Will You Go?

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

(Isaiah 6:8 NIV)

Prior to this Isaiah had cried, “Woe to me!”… “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty” (Isaiah 6:5). So what made sinful Isaiah willing to serve a holy God? “Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” (vv.6-7). Once Isaiah’s guilt was taken away and his sin was atoned for, he was able and ready to serve God. We often tend to stop at the part where we realize our sinfulness and think that we’re unfit to serve God. However, what we don’t realize is that the people God chooses aren’t without faults, and that it’s His job to take away our sin and guilt, so that we, too, can say without reservation, “Here am I. Send me!”

Holy God makes it possible for sinful people to serve Him.