Isaiah 6:1–13
In the book of the prophet Isaiah 6:1–8 we read this astonishing account:
1 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. 2 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. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “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.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:1–8)
Isaiah lived in Jerusalem in the eighth century B.C. In this sixth chapter of his book he describes his encounter with God, which took place around 740 B.C. His prophetic ministry lasted more than forty years, spanning the reigns of the kings Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah.
During this vision Isaiah turns his gaze in three directions:
- Toward God (vv. 1–4)
- Toward himself (vv. 5–7)
- Toward his ministry (vv. 8–13)
Let us this morning look in these same three directions. Let God give us a revelation of his holiness. Let us take a fresh look at our own spiritual condition, and let us consider whether and how we are fulfilling our ministry.
GOD IS HOLY, HOLY, HOLY
What stands out in the first four verses is that God is holy. It is repeated three times, as though to underline it with three heavy strokes. If something is said about God once in the Bible, that is enough to establish it. If it is said twice, it is emphasized. But if it is said three times, it is of the very first importance. Nowhere in the Bible is it said that God is love, love, love, or righteous, righteous, righteous, but in two places it is said that he is holy, holy, holy (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8).
“Holy,” in Hebrew “qadosh,” means unique, set apart from the common and the ordinary, set apart from creation, and set apart from sin. What is unique about God in this passage?
First, the prophet Isaiah sees the vision “in the year that King Uzziah died.” King Uzziah reigned from 792 to 740 B.C. — a full fifty-two years. That is a long reign, yet in the end King Uzziah died. Why? Because he was mortal, because he was only a man. It was then, perhaps, that Isaiah went to pray and to seek comfort in the temple. There he learned that though his earthly king had died, his heavenly King goes on living. The Lord is not dead. He is still seated on his throne (v. 5)!
my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty (Isaiah 6:5)
Unlike man, God is holy — he does not depend on time; he is immortal and eternal. We are all ordinary, doomed to die — but not God. Why? Because he is holy.
Second, what did King Uzziah die of? Of leprosy. It came upon him as a curse because he grew angry with the priests who tried to stop him from his reckless desire to burn incense to the Lord — a service that was the prerogative reserved for the priests alone (2 Chronicles 26:16–21). Leprosy is a symbol of sin. But in God there is no sin. He is not sinful — he is holy.
Third, when Isaiah saw the Lord, he noticed that he was “seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.” Here we are dealing with the immensity of God. He cannot fit inside Solomon’s temple. Only a part of the train of his robe could fit there. This reminds us of the infinity of God with respect to space. He is boundless. Everything in this world is in him. I do not know how, but in Isaiah 66:1 it is written:
1 This is what the Lord says: “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house you will build for me? Where will my resting place be? (Isaiah 66:1)
With respect to time — God is eternal; with respect to sin — God is sinless; with respect to space — God is boundless.
The fourth feature of Isaiah’s vision of God is that above him he sees the seraphim. The word “seraphim” comes from the word “seraph,” which means “fiery.” In other words, Isaiah sees “the fiery ones.” This is the only place in the Bible where “seraphim” are mentioned. Notice that each of them “had six wings: with two they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.” God is so glorious that even these fiery, shining creatures had to use four of their wings to hide themselves from God’s glory while they worshiped him. To one another they call, saying:
Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory. (Isaiah 6:3)
Why “holy, holy, holy”? Because this is the very essence of God. With respect to time — he is eternal; with respect to sin — in him there is no sin; with respect to space — he is boundless; with respect to worship — he is worthy of praise. Holiness is God’s foundational attribute. It is what makes God to be God.
Isaiah sees God seated on a throne, “high and exalted.” This feature speaks to us of his majesty. It is striking that in Isaiah 52:13 similar words are used of the Servant of God, who is a type of Christ:
13 See, my servant will act wisely; he will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. (Isaiah 52:13)
From this parallel we can conclude that Jesus Christ is God. He is the same “holy, holy, holy.”
MAN NEEDS FORGIVENESS AND SANCTIFICATION
Having seen God, Isaiah now turns his gaze upon himself:
5 “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. (Isaiah 6:5)
Isaiah was no doubt far more moral than his contemporaries. Compared with them, he seemed clean; but when he compares himself with God, he sees himself as unclean. Unclean lips speak of an unclean heart. And an unclean heart is a sinful heart. When, in the light of God’s glory, Isaiah looks at himself and his fellow citizens, he sees nothing but sin, sin, sin. In the preceding chapter, the fifth, he pronounces “woe” six times:
- Woe to the insatiable lovers of money and the greedy (v. 8):
8 Woe to you who add house to house and join field to field till no space is left and you live alone in the land. (Isaiah 5:8)
- Woe to the drunkards (v. 11):
11 Woe to those who rise early in the morning to run after their drinks, who stay up late at night till they are inflamed with wine. (Isaiah 5:11)
- Woe to the liars (v. 18):
18 Woe to those who draw sin along with cords of deceit (Isaiah 5:18)
- Woe to the perverse, who try to overturn God’s established values (v. 20):
20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil (Isaiah 5:20)
- Woe to the proud and self-assured (v. 21):
21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and clever in their own sight. (Isaiah 5:21)
- Woe to the corrupt and to those who take bribes to pervert justice (vv. 22–23):
22 Woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and champions at mixing drinks, 23 who acquit the guilty for a bribe, but deny justice to the innocent. (Isaiah 5:22–23)
But now we see that Isaiah pronounces “woe” upon himself as well. Even he, God’s prophet, is a man of “unclean lips.”
Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5)
This reminds us of the words of the apostle Paul in Romans 3:23:
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23)
Today many people refuse to accept the gospel and be saved simply because they are unwilling to acknowledge their sin and to see their need of salvation. Isaiah was no king, he had murdered no one, he lived a decent life — and yet he said “woe to me”! We may be self-assured and think ourselves great, but only against the backdrop of God’s holiness can we perceive our own nothingness and limitation. Remember what Peter said when, after the miraculous catch of fish, he realized that he was standing in God’s presence (Luke 5:8).
8 When Simon Peter saw this, he fell at Jesus’ knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!” (Luke 5:8)
Peter saw one who is “holy, holy, holy,” and his reaction was the same as Isaiah’s. Only in the light of God’s presence can we become aware of our sin. That is precisely why we must pray that God would open our spiritual eyes so that we may see him. And then we will realize that because of our sin we are lost. Unless… Unless God cleanses and sanctifies us (Isaiah 6:6–7).
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 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 6:6–7)
The fiery seraph brought in his hand a coal glowing red-hot and touched it to Isaiah’s lips. He felt no pain, because everything happening in that moment was supernatural. The coal had been taken from the altar of burnt offering. That was the place where the priests sacrificed animals for the sins of the people. This coal had been touched by two things — blood and fire. The blood speaks of cleansing from sin, for without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness (Hebrews 9:22), and the fire speaks of the burning away of impurity and of purification. When God saves us, what does he do? He justifies us through the blood of his only-begotten Son, and then he begins to work his character into us through the sanctifying action of the Holy Spirit.
Let Jesus Christ this morning touch us with his pierced right hand and forgive us because of the covenant blood shed at Golgotha! Let the Holy Spirit cast out of us the filth and dross of sin and renew us, building in us the perfect image of our Lord Jesus Christ!
GOD CALLS US TO BE HIS SERVANTS
The third part of Isaiah’s vision has to do with his ministry. When God sought a messenger to carry out his will, Isaiah readily accepted God’s commission (v. 8):
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” (Isaiah 6:8)
God has a plan, but he needs people to carry it out. God has a message, but he needs messengers to take it. In the Gospel according to Matthew 9:37–38 the Lord Jesus says:
37 Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. 38 Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:37–38)
Isaiah was changed by the vision of God’s holiness, and now he wanted the same change for his own countrymen. Later in his book, when he speaks of God, he calls him “the Holy One of Israel.” His encounter with the Lord was more than a passing moment. He wanted the very thing that had brought about the change in him to change also the people among whom he lived.
This morning God’s question to us is the same: “Who will devote himself to me? Who will do my will? Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?” What keeps us from saying, “Here am I. Send me”? What keeps us from beginning to work for God? What keeps us from going and telling others about Jesus? Have we not seen his glory? Have we not tasted his love? Has he not forgiven our sins?
In John 1:14 it is written:
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
In 2 Corinthians 4:6 the apostle Paul says:
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:6)
If we have believed in Jesus, we have seen God’s glory, because, as it is said in 1 Corinthians 2:8, he is “the Lord of glory”! If we have believed in Jesus, we have tasted God’s love. If we have believed in Jesus, our sins have been forgiven. If we have believed in Jesus, we have been filled with the Holy Spirit! Then nothing should keep us from saying, “Here am I. Send me.”
Our ministry may not be so successful from a human point of view. But neither was Isaiah’s. Although he was God’s prophet, God warned him that his message would not meet with a good response (vv. 9–10):
9 He said, “Go and tell this people: ‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.” (Isaiah 6:9–10)
This is a Jewish idiom in which the final reaction or result of something is described as the original intention. God does not intend to stop people from repenting. On the contrary, he sends Isaiah with the express intention of delivering them from the coming judgment. But when they hear him, they stop up their ears and refuse to act.
11 Then I said, “For how long, Lord?” And he answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, 12 until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. (Isaiah 6:11–12)
This is a prophetic description of the Babylonian captivity.
13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land. (Isaiah 6:13)
Isaiah had to serve a people who would go into captivity. And yet a tenth would remain as God’s remnant, and the holy seed would be carried on. Those who lived through all of this would find comfort in Isaiah’s prophecies of the coming Messiah.
When Isaiah spoke God’s words to his people, it hardened their hearts, because they refused to respond. This, however, did not turn Isaiah aside from fulfilling his ministry. And in this he is an example for us. In the Gospel according to John 4:35–38 Jesus said:
35 Don’t you have a saying, ‘It’s still four months until harvest’? I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. 36 Even now the one who reaps draws a wage and harvests a crop for eternal life, so that the sower and the reaper may be glad together. 37 Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. 38 I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labor.” (John 4:35–38)
In that Samaritan town called Sychar, many believed in Jesus (John 4:39). There are times of revival when the harvest of saved souls is great. But there are also times of sowing and watering, which are no less important for the harvest. Isaiah lived in such a time. Perhaps we too live in such a time. But we must be certain that, as it was for the prophet, so it is for us: “your labor in the Lord is not in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:58). Let us be faithful to God and to our calling. Let us be witnesses for Christ and for God’s gospel! And then we can be sure that even if at this moment we do not enjoy a good response, one day we will rejoice together with those who will enter into the inheritance of our labor! And no one will take our joy away!