Holy LORD, Comissioned Man
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
A Hugely important passage
Sometimes the prophet is just the medium of a message from God, but sometimes the prophet’s life and actions are part of the message. Although Isaiah ordinarily just gives oracles from God, there are a few times he “steps into” the message of the book with a story.
This is the most personal moment we will have with Isiaiah the man. He is actively involved in this part of this amazing book of prophecy.
This passage sets the outline of his purpose and clues us into what God is doing
In Isaiah, we are about to trace an interesting transition: from “Woe is me”, to “Here Am I”
There are three main movements that I have identified in this passage, the first is:
Behold the Glory
Behold the Glory
v1-4
This vision that we’re about to review is dated very specifically. In the opening verses of Isaiah we hear that Isaiah’s career as a prophet takes place over the reign of 4 kings.
Unlike our method of dating i.e. “2024”, it was not uncommon to give a date based on who was king at the time, and how many years into his reign. That’s exactly what Is does here, but he launches straight from the date into the details about something he saw:
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.
So, we have estimated this year to be about 740 B.C. At that time Is gets a magnificent vision, he SAW.
Isaiah has a personal experience of visiting a heavenly throne room in some kind of vision.
“I saw”
What did he see? he saw a Lord sitting on a throne.
Now I draw you attention to this. When you see “Lord” in the OT your mind will usually jump straight to “God”. If it is the personal name of God it will be in “all caps”. But what do you notice about this “lord” in your Bibles? It’s not all caps, because this isn’t the personal name of God. Isaiah says he sees the “lord” meaning he sees a master, a ruler, a leader sitting on a throne in a temple.
Now it will become very obvious very soon that this is indeed a vision of God, yet if you know your Bible, you know that it is not possible for mere humans to see God. If we saw God we would die. Yet Isaiah says that he sees a “lord” on a throne in God’s temple.
How can he see the LORD who cannot be seen? the answer will come soon!
This Lord is enthroned, he is majetically clothes with a robe that fills the temple. This temple seems to be the heavenly throne room. The earthly temples that Israel built were only copies of the real thing in heaven, and it is as though Isaiah was in the real throne room gazing at a massive robe that spreads across the floor in every direction.
This Lord is attended by angelic supernatural beings. They are called seraphim. They are the burning ones atending the Lord on the throne
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.
They are other worldly creatures with strange habits of covering their feet and eyes as they flew. Yet they sing, and they sing a most excellent song!
And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
This call and response would have been overpowing I’m sure! Imagine seeing this!
A glorious lord, encircled by six-winged seraphim, calling continually in this glorious song to worship their God.
And here we know for certain that it is indeed God on the throne, becuase the sepraphim honour him “YHWH Sabbaoth”, YHWH of hosts, Lord of earth and heaven, creator of the world.
And he I holy, holy, holy.
Imagine for a moment that a parent says to their child, “I love you”. And the child responds “I love you more”, then comes the response “No I love you more” you can imagine I’m sure how such a scene quickly devolves into “I love you times a hundred” “I love you times infinity!” “I love you to the moon and back”
We multiply our expression to magnify our meaning. We repeat something to drive home how great and important it is. So too here, we see the perpetual announcment of the holiness of God.
Call and response. Time and again they cry: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory”
The LORD is utterly holy. What does it mean to be holy?
Separate. Sacred. Divine.
God is separate from us in quality, in purity, in perfection.
God is so different from us, it is hard to put it into words.
The repetition of this intensifies the description.
Then the Thrice-holy God speaks:
And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
The LORD speaks and the world shakes. The noise is intense and reverberates.
And smoke fills the temple.
Intense noise and smoke are associated with appearances of God’s glory. At Sainai, where God entered into covenant with Israel, he spoke to the people from a cloud, and the voice was too great for the people to bear it.
Isaiaha was seeing a revelation of GOd’s glory, but that glory was not expected to remain in the heavenly temple. Instead as the seraphim sang, the expectation was that the whole world would be full of GOd’s glory - it must cover the sea! It must pervade the land, it must be revealed.
But, if seeing God is enough to kill a man, then we need God to reveal his glory in a way that humanity can see, in a way that does not kill us, in a way that can be perceived by less holy minds.
And that is what God did!
The glory has been revealed, revealed in a man.
The glory has been revealed:
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Isaiah saw a vision of God enthroned in glory
We have seen God’s glory revealed in Jesus Christ, son of God, Son of Man.
He came in humilty, putting aside the majesty he deserves to reveal the glory of God in a mission to save people.
We do not now see him with our own eyes, but we behold him through these words.
The day is soon coming when Christ will come to earth once more and we see his glory once more. when he comes again we will be [erfected and made holy ourselves to behold the thrice holy God.
Be Humbled & Atoned
Be Humbled & Atoned
v5-7
Imagine for a moment you were getting changed in the privacy of your own house. And just at the moment that you are most exposed, someone you weren't expecting walks into the room. Many of you have had that feeling before, that feeling of being utterly exposed and caught naked.
I think that’s how Isaiah must have felt when he stepped into this vision of God’s temple. He would have felt utterly exposed and caught, even though it was was obviously God’s intention for him to be there. He was ashamed and felt an impending dread that he was about to die having come face to face with God. But why? Why would Isaiah feel this way? He will tell us in his own words.
Isaiah responds to the scene unfolding before him. He saw, then he spoke in response:
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!”
He knows he should die for seeing God
He feels innately his inadequacy, “hoy!”. Woe for me!
Just as Isaiah pronounced woes on his nation last chapter, now he pronounces a woe on himself. He thinks something bad is coming for him.
Isaiah he confesses this in his recognition that even his own mouth is unclean. He is unholy, and he has no right to be there!
Here it seems his lips are representative for his whole being. But, even if it was only his lips that were unclean, and the rest of him was holy, that would be enough for him to have a genuine fear of the Holiness of God destroying him.
Isaiah has SEEN the King, the LORD, and now he is innately aware of his own inadequacy, his own lack of holiness, his own uncleanness, and that he belongs to a nation of unclean people.
We all stand before God this way. None of us have any right, in our own person to stand before God.
You desire to make yourself into the ideal person. You desire to fulfill your potential, and to live up to the vision you have for yourself.
Yet your desire, your goal will always be hampered by the fact that you are not divine. You are born a human. Even as we make technological advancements that enhance us and multiply our abilities, as we reach for the trans-human babel, to reach up to heaven and divinise ourselves as a race, even then, we will only be augmented humans, forever tainted by the human condition. There is no way for you to free yourself from the limitations of human existence.
The only way to be free is to be Holy. The only way to encounter the divine is to be Holy. The only way to in anyway take on God’s image is to be holy.
You need holiness. And holiness cannot abide with sin.
Sin is...
Sin has divided you from God. God is holy, separate from you in this key area. He is without sin.
We have been trying for millennia to make ourselves god, to reach up to heaven and elevate ourselves, but we never can make it. It is always outside our grasp.
Have you noticed how no matter how good your life is, you always feel like there is so much more and that happiness is still illusive? Your limitations and your sin will mean you will never be able to find true fulfillment in your own efforts.
You will be forever in Isaiah's shoes, in dread of your unclean condition unless God acts to make you holy.
He is Holy, Holy, Holy, we are unclean people.
Thankfully, in this vision, God does act. God sends one of his seraphim to rectify the problem that there is unholiness in God's throne room.
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
By fire made clean
The burning holiness of God, the holy burning one, the seraph takes a holy burning coal from the altar, and touches it to the lips of the prophet to atone for his guilt.
The offending part is cleansed. Atonement is made, sin is covered.
Interesting because it did not come by the shedding of blood.
This is symbolic of Isaiah’s consecration, him being set apart for a holy function to stand as a mouthpiece for God among other unholy people.
The pronouncement is made. The guilt is dealt with.
God can make a pronouncement over you. He can pronounce you clean, atoned for, justified.
How does God take away guilt? It would be unjust to pretend like it didn’t matter.
God deals with guilt through atonement, a way of covering and taking away sin.
OT sacrifices, foreshadowed...
Jesus, the Glory of God revealed who came to reconcile us to Holy God.
He atones for sin.
Then he applies that atonement to people who recognise their need, and call out for a covering for sin.
Then your guilt is taken away. It is objectively removed. You are justified before God. You are made holy.
Christ gives it freely!
Be humbled, and find atonement!
Be Commissioned
Be Commissioned
v8-13
Isaiah has seen the LORD, he has spoken in response confessing his unholiness, God has dealt with his guilt, and now Isaiah hears a commission from God.
God didn’t make Isaiah holy to sit around and twiddle his thumbs, God has work for him to do!
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.”
What is Isiaiah’s comission?
And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “ ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’ 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.”
Why Did God send him then?
How long must Isaiah go unheard? Till exile.
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, and the Lord removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
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.
The holy seed? A remnant! God would not utterly destroy. The thrice holy God would fulfill his promises, with a Holy Seed, a holy offspring, a stump of Jesse, a branch of David.
In fact he would use these very words to describe his own ministry!
Has this prediction been fulfilled?
So What?
So What?
transition: from “Woe is me”, to “Here Am I”
God is Holy, behold his glory, especially in Jesus.
Recognise your uncleaness before him. Seek atonement!
The Holy Seed has come and crushed the serpent. He has made atonement, he has risen from the dead, and now he sits at the right hand of God!
Be comissioned! But take heart, although some will be deaf, there is a great harvest!
Our church services are shaped this way, we atart with beholding God, praising the Holy God, then we recognise our sin and need in our confession of sin, but we don’t stay there, we have our heads lifted up, and we hear the Words of Our God in the reading & preaching, and we get our marching orders as it were. We have a our God to serve, and we go from here on mission to bring Christ to the world.