THE PROPHET OF THE LORD
Isaiah 1:1. The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
I. The nature of the prophet’s endowment: a “vision” into the very heart of things, a power of distinguishing between the seeming and the real.
II. The sadness and the joy of the prophet’s life: sadness arising from his “vision” of human sin (Isaiah 1:2-15); joy arising from his “vision” of the wondrousness of the Divine mercy (Isaiah 1:18).
Application.—
1. In these latter days the prophetic endowment, to a greater or lesser extent, is possessed by all God’s people (1 John 2:20).
2. The Church should pray that it may be possessed to the fullest extent by all who are called to minister in holy things. Prophets of clear and penetrating “vision” are among the greatest gifts which God can confer upon the Church [126]
3. This great endowment must be used not merely for the detection and exposure of human sin, lest we become cynical and inhuman, but also for the discovery of the abounding evidence of the Divine compassion (as in Isaiah 1:9), that we may be brought into more perfect sympathy with Him who hates sin but desires and seeks to save the sinner.
[126] A preacher who is not in some way a seer is not a preacher at all. You can never make people see religious realities by correct definitions. They will not believe in the reality of God on the word of a man who merely demonstrates it to them. You must see such things yourself if you are going to help others to see them. This is the secret of all the preaching that ever was good since preaching began.—Beecher.