My Eyes Have Seen The King

MY EYES HAVE SEEN THE KING

An Exposition of Isaiah 6:1-9

By Pastor Brian Wilbur

Date: December 27, 2020

Series: Renewal 2021

Note: Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

GREETING

Good morning – and a belated Merry Christmas to you, too. It is good to be gathered together this morning in-person here in the sanctuary.

THE SCRIPTURAL TEXT

I want to invite you to turn to Isaiah 6. I'm going to read the whole chapter, but I'll actually be focusing on verses 1-9. Holy Scripture says:

¹ In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;
the whole earth is full of his glory!”

⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. ⁵ And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

⁸ And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”⁹ And he said, “Go, and say to this people:

“‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
¹⁰ Make the heart of this people dull,
    and their ears heavy,
    and blind their eyes;
lest they see with their eyes,
    and hear with their ears,
and understand with their hearts,
    and turn and be healed.”
¹¹ Then I said, “How long, O Lord?”
And he said:
“Until cities lie waste
    without inhabitant,
and houses without people,
    and the land is a desolate waste,
¹² and the Lord removes people far away,
    and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
¹³ And though a tenth remain in it,
    it will be burned again,
like a terebinth or an oak,
    whose stump remains
    when it is felled.”
The holy seed is its stump. (Isaiah 6:1-13)

This is the Word of God. It is for our good. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you for the written, inspired, utterly, reliable Word of God. And Father, we pray that you would be gracious to give us ears to hear and eyes to see the truth of this particular passage. We pray that you would turn the lights on in our hearts and transform us by the Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

OVERVIEW

I want to walk through this passage in four steps. I'll give you those four steps right at the beginning, so that you have a roadmap of where we're headed:

First, we'll look at the circumstances of Isaiah's vision.

Second, we’ll look at the center of the vision.

Third, we’ll look at the crisis of the vision.

And finally, we’ll look at the call or the commission of the vision.

THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF ISAIAH’S VISION (v. 1a)

So let's begin with the circumstances of Isaiah's vision. It's basically this: the earthly king is dead. It says right there in the beginning of verse 1: “In the year that King Uzziah died”. You can read about King Uzziah in Second Chronicles 26. Uzziah became king when he was 16 years old and he reigned for 52 years – that's over half a century that he had been on the throne. And inasmuch as a king brings stability and safety and even identity to a nation, well, Uzziah brought a lot to the table in terms of longevity. In fact, he was very successful in the early years of his reign. In the early years of his reign, he sought the Lord, and the Lord answered that seeking and gave Uzziah great success. Uzziah won many battles and built up Judah as a very strong nation militarily. But then, something tragic happened – and this is so often the case with human beings. When Uzziah became strong – and he had become strong by the grace of God – when Uzziah had become strong, he looked in the mirror and he was really impressed. And he grew proud. And he disobeyed the Lord. He went into the temple and he offered a sacrifice that was not lawful for him to offer. The priests called him out on it and he got angry. And the Lord struck him with Leprosy and he lived in isolation as a leper for the rest of his life.

Now here's the issue that this circumstance raises: Are you going to pin your hopes on man or on God? There is a perennial temptation for human beings to put their confidence in men, specifically in human leaders like King Uzziah. How often we look to a human leader for strength and victory and leadership, but then he fails, and in due course, he dies. Yes, we are tempted to make too much of men – Trump, Biden, the run-off elections in Georgia, the composition of the Supreme Court, or even in terms of ministry where we have our nice little celebrity culture in which we put people on a pedestal – and sometimes they fall hard, and they all die.

And if you think about what is actually going on in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah's experience in Chapter 6 really brings to the fore one of the messages that pervades this book. Isaiah 2:22 says, “Stop regarding man”. What a simple and profound command!

Let’s look further at Chapter 2, beginning in verse 10:

“Enter into the rock and hide in the dust from before the terror of the LORD and from the splendor of his majesty. The haughty looks of man shall be brought low, and the lofty pride of men shall be humbled, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. For the LORD of hosts has a day against all that is proud and lofty, against all that is lifted up–and it shall be brought low….

“And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled, and the lofty pride of men shall be brought low, and the LORD alone will be exalted in that day. And the idols shall utterly pass away. And people shall enter the caves of the rocks and the holes of the ground, from before the terror of the LORD, and from the splendor of his majesty, when he rises to terrify the earth….

“Stop regarding man in whose nostrils is breath, for of what account is he?” (Isaiah 2:10-12, 17-19, 22)

King Uzziah went into the presence of the Lord, as it were, and he was struck down. His pride was brought low as he was afflicted with leprosy. And now in Isaiah 6, Isaiah stands in the presence of the holy and majestic Lord. What is going to happen to him? How is Isaiah going to respond?

Psalm 146:3-4 says, Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish.” The plans of men perish, but the plans of the Lord endure forever (see Psalm 33:10-11). And so, the question is, are you going to fix your aspirations and anxieties on human leaders and human hopes? Or are you going to have a clear and compelling sight of the Lord God Almighty? That's the question that confronts us right at the beginning of Isaiah 6. Are you going to fix your eyes on King Uzziah, who has failed and is dead. Or are you going to seek the Lord?

THE CENTER OF ISAIAH’S VISION (v. 1b-4)

Let's go to the center of the vision, which continues in verse one all the way through verse four. The center of the vision is that the Divine King appears. Isaiah sees the Lord. Look at the next words there in verse 1: “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord”. And in verse 5, as Isaiah is reflecting on this, he says: “my eyes have seen the King”. This is the core of the vision, that Isaiah's eyes are opened in this profound vision, where he sees the Lord God Almighty. His vision of the Lord is overwhelming and utterly transforming. And through this passage which the Holy Spirit inspired to be written down, we too – with the eyes of faith – can see the Lord through the experience that Isaiah had.

I want to call your attention to six aspects of Isaiah's vision of the Lord.

Number One: The Lord is Alive

First, the Lord is alive. This is an obvious implication – Uzziah is dead, but by contrast the Lord appears. The Lord is there. The Lord is seated. The Lord is alive. The hymn says “Immortal, invisible, God only wise”. And later in that same hymn these words appear: “We blossom and flourish as leaves on the tree, and wither and perish­­– but naught changeth Thee.”[1] He is the living God.

Number Two: The Lord is Sovereign King

Second, the Lord is Sovereign King. Verse 1 continues: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up”. He sits enthroned on high. He directs the course of history. He examines the hearts of mankind. And by comparison people are nothing in his sight.

Let me show you a couple passages later in Isaiah that drive home the Lord's kingly, sovereign, and exalted reign. Turn to the very familiar 40^th chapter of Isaiah. What we read in Isaiah 40 continues the theme of stop regarding man and fix your eyes on the Lord. Isaiah 40:15 begins,

“Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.” (Isaiah 40:15-17)

Next drop down to verse 22:

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.” (Isaiah 40:22-24)

Are you impressed by grasshoppers? Are you impressed and fearful of stubble? Or do you stand in awe of the living God who sits enthroned on high?

Going ahead to Isaiah 44, we get another glimpse of the Lord's activity as he is enthroned on high. Isaiah 44:24 begins,

Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: I am the LORD, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners, who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish, who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers” (Isaiah 44:24-25).

Listen, brothers and sisters: the God of Isaiah is not aloof, and he is not asleep, while human beings wreak havoc on the earth. Instead God is active and alive, reigning and scrutinizing, frustrating and judging, empowering his people and advancing his kingdom on earth. So, behold your King – He reigns!

Number Three: The Lord is Glorious

Third, the Lord is glorious. Or a simpler way to put it is: the Lord is big. The rest of verse 1 says: “and the train of his robe filled the temple.” There is a big temple, and the Lord’s robe train is filling up the temple.

In preparation for this message I learned about the longest wedding dress train in the world – it’s in the Guinness Book of World Records from a few years ago. The largest wedding dress train in the world is 26,559.71 feet long, which is just over 5 miles in length.[2] Now I don't think that anyone has ever worn this train in an actual wedding. But they made it, and what I want to call your attention to is how utterly ridiculous such a long robe train would be on a bride. It's not fitting: the apparent glory of a five-mile-long robe train doesn't match – doesn't correspond to – the relatively insignificant glory of a weak mortal. It doesn't fit; the train is too big. But here's what I want you to see in terms of Isaiah 6: the train of the royal robe of the Lord God Almighty that fills the temple – it’s not too big. It fits. It corresponds. In the words of John Oswalt: “If just the hem of his garment filled the temple, then how big was the throne? And how big was the One sitting on the throne? In other words, words fail to describe the greatness of this God. They [the words] can rise no higher than the hem of His robe.”[3]

It says in the prophet Nahum that “the clouds are the dust of his feet” (Nahum 1:3). Wrap your mind around that. Later in Isaiah we hear the Lord say:

“Thus says the LORD: Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool; what is the house that you would build for me, and what is the place of my rest? All these things my hand has made, and so all these things came to be, declares the LORD. But this is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:1-2)

How can you be proud and arrogant and self-reliant in the presence of a God whose royal robe fills the temple? Remember this: the Lord is big.

Number Four: The Lord is Surrounded by Intense Worship

Fourth, the Lord is surrounded by intense worship. Specifically, the Lord is surrounded by intense worship from elite heavenly beings called seraphs. Let me show you why I use the word intense. There is an intensity to the worship that takes place in heaven. Verse 2 begins: “Above him stood the seraphim.” The word translated seraphim is often translated ‘serpents’ or ‘fiery serpents’.[4] Some people think that the essence of the word means ‘burning ones’.[5] So, if you could picture angels on fire, or angels consisting of fire, then maybe you have some faint notion of what these seraphs are. Seraphs are intense and intimidating beings.

And you know, this is interesting because when angels appear to human beings, what happens? Human beings are afraid and freaked out that a heavenly being has shown up. Which is why the angel, for example, would say to Mary or to the shepherds, “Fear not” or “Do not be afraid”. But consider this: these elite heavenly beings called seraphs are not impressed with themselves! We are impressed with them when they show up, but they are not impressed with themselves. They are humble. Verse 2 tells us that they have six wings. With two wings, they are covering their face. They know that, even though they are sinless, they are not worthy to be in the presence of the Holy One. They are covering their face. They're paying homage. They're doing obeisance before the Lord God Almighty. And with two other wings, they cover their feet. Again, these are holy, sinless beings – and they know that they're not even worthy to be standing in the presence of God. And with the other two wings they fly, wherever the Lord would have them go.

And the seraphs are praising God. They are declaring truth. The worship that takes place in heaven is not just some kind of intense, mystical, emotional experience. At the very center of heavenly worship is the proclamation of truth on the lips of the seraphs: “And one called to another and said: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3) We’ll come back to this proclamation momentarily.

But let’s proceed to verse 4, where we learn that the voice of the seraph is so intense that the building – the temple –  shakes and trembles: “And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called”. Then the end of verse 4 says: “and the house was filled with smoke.” Smoke is filling the temple. Where's the smoke coming from? Well, I assume – since this vision is taking place within the temple (v. 1) – I assume that this smoke is coming from the altar which is referred to in verse 6. There is fire on the altar. There is the altar of sacrifice – one may also think of the altar of incense – and smoke rises, worship rises, sacrifice rises in the presence of the Lord.

Verses 2-4 give us a profound picture of heavenly worship.

Number Five: The Lord is Holy

Now let’s return to what the seraph declares in verse 3 – and this brings us to the next aspect of Isaiah’s vision. This fifth aspect of the vision proclaims that the Lord is holy. In fact, the Lord is uniquely and supremely holy. Instead of saying ‘the Lord is uniquely and supremely holy’, the seraph conveys this truth by saying ‘holy’ three times: “Holy, holy, holy”. In other words, the Lord is holy to the superlative degree.

What does it mean to be holy? Sometimes when we think of holiness we immediately jump to the ethical implication that God is righteous and morally pure. And of course, that's very true. But the meaning of holiness is fundamentally deeper than that. Holiness has to do with otherness, set apartness, uniqueness. God is in a class by himself. He is incomparable. There is none like him. God is not like us. He is not like us in our sinfulness. He is also not like us in our smallness. God is not like the world. God is not like the temple. God is not even like the seraphs. The seraphs are impressed and overwhelmed by the Lord, not the other way around.

If you ever have gotten to thinking or feeling that God is your buddy, friend, pal, doting grandfather, the man upstairs, Mr. Nice guy, the therapist who knows how you feel, then be corrected by this text. The Lord God Almighty is the Holy One. There is none like him and until you reckon with that, you cannot enjoy fellowship with Him. It says in the familiar hymn:

“Holy, holy, holy! though the darkness hide Thee,

Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see;

Only Thou art holy– there is none beside Thee,

Perfect in pow’r, in love and purity.”[6]

God is holy.

Number Six: The Vision Unveils God’s Plan

Now let’s move to the sixth aspect of Isaiah’s vision. This may be the least obvious aspect of the vision, but as I was reflecting on it, I thought it was worth sharing. So the sixth aspect of Isaiah's vision that I want to call attention to is that this vision unveils God’s plan. Let me attempt to show you what I see here in the text.

In the vision, Isaiah sees the outer rung of God's glory represented by the train of the robe. He sees the outer rung of God's glory filling the temple. And then in verse 3, he hears – as part of the overall vision – he hears the seraph saying that the whole earth is full of the Lord's glory. But when you're reading through the book of Isaiah you realize that the actual earthly temple in Jerusalem is not filled with the Lord's glory. And likewise you realize that the earth – the land in Jerusalem and Judah and everywhere else – is not full of the glory of the Lord. So, what Isaiah sees in the vision and hears in the vision is what ought to be and what one day will be, but was not yet a reality in Isaiah’s day.

If you go to Isaiah 1:10-15, you can read what the Lord thought about what was going on in the temple. These hypocritical worshipers who had no heart for God and no love for people – they're coming in with their offerings and their sacrifices and their prayers. And God responds with a sober assessment: this is an abomination, “your hands are full of blood” (Isaiah 1:15), get out of here. The temple was full of corruption, because it was full of corrupt people. And as for the land, consider these passages:

“Your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence foreigners devour your land” (Isaiah 1:7).

“The earth mourns and withers; the world languages and withers; the highest people of the earth languish. The earth lies defiled under its inhabitants; for they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse devours the earth, and its inhabitants suffer for their guilt; therefore the inhabitants of the earth are scorched, and few men are left.” (Isaiah 24:4-6)

So, as you're thinking through Isaiah, you actually encounter a tension here. In the vision, the Lord's glory fills the temple, but it's not so in the temple in Jerusalem. In the vision, Isaiah hears that the Lord's glory fills the Earth, but actually in Jerusalem and in Judah and everywhere else the earth is scorched, desolate, and cursed. So what's going on in Isaiah’s vision? What's going on, I think, is that the Lord is showing Isaiah what ought to be on earth and in the temple, but what currently isn't taking place because of our sinfulness. And the Lord is also showing Isaiah what will be. What already is in heaven, will be so on Earth. The Lord's Glory will fill the temple. The Lord's glory will fill the earth. In fact, in one of those wonderful messianic prophecies in Isaiah, Chapter 11 talks about how the Messiah is going to come empowered by the Holy Spirit and bring Justice and righteousness to the earth. And how does that wonderful passage end? Isaiah 11:9 proclaims that “the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.” That is going to happen through the ministry of the Messiah.

But when we see what is in heaven and when we see what ought to be on earth and when we see what one day will be on earth, we are confronted by the fact that one reason the glory of the Lord doesn't fill the earth right now is because of us.

THE CRISIS OF ISAIAH’S VISION (v. 5-7)

So let's go to the next part of the vision, which is the crisis of the vision. Seeing the Lord is unsettling. When a sinner sees the Holy One, that sinner will be profoundly disoriented. When it happened to the Apostle Peter in Luke 5, what did he say to Jesus? He said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (Luke 5:8) And it happens here with Isaiah.

Isaiah is in Peril

At the beginning of verse 5, Isaiah says, “Woe is me!” He pronounces a malediction upon himself. We love benedictions – benedictions are good words, words of blessing. For example, Jesus said to his disciples, “But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.” (Matthew 13:16) There are so many blessings that the Lord gives to his people as they trust in him. But here in our passage, Isaiah pronounces a malediction – a bad word, a curse – upon himself.

In fact, the book of Isaiah is full of woes. If you just look back one chapter to Isaiah 5, we encounter many woes. Woe to those who are greedy (Isaiah 5:8). Woe to the drunkards (Isaiah 5:11). “Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood” (Isaiah 5:18). Woe to those who call evil good and good evil” (Isaiah 5:20). Those folks turn everything upside down. “Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and shrewd in their own sight!” (Isaiah 5:21) “Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and valiant men in mixing strong drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of his right!” (Isaiah 5:22-23) In Chapter 10, it says woe to the oppressors (Isaiah 10:1) and “Woe to Assyria” (Isaiah 10:5). In fact, the fundamental reality is that it is woe to everybody, because everybody is a sinner. But here's the thing – it is good and well to recognize that the woe applies to everyone, but there has to come that moment when you recognize very personally and soberly that the woe applies to you. If we would have healthy relationship with the Lord, each person must own the woe for himself or herself. Woe is me, I am the one who is in trouble!

Isaiah says: “Woe is me!” Then he continues: “For I am lost.” I am ruined, I am undone, I am doomed to perish, I am a dead man. Why? “[For] I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips”. I want you to notice a few things about that statement.

Notice what Isaiah doesn't do. He doesn’t say: I am a man of unclean lips and so is everybody else, and because everybody else is, I feel a lot better about myself. In fact, maybe he could have thought, I'm not even the worst of them. Yes, we all have unclean lips, but some of those folks are really a lot worse than me. And so, I feeling okay about myself. That is not how Isaiah thinks. The reality is that Isaiah is not feeling okay about himself. And the reason is because all the people around him who also have unclean lips and unclean hearts – those people are not his standard. He knows that they are there, and he knows that this is a guilt in which we all share. But Isaiah’s eyes are on the Lord: “for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” Isaiah sees the Holy One ,the glorious one, the transcendent one, the perfect one – and without even engaging in any protracted and morbid introspection, he just knows immediately and instinctively that he doesn’t belong in the Lord’s presence. He is under conviction: I don't belong in God’s presence. I am unclean. My lips are unclean.

This focus on the lips is very interesting. The Bible tells us that all of our words and all of our deeds will be brought into final judgment. And that is true, but we also know – because Jesus tells us this – that our words alone are sufficient to establish the spiritual condition of our heart. Jesus said that on the last day your words – particularly your careless words – your words will be sufficient to either justify you, that is, to demonstrate that you had a right relationship with the Lord and that you trusted in him; or your words will be sufficient to demonstrate that you did not have a right relationship with the Lord and that you did not believe in him and treasure him: “I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak, for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (Matthew 12:36-37)

Our words are enough to reveal the health or unhealth of our hearts. Unclean words, unkind words, inconsiderate words, untrue words, ungrateful words, unthoughtful words, unhelpful words – if that is what’s coming out of our mouths, it's because that is what's in our hearts. Jesus said, “For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” (Matthew 12:34) And so Isaiah, the sinner, seeing the holiness of the Lord, recognizes that he is in terrible peril. But he is about to be rescued by red-hot grace.

Isaiah Receives Blistering Grace

And there's a reason I call it ‘red-hot grace’. God's grace is not winks and nods. God's grace is not little pick me ups. God's grace is not the extra push. God's grace is not like nutritional supplements. God's grace is blistering, consuming, purifying fire from the altar. Do you want to purify that gold which is hidden in the minerals? Do you know what you need? You need heat, to the tune of like a thousand degrees Fahrenheit, in order to get pure gold. Do you want to cleanse an unclean sinner from their impurity and filth? It's going to take intensely hot grace. And this is exactly what we see represented by the burning coal in verse 6.

In verses 6-7, one of the seraphs takes tongs and picks up this burning coal from the altar and puts it on Isaiah's lips – the very place that Isaiah had identified as the expression of his impurity and uncleanness. Of course, this is happening in the vision – it isn't literally happening. But what would happen if a burning coal is pressed to your lips? It would be consuming and blistering, right? And yet, the metaphor points to the reality of purifying and cleansing fire. And in verse 7 the seraph tells Isaiah the good news of the gospel: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” The burning coal is a symbol of God's grace. But the reality, of course, is the sacrifice of Christ.

Isn't it amazing that the King of glory left his throne and became a man? The Lord of glory came to earth in the form of a servant. The sovereign King on the throne became the spotless Lamb on the altar. The Holy One whose royal robes filled the temple was stripped of all dignity and nailed to the cross – He is the holy sacrifice, the sinner’s only hope, the only way to bring God's glory, righteousness, and peace to an unclean and sinful world. This blistering, red-hot blood-bought grace flows from the cross. And it is the only way to have your guilt taken away and your sin atoned for.

And I ask you a question as we transition to the very end of this message. Do you think that Isaiah's lips were transformed by the burning coal? Yes indeed! And that's the way it is with everyone who is touched – truly touched – by the consuming grace of God.

THE CALL/COMMISSION OF ISAIAH’S VISION (v. 8-9a)

So that brings us to verses 8-9, which is the call or the commission of the vision. There is something utterly remarkable here, and I hope that we can see it together. Let me just read verse 8 and the beginning of verse 9:

“And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” And he said, “Go and say to this people….”

Now, when you're reading through Isaiah 6, your mind should be blown away that this conversation in verses 8-9 is taking place. Because this conversation is impossible to imagine at the end of verse 5. Think about it. How can it be that the ruined man of verse 5 would become an ambassador of the king in verse 9? How can it be that the man with unclean lips in verse 5 would become a spokesman for God Almighty in verse 9? How can it be that a man with unclean lips who dwells among a people of unclean lips would be given the privilege of declaring God's truth to all the other unclean people around him? How does that happen? How does Isaiah get the audacity to say – because five minutes ago he says I'm undone; my speech is foul – what gives him the audacity to say, “Here I am! Send me”? And why in the world does God say to him, “Go”?

Well, you know the answer – because between verse 5 and verses 8-9 is the red-hot grace of verses 6-7. And the red-hot, blood-bought grace of God changes everything! And so it is that Isaiah’s ministry exists because – and only because – of God’s intense and radical grace. Let’s be clear: Isaiah's ministry is not willpower ministry, it is not moral self-improvement ministry, it is not ‘I'm better than you are’ ministry. Instead, Isaiah’s ministry is ‘transformed by God's grace’ ministry, period. Christian ministry without blistering grace is a sham operation. Without red-hot grace, it is a waste of time. And let's be honest: there are far too many sham operations going on in the world in the name of Christianity. And they are a waste of time.

What we need are men and women who have encountered the King, and who know that they have been remade by the consuming grace of God and that they continue to be renewed and transformed by that same grace. If you have seen the King, then keep your eyes upon him. The King Uzziahs of this world will all fade away from the scene. But behold the true king, the Lord Jesus Christ, who lives forever.

Let us pray.

Father, I pray that in the midst of a weary world, that we would be strengthened by the words of Isaiah the prophet, and that through those words we would encounter you afresh and anew. Have mercy on us for all that we have attempted to do in our own strength, for all that we have attempted to do apart from your transforming grace. And Father, I pray that you would come afresh and anew by the Holy Spirit to apply blood-bought grace to our souls, so that we would carry your message to a needy world. We ask in Jesus’ name, amen. 

ENDNOTES

[1] From the hymn “Immortal, Invisible” by Walter Chalmers Smith.

[2] See https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/longest-wedding-dress-train-.

[3] John N. Oswalt, Isaiah (The NIV Application Commentary). Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003: Kindle Location Page 128 of 704.

[4] See the entry “8314. saraph” on Bible Hub. Available online at https://biblehub.com/hebrew/8314.htm.

[5] See John N. Oswalt, Isaiah (The NIV Application Commentary). Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003: Kindle Location Page 129 of 704. Also see the entry “8314. saraph” on Bible Hub. Available online at https://biblehub.com/hebrew/8314.htm.

[6] From the hymn “Holy, Holy, Holy” by Reginald Heber.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John Oswalt, Isaiah (The NIV Application Commentary). Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2003. Kindle Version.