Isaiah’s Commission

 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.”

(Isaiah 6:1-7)

 

Every Symbol in Isaiah’s Vision of God is significant. In the first chapters of Isaiah we learn that Israel had become too complacent in its security to heed the warnings of God and too corrupted in its prosperity to escape the wrath of God. Not only that, but Uzziah, a good king for 52 years, had become arrogant, profaned the temple, contracted leprosy, and died in shame.

In Isaiah 6 we see Isaiah focus, not on Israel’s relationship with God, or Uzziah’s relationship with God, but rather on his own personal relationship with God. Here Isaiah sees a vision of the Lord, and God is so holy. Even the seraphim cannot look directly into the face of God, they cover their eyes with their wings. Isaiah recognized his own sin. When we see ourselves in the presence of the Lord we see ourselves for who we are. Isaiah confessed his sin and the Lord purged him of it.

God is Sovereign and Holy. But sovereignty is not the primary revelation of God’s Character in Isaiah’s vision. First and foremost, it is the holiness of the Lord that Isaiah senses. Sovereignty is the powerful nature of God; holiness is the moral character of God. He is pure, He is complete, He is whole.

JESUS LOVES YOU!

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