A Question
“And I heard the voice of the Lord…”
This is the first thing Isaiah says after his sin had been dealt with. Reconciliation had taken place and his ears were now open to hearing the Lord. And the Lord’s voice was asking whom to send and who would go. Isaiah’s response was immediate and unhesitating. He would go. He would be sent.
The forgiven person responds like this to the call of God for a couple of reasons. First, the experience of forgiveness is felt deeply in the human heart. The desire to see others reconciled to God is the natural response to being reconciled yourself. We are like the lepers, who had found the camp of the Syrians abandoned and plenty of food to eat and said that they were compelled to go back to the city and tell their starving fellow countrymen what they had discovered.
Then, there is the irresistible and compelling nature of the voice of God. When God speaks, or maybe it's better to say when we hear God speaking, when we can recognize the Voice as His Voice, it is irresistible. It is something of a miracle to behold the first disciples as they hear Jesus say, “follow me,” and then watch them walk away from the fishing business and tax collection enterprises and devote their lives to following a Galilean carpenter.
Hearing the Voice may not, and probably doesn’t for most people, mean a career change. It does mean a change of priorities, a change of heart, a change of life direction.
