A High and Holy Calling
For some months I have been writing about the calling of pastors to the Gospel Ministry. I have saved this topic for last because I think it explains a lot about the way we, both pastors and the people they lead and serve, view calling. But I have been somewhat hesitant to write about it because it might come across to some as self-serving or arrogant.
Nevertheless, I believe that when a person answers the call of God to serve as a pastor-shepherd of his people for the sake of the Gospel, he answers a high and holy call. At the first sound of those words, it might seem as if the one called has assumed an elite, elevated, and exalted position of rank and station among God’s people. But this is not how I see it.
When I think of God’s calling as high and holy, I think of it as a reflection of the One who calls, not the one called. It’s more about who God is than who we are. There is probably no greater example of this idea of calling than the one we find in Isaiah 6 in which Isaiah gives the personal account of his vision of God and his call as a prophet of the Lord to the people of Judah.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “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.”
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.”
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 6:1-8)
In Isaiah’s vision of God, he describes him as “high and exalted, seated on a throne.” Human language struggles to capture the indescribable transcendence of the King of the Cosmos. Strange heavenly beings called seraphim called to one another, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”
Throughout the Scriptures, the One True God is called “The Most High God” or “God Most High”, or simply “The Most High.” This way of understanding the nature and character of God is that he reigns above his own creation and remains forever unchanged and unmoved by any lesser powers, including lesser so-called gods or human beings. The psalmist declares,” For you, Lord, are the Most High over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods” (Psalm 97:9).
In Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus, we learn how Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel who told her that she would “conceive and give birth to a son.” He tells her, “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High.” Mary didn’t understand. So, Gabriel explains. “The Holy Spirit will come on you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Mary’s response is instructive. “I am the Lord’s servant. May your word to me be fulfilled” (Luke 1:38).
Isaiah’s calling was transformative. Everything about it was revealing, even his “unclean lips,” which the Lord graciously atoned for. Then, he heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” At that point, Isaiah, like Mary, answered the high and holy call of God: “Here am I. Send me!”