Isaiah 6:1-8
One hundred years after Elijah, things were still on a downward spiral. The Northern Kingdom of Israel had one evil king followed by another, except Jehu. Eventually, the LORD used the Assyrians to discipline His people for their idolatry (2 Kings 17:7-23). In 722 B.C., God allowed the Assyrians to conquer and disperse the Israelites throughout the Assyrian empire (2 Kings 17:5-6). Keeping in practice with their foreign policies, the King of Assyria brought people in from other lands and settled them in the former Northern Kingdom (2 Kings 17:24). These new inhabitants continued to worship the gods of their homelands as well as Yahweh (2 Kings 17:29-34). Syncretism had officially taken root and would eventually lead to the tension between the Samaritans (descendants of marriages between Jews left in the land by Assyria and these newly imported immigrants) and the Jews during Jesus’ day.
Moving south to Judah, the Southern Kingdom, we see they don’t fare much better. They had a mixture of good and bad rulers before arriving at these four kings: Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah. Uzziah and Jotham were good kings, but they did not destroy the high places, allowing syncretism to continue in the land. Ahaz was an evil king and sacrificed his son by fire to Baal. Hezekiah trusted the Lord and destroyed the high places; he was a godly king. Combined, these four kings served from 792 to 686 BC. The prophets Amos, Hosea, Micah, and Isaiah proclaimed God’s messages to His people during these decades. Our journey through the Bible’s main storyline will come from the book of Isaiah for the next two weeks. This week will focus on God’s holiness, and next week, God’s Suffering Servant, who would meet the demands of God’s holiness and make those who believe and receive in Him holy as well.
I’ve watched news coverage showing the aftermath of floods, wildfires, mudslides, earthquakes, tornadoes, and volcanic eruptions. I can understand the power of the natural phenomena that caused the wreckage by watching such news reporting. However, when my family and I vacationed on the Outer Banks of North Carolina after Hurricane Irene came through in 2011, I was in awe of the power of the elements of nature that changed the landscape. The storm surge caused by the category one hurricane cut two new inlets through Pea Island and shut down the only highway on the island chain. That year, my family and I had to take the ferry to gain access to the island. Once on the island, I saw crumbled roads, crinkled structures, eroded beaches, remains of homes in the surf and the sound, and mountains of piled debris on the curb for pickup with cleanup efforts underway. You can see some of the pictures here. It is one thing to see a pile of rubble on your device’s screen, and it’s another experience to stand beside a flattened and twisted gas station and see people struggling to salvage anything of value from their homes and businesses. You feel empathy that you cannot feel by looking at pictures or videos on a screen. But, you also feel a fear and awe of the power of the storm that was where you are a few short weeks prior, and your helplessness in light of that might demonstrated.
Our Scripture focus this week is Isaiah 6:1-8. It has to be one of the most powerful passages of Scripture, period. In these short verses, Isaiah finds himself in the presence of the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, the One not only more powerful than His creation but also the One Who is holy, holy, holy, which is infinitely more frightful than the most influential act of nature we could experience! In this passage, we will see what it means for God to be holy and what His holiness means for our lives.
God reveals His holiness to Isaiah.
It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.2 Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” 4 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. (Isaiah 6:1-4)
The book of Isaiah begins with chapters full of God’s promised judgment on His people, Israel and Judah. All of chapter five is a funeral song for Israel and Judah. One may wonder why God would discipline His people in such a powerful and destructive way! Knowing that many, myself included, would ponder this question, He powerfully reveals Himself to His prophet and, by doing so, to us today.
King Uzziah ruled the Southern Kingdom for 50 years. His reign was a demonstration of God’s grace to the nation. However, uncertainty arose with the beloved king’s passing in 740 BC. The Lord reminded His servant that there is a sovereign above every earthly authority that controls everything, causing Isaiah to see Him sitting high on His throne. The Lord is seated, not pacing in a panic but calm and in complete control. Because the Lord is king of all the earth (Psalm 47:1), we may be at peace no matter the national or personal uncertainty we experience, knowing that God is sovereign and on His throne.
Around the Lord and His throne, we see angels known as Seraphim. Seraphim means “burning ones.” As best as humanly possible, Isaiah describes these angels as fire, burning brightly. These angels are also mighty, as their words, when spoken, shake the foundations of the heavenly temple. We see that these celestial beings have six wings. With two wings, they fly, but with the other four, they cover their faces and feet. Why do these angels cover their faces and their feet? After all, these are holy angels. They are holy because they are separate from sin, yet even they dare not look at the One on the throne! Why? The answer is found in what they proclaim to one another and to all who can hear.
These beings cry,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies!
The whole earth is filled with his glory!”
Holiness is God’s only attribute or characteristic repeated three times in a row in the Bible. Since it is the only one of God’s attributes emphasized in such a way, what does it mean for God to be holy? God is holy because He is separate from sin; He is sinless and unable to sin (Habakkuk 1:13). God being holy also means He is in a league all by Himself! There is no one like Him! No one comes close to Him (1 Samuel 2:2; Isaiah 40:25; Hosea 11:9)! He is infinitely above all His creation, including these holy angels. Their Creator’s complete otherness is why they dare not gaze upon Him! He is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies; these angels, as well as the rest, are under His command; they are His messengers (Hebrews 1:14).
I think of holiness as God’s operational system from which all His other attributes operate. His love is holy. His grace is holy. His mercy is holy. His judgment is holy. In other words, as God demonstrates His holiness through these attributes, He does so with absolute holiness and perfection. Thus, His message of coming judgment on His people because of their sin is justified because He is holy in all He does and because His sinless perfection also demands judgment on sin.
God’s holiness reveals Isaiah’s sinfulness.
The clearer we see God for who He is, a holy God, the clearer we see ourselves for who we are: rebellious sinners needing help. Need proof? Look at Isaiah’s response after seeing the Lord high and lifted up.
Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” (Isaiah 6:5)
Isaiah believed he was done for! He was about to be struck dead because he was in the presence of the LORD. After all, the holy seraphim dared not look at their holy, holy, holy Creator, and his own eyes had beheld the splendor of the King of kings, and he was a sinful man instead of a holy angel. Depending on your version, it may say, “Woe is me.” If so, the connection to the funeral song about God’s people in Isaiah 5 might be easier to connect for you. However, things are translated in your preferred version of study; the wording of Isaiah 6:5 tells us that Isaiah believes he is done for, that his presence before His holy God as a sinful man meant it was time for his funeral.
Isaiah confesses that he has filthy lips. Jesus later taught that our lips or words reveal what is in our hearts (Luke 6:45). Isaiah admits that he is a sinner through and through. The prophet also says that he is part of a people, of a nation who also has unclean lips, which indicate their rebellious and idolatrous hearts (Matthew 17:34-40; Luke 6:45). This man is humbled before the Holy One of Israel and acknowledges His judgment on him and his fellow compatriots’s sin is justified because of God’s holiness and their sinfulness. If we believe that the sin in our lives isn’t a big deal to God, we find ourselves believing in a different God than the one in Isaiah’s vision and the rest of Scripture. Our God commands us to be holy just as He is (1 Peter 1:16), leading us to our final thought this week.
After God’s holiness revealed Isaiah’s sinfulness, it revealed his need for cleansing.
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” 8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” (Isaiah 6:6-8)
After Isaiah confesses his sinfulness, he also mentions God’s grace and mercy. We didn’t say it earlier, but Isaiah states that he had seen the Lord and lived. As a priest, Isaiah understood the requirements that needed to be fulfilled by the High Priest to enter into the Holy of Holies, where God’s presence dwelt. Isaiah also knew how serious a matter it was to enter into His presence because of the need to tie a bell and rope around the High Priest in case he went through the ceremonial requirements superficially; someone would need to pull his lifeless body from the sacred room. Seeing God’s perfect righteousness, Isaiah undoubtedly knew he was unrighteous and needed cleansing. Despite his known sinfulness, Isaiah realized the kindness the LORD had shown to him by not burying him on the spot.
In verse six, we see God providing a cleansing work on Isaiah’s behalf and a vivid picture of our God’s kindness. After Isaiah confesses his sins, God cleanses him from his sins. The same is true for us today (1 John 1:9). However, the act of cleansing is dramatically alive in these verses. One of the burning Seraphim removes a burning coal from the blazing altar of the Lord. He then touches Isaiah’s lips and proclaims that his guilt was removed and his sins were forgiven! This scene parallels the sacrifices needed to enter the temple. A sacrifice was required to make God’s purifying work possible in Isaiah’s life.
To experience God’s cleansing work in our lives, we, too, needed a sacrifice to be offered on our behalf. The sacrifice made for us wasn’t an animal, but God’s Son, the One John the Baptist called the Lamb of God (John 1:29). Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross as a pure and spotless lamb and was consumed by God’s fiery holy judgment for my sin, for your sin. When we see Jesus for who He is, God in the flesh (John 1:1, 14; Colossians 1:16), we can see how short we fall from God’s perfect, sinless standard and, like Isaiah, confess our sins to this holy God. God has revealed His holiness and our sinfulness to us through Jesus. As a result of our confessing sin and belief in Jesus, we too are cleansed and made right with God from that moment on for all eternity (Hebrews 10:14)!
After experiencing God’s work on his behalf, Isaiah now hears a call from the throne. Who will proclaim his messages to His people on the Lord’s behalf? Amid many heavenly messengers, Isaiah says, “Here am I, send me.” But how could he not go after experiencing His God’s power, glory, grace, and cleansing power? He was not only compelled to go and be God’s servant because of what he had just experienced, but he was also able to be used by God because of what he had just experienced, the cleansing of his sin. I heard another pastor say that God will not use a vessel on which he cannot put His hand. Suppose we desire to be used by God. In that case, we must become disciplined in confessing our sins to God and pursuing Christlikeness (2 Timothy 2:21). Still, we can only be successful in this practice if we allow Isaiah’s throne room vision to shape our understanding of God.
My prayer for us today is,
Father, thank you for revealing your holiness, our sinfulness, and our need for cleansing in Isaiah 6 and the life of Jesus, the One who is sitting on the throne in this vision (John 12:41). I pray that we would allow Your Spirit and Your Word to give us more and more clarity of who you are, of your holiness so that we may live rightly with you and with others. Father, I pray for those who may be far from you at this point in their lives; I pray that you would allow the truths in Your Word to bring them into a right relationship with You today. Amen.
Do you feel like Isaiah did in these verses? If so, confess your sins to God, experience the removal of your guilt, and receive forgiveness. Want to know more about how to do this? Click on the image below and watch the video.
Do you feel the need to worship this Holy God of Isaiah 6? I came across these songs and found them helpful in worshipping and responding to our Holy God.
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