Isaiah 8:16-17 English Standard Version

¹⁶ Bind up the testimony; seal the teaching among my disciples. ¹⁷ I will wait for the Lord, who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob, and I will hope in him.

We are so blessed to be born in a time where much that has been foretold has happened. We are blessed to not only see the timing and the events, but we get to see His face.

People that lived in those times got to see Jesus face to face but few saw Him for who He was, the holy offspring, Emmanuel, God with us. Then His commission was complete that was spoken of by Isaiah and they saw Him no more.

We are so blessed to have never seen the face of the man and have come to know Him in His finished work. We did not suffer His death as they did, without seeing His glory unleashed. We see it from the position of His finished work. We are blessed by all the witnesses that came before us to show us His glory in man.

Hebrews 12:1-2 English Standard Version

Jesus, Founder and Perfecter of Our Faith

¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

See “let us also”, as a clear sign that we are not alone and we will never be alone again. Much of what we are is because of those who came before us, that great cloud of witnesses. It is easy to get caught up in the struggle that comes with new birth that we feel like we are on our own.

We are not.

Isaiah 6:10-13 English Standard Version

¹⁰ Make the heart of this people dull,^[fat] and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.”
¹¹ Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said: “Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste,
¹² and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
¹³ And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned^[purged] again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled.” The holy seed^[offspring] is its stump.

This section of Isaiah 6 is entitled Isaiah’s commission from the Lord. These words are only the leading edge of his commission and is not the whole commission. It is a preamble. It sets the conditions that must be met before any meaning can be obtained for the reader.

Isaiah 7:8-9 English Standard Version

⁸ For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin. And within sixty-five years Ephraim will be shattered from being a people.
⁹ And the head of Ephraim is Samaria, and the head of Samaria is the son of Remaliah. If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all.’”

What is a commission without timing? What is spoken has a relationship in time so that those involved might see what is being done in their presence.

Isaiah 7:13-14 English Standard Version

¹³ And he^[Isaiah] said, “Hear then, O house of David! Is it too little for you to weary men, that you weary my God also? ¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.^{[God with us]}

They did not hear, nor did they see, but we see.