1631. The Blessed Commission

The Blessed Commission

"Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? Then said I, Here am I; send me. And He said, Go" (Isa_6:8-9).

When Isaiah confessed his sin and was cleansed, he was ready for service.

Once again we find a vision of Israel, for she, too, after she has been cleansed of her sins, will be sent forth.

Just here the type is not perfect, inasmuch as the message given to Isaiah had to do with Israel, her hard heart and her heaviness of ear, but the message given to the children of Israel will be a message of redemption to the Gentiles.

We referred above to the conversion of Saul, we wish now to mention his conversion more in detail.

1. Saul saw the Lord in His glory. He was stricken down by a light, brighter than the noonday sun.

Israel will also see the Lord high and lifted up, as Isaiah put it, and will be stricken down by the glory of the Lord.

2. Saul cried, "Who art Thou Lord?" The answer was, "I am Jesus whom thou persecutest."

Israel will yet cry, "Who art Thou, Lord?" And the Lord will answer, "I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save."

3. Saul was cleansed and his iniquity was taken away. We know this because in his relating the story of his conversion, he speaks of how God appeared unto him and called him by His grace. He speaks of how he was the greatest of sinners, yet how he found mercy.

So Israel too shall have her iniquity taken away when the grace of God appears.

4. Paul commissioned to preach to the Gentiles. After Saul saw the light, he was told to go into Damascus, to the house of Simon, and Ananias was commissioned to go to him, for, said the Lord: "He is a chosen vessel unto Me to bear My name before Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel."

When Israel is saved, she too shall be commissioned.

It must be remembered that Joel's prophecy of the Holy Ghost has not yet been fulfilled in its entirety. The Lord promised that when the Spirit was poured forth, their sons and their daughters would prophesy, their old men would dream dreams, and their young men see visions. In that day the Lord would show wonders in Heaven and in earth, blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun was to be turned to darkness and the moon to blood. Then, whosoever called on the name of the Lord was to be delivered.

According to this, Pentecost itself is only a picture, or a type of that fuller and more glorious manifestation, when national Israel, baptized in the Spirit of God, shall go forth as witnesses of the Lord. The sixtieth chapter of Isaiah gives more of the wonderful and far-reaching results of Israel's glory.

In closing this scene, we would like to suggest that it is quite beautiful to consider how it was first of all the mouth that was touched with the coal from the altar, and that now it is the mouth that is used to proclaim the message of the Lord.

Autor: R.E. NEIGHBOUR