Reading Isaiah 6 in the Context of Isaiah 1-12

The purpose of this article is to identify the literary function of Isaiah 6 in the context of Isaiah 1-12, which then will help us understand why Isaiah 6 is located there as a call narrative. For this task we need a close reading of Isaiah 6, a genre-based survey of the literary arrangement of Isaiah 1-12, and a research of the common themes, expressions, and vocabularies that Isaiah 6 and other parts of Isaiah 1-12 have. First of all, the account of Isaiah 6 serves in the context of chapters 1-12 to reinforce Isaiah's indictment against the people of Israel for the sin of not honoring Yahweh as their true king. Their sin was their blindness and deafness to the word of Yahweh their king (Isa 6:9-10), which resulted in their unrighteousness and injustice condemned by Yahweh in chapters 1 and 5. A typical case of this sin was the arrogant attitude of King Ahaz in chapter 7. Secondly, Isaiah 6 warrants Isaiah's declaration of the harsh judgments Yahweh is about to impose upon his people (Isa 2:6-4:1; 6:11-13). As a result the land and cities of Israel will become desolate and the people will go into exile, which will soon begin with the Assyrian invasion (Isa 7-8). Thirdly, Isaiah 6 validates Isaiah's announcement of the wonderful promises of Yahweh's future redemptive act. Isaiah's confession of his uncleanness and the forgiveness of his sins in Isaiah 6 provides Israel with the hope that they will come back to Yahweh from any circumstances of the judgment. The ‘holy seed’ in Isaiah 6:13 symbolizes the ‘remnant’ who, trusting Yahweh as their true king, will survive the harsh judgements (Isa 8:9-23; 10:20-34). The ‘holy seed’ also means that through the purification of judgement (Isa 2:1- 5; 4:2-6) Jerusalem will be restored as ‘the city of righteousness’ and ‘the faithful city’ (Isa 1:26), over which a righteous Dravidic king will reign in peace (Isa 9:1-7; 11:1-16). Thus, Isaiah 1-12 ends with a praise of Yahweh’s salvation(Isa 12).