Isaiah 6:11-13 – Be tenderhearted towards God

Imagine how Isaiah felt, he was told in advance that he would be speaking to an unresponsive audience. How more discouraging could it be? That was Isaiah’s situation. God told him in advance that his message would come against a blank wall. The people would hear but not understand nor perceive. And instead of being receptive would become callous and cold. It would seem like an exercise in futility. No wonder the prophet wanted to know how long he would have to do that. “How long, O Lord?” Isaiah asked. No one would like to be engaged in a fruitless task. More than just thinking about the duration of the fruitless exercise he had to be engaged in, Isaiah was perhaps wondering how long would the people harden against God? He wanted to know what was God’s objective? Would the people ever improve? Where would all this be heading towards? He wondered and so would we.

In verses 11-13 God responded to Isaiah. The land of Judah would be devastated and left without any inhabitant. Their houses would be depleted of people. Their men would be exiled in a faraway land. Left behind would be loads of forsaken land. However, even in His judgment, God was gracious. He was clearing the land for new growth. God promised a holy seed in its stump. There would be a remaining 10 percent of people that would be responsive to God. He was going to preserve a remnant of people that would respond to Him. This group would be set apart for His holy purpose.

How will we respond to God’s grace? In all that we see here, God was looking for responsive hearts. If only there was a positive response, all this could have been avoided. The holy seed that would emerge from the stump of course is Jesus Christ. Today, through Him God is still looking for responsive hearts, people who would seek to understand and know Him. The coming of Jesus Christ meant that the world now has a hope. Jesus came to bring back the purpose of God.

Can we make sense of what God is saying? The crux is this: a hardened heart is our own undoing. Nothing can be more destructive than a cold, dead, and unresponsive heart to the bidding of God. It behooves us to cultivate sensitivity to the leading of God. In the Christian walk, there are two guiding posts. Ephesians 4:30 warns us saying, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” And in 1 Thessalonians 5:19, we are told “not to quench the Spirit.” To grieve the Spirit is to do the things that He warns us not to do. And to quench the Spirit is the failure to do what God is leading us to do. We should always seek to obey God by neither grieving nor quenching His Spirit. God is looking at our hearts and seeing how we will respond to His guidance. Let us not allow our spirit to become callous, hardened, and unresponsive to God. We need to tenderize our hearts toward Him. Be sure to make time to do so!