The Call to Preach

Isaiah 6:8-10
(8) And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."
(9) And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'
(10) Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."

I just heard a lecture on this and it came up in my reading, so I thought I'd comment. A lot of folks like to quote this chapter. It shows us how we go from being in sin to the command to preach. We see Isaiah's willingness to go out and preach.

However, what often does not get mentioned is how God tells Isaiah the people will react. The people are not going to embrace his message, but he has to go and preach it. That's what he signed up for.

I think this should serve as something of an encouragement in what would otherwise be discouraging circumstances. It is God who opens the ears and hearts of the people. All we can do is preach. We can't let numbers be the measure of our effectiveness. Instead, we need to look at how faithful we are to the call to preach.