God’s Care for His Work by Ellen G. White (1889)

It was under circumstances of difficulty and discouragement that Isaiah, while yet a young man, was called to the prophetic mission. Disaster was threatening his country. By their transgression of God’s law the people of Judah had forfeited his protection, and the Assyrian forces were about to come against the kingdom of Judah. But the danger from their enemies was not the greatest trouble. It was the perversity of the people that brought upon the Lord’s servant the deepest depression. By their apostasy and rebellion they were inviting the judgments of God. The youthful prophet had been called to bear to them a message of warning, and he knew that he would meet with obstinate resistance. He trembled as he viewed himself, and thought of the stubbornness and unbelief of the people for whom he was to labor. His task seemed to him almost hopeless. Should he in despair relinquish his mission, and leave Israel undisturbed to their idolatry? Were the gods of Nineveh to rule the earth, in defiance of the God of heaven?Such thoughts as these were crowding upon his mind as he stood under the portico of the holy temple. Suddenly the gate and the inner vail of the temple seemed to be uplifted or withdrawn, and he was permitted to gaze within, upon the holy of holies, where even the prophet’s feet might not enter. There rose up before him a vision of Jehovah sitting upon a throne high and lifted up, while his train filled the temple. On each side the throne hovered the seraphim, two wings bearing them up, two veiling their faces in adoration, and two covering their feet. These angel ministers lifted up their voices in solemn invocation, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory,” until post and pillar and cedar gate seemed to tremble at the sound, and the house was filled with their praise.Never before had Isaiah realized so fully the greatness of Jehovah or his perfect holiness; and he felt that in his human frailty and unworthiness he must perish in that divine presence. “Woe is me!” he cried; “for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” But a seraph came to him, to fit him for his great mission. A living coal from the altar was laid upon his lips, with the words, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” And when the voice of God was heard saying, “Whom shall I send? and who will go for us?” Isaiah with holy confidence responded, “Here am I; send me.”What though earthly powers should be arrayed against Judah? What though Isaiah should meet with opposition and resistance in his mission? He had seen the King, the Lord of hosts; he had heard the song of the seraphim, “The whole earth is full of his glory;” and the prophet was nerved for the work before him. The memory of this vision was carried with him throughout his long and arduous mission.Ezekiel, the mourning exile prophet, in the land of the Chaldeans, was given a vision teaching the same lesson of faith in the mighty God of Israel. As he was upon the banks of the river Chebar, a whirlwind seemed to come from the north, “a great cloud, and a fire infolding itself; and a brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber.” A number of wheels of strange appearance, intersecting one another, were moved by four living creatures. High above all these was “the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.” “As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps; it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.” “And there appeared in the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under their wings.”There were wheels within wheels, in an arrangement so complicated that at first sight they appeared to Ezekiel to be all in confusion. But when they moved, it was with beautiful exactness, and in perfect harmony. Heavenly beings were impelling these wheels, and above all, upon the glorious sapphire throne, was the Eternal One; while round about the throne was the encircling rainbow, emblem of grace and love. Overpowered by the terrible glory of the scene, Ezekiel fell upon his face, when a voice bade him arise, and hear the word of the Lord. Then there was given him a message of warning for Israel.This vision was given to Ezekiel at a time when his mind was filled with gloomy forebodings. He saw the land of his fathers lying desolate. The city that was once full of people was no longer inhabited. The voice of mirth and the song of praise were no more heard within her walls. The prophet himself was a stranger in a strange land, where boundless ambition and savage ...