I Saw the Lord
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Isaiah
Remember: We will not be writing the whole portion of Scripture in the article, so you will have to have your Bible open and follow along, as I attempt an expository lesson.
8. An expository study of Isaiah, chapter 6
I wonder if Isaiah had any idea how many people in all
the world and at different times would read and marvel at this account of his
calling. It is probably the chapter of this book that is most preached, only
exceeded by chapter 53. It is the personal testimony of the calling from the
Almighty that began his prophetic ministry. His calling was timely, necessary
and purposeful.
Men disappoint
us
He was being prepared during the long reign of King Uzziah,
which was for the most part good. As happens in the case of so many who taste
the blessing of God and experience success, Uzziah became proud and thought
himself indispensable. He took the responsibility out of God’s hands and went
beyond his limitations. He was not the only king, who attempted to presume the
duties of a priest. Israel’s first king, Saul, made that fatal error and
immediately lost favor with God. The road of self-importance is a dangerous one
to take. Uzziah became a leper, was placed in quarantine and his son took on
the administrative responsibilities.
…And he died, like the poor mortal being that he was.
Show us, Isaiah, the true picture of our life and end every one, and help us, oh
God, not to forget: “All flesh is grass
and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the
flower fades” (40:6, 7). In the year of Uzziah’s death, God raised up
Isaiah, to bring the necessary word from God, a living word that accomplished
His purposes for Israel in that day and continues over the centuries to this
day. This is the word that was so honored by Jesus and His apostle, Paul. It
was the one book that was preserved in its entirety in a cave above the Dead
Sea for over 20 centuries.
A
high and mighty concept of God
Isaiah has observed the lesson of Uzziah and many
other things from the Israel of his day, but he is not ready yet to perform in
the office of a prophet. He needs to be placed directly in the presence of the
King of Kings to experience His glory. He needs to see the sovereign King, who sits
on the throne and reigns, after earth’s rulers and nations pass into oblivion. “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty
and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple” (v.1). It is
not enough to speak or write, the word must imprint the soul and penetrate to
the core of the personality through personal encounter. From this experience
came Isaiah’s favorite term in referring to God: The Holy One of Israel.
Behind this experience is a principle that determines
the true state of the church and every individual Christian. It certainly
regulates the power of the word that flows through the mouth of the one, who
delivers it to the people. Let us not assume that the word by itself will
impact the hearts of the hearers, without the driving force of the anointed lips
of human vessels. We have often heard it said that it is only our
responsibility to tell the truth; after that God is in charge of the results.
Though it bears a certain particle of truth, this saying serves better to
excuse the impoverished speaker for his powerless performance.
Here is the sad and tragic truth concerning preachers,
the individual Christian and the body of believers today, according to A.W.
Tozer in his great book, The Knowledge of the Holy: “It is my opinion that the Christian conception of God current in these
middle years of the twentieth century is so decadent as to be utterly beneath
the dignity of the Most High God and actually to constitute for professed
believers something amounting to a moral calamity.” Having lived through
those middle years of the 20th Century, I can testify that the
concept of God in general has not improved over the past 50-60 years. It has
markedly declined to yet a lower level.
If His train fills the temple, then it is easily
deduced that the temple must be emptied of all else. For that reason, Jesus
went angrily through His Father’s house, driving out every vestige of distraction
from the worship of the godhead. There cannot be fullness, until there is first
a discharge of every attraction and idol in the temple of the Holy Spirit. The
One on the throne is not called Jehovah in
this place, but Adonai: the Lord, Master,
Sovereign ruler, Provider. “Isaiah,”
wrote the apostle John, “saw His
glory, and he spoke of Him” (Jn.12:41). John was speaking of Jesus. When He
sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high after His ascension, He sat
again, where He sat before, when Isaiah saw Him high and lofty.
This initial experience was the reason behind every
success in Isaiah’s ministry in his day, and, by the inspired written word, to our
day. Isaiah also saw exalted attendants,
who served as a royal guard, above the charge of the hosts of angels (v.2). We
have no idea of the number of them, but they are described as six-winged beings
and their name means ‘burning ones’. They have two wings to cover their lower
bodies in decency, two to cover their faces in awe, and two to carry out divine
orders with rapidity. They remind us
that full service to God requires decency and awe in His presence, as well as
swift obedience.
God’s
holiness in contrast to man’s sinfulness
Many years ago, I was taught to carefully notice that
the cry, which is drawn from the innermost beings of heaven’s mightiest and most
glorious creatures is not “Love, love, love”. The chief preoccupation in
celestial realms is His holiness: “Holy,
holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory” (v.3).
It is the praise of the living creatures in heaven heard by John in the book of
Revelation 4:8, as well. Heaven is primarily concerned with the thrice-holy God
and the compromise of His holiness in that realm is unthinkable. “Nothing unclean, and no one who practices
abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are
written in the Lamb’s book of life… outside are the dogs and the sorcerers and
the immoral persons and the murderers and the idolaters, and everyone who loves
and practices lying” (Rev.21:27, 22:15).
The Lord is sovereign on earth, as well as in heaven,
and we are involved in making His glory known below, as in verse 4, in smoke
and shaking power. The hearts of God’s people today need to blend with Isaiah’s:
“Oh, that You would rend the heavens and
come down, that the mountains might quake at Your presence - as fire kindles
the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil - to make Your name known to Your
adversaries, that the nations may tremble at Your presence!” (ch.64:1-2). We
should be consumed with the need for days of heaven upon earth.
What is the proper human response to a powerful revelation
of the glory of Christ, penetrating into the depths of the human heart? “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a
man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of
hosts” (v.5). Here is another
woe to add to those of chapter 5. It
is the woe of the convicted sinner, seeing no hope in himself or from anyone
around, to rebuild his ruined soul. Job saw Him: “My eye sees You. Therefore I loathe and abhor myself and repent in
dust and ashes” (Job 42:5-6). Peter saw him and exclaimed: “Go
away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man!” (Lk.5:8). Saul of Tarsus saw
Him: “Brighter than the sun, shining all
around me… and when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying… ‘I
am Jesus of Nazareth’” (Ac.26:13-15). So also did John see Him: “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a
dead man” (Rev.1:17).
There is no earthly remedy for those cut down and
slain by the Spirit of God and, in fact, they will never be the same again. They
are crucified with Christ. A burning one comes to Isaiah with a burning coal
and touches his mouth (v.6-7). With that one heavenly, supernatural touch, “your iniquity is taken away and your sin
is forgiven”, provision was made for his sin, by the One who sat on the
throne in glory. The high and lofty One descended from His throne, “although He existed in the form of God,
did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped… He humbled Himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil.2:6.
8).
Would you please notice that Isaiah must say “amen” to
all that is happening to him at this time? “‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I,
Send me!’” (v.8). Man becomes aware of the great, eternal purposes of the
Almighty, unfolding in his life, and he makes a positive response. “I did not prove disobedient to the
heavenly vision,” said Paul and Mary said, Behold, the bond slave of the Lord; may it be done to me according to
your word.” The Lord said, “Who will
go for Us?” He did not say, “Who will go for Me?” Every open, believing
heart will see the trinity involved in all the works of God, from creation to
the cross and beyond.
An
unpopular message
As I heard someone say recently, “Verse eight is the
place, where preachers close their message.” Without going into too much more
detail, we will take notice that the Lord informs Isaiah, through the rest of
the chapter, of the people’s future rejection of his message. It’s not a very
encouraging prospect. From the beginning he knows that he has an unpopular and
discouraging ministry to carry out. Every true prophet of God had to struggle
with an obstinate majority most of the time. They wouldn’t listen, refused to
understand, opposed, persecuted and sometimes killed them. Yet he responded and
yet he preached, because his goal was not to gain the approval of the masses,
or to turn the world right side-up, but to please the one, who had called him.
In Paul’s words to Timothy, “Suffer hardship
with me, as a good soldier of Christ Jesus… so that (we) he may please the one who enlisted him (us)
as a soldier” (2 Tim.2:3-4).
Strange as it may seem, the message of Isaiah was
intended so that people would not perceive or understand (v.9), so that they
would become insensitive with dull ears and dim eyes. It actually would prevent
them from hearing and understanding, so that they would not be healed! (v.10).
That only seems strange, until we hear Jesus saying the same thing, concerning
His ministry. “I speak to them in
parables; because while seeing they do not see, and while hearing they do not
hear, nor do they understand” (Mt.13:13) and He went on to quote exactly what
we are reading in Isaiah 6:10. The multitudes did not and could not comprehend
the words of Jesus. The parables were designed and delivered for that purpose. He
terminated His parables saying, “He who
has ears, let him hear” (Mt.13:43). Then
a few humble and open people came to Him privately to be taught.
So it was with Isaiah, so it was with Christ, and so
it is in our day. The gospel only falls rightly upon prepared ears and the rest
are hardened. Men do not have in themselves the capability to train their own
hearts and ears to seek after God. They are fallen creatures, who not only
cannot save themselves, but they cannot even take the first step in God’s
direction. They cannot seek, they cannot understand, they cannot repent, and
they cannot believe. That is the state of fallen man, and no one can ever be
saved, until God initiates a work within them. That’s the plain teaching of
Paul and before we ever begin to evangelize, we had better know it… and we had
better pray that God will prepare hearts.
In Israel, as we have been learning, judgment was
going to fall and desolation would take place (v.11). Men would be carried away
into captivity (v.12) and then further judgment would fall and finally only a
remnant would be left… a stump, a holy seed, from which a shoot could spring
(v.13). Isaiah’s loyalty had to be in the high and lofty One, who was revealed
to him. His joy was in the remnant, who understood and received his message.
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