If you’re living on an island, like I am, let’s enjoy together the privilege of being swept up in the final stage of the Great Commission – that’s from Isaiah’s point of view of course. It seems like God gave the great old prophet a veritable obsession with islands. They hadn’t been a big thing for the Israelites – they were often surrounded by sand, not water. But he mentions them 14 times, starting in the eleventh chapter and working his way through to the very end of his prophecy. What was the great attraction?

Isaiah had been overwhelmed by a publicity issue. He knew that:

(a) the only solution for Israel’s growing mountain of problems was to be given a suffering Messiah

(b) this Messiah solution would not be limited just to Jewish people but would also go as far as Gentiles – frankly, to the scum of the earth but

(c) there was no way this promotion work could be done in the foreseeable future.

He could feel the Holy Spirit pointing pointing pointing to the fact the there was no hurry, it would happen all in good time. But he couldn’t ever imagine the global circumstances that would allow the Messiah news to get much further than the Mediterranean coast.

At that stage the Lord pulled aside a little curtain in Isaiah’s head. The next thing he knew, Isaiah could see into the New Testament era[1]. He realised that he had just shot a message hundreds of years into the future. By that time, there would be the Pax Romana and the news could get to the back of beyond. And the local colloquialism for the ‘back of beyond’? – ‘reaching the islands’, those mysterious weird people, like you and me – and Ireland, so far from Israel. ‘The islands’ would be incorporated into the final fling of advancing the fame of the Messiah. Isaiah was now writing the last four inches of his scroll[2].

I’m not sure if the Lord revealed to him that his work would one day pique the interest of people like a high-ranking African civil servant, but I honestly believe that our dear friend Isaiah died happy.

Even you’re not on an island you can still feel just as special by answering these four questions:

1. Can you apply for a passport from your home country? A lot of Christians can’t. In their country the government thinks it’s odd to wander off somewhere else. If your answer is ‘yes’, you’re in a privileged minority of God’s people.

2. Does your country have ‘hard currency’ i.e. is it internationally recognised or do you have to pay for things with boxes of Marlboro cigarettes? If it’s ‘yes’ again to hard currency you are in an even smaller minority.

3. Do you have a third level education? There’s nothing to say it will make you a better missionary (after all, the first witnesses were ‘unschooled and ordinary men’[3]) but if you are going to learn other languages it could help you.

4. Do you have a world language? Well, I suppose if you’re reading this article you’ve got one of them. Maybe you have one of the others too – like Mandarin, French, Spanish – and more. If you answered with four ‘yes’s, you are in an elite that is exciting, solemn and historic. Check whether God may be calling you to spend your life finishing off the work of those Old Testament worthies[4] by helping to make Jesus known in every dark corner. Experience tells us this call of God is likely in your case. This elite is no holier than anyone else – just privileged by an opportunity to serve in the final fling.

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[1] I Peter 1:10-12

[2] Isaiah 66:19

[3] Acts 4:13

[4] Hebrews 11:40