Failure for God

“Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’ And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’ He said, ‘Go and tell this people: ‘‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 1Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.’ 1Then I said, ‘For how long, O Lord?’ And he answered: ‘Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, 1until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.” (Isaiah 6:8-12 NIV).

These may seem like strange verses to begin a daily devotional with, but we must never forget that the Bible contains hard messages as well as easy ones. Isaiah was not promised prosperity, popularity, or even great success when he was called. Now remember, most likely this man is being called from success (he was a royal scribe in the palace which would be akin to a White House reporter today) to failure for all intents and purposes.

Somehow we have gotten the idea that when a person becomes a true believer or moves into a closer walk with God, everything will be roses; he or she will experience great success and be wonderfully blessed wherever they turn. There are a lot of confused and discouraged Christians today because they are wondering what happened!

In Isaiah’s case, God told him in effect, “Look I going to send you with a message no one wants to hear and they’re not going to listen to you.” Isaiah is so thrilled with this prospect that he asks a legitimate question, “Lord, how long before things turn around for me?” His heart must of sunk when he received his answer, “Never (this side of eternity) Isaiah.” Whoa! Send me in coach! No I don’t think that would have been my response. The amazing thing is, Isaiah did it! Isaiah carried out a consistent, faithful ministry even though there was very little (if any) positive response. Actually there would have been some who responded, because God always has His remnant, but verse 13 of our passage lets us know that this was a minuscule group of people and even they found themselves in dire straits.

Two lessons to be learned here. First, the early part of this chapter reveals that no one can truly serve God until we know God; until we see Him as He is in all His glory, in all His splendor, in all His holiness. Second, from today’s verses we learn that no one can truly serve God until that one is willing and ready to be a failure for God.

We are at a crossroads. The question before us is this: will we let the hostility of this world scare us into becoming diplomats on good terms with the world, the flesh and the devil, instead of flaming witnesses in a head-on collision with a godless age?