He Gave Us Prophets: A Prophet’s JobSample

Isaiah as Covenant Emissary: Isaiah 6:1-8

The well-known story of Isaiah 6 illustrates the importance of this emissarial model very clearly. Though covenant is not mentioned explicitly in this chapter, the idea that prophets are covenant prosecutors — emissaries on the behalf of the great King — guides the whole presentation of Isaiah 6. In the first five verses, Isaiah received a vision. In this vision, he observed God in his heavenly throne room. In Isaiah 6:1, the prophet reported that he saw God 

… seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 

When confronted by the sight, Isaiah exclaimed, in verse 5: 

My eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.

This passage makes explicit how the prophet understood his God. God was the king of his people, the suzerain or the emperor who was high and exalted as Lord over all. The prophet had the privilege of entering into the presence of this divine suzerain. 

Even so, we have to ask why Isaiah was invited to see the glorious sight of God’s throne room. He recognized why immediately. Isaiah looked at the throne of his suzerain and said this in 6:5: 

Woe to me! ... I am ruined! I am man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips.

Isaiah had been summoned to the presence of the divine suzerain because serious, widespread sin had taken place in the vassal nation. This is the normal reason why prophets are called in the Old Testament. The people of God wander from being faithful to their covenant Lord, and so God calls on his prophets to prosecute the covenant.

In 6:6-7 a seraph approaches Isaiah and cleanses his lips with a burning coal. This cleansing makes it possible for Isaiah to serve God as his spokesman. Then in verses 8 through 13 Isaiah receives a commission to prosecute the covenant. In Isaiah 6:8 the Lord says: 

Whom shall I send? … who will go for us?

The Lord wants someone to be his emissary to Israel, and Isaiah replies in those well-known words: 

Here am I. Send me! 

Isaiah accepts his call as one who is sent from the great Suzerain to the vassal nation of Israel. The rest of the book of Isaiah illustrates how the prophet served in this function. He spoke to kings and other leaders and to the people. He condemned covenant violations and offered the hope of covenant blessings to the people of God. The pattern illustrated here in Isaiah 6 appears everywhere in Old Testament prophecy. Prophets were emissaries who bore messages from the great Suzerain on his heavenly throne, and they took those messages to his vassal nation, Israel.