God’s questions to Isaiah at the end of his vision show us that He longs to work in partnership with people: ‘Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?’ (Is 6:8) God does not need to work with people; His work of creation shows us that. (Ps 33:9) But the truth is that He chooses to invite us into partnership with Him. Atonement is made for Isaiah (Is 6:7) and has been made for us through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross (2 Cor 5:21); the impossible and impassable chasm between the holiness of God and the sinfulness of mankind has been bridged. Because of this, we are invited to join in God’s mission to make disciples of all nations (Matt 28:18-20) and to pray for labourers to go into the harvest fields (Matt 9:37-38).

It’s a terrifying thought that God has no Plan B, other than seeking to continue the mission of Jesus through His church by the power of the Holy Spirit. We are His answer; we are the means by which He seeks to pass on the message of salvation. There is no greater question than ‘who will go for us?’ May we, like Isaiah, be so filled with a vision of God that our response is the same as his: ‘Here am I. Send me.’

This morning we looked at Isaiah 6:1-8, a famous passage where Isaiah’s vision of God completely transforms him and where God’s questions to him become the springboard to his service for God.

Isaiah’s vision is of the Lord ‘high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.’ (Is 6:1) We too need a vision of the Lord as high and exalted, a vision of God as on the throne, ruling in power. Ps 11:9 reminds us of God’s sovereignty; a vision that we serve an eternal God and an eternal kingdom (Ps 145:13) is essential if we are to stand in a secular world which dismisses God as irrelevant and unnecessary. Isaiah’s vision was also of a holy God, and we need to grasp just how different God is to mankind. God’s holiness must be real to us, not so that we can be in despair (Is 6:5), but so that we can be transformed. The third aspect of Isaiah’s vision was that ‘the whole earth is full of his glory.’ (Is 6:3) We must understand life in relation to God, that God is at the centre of life so that we are kept from a false view of reality: ‘For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.’ (Hab 2:14) We desperately need this vision because the world tells us that God is irrelevant, not important and not worth mentioning, but the truth is so very different. It’s all about God, and when we see this, we are irrevocably changed.

There is a line in Rend Collective’s song ‘True North’ which says, ‘I will follow You into the dark, dark, dark.’ It’s a very jolly song, so the line slips into your consciousness without at first seeming incongruous, but of course, it’s a revolutionary notion. Jesus is the Light of the World (John 8:12) and the Bible spends so much time talking about God and light that the idea of following God into the dark seems almost blasphemous. The light shines in the darkness; the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5) Is it ever true that Christians must follow God into the darkness?

If we look at the whole story arc of Scripture, we will see that darkness is not antithetical to faith. Many saints have grappled with God in the darkness. Job spoke of ‘the place of no return, the land of gloom and utter darkness, the land of deepest night, of utter darkness and disorder, where even the light is like darkness.’ (Job 10:21-22) Jeremiah, living in the desperate times of defeat and exile, spoke of God making him walk in darkness rather than light (Lam 3:2) and said, ‘He has made me dwell in darkness like those long dead.’ (Lam 3:6) The psalmist said, ‘You crushed us and made us a haunt for jackals; you covered us over with deep darkness.’ (Ps 44:19) Heman the Ezrahite went so far as to say, ‘Darkness is my closest friend.’ (Ps 88:18)

These experiences of darkness are not, therefore, either unusual or to be feared. Most of us fear the darkness to some extent. It is disorientating, difficult to navigate and extremely tiring. Everything seems so much worse in the dark, as anyone who has lain awake at night fretting and worrying can testify. But Scripture reminds us that ‘even in darkness light dawns for the upright, for those who are gracious and compassionate and righteous.’ (Ps 112:4) We may be called to follow God into the dark at times; we may be living through tumultuous times when we simply do not know what is going to happen. Micah reminds us that ‘though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light.’ (Micah 7:8) We can still know the Light of the world in the midst of darkness; we can still fear no evil in the darkest valley. (Ps 23:4)

In our Bible study tonight, we continued looking at Amos, seeing how Amos brings warning of judgment to God’s people. As we have said before, with great privilege comes great responsibility, and the problem Israel faced was misusing their relationship with God as licence instead of living righteously before Him. The people abused their power, treating the poor with scorn (Amos 5:11), believing that their own righteousness and offerings were pleasing to God. God’s words to them are shocking, calling the women ‘cows of Bashan’ (Amos 4:1) and telling them He despised their religious festivals and worship (Amos 5:21-24). What God was interested in can be summed up in Amos 5:24: ‘But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.’

It’s all too easy to settle for the outward form of religion and worship; Jesus warned against the hypocrisy of the Pharisees who would pray on street corners and give ostentatiously. (Matt 6:5) In Luke 18:11-12, He contrasted the self-righteous attitude of the Pharisee with the simply humility of the tax collector; He spoke also about the widow’s offering being of more value than that given by those who were rich but did not really care about giving for the right reasons. (Mark 12:38-42) What God is looking for, however, is that inward humility of heart which hears God’s word and obeys it. Only when this happens can we avoid the judgment that is otherwise coming. We should not think judgment will always happen to ‘someone else’; instead, we should search our hearts and seek God.