Isaiah Chapter 6
Isaiah Chapter 6
When you think of it, King Uzziah had been one the great kings
in the Southern Kingdom
In the northern kingdom which was known as Israel all the kings
were evil
But in the southern kingdom which was known as Judah of the
20 kings, 8 of them were good kings
King Uzziah was given great success by God during his reign
though it ended badly
For it seems that the worldly success of this king went to his
head and he went into the temple where only the priest should
be.
As the priests tried to get the king out of the temple he refused to
leave and so we see that God struck him with leprosy and he
died in that condition
Now Isaiah recognizes that here is Uzziah one of the great kings
who supported the prophetic ministry and he wanted the law of
God preached throughout the land
Will the next king be supportive like Uzziah or will the next king
turn away from the Lord?
So as a paraphrase let us read this in the following way: "In a time
of great uncertainty" when Isaiah is asking will it go well or will it
not go well
Isaiah sees the LORD
Isaiah's rock solid confidence is that when even a good king dies,
that it will be God who will see us through anything
Isaiah writes that he saw the LORD, this great and majestic eternal
King
Verse 1 - The word for Lord
Notice the two different uses of the word Lord in Isaiah 6:1 and the
word LORD in Isaiah 6:3
What room?
God is in the temple where the priests were designated and yet we
have a description of Him as King
We learn from John 12:41 that the person Isaiah saw was Christ
These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke
of Him.
So here we have One that is both King and Priest
The irony is that when Uzziah tries to take on the duties of the
priest God strikes him with leprosy
Next we see that He sits on the throne that is lofty and exalted
Try to picture this in your mind - either the throne is on a pedestal
or it is being elevated in the air
Finally what is it about the train of His robe that is filling the temple
The train of His robe wraps around and around and around the
temple - so what picture is being communicated here?
What message does a long robe indicate to the reader?
The train of His robe filled the temple (Culture and Custom)
In the ancient days the clothing of a monarch was a measure of their
international status
• If a king wore ermin that was incredible
• If he wore sable that was even better
• If he wore mink...hmmm...2 or 3 grade level
• If someone wore a canvas robe then they had to sit in the back of
the summit meeting of the kings
Verse 2
Seraphim are created angelic beings that are beautiful in
themselves and are stationed around the throne of God
They have 6 wings:
Two wings they cover their face
Two wings they bow with their feet
Two wings they fly and cry out holy, holy, holy
These created beings minister daily in the unveiled presence of
almighty God whose glory is so piercing that the seraphim have to
shield themselves from looking directly at the face of God.
Moses saw God in the burning bush, parting the of the Red Sea, the
miracle of feeding the people in the wilderness and now Moses asks
to see the glory of God.
Moses was able to get a backward glance at the refracted glory of
God.
When the people came to greet him they fell before him and they
asked him to cover his face.
His face was shining with such brilliance and intensity that it was
blinding the people. And all they were seeing was the reflection on
a human beings face regarding the glory of God.
Verse 3
The Jews did all that, but they had another technique to call emphasis
called verbal repetition.
The apostle Paul used this technique:
Galatians 1:8–9 NAS95
even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel
contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As
we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to
you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!
God is so far beyond what our minds can imagine that we can not
put this in human language
The root meaning of holiness is to be "set apart" to be other than, to
be different from
• God is Creator and everything else is created
• God is infinite and everything else is finite
• God is qualitatively unique and God says in the Scripture, Isaiah
46:9 - "There is none like Me”
• God is holy and infinitely separated from His creation even these
Seraphim who call out "holy, holy, holy"
In heaven when we get there and are freed from all our inhibitions
and sin then we are going to worship from purified souls and our
worship will take on an intensity that we never thought possible.
In verse 6 we get the clue and it is from the altar that has burning
coals on it
And now we realize that this God is not only powerful, glorious,
majestic, great and awesome in who He is but He is also morally
perfect and pure and can't have anything like sin or sinners in
His presence.
The word “woe”
The difference between the priest and the prophet was simply this;
The priest spoke to God in behalf of the people
The prophet speaks to the people in behalf of God
So the prophet did not start a sentence with "in my humble opinion"
or "in my judgement"
When they gave the message they started with "Thus says the
LORD"
They were vessels of divine announcements
The literary form common to the prophet was the oracle.
These were of two types
1. An oracle of will
2. An oracle of woe
Announcements that came from God that were good news and
those that came from God that were bad news.
The word used to introduce the good news was the word "blessed"
Jesus uses the form of the oracle when He gives the sermon on the
mount
The people of His day would recognize this literary device.
He was pronouncing the divine blessing on people that did certain
things
The word "holy" is the only attribute of God in the Bible that is
mentioned to the third degree. But it is not the only word
mentioned to the third degree, there is another one.
Revelation 8:13
And we can find this word during the final judgment of mankind in
Revelation.
“Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven, saying with
a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth,
because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who
are about to sound!”
Here is probably the most righteous man in Israel who sees God for
who God is and he immediately comes apart. And that is what
happens when people see God for who God is.
We spend the majority of our lives protecting ourselves from the true
character of God.
Notice that Isaiah doesn't say "I have got some personal baggage
that I need to work through."
Many of the people had turned to idol worship and Isaiah could
have determined in his mind that he was doing quite well
compared to the crowd and said I'm not that bad
He could have thought, I am a prophet and I am hot stuff
In the same way God would have been just to strike Adam dead
immediately in the Garden of Eden and start over.
But at the point we think God will show His wrath instead we
see His mercy
Isaiah Chapter 6 and verse 6
So we see that there is a coal pressed upon the lips of Isaiah in order
to burn away all of his iniquity before the LORD
And now notice the means that God uses in His display of mercy for
Isaiah
Purification
Forgiveness
The Seraphim touches the lips of Isaiah
Here is the Biblical principle
God has the exact remedy of forgiveness that is able to match
your sin
There is a coal to burn away the sin and now this leaves Isaiah as
righteous before God
Isn't this the wonder of the doctrine of "justification by faith"
We receive the righteousness of Christ that is credited to our account
via faith (Romans 4:25)
The goal is nothing less than Isaiah's restoration to service in
ministry
But instead God is saying to Isaiah that the vast majority that you
speak my word to you will face nothing but ridicule and hardship
And Isaiah you can expect this for a lifetime but know that there
will be a remnant
The breath that you are taking right now is because of His grace,
the food that you will eat today at lunch is by His grace, and the
recreation and rest you will have this afternoon is by His grace.
And now wrap your mind around this, the very God that is
transcendent and great, glorious and above us has freely chosen to
come to us
Romans 8:32 - He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered
Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us
all things?
We are going to have to work hard in this culture against this push
to try and convince us or our self importance and self worth
God brings us to His grace and He did not have to do it