The baby Jesus was sent by God to become the Lord of the Harvest which He planned to do from the beginning of time. God wants our participation as workers in His harvest (Matthew 9:38).
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, sitting on a throne, and the train of His robe was filling the temple. Above Him were worshiping angels, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet and with two they were flying. They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.” At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said, “Woe to me! I am doomed! I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips. Yet my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.” Then one of the angels flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away. Your sins are forgiven.” Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!” Isaiah 6: 1-8
The Hebrew word hineni (here I am), was spoken by Abraham, Jacob, Samuel, Moses and Isaiah in the Old Testament. In each case, the patriarch or prophet did not know what was expected. So as they spoke it, they were saying to the Lord, “I am ready. I am prepared. For whatever.”
This phrase was also spoken by the Lord, both times in Isaiah:
Here I am, doing a new thing! When it springs up will you be aware of it? I am making a road in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43: 19
You will cry for help and He will say, “Here I am.” Isaiah 58: 9
He is God. He has no need to get prepared for whatever He Himself has planned! But He knows that we want to hear this from Him. When we need a miraculous way, or when we reach out to Him with a cry for help, we can be sure that He has been ready for us from the beginning of time. He is there for us, for whatever is urgent or essential. He is here within us, showing us the way, comforting our heart and quenching our thirst.
This vision of the holiness of God was not given at the very beginning of Isaiah’s ministry as a prophet and priest to the people of Israel. In the first five chapters, God had been making it clear that a day of reckoning was coming for them. He had been filling his eyes with clarity regarding the depth of the sins of His people. He had been filling his heart with sorrow at the lengths to which He would go to get their attention. Judgment and destruction were what Israel deserved. So when Isaiah was in the temple preparing the people’s sacrifice for their sins, he was confronted with the reality of the holiness and awesomeness of God and he knew that they were doomed. But God did a very special thing, He visually confirmed their forgiveness of sin with a coal from the sacrificial fire. It changed everything for Isaiah. He was freed from his sin. He was freed from the burden of that sin. He was now ready. He said, “Here I am. Send me!”
When God asks you to be a worker for the harvest, “Whom shall I send? Who will go for Us?” what will your response be?
As you are ready and prepared for whatever, ask God to open your eyes with a clear vision for the people He is sending your way.
Almighty God, here I am. Send me. Amen.
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