Isaiah 6:1-7 - In the Presence of the Holy

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.”

Target Date: Sunday, 7 January 2024

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

Seraphim –שָׂרָף sârâph, saw-rawf’; from 8313; burning, i.e. (fig.) poisonous (serpent); spec. a saraph or symb. creature (from their copper color):— fiery (serpent), seraph.

There is nothing in this passage that distinguishes seraphim from cherubim, angels, or archangels. The name is much more of a description of the beings than the declaration of the title of them.

The name itself implies glowing, as a metal glows when heated, or the blazing glory Isaiah would certainly be at a loss to describe in any other way.

Every other use of the noun in the Old Testament is used to describe serpents, including the bronze serpent in Numbers 21.

This is the only biblical passage where heavenly beings are called “seraphs.” It is evident from references in Scripture to angels, archangels, principalities, powers, cherubim, seraphim, etc., that there is a great variety among the heavenly beings created by God. This should occasion no surprise, for the created earth too is the scene of great diversity.

Lost - דָּמָה dâmâh, daw-maw’; a prim. root; to be dumb or silent; hence, to fail or perish; trans. to destroy:— cease, be cut down (off), destroy, be brought to silence, be undone, × utterly.

“Woe, for I am utterly cut off and destroyed.”

Unclean - טָמֵא ṭâmê˒, taw-may’; from 2930; foul in a relig. sense:— defiled, + infamous, polluted (-tion), unclean.

Not simply dirty, but defiled, unfit for God’s use – unholy.

Thoughts on the Passage:

The description of the temple in Isaiah’s vision could be the temple shown to Moses that he should copy it for the tabernacle. This was the REAL temple.

And see that you make them after the pattern for them, which is being shown you on the mountain. - Exodus 25:40

They serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things. For when Moses was about to erect the tent, he was instructed by God, saying, “See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain.” – Hebrews 8:5

1 – Uzziah had been struck with leprosy for having the affrontery to burn incense in the temple of God, an act of worship restricted to the priests.

2 Chronicles 26:16-21 - But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense. 17 But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor, 18 and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.” 19 Then Uzziah was angry. Now he had a censer in his hand to burn incense, and when he became angry with the priests, leprosy broke out on his forehead in the presence of the priests in the house of the Lord, by the altar of incense. 20 And Azariah the chief priest and all the priests looked at him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead! And they rushed him out quickly, and he himself hurried to go out, because the Lord had struck him. 21 And King Uzziah was a leper to the day of his death, and being a leper lived in a separate house, for he was excluded from the house of the Lord. And Jotham his son was over the king’s household, governing the people of the land.

This hearkens back to Saul’s offering of the sacrifice before battle when he was impatient for Samuel.

The king was not a priest – these offices were to be joined ONLY in the person and work of our Lord Jesus Christ.

1 - Isaiah saw not Jehovah—the essence of God (no man has seen that, or can see it), but Adonai—his dominion. He saw the Lord Jesus; so this vision is explained Jn. 12:41, that Isaiah now saw Christ’s glory and spoke of him, which is an incontestable proof of the divinity of our Saviour.

Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him. – John 12:41

3 – The worship of God was going in full force when Isaiah joined the scene.

But even though his heart felt compelled to worship, to declare the glory of God, he could only proclaim his sinfulness and unworthiness. In all the holy chorus of those who were praising God, he realized his complete inadequacy.

Many today consider they do God a favor by worshipping Him, as if He needed anything from them, including their devotion. He is not enriched in any way by our defiled efforts.

Any proclamation of praise by an unconfessed Isaiah from his unholy lips would be an affront to the holy God.

Through him [Jesus Christ] then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. – Hebrews 13:15

But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, I am of uncircumcised lips. How will Pharaoh listen to me?” - Exodus 6:30

The others in the temple were oblivious to the scene and to their guilt.

3 – The only voices in this scene that Isaiah heard prior to his cleansing are the words of the seraphim. Whether God is speaking all along, or He begins to speak after the cleansing is unclear, but the effect is the same: Isaiah could not appropriately respond to the call of God until his sin was atoned for.

3 – Holiness is, so far as we can comprehend God, the fundamental attribute of God. Some might argue love is likewise a fundamental attribute, and it is indeed perfect in Him. But holiness is self-normalized, in that it requires no one else to find full expression. Love, in general, requires an object or recipient of love to be complete.

Holiness, thus, is his abiding trait, while He expresses perfect love toward us.

4 – The house was filled with smoke – reminiscent of the cloud the incense would make when the priest took the coal and applied the incense as he entered the Holy Place.

This recalls the cloud over Sinai:

On the morning of the third day there were thunders and lightnings and a thick cloud on the mountain and a very loud trumpet blast, so that all the people in the camp trembled. 17 Then Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God, and they took their stand at the foot of the mountain. 18 Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly. 19 And as the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke, and God answered him in thunder. 20 The Lord came down on Mount Sinai, to the top of the mountain. And the Lord called Moses to the top of the mountain, and Moses went up. – Exodus 19:16-20

It also calls back to the glory of the Lord settling on the temple in Sinai.

Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 36 Throughout all their journeys, whenever the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the people of Israel would set out. 37 But if the cloud was not taken up, then they did not set out till the day that it was taken up. 38 For the cloud of the Lord was on the tabernacle by day, and fire was in it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel throughout all their journeys. - Exodus 40:34-38

If is seen in the dedication of the temple:

And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. – 1 Kings 8:10-11

Thus was Isaiah caught in a literal “no-man’s land” inside the cloud of God’s glory, a terrifying thing.

4 – The others who were in the temple were entirely oblivious even to the shaking of the foundations of the temple at the cry of the heavenly servants of God.

5 – Isaiah simply confesses his guilt. He makes no offer of reformation, restitution, or any other thing. There is nothing in the presence of the holy God he can do to remedy his state.

5 – woe – chapter 5 had 6 woes, spoken by God over His people. This chapter has one, spoken by Isaiah for himself.

5 – unclean lips –

“What comes out of a person is what defiles him. 21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” – Mark 7:20-23

5 – The sad irony of Isaiah’s declaration and confession of his sin is that if the people he preached to would do the same thing, they would be saved and healed.

6 – We do not hear the command of God to the seraph to deliver this atonement, but the command was obeyed.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” – John 3:8

6 – the coal from the burning altar (probably the bronze altar) was used in the worship of the temple to burn the incense.

The live coal symbolizes the total significance of the altar from which it came; that the penalty of sin was paid by a substitute offered in the sinner’s place.

6 - Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. – Matthew 5:4

6 – Isaiah was not worthy to receive the coal directly, but the unstained hands of the seraph were needed to communicate the coal to Isaiah’s defiled lips.

7 – We would have expected the burning coal to scorch Isaiah’s lips when applied, but rather than harm him it helps him, purifying him, delivering God’s forgiveness directly from His altar.

I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. – Matthew 3:11

7 – Once the coal had been applied, Isaiah did not declare his own cleanness – the angel declared it to him. He didn’t immediately recognize himself as clean or forgiven – he had to be told.

And behold, some people brought to him a paralytic, lying on a bed. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Take heart, my son; your sins are forgiven.” 3 And behold, some of the scribes said to themselves, “This man is blaspheming.” 4 But Jesus, knowing their thoughts, said, “Why do you think evil in your hearts? 5 For which is easier, to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise and walk’? 6 But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he then said to the paralytic—“Rise, pick up your bed and go home.” 7 And he rose and went home. – Matthew 9:2-7

There was no reaction recorded from the paralytic at the forgiveness of his sins, but the proof of the forgiveness of his sins soon followed.

This is not some sort of proof text for miraculous deliverances, although I am sure some might use it that way. This miracle was done specifically so that they (and we) would know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

Sermon Text:

We come this morning to possibly the most familiar passage in the book of Isaiah.

Certainly, I have heard more sermons on this passage from this prophet than any other chapter.

For some of you, when we began this look at the book of Isaiah in our Lord’s day studies, you were looking forward to reading this chapter.

If that is you, I have good news and bad news:

The good news is we are here, and we will be looking at this chapter at least two Sundays.

The bad news: there are sixty more chapters in this book, so you need to begin looking now for another milestone to anticipate.

And even with all those chapters left in this book, it was an attractive option for me to spend several weeks on this passage alone.

There is certainly a lot here, and the themes found in this chapter echo through the rest of Scripture.

So I walk an indistinct line between dealing with the text enough and spending too much time on it and bogging down in our study.

And one of the measures I try to consider is whether staying in the passage for an extended period does you all a valuable service, or whether it just strokes my ego for being thorough.

So with that in mind, I have simply split the chapter into two natural divisions that focus around two distinct events, and I plan to consider each of these halves individually.

I will leave it to other teachers, or to your own study, to glean what I have left unharvested in the passage.

By this exercise, I am sure you will grow in the effort.

This morning, we will look at the first seven verses of this chapter, where Isaiah sets the stage and the picture and shows us the reality of what we practice in our worship.

This event, which amounted to his calling as a prophet, was so pivotal that it is the only part of the prophecy of Isaiah where we are told WHEN the events happened, when the message was received from the Lord.

In the year that King Uzziah died…

We don’t know whether it was before or after he died.

You may recall that he was a leper in the final years of his life, having been struck by God because he had tried to burn incense in the temple of God.

He had been warned that this was a duty only the sons of Aaron could perform, and he was a son of Judah, through the line of David and Solomon.

But in spite of the warning, he had taken the bronze censer (fireproof bowl), retrieved a coal from the altar of the burnt offering, and placed it into the bowl.

Then he tried to force his way into the holy place, the area outside the holy of holies.

It was in there that the mixture of powders for incense were kept.

Two hands full of the powder would have been dropped onto the coals, making a huge cloud of aromatic smoke that would fill the holy place and seep into the holy of holies, where the Ark of God was kept.

Now, the reason I am going into this detail is that we will see ALL these details in our passage today.

The smoke.

The throne.

The holiest place.

The coal.

And the sin.

But Uzziah was prevented from entering the holy place, and when he got angry with the priests for stopping him, God struck him with leprosy he never recovered from.

You can read all this in 2 Chronicles 26, specifically verses 16-21.

But the real point of this part of our text is found in the next phrase: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne.

That is the most important thing: I saw the Lord.

And so what does he tell us about the Lord he sees?

The train of His robe filled the temple.

That is all the visual description we get of the Lord here – the hem of His robe.

I don’t fault him for it –

He was overwhelmed by the sight.

He was, perhaps, overcome by the glory of the sight.

And smoke filled the temple, as it had when God came down to these earthly places:

At Mount Sinai, when God came to give Israel the Law, we see in Exodus 19:18: Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke because the Lord had descended on it in fire. The smoke of it went up like the smoke of a kiln, and the whole mountain trembled greatly.

When the tabernacle was prepared in Exodus 40:34-35: Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. 35 And Moses was not able to enter the tent of meeting because the cloud settled on it, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.

And when the temple itself was dedicated by Solomon: And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the Lord, 11 so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord. – 1 Kings 8:10-11

We get a better description of the Lord’s attendants.

It is the Hebrew word seraphim, which means “burning ones” or “fiery ones”.

We will not delve into what type of heavenly being these are, mainly because we don’t know. This is literally the ONLY place in the Bible where this word is used of what we might consider angelic majesties.

Many have tried to categorize the heavenly beings, but I would suggest to you that to do that is a rather pointless exercise.

Take them for what they are and how they are described.

Because they are NOT the most important thing in the room right now.

They are ministering servants, and it appears Isaiah does have an easier time in describing them.

They fly.

They are “fiery”, perhaps colored like burnished bronze.

Their voices shook the very foundation of the temple, those great stones that had been laid to support the tons of stone that would sit atop that great foundation.

It is a fair question to ask where all this happened.

Was Isaiah in the temple when this occurred, perhaps going about his priestly duties?

Or was this simply a vision of the heavenly temple that the earthly tabernacle and temple were patterned on by Moses?

I won’t take too much time dealing with this, but I think the text does point us in the right direction.

The descriptions he uses here lead us to believe that he was in the temple, and then he saw BEYOND the temple to what was really happening.

All the sacrifices and rituals, all the prayers and psalms, were to the God WHO IS PRESENT in the worship.

The reasons I would say this are:

1. He doesn’t at any place indicate he was TRANSPORTED from somewhere else.

He doesn’t even mention he was lifted above the scene.

He says he saw the Lord, and the train of His robe filled the temple.

2. He speaks of the temple as the location his audience knows.

He doesn’t use distance language, like saying “that temple” or “that place”.

He speaks of THE temple and THE house. THE foundations.

3. We will look at it, God willing, when we take up the second half of the passage, but the call of God in verse 8 – “Who will go for us?” – seems not to simply be a call to the others in the Godhead:

This is a call to the worshippers in the temple.

God is calling His people, who are calling on His name, and saying “Who can I send?”

To think otherwise makes it seem like God is toying with Isaiah.

Like I said, we will look at that exchange in more depth when we next look at this passage.

So back to the seraphim, the burning ones – they are crying out to each other:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts [armies, servants]; the whole earth is full of His glory!

The other glimpse into the throne room of God, in Revelation 4:8, we hear much the same thing:

“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”

In our common confession, we acknowledge many attributes of God: immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute… and the like.

But in the revelation of God to mankind, the attribute that seems to dominate our understanding of Him is His complete holiness.

The word “holy” means separate, set apart. And God is so entirely different from us, we can only understand a tiny and imperfect picture of who He is.

Leviticus 11:44-45, God says this:

I am the Lord your God. Consecrate yourselves therefore, and be holy, for I am holy. … 45 For I am the Lord who brought you up out of the land of Egypt to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.”

So far as we know from God’s self-revelation through the Bible, everything else flows from His holiness.

His love is holy.

His justice is holy.

His truth is holy.

His Spirit is Holy.

And it was this holiness Isaiah was confronted with.

Do you think about God’s holiness, meditating on what that means?

Do you consider how completely good He is?

His motives have never been mixed.

His truth has never been wrong.

And one day, you will stand in front of Him and He will judge you – for what you have done and why you have done it.

Do you dare stand before the holy God and try to give an account, even when commanded to?

Can you endure the searching, penetrating light that will pierce your very soul, showing every dark thing as if it were the greatest blob of cancer you have ever seen?

Can you offer a single word in your own defense in front of the holy God who made you and knows every dark place in your mind and heart?

I think, based on what we see Isaiah do here, that you will be able to do nothing but confess your sin in terror, to admit your rebellion knowing you have nothing good in you.

Isaiah, if he was indeed ministering in the temple, was lifted from what he thought were holy contemplations face-to-face with TRUE holiness – God Himself.

And as much as he might have wanted to praise God or declare God’s holiness with the seraphim, all he could see was how utterly hopeless he was in the presence of God.

“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!”

Six times in the last chapter, God pronounced woes upon His people;

Here, the seventh is pronounced by God’s prophet about himself.

“I am utterly cut off and destroyed; even my lips are defiled and polluted.”

The very instrument God has called me to use as His prophet – these lips that preach are entirely unworthy.

What a healthy thought for any preacher or teacher!

To realize we are entirely unworthy in ourselves to speak on God’s behalf.

To know that we are no more worthy, no better, than anyone we might teach.

All our worthiness is in Jesus Christ, who is our life.

Then, quickly, let’s look at God’s response to his confession:

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.”

There is a lot here, but let me summarize quickly:

The coal was from the altar of sacrifice, the remnant of the burnt offering to take away sin.

But you might say: if God could take away sin like that, with a burning coal, why did He send Jesus Christ to do it?

Great question!

And the answer is the key to this scene: the coal IS the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

Your sin is atoned for!

No animal sacrifice ATONED for sin – it covered it, awaiting in faith the day when the atonement would come.

No Law made anyone righteous, particularly before the holy God.

The salvation of Isaiah, just like the salvation of everyone from Adam until the last believer, was accomplished through the ONE atonement – that of Jesus Christ.

And on the basis of the atonement of Jesus Christ, we have those words spoken to us:

Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

This atonement will never need to be repeated.

We don’t see Isaiah setting up appointments to get his lips touched on a regular basis.

Like the Holy Spirit said in the book of Hebrews 10:11ff:

And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, 13 waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying, 16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,” 17 then he adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.” 18 Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

There is no more atonement needed – the one Jesus Christ accomplished on the cross is sufficient for every sin you have ever and will ever commit.

The only sad fact in all this is that if the people to whom Isaiah preached had confessed their sin, had realized the gulf between God’s holiness and their defilement,

They would have been saved as well.

They would have been delivered from their sins, had their guilt taken completely away.

It is the gift of God that you, today, have heard of God’s holiness,

And you can, in that light, begin to see the depth of your sin and hopelessness.

And you can call on Him, declaring your utter need of Him to save you.

Perhaps you are already a believer, a follower of Jesus Christ.

But you hold on to the guilt of your sin, or onto the sin itself.

His atonement frees you from both:

It removes your guilt before God outright.

And it frees you from the bondage that sin had over you.

And it is thus, as people freed by the blood of Jesus Christ, that we can praise God, exalting Him as “Holy, holy, holy.”