the throne of God, His robe, and the seraphim who worshiped Him. Their words of praise echo throughout the history of the world: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:3).

Why is the word “holy” repeated three times? Two possibilities have been suggested. One, the symbolism of the number three represents perfection or completeness. Thus, repeating the word three times emphasizes God’s perfect or complete holiness.

A second explanation is that the word is repeated three times, once for each Person of the Godhead: the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Later in the chapter, Isaiah heard the “voice of the Lord, saying: ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’” (Isaiah 6:8). The plurality of the Godhead is a Scriptural concept that was not new to the writers of the New Testament, though it was perhaps misunderstood to an extent until Jesus and the Holy Spirit revealed more in the first century.

Upon witnessing this grand scene of worship, Isaiah declares himself unfit for any service. “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). God, however, showed the prophet that he could be forgiven of his sin. It is after Isaiah’s forgiveness that the Lord asks for a volunteer to “go for Us” (Isaiah 6:8).

Isaiah’s answer is one of zeal and determination: “Here I am! Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8). Guy N. Woods commented on this passage in the first quarter of the 1964 Adult Gospel Quarterly, “He did not ask if the work were easy, the task light; he did not inquire whether the effort would be long or short; nor what advantages would accrue to him in so doing. It was an unqualified, and unconditional surrender to the will of God.”

God wants servants today who are willing to serve in the same manner, unconditionally committed to the cause of the truth without regard for personal gain in this life. He calls for people of faith to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). Are we doing all that we can for the Lord? Do we recognize His call and respond, “Here I am! Send me!”?