Just as the Stumps Remain
(Isaiah 6:1ampsim13)
Pastor Seong Woo Kim
In todays passage, God says to us that there remain stumps in us, where everything seems ruined just as some stumps of hope grow in me thanks to the grace of God and the devotional effort of my spiritual community despite my sinful habit of judging others by appearance and my unclean lips. God asks us 'Who will go for us?' to the person we say 'He(she) is helpless.' God wants s to go to the stump and help it bud and bear the fruit of salvation. For this purpose, God does the following things.
1. God lets our King Uzziah die. We sometimes feel that time drags its feet in our life. Its the moment when our Uzziah dies that we face a giant overflow of suffering, when our sins are disclosed in detail, driving us into the swamp of shame, and when we feel suffocated with tears and resentment against the one who holds our circumstances. Ive been there! It was the moment when my father went to prison, leaving our house up for auction, when my mother walked out on us unable to stand my fathers drunken frenzy and cursing and when I was cornered in a three-party encounter with the women which revealed all my lies to them. That was the moment when I experienced the presence of death and the life beyond it, which Id have never experienced before. Thats the moment when God calls on us, the stumps for the salvation of his remnants. This moment occurred to me two weeks ago when my father, who lives alone in Daejeon, had a car accident. Every time I helped him move, I felt as if carrying my cross. When I got him into the wheelchair for his medical check-up, he shouted out in pain at every movement until he wet his pants, which really embarrassed me. To him, shouting is a way of communication. After being expelled from his first hospital for his extreme behavior, he was expelled over and over again even before having his blood test, urine test, Xray, ECG and his fracture operations. Finally, he was allowed to have surgery in the 5th hospital.
2. God shows us his temple-filling glory and our sins. What matters at this moment is where we are looking. We need to look at the Lord seated on a throne as in verse 1, not our circumstances. We need to turn away our eyes from what we see physically to the presence of God, His Word and the place of worship. That is the place where all worshippers cover their faces with their praying hands, take their crosses as their road, and burn their incense of trial, shouting 'Holy, holy, holy.' By crossing its threshold, we can live out our hardship and step forward to our mission. We need to cross over the threshold of our circumstances into our worship place. In that place filled with Gods glory, we need to listen to the testimonies of those who have survived their trials and sorrow, awakening our soul to see our sins. The proclamation 'Woe to me! I am ruined!' was not about what was going to occur but about what had already occurred. Only before the Word of God, can we respond to Gods calling by confessing our sins in our holy community just as the widow of Zarephath and Obadiah did. Through my fathers car accident, God drove me to say 'Woe to me! Im ruined' by reminding me how negligent I had been in paying for my fathers salvation. Thus God urged my unclean lips to utter this confession. Without the accident, I would never have brought my father to me or paid attention to him. Instead Id have condescended to him by sending some money. God didnt give up on my dad whom everybody has given up and asked 'Who will go for me?'
3. God lets us hear his sigh. We need to listen to Gods sigh today. We can hear the sigh when we see our sins and respond to his calling only with our confession 'Woe to me! Im ruined!' through which we will enjoy Gods grace of being forgiven our sins. God says to us today 'Whom shall I send? Who will go for me?' Actually, while I was sharing in my small group, Id made excuses not to bring my father near my place despite my proclamation of world evangelism. So God allowed me an honorable opportunity to do something practical for the salvation of my father. And God says it is 'for us,' which means for Him. As our senior pastor Kim says, God has trusted us with our problem family. Dont we try to avoid His calling by shunning them?
4. God leaves some stumps. Even though Ive obeyed Gods calling through the accident, Im still struggling with hardship. Its hard even to breathe. So I say 'For how long, O Lord?' God replies 'until everything is pulled down and utterly forsaken.' Every organ in my fathers body was messed up. Nevertheless, God says, 'even a tenth that remains in his body will be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump.' God says that the stumps are the holy seed! While driving to another hospital after being expelled from the first one, I asked my father, 'Dad! You might pass away tonight because of heart attack. Are you ready to go to the heavenly kingdom? He replied 'I can.' 'How?' I asked, 'Now that youve lost everything?' 'By faith!' said he. 'Faith? What do you believe?' I asked. 'His resurrection!' said he. 'Whose resurrection do you believe?' I asked. 'Jesus Christs!' said he. Thus God left the stumps in my father even though he had lost everything: his clever brain, handsome face, beautiful wife, property, and even his health. We should not give up on our seed. God urges no one but us today to let it bud and bear its fruit. Noticing our resolution to put this in practice, God sends us his angels and co-workers like Obadiah, who will help us. To put verse 13 in other words, it means 'The holy seed will bud right at the stump there.' God has made us his holy seeds after forgiving our sins by the touch of his live coal. Now its time for us to take the trouble to make the seed grow. To Gods calling, we need to devote our tears, prayer, serving, mourning, property and our time. Its surely hard to go to the person whom everybody has given up on. Thats why God says 'Who will go for us?' instead of saying 'You go!' God says that visiting the problem person who has pestered us is a way of serving Him.
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. (Is 6:13)
