Meditation No. 13

Meditation Title: A Holy Seed

Isa 6:13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

From American TV and subsequently British TV, a particular TV programme arose where week by week we, the watching audience, waited with bated breath for those final words, “You're fired!” The Apprentice came for many to be compulsive watching. A group of young hopefuls vied, week by week, to see who would survive the task of the week. Fighting it out in two teams, the losing team had to appear in the boardroom and one of them would be fired. The loser paid the price of exit from the programme and from the possibility of being hired as the great man's apprentice on a high salary. We liked to see the winners but we also liked to see those who didn't measure up to the stress and strain of the programme be cast out. The programme reinforced what we knew deep down, there is no hope for losers.

When Judah and Jerusalem faced the Lord, they were found wanting. Isaiah was commissioned to go and speak to them but in such a way that only the few whose hearts were inclined towards the Lord would hear and understand. It is a strange commission that he is given: “Go and tell this people: "Be ever hearing, but never understanding; Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes.” (6:9,10) Indeed it is only the seeker after the Lord who will understand these words. The sceptic will simply write them off as folly. But the fact that you are here, reading these words, suggests you are a seeker, so what do they say to us? To understand them we need to look elsewhere at Scripture which will act as a key to what we find here.

When Moses approached Pharaoh, the Lord had warned him that He would harden Pharaoh's heart: “ The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt , see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go.” (Ex 4:21) and indeed he repeated it before the first plague: “You are to say everything I command you, and your brother Aaron is to tell Pharaoh to let the Israelites go out of his country. But I will harden Pharaoh's heart , and though I multiply my miraculous signs and wonders in Egypt , he will not listen to you.” (Ex 7:2,3). However when it happened, we find, “Yet Pharaoh's heart became hard and he would not listen to them, just as the LORD had said.” (Ex 7:13).

If that wasn't clear enough, when the second plague occurs we read, “But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart and would not listen to Moses and Aaron, just as the LORD had said.” (Ex 8:15) and after the third plague, “The magicians said to Pharaoh, "This is the finger of God." But Pharaoh's heart was hard and he would not listen, just as the LORD had said.” (Ex 8:19), and then after the fourth plague, “But this time also Pharaoh hardened his heart and would not let the people go,” (Ex 8:32) and so on. Eventually before the eighth plague the Lord said to Moses, “Go to Pharaoh, for I have hardened his heart and the hearts of his officials so that I may perform these miraculous signs of mine among them that you may tell your children and grandchildren how I dealt harshly with the Egyptians and how I performed my signs among them, and that you may know that I am the LORD.” (Ex 10:1,2) [‘harshly' here simply means strongly] Thus we find, because Pharaoh started out with a hard heart, every time God's word came directly to him, challenging his pride, it only served to harden his heart further and further.

What we find here is a spiritual principle: where a people's hearts are set against the Lord (and He knows they will not change for the better), the Lord only speaks to them in a way that confirms them in their hardness. Thus now Isaiah would speak directly to this people, not in any persuasive or logical way, but directly confronting their sin and warning them of the outcome, and this would only produce an arrogant indifference or apathy in them so they would hear but not understand, and see yet not see the reality, for their hearts would be hard or calloused so they cannot see and respond; instead they simply reveal the hardness and stupidity of their hearts and be taken away. Now that how the Lord is speaking through Isaiah, so that the foolish hearts of Israel are revealed and the judgment seen as just.

Now that seems a pretty hopeless scenario; the nation is doomed! Indeed Isaiah is to continue speaking it as it is and directly confronting them, “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.” (6:11,12) Again, that looks like this is the end of the nation. Their folly and heard hearts have brought it on themselves. Indeed it goes on and on and sounds worse and worse: “And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste.” (6:13a). In other words even if God spares 1 in 10, yet His purging hand will come yet again. There is obviously no hope. This is utterly devastating, it must be the end. But wait, listen: “But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.” (6:13b). Even as when trees are cut down, they leave a stump, when Judah is ‘cut down' there will still be a stump left that will sprout and grow again. God ISN'T going to totally wipe them out!

There are going to be a remnant out of which the “holy seed” of the stump will spring into life, the seed that comes from God, will appear. In chapter 11 he is called a shoot and he will be the Messiah. Despite all this nation has done, God has not given up and He will still achieve His purposes through them and One will come through them who will be a light to the world. Just as God had wanted Israel to be a light to the world, so now this single one will appear in the remnant nation and be the light to the world (Jn 1:9, 8:12)

God does not give up on us. He looks for those whose hearts are inclined toward Him, even if they get it wrong from time to time. As long as our hearts are turned in His direction, when we fail He never says, “You're fired” and He doesn't cast us out. Those He can work with, even though they are imperfect, and He will bless and bless again and use. How wonderful!