TOPIC:“When God Makes A Man”
by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap
TEXT:Isaiah 6:1
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple”
God is always looking for a man that He can use. He is on the watch for one who would be usable in His service. During the days of Ahaz the King, God was looking for a special man to whom He could use to change the moral conditions which existed in Judah at that time.
The time was in demand for such a man. At this moment in Judah's history the people had religion without righteousness. A form of godliness but their hearts were corrupt. They had sacrifice without sanctity. God was on the search for one through whom He could offer forgiveness and preach repentance to the nation. He found a man by the name of Isaiah to fulfill this responsibility. Isaiah became the greatest of all the Old Testament prophets. And I want you to know that the role of a prophet was a difficult one. He spoke for God, confronting the people and their leaders with God's commands and promises. This was never a popular thing to do.
And Isaiah did the job! The whole history of Israel can only be understood in light of the life of Isaiah. His ministry extended over a period of about sixty years, possibly from 740 to 680 B.C. Is it any wonder that so many of the New Testament writers quote from Isaiah. No other Old Testament prophet is quoted more in the New Testament than Isaiah. Some fifty times in all.
Jesus Himself began and ended His public ministry with two direct quotations from Isaiah. At the beginning of His ministry in the temple He used words from Isaiah 61 when He declared: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor” (Luke 4:18). Then at the Last Supper with His disciples Jesus used words from Isaiah 53 when He prophesied about Himself: “He was numbered with the transgressors” (Mark 15:28).
John the Baptist commenced his public ministry with these words from Isaiah 40:3: “Prepare ye the way of the Lord” (Matthew 3:3). Not only that, but when Philip ministered to the Ethiopian he used these words from Isaiah 53:7: “He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his sheerer, so opened he not his mouth” (Acts 8:32).
You see, my friends, when any of the New Testament writers wanted to make mention of the birth, deity, ministry, death, and future millennial reign of Christ, they expressed it in none other than in the words of prophet Isaiah. No other prophet wrote with such majestic eloquence about the Suffering Servant as Isaiah . . .