“RESPONDING TO GOD’S HOLINESS.” ISAIAH 6: 1-13
ISAIAH 6: 1-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8, 9-10, 11-13.
PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO ISAIAH 6.
To know God better we must be aware of His holiness and his demands upon us. Rev. 15: 4 says, “Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? For thou art holy.” In Scripture He is frequently styled “The Holy One:” He is so because the sum of all moral excelling found in Him. He is absolutely purity, unsullied even by the shadow of sin.
1 John 1:5 says, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” Ex. 15:11 reads, “Who is like you, O Lord, ---Who is like you in glorious holiness.” “Power is God’s hand or arm, Omniscience His eye, mercy His bowels, eternity His duration, but holiness is His beauty.”
The belief that there is a holy God to whom all people will one day answer is considered a myth by some, religious fanaticism by others, and just a cruel joke by others. But this is what the Bible teaches about the one true God. Christians must constantly be aware that God is holy and makes demands on people’s lives. God’s holiness is multifaceted and includes judgments against those who reject or ignore His message and calls for those who know Him to serve Him.
A correct understanding of biblical holiness provides spiritual nourishment for God’s saints and should help them serve Christ more fervently. Holiness is closely related to the N.T. doctrine of sanctification, the process by which the child of God becomes more and more like Him.
The words “holy” and “righteous” in the Bible are related but they are not identical. The word righteous means to live by an upright standard but the word Holy means to be separate or set apart.
God’s standard has always been holiness. Isaiah discovered we must deal with our sins because sin separates us from holy God. During this week of Sept. 12, our study of Isaiah 6 will reveal how Isaiah accepted holiness for his life, and how he understood God could not spare Israel if the nation lacked holiness.
PLEASE READ ISAIAH 6: 1-3.
The Book of Isaiah is generally acknowledged to be the greatest of the O.T. prophetic books. It contains not only some of Israel’s best literature; it also presents Israelite faith in its most profound expression. It deserves to be ranked as one of the greatest books ever written.
Isaiah’s call to be a prophet took place in the year that King Uzziah died. Tradition suggests that Isaiah’s father Amoz was a brother to King Amaziah of Judah. If true, this would have made Isaiah a cousin of King Uzziah. Isaiah would also have been a cousin of Uzziah’s successors—Kings Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
Isaiah dated his vision of the Lord (and thus his call to ministry) to the year that King Uzziah died. This occurred about 740 B.C. after the king’s long illness, one caused by improper offering of incense in the temple. It is somewhat ironic, that Isaiah witnessed God’s holiness in the very place where Uzziah failed to acknowledge that holiness.
The fact that the vision occurred following Uzziah’s death is also significant for it suggests that true holiness is not to be found in people—even godly kings like Uzziah—but only in God. It may have been important for the prophet to take his eyes off human potentates so that he could more fully appreciate the majesty of his God.
The death of a long-tenured leader probably left Isaiah grieving and seeking answers. Uzziah was also called Azariah. He reigned 52 years and for the most part did what was right in the sight of God. The years of Uzziah’s reign were good years in Judah. Judah had known no king like Uzziah since the time of Solomon. He had been an efficient administrator and an able military leader. Under his leadership Judah had grown in every way. He had been a true king. How easy it must have been to focus one’s hopes and trust upon a king like that.
When a popular leader dies, the national crisis creates a personal crisis in the hearts and lives of individuals. In our nation’s history, this has happened when leaders have been assassinated—leaders such as Lincoln and Kennedy. Many people felt such a crisis when Franklin Roosevelt died after being elected president four times and serving during the Great Depression and World War II. Such times sometimes cause people to turn to the eternal God. It seems to have been what happened to Isaiah when Uzziah died.
Another factor may have been that Isaiah felt disappointment in Uzziah. Apparently late in life Uzziah became a leper after presuming to perform a ceremony that only a priest was authorized to do. He burned incense in the temple. Therefore Uzziah spent the rest of his life as a leper.
The date of Uzziah’s death was about 740 B.C. This was a time in Judah’s history when the Assyrians were beginning to threaten other nations. Indeed, Assyria conquered the Northern Kingdom of Israel and unsuccessfully attacked Jerusalem during Isaiah’s ministry.
Thus three factors may have affected Isaiah’s emotions and made him open to what happened in Isaiah 6: the death of a long-reigning king, Uzziah’s sin and leprosy, and the Assyrian threat. Uzziah’s death reminded Isaiah that all kings are mortals: Uzziah’s sin showed Isaiah that even a good king could fall into sin: and the Assyrian power led Isaiah to see that such enemies could be overcome only by divine power. All this likely led Isaiah to realize that he needed a different kind of King.
In last Sunday’s lesson we noted that Exodus 33:20 says that no one can see God and live. Yet here vs.1 says, “Isaiah saw…the Lord.” Like others who are said to have seen God, Isaiah did not see the full glory of God. However, he saw what God chose to reveal to him in this crisis of his life. He saw the Lord in ways that depicted the Lord’s sovereignty over all things. The Lord was sitting upon a throne as kings do. He was high and lifted up. The robe or garment He wore was so large that its train filled the temple. Like other visions of God recorded in the Bible, the Lord’s face and form are not described.
Most scholars agree that Isaiah saw the Lord in a vision and not with his physical eyes since Isaiah was not a priest and would not have had access to the interior of the temple. Nonetheless, Isaiah saw the Lord, and He was on a high and lofty throne.
This experience generally is called a vision. The setting in the vision was the temple, and many believe that Isaiah had this vision of God while he was actually in the temple. Isaiah no doubt had been in the temple many times, but only on this day did he have such a deep spiritual experience.
Two people can be seated side by side in a place of worship. One can have a transforming experience with God while the other just goes through the motions. What creates such different responses to the same sights and sounds? Often only one of the two is seeking God and open to His revelation.
In Solomon’s temple the mercy seat in the holy of holies was viewed as God’s throne. It was the cover (or lid) for the Ark of the Covenant in which the tablets of the Ten Commandments were kept. The outspread wings of two cherubim facing each other were on top of the mercy seat. The throne in Isaiah’s vision is different since the robe of the Lord (train of His robe) spread beyond the holy of holies to fill the entire temple. This may indicate that the temple in Isaiah’s vision is not Solomon’s but the heavenly one---Solomon’s being a replica. The heavenly Temple is described in Rev. 4: 1-8.
Isaiah was particularly impressed by creatures he called seraphims, not cherubims. The brief description of them fails to describe them completely. Stood does not mean they were standing on the ground, for each one had six wings, two of which were used to fly. They were above the throne, apparently hovering there. One cried unto another means “they were calling to one another.” We know little about these creatures. Two features stand out: voice and wings. Thus they were ready for praise and/or service.
They were standing, always ready to carry out their appointed tasks. Their six wings are indicative of their roles and responsibilities. With two they covered their faces so as not to look on the unveiled glory of God. Even heavenly beings are not able or qualified to see Him fully. Two wings covered their feet, perhaps reflecting the ancient display of modesty. With the other two wings they flew, suggesting their readiness to carry out the Lord’s bidding. This anticipates Isaiah’s own understanding that an encounter with the holiness of God must result in service to Him.
Their cry was what is striking about them—Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts. Holy emphasizes God as distinctive from His creation, and it reveals the moral character of God. It can hardly be doubted that this experience accounts for the common title for God in Isaiah, “The Holy One of Israel or Jacob”, occurring 26 times here and only six times elsewhere. The temple was where God’s presence was signified, but no building could confine the creator. The whole earth is full of His glory! The seraphim and their cries of praise are proper responses to the Holy God.
Holy, Holy, Holy, they said, as though exalting each Person of the Trinity---the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. With this cry they drew attention both to God’s distinctness from His creation and to the perfection of His character. He is addressed here as the Lord of Hosts, the Lord Almighty.
Of all the epithets affixed to the name of God we find Holy more than any other, as it is the greatest title of honor. God Himself singles out this perfection. In Ps. 89:35 He says, “Once have I sworn by my holiness.”
Of all the attributes which men ascribe to the God they worship, none is more fundamental to the act of worship than that of holiness. But holiness is not a word whose meaning we may easily define. There is a proverb from India which says, “Religious is the man to whom something is holy.”
The God we worship, whatever else He may be, is in the first place Holy. To declare that God is holy is not merely a statement of what God is not, but an affirmation of what He truly is.
The Lord of Hosts is an epithet descriptive of His sovereignty. Hosts refers in general, to military entities, but when used as a divine title it has the angels of heaven in mind. God is commander of the armies of heaven, and in this role he displays His glory
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The seraphim exclaimed that the Lord’s glory fills the whole earth, just as God’s robe filled the temple. He is not just the Lord of the heavens but also the sovereign of all creation. His transcendence is balanced by His immanence. The God who is so holy that even the seraphim cannot look upon Him nonetheless condescends to display His glory among the lowliest of His creatures. We must stand in awe at the majesty of our God, but we should also rejoice that we have access to Him and that He desires our fellowship and service.
PLEASE READ ISAIAH 6: 4-5.
Vs. 4 continues the description of Isaiah’s vision of what happened in the temple. So powerful were the glory of God and the praises rendered to Him by the seraphim that the very foundations of the doorways to the temple began to shake. Something similar had happened at Mount Sinai when Moses ascended the mountain in Ex. 19:18 to receive the Ten Commandments from the Lord.
The smoke that accompanied the shaking is a common feature of God’s glorious presence in the O.T. Both Moses’ tabernacle and Solomon’s temple were filled with smoke upon their completion and dedication, the smoke representing God’s presence. The smoke that Isaiah saw filling the temple indicated that God’s presence there was pervasive and overwhelming. The Shekinah glory of God attested to His holiness.
Isaiah’s response to the vision was what the Lord intended: immediate and total submission. For the first time in this incident Isaiah spoke in vs. 5.
Using a term of great fear and remorse the prophet cried out, Woe is me! Isaiah had already used the term “woe” several times in Ch. 3 to speak of the awesome judgment that God was about to pour out on the wicked nations. Having seen a glimpse of God’s holiness, Isaiah feared that he too was worthy of nothing but God’s wrath. We see ourselves differently when we see the Holy God, as Isaiah later wrote in Isa. 64: 6, “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.”
Isaiah said he was ruined or undone because he was a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips. His feeling of unworthiness occurred when he saw the King, the Lord of Hosts.
Unclean lips, is a figure of speech in which lips stands for speech. The prophet was confessing that everything he had said in the past and continued to say was unworthy of the God he served. This is not to say that Isaiah was an unbeliever but that even as a prophet, he had never encountered the Lord in such an humbling way. Isaiah knew that he had not honored the Lord, as he should have. This is Isaiah’s confession of his own unworthiness for the ministry to which the Lord called him.
With this confession he identified himself with his people Israel who were clearly in sinful rebellion against God. Their lips were unclean too, but not in the sense that Isaiah understood about himself. They were unclean because they had been corrupted by the sinfulness of those around them.
Like Daniel and Nehemiah, Isaiah identified with his people so that their sins became his sins. Their guilt his guilt, and their punishment his punishment. Therefore, Isaiah was unclean because of personal sin and because he was part of a sinful community. This sense of solidarity with one’s people should mark every servant of the Lord. If the lips are unclean so is the heart.
Nothing alerts us to our sinfulness more than catching a glimpse of the holiness of God
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This, not self-reflection, is what caused Isaiah to declare himself as one who was ruined. Isaiah knew that at his very best he failed miserably when compared to God in all His glory. He had known Uzziah the king and other noblemen but now he had seen the King, the Sovereign One who leads the Hosts of heaven. All human dignitaries, as impressive and even majestic as they might be, pale in insignificance before Him who is King of kings, and Lord of lords.
Isaiah realized that he had seen the only King worthy of his devotion and trust. But the vision of this mighty and holy God had filled the young man with shame for his sins. Isaiah’s great sin was one of omission. He had failed to worship the holy God, as he should have. He had been to the temple many times, but he had only gone through the motions of praising God.
PLEASE READ ISAIAH 6: 6-7.
Isaiah had not prayed for forgiveness in so many words, but his confession of his sin opened the door to divine grace, because the holy God is also the merciful God. Genuine contrition always elicits God’s gracious response. Without even asking, Isaiah received a word of forgiveness.
The deliverer of God’s mercy was one of the seraphims. He flew to Isaiah, who was probably prostrate on the floor. The creature had a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. Fire is a powerful force. It can warm us in the cold or cook our food. But fire also can destroy. In the Bible, fire was used as a symbol of the holiness of God and of His judgment on sin: however, it also could symbolize cleansing and refinement. Here the fire signified divine mercy toward a confessed sinner.
The Seraphim laid the live coal on Isaiah’s mouth. The touch of the coal purified his lips, burning out the sin and making him pure and fit for proclaiming the message of the Lord. The seraphim himself pronounced the good news to the prophet: “Your wickedness is removed, and your sin is atoned for or forgiven.” By God’s grace Isaiah experienced the forgiveness for which he sought and which qualified him for ministry, He now shared in God’s holiness. We can never know how sinful and needy we are until we catch a glimpse of the holiness of God. Only after our sins have been forgiven can we be effective servants of the Lord.
As the meaning of these wonderful words of forgiveness filled the mind and heart of Isaiah, he heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us.” This is the first time the Lord Himself had spoken. God had a mission. Surely seraphims could carry out whatever the Lord had in mind, but He had determined to use human agents for this task.
Because He uses human messengers and helpers to do His work, He was seeking someone whom He could send on a mission. The context shows that the mission was to a nation of people with unclean lips and lives. To whom was He speaking? Obviously Isaiah heard the question, but who were those referred to as us? Who will go for us?
We read this from the perspective of later revelation. God could have been speaking within the Trinity. On the other hand, the vision of John in Revelation 4 shows God on His throne surrounded by many creatures. The Bible insists there is only one God, but He is not alone.
The question was asked within Isaiah’s range of hearing, but it was not a direct call to him. It was a call for volunteers. Isaiah quickly said: “Here am I ; send me.”
Isaiah was an eager volunteer. When we remember what he had just experienced, his response makes sense. He had seen the holy God, felt the uncleanness of his lips and life, realized the sinfulness of others, confessed His sins, and seemingly hopeless plight, and received forgiveness of his sins.
Thus when he heard God’s question, he offered himself to be sent. His free response stands in contrast to others who resisted a more direct call by God. Moses and Jeremiah are examples of reluctance to accept God’s call. However, Isaiah was no reluctant draftee: he was an enthusiastic volunteer.
“Let none hear you idly saying, There is nothing I can do,” While the lost of earth are dying,
And the Master calls for you: Take the task He gives you gladly: Let His work your pleasure be:
Answer quickly when He calls you. “Here am I, send me, send me.”
PLEASE READ ISAIAH 6: 9-10.
In vs. 9 God called Isaiah to go and speak to the people of Judah. Today, in Matt. 28:19-20 He calls all Christians to share the good news of Jesus with the whole world. In what must have been one of the strangest prophetic commissions of all time---and surely one that left Isaiah troubled---the Lord told him that He was sending him on a fruitless mission.
His preaching would just harden the nation even more in its sins, and in the end he would know nothing but failure. The test of one’s call and obedience is whether or not he or she is willing to serve---no matter the out come.
God told Isaiah to say to the people of Judah that they should hear but not understand and see but not perceive. This contradicted a basic assumption about hearing God’s word---hearing was to result in obeying.
Vs. 10 was even harder. God commissioned the prophet to make the heart of this people fat or insensitive, and make their ears heavy or dull, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn, and be healed.
God told Isaiah the exact opposite of what the rest of the Bible teaches. For example, in Ezekiel 33:11 God stated: “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked: but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways: for why will ye die, O house of Israel?”
Many an evangelist or missionary or preacher has gone for months or even years without even a few conversions. The great Baptist missionary Adoniram Judson is a case in point. He labored for years in Burma before God gave him fruit. But these servants at least had reason to think that God would bless.
Isaiah launched his ministry knowing from the outset that the Israelites would not respond. No wonder he so desperately needed a glimpse of God’s holiness before embarking on his mission.
Continuing the description of what Isaiah could expect, the Lord commanded him to dull the people’s mind, deafen their ears and blind their eyes. All their senses would be shut off to the message of warning and salvation the prophet was to convey.
This strange command required of Isaiah nothing but the proclamation of the truth, for it was in hearing but rejecting the truth that his audience would bring about their own spiritual insensitivity
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The Lord knew they were hopelessly unrepentant and that—like Pharaoh of old---they had hardened their hearts against God until He confirmed their hardness and made them incapable of responding in faith.
There is a point then beyond which one cannot go without jeopardizing his or her hope of salvation. It is said that the same sun that melts the wax also hardens the clay. Likewise, the good news of God’s grace that is received gladly by some only intensifies the hardness and unbelief of others. This was the status of Isaiah’s generation. He had to preach the message to them, but it would fall on stony ground.
Since the Lord knew of their irreversible condition, He went on to say with sarcasm that Isaiah should persist in the hardening process lest the people should see---hear---understand---turn back, and be healed. There was no real hope of this, for the matter had already been determined by then.
PLEASE READ ISAIAH 6: 11-13.
Isaiah heard this unexpected commission and obviously distraught by this message of hopelessness, Isaiah asked the Lord how long he must proclaim the message. He wanted to know how long he would be called to do such things. The Lord’s answer was not reassuring.
The answer was until cities lie in ruins without inhabitants, houses are without people, the land is ruined and desolate, and the Lord drives the people far away. Isaiah had to continue until no one was left to hear it
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When the Israelites were about to enter the Promised Land, the Lord warned in Deut 28:21 and 63 and again in 29:28 of expulsion if they disobeyed. Vs. 12 forecasts this disaster, until the Lord removed them far away.
This occurred to Israel, the Northern Kingdom, in 722 B.C. when the Assyrians destroyed Samaria (the capital city), thus bringing that nation to an end. This was some 17 years after Isaiah’s visionary call. For nearly two decades the prophet poured out his heart knowing full well that nothing positive would come of it. Such incredible commitment to the will of God should inspire all of us who are called to ministries that are much less frustrating.
But Judah, the Southern Kingdom, was also in view. Although that kingdom would survive until 586 B.C., more than 150 years later, Isaiah would witness the beginning of its destruction as well. The Assyrian king Sargon invaded Palestine in 712 B.C. His attack was ominous, though he left Jerusalem alone. When Sennacherib arrived 11 years later, he besieged Jerusalem. If the angel of the Lord had not destroyed the Assyrian army, the Southern Kingdom would surely have fallen.
For over 40 years Isaiah remained true to his calling, ever mindful that his calling had occurred during a vision of the holiness of God. Meeting God in such a way provided all the resources Isaiah needed to do God’s will regardless of future prospects.
The climax of God’s judgment against Judah was the Babylonian exile that began in 605 B.C. Although this took place more than a century after Isaiah’s death, he spoke of it here as a time when the Lord would drive the people far away, leaving great emptiness in the land.
A remnant would remain, described here as the tenth, perhaps as though it were a tithe of the people left over for the Lord. But even the tenth would suffer. Jeremiah recorded in Jer. 52:29-30 that five years after the fall of Jerusalem the Babylonians had to return again to put down an insurrection among the Jewish remnant.
This remnant referred to here by Isaiah, the stump out of which a new tree might someday spring forth. The surviving stump permitted a glimmer of hope, for God’s promises to Israel must come to pass. Though disciplined by devastation and exile, they would return to the land and become once more the servant nation through whom the Messiah’s redemption would come to pass.
In Isaiah 11:1 this analogy is used to predict the coming of Christ: “A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse” the father of David from whom Jesus descended---from Ruth and Obed came Jesse then David then the Christ. God’s plan may be slowed but it is never defeated.
NEXT SUNDAY FROM JOHN 14 THE BIBLICAL TRUTH IS THAT WE KNOW GOD AND EXPERIENCE HIS SALVATION ONLY BY BELIEVING IN HIS SON JESUS.
A.V. DAUGHERTY altav@swbell.net http//www.theweeks.org/av/
The question we face is why the Lord gave young Isaiah such a negative commission. God may have felt the eager volunteer needed a dose of reality. Isaiah may have been like the man who told Jesus he would follow Him anywhere, and Jesus told the man in Luke 9:57-58 that “the foxes have holes and the birds have nests but Jesus had no place to lay His head.” Jesus wasn’t trying to discourage the man, but he wanted the man to know what he was getting into. Sometimes people are called to missionary work and accept the call in the inspiration of a special worship service, but they have little idea of the difficulties on the field. The fact that Isaiah accepted this gloomy commission shows that his was no superficial commitment. He was determined to serve God—no matter how hard it would be.
Another factor in explaining these verses is that the Hebrews often spoke of first causes. This is, since God is the Sovereign Creator, all things—even human rejection—is said to be God’s will. To put it another way, sometimes they did not distinguish between intended results and actual results. As a consequence, they sometimes spoke of results as if they were purposes. Jesus words in John 3: 16-21 about the purpose of His mission make clear that His mission is to save the lost; however, He pointed out that judgment is the consequence of His coming. He came to save, but those who reject Him condemn themselves. Compare this passage with Jesus’ words to some hardhearted Pharisees in John 9: 39. “For judgment I am come into this world, that they which see not might see; and that they which see might be made blind.” This saying must be seen in light of Jesus’ mission as stated in John 3: 17 “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” In the same way, passages such as Isaiah 6: 9-13 must be seen in light of the saving purpose of God.