Send me?

'He touched my mouth with it and said,

"Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away

and your sin is forgiven."'

Isaiah 6.7

Isaiah was granted a vision of the Lord on the throne and his only response was to readily confess the sinfulness of himself and his people. Isaiah was fully aware that for the eyes of a sinner to look upon the king was to accept the penalty of death. He knew the perfection of God and His necessity to eradicate sin for his presence. He knew that as a fallen man he deserved to die, yet God intervened. He forgave his sin and removed all iniquity. Isaiah was not just altered, he was completely transformed. His whole being was made clean. God did not require Isaiah to do anything other than to freely accept his guilt. And once the guilt was removed, Isaiah was free to pursue true freedom found only in a life surrended to God. Isaiah willingly volunteered to take a message that would see the hardening of hearts and great destruction. The task would bring rejection, humiliation and persecution; yet it was all God asked and therefore it was a task heaped in blessing. To refuse would've been to accept that God had saved him but then to say that he was fine on his own from then on. To refuse would've been to take the offer to be free from prison, only to turn round and jump back in again. We are not made free to fall into sin once more. We are not free to forsake all others and please only self. We are free to fly to freedom. Free to choose the path that goes ever upwards, resulting in the sweetest freedom ever tasted. The task will bring rejection, humiliation and persecution. Can I really say it . . .

"Here am I, send me!"