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Recognizing God’s Holiness
If you have went your entire life believing you understand God, it is quite discomforting to be confronted with the holiness of who God truly is.
For myself, it is always a reminder of how separate we are from Him.
How we are incapable of even providing for the breath we breathe, the food we eat, and the people surrounding us.
There are those who would believe they have God entirely figured out.
Where their ritual lives lead them to discover little about who God truly is and what He desires for them.
What happens when this occurs is the hardening of the body against what God desires.
God called the Israelites a stiff-necked people.
Unwilling to become obedient.
Unwilling to listen.
Unwilling to see.
When I am unwilling to see what God wants for me, my life becomes difficult, stressed, and discomforting.
However, if I allow myself to become molded, flexible to what God wants, and obedient to His calling, I will be able to have peace knowing what is coming and that God is in control.
When Has God Shown You His Holiness
Some of us have not recognized God’s calling in our lives to understand His separateness from us.
When our sin causes our separation from Him, we begin to cover our shame, guilt, and harden our eyes from seeing the holiness of God.
We would rather dwell in the darkness and become accustomed to those things which we found when we were stumbling around than to accept our sins and ask forgiveness for them.
For a group of people unwilling to listen, unwilling to change, and unwilling to accept what God has asked for them, the revelation of God’s holiness in their lives should be life changing.
This is the message in Isaiah 6.
Isaiah’s Vision
Many of the books and prophets within the Old Testament begin their visions and accounts of hearing God at the beginning of their writings.
However, Isaiah leads up to chapter 6 by letting the people know what they have done with the charges they had been given.
Where they had faltered with the laws they had been allowed to understand.
When the people thought they had figured God out and stopped maintaining their relationship with Him, the prophet Isaiah was given a vision to understand God’s holiness.
God’s Vision for Isaiah
God has a way of revealing Himself to us in just the way we need.
For the prophet Isaiah it was his duty to listen to God’s direction to tell the people what he witnessed.
First there was the acknowledgement of who God is and how this Holy Introduction separated Isaiah’s previous thoughts about who God is to one of an understanding that compelled Isaiah to speak the truth to others.
That truth is not always given in a nice way.
When people are insensitive to the directions God wants for them in their lives, it takes a “Woe is me approach” to understanding that not everything we say, do, and think are in line with what God wants from us.
This is what Isaiah realized and communicated to the rest of the Israelites.
What they thought was making them separate from the rest of the world as the called priests of the world instead became a prison for them in their inability to recognize their sin in the light of the holiness of God.
Just the Hem
Just the hem of the robe of Jesus was enough holiness, power, and the faith of the woman in that which touched Jesus made her well.
As Isaiah witnessed the train or hem of the robe of God filling the temple, he was in awesome wonder of the holiness of God.
All that God touches is holy for He will not dwell in the presence of that which is holy.
Seraphim, a description meaning serpent, fiery ones, always burning, were in the presence of God proclaiming God’s holiness.
When God instructed Moses to make a serpent on a staff for those who were bitten to become well, the term Seraphim was used.
However, the people looked upon the Seraphim in worship instead of focusing their eyes upon the God who gave the instruction.
It was His holiness working then.
It was His holiness which the Seraphim proclaimed to Isaiah.
Throughout history it is has become easier for people to place their focus of worship in something that is less than the Holy God.
Through iconoclasm, another word for the worship of idols or icons, symbols, or anything that would distract from the Holy God, people have allowed their eyes to become dim to what God has in store for their lives.
Once Isaiah recognizes what he is witnessing, he can do nothing but understand the implication of his life compared to the eternal existence of God, the Mighty Creator who is Holy, Holy, Holy.
Isaiah understands that his ruination condemns him to an eternal life separated from this holiness.
Isaiah also recognizes that the people he has been surrounded by are also unclean, or living in a sinful state, unclean and separated from God.
However, Isaiah’s acknowledgement of his uncleanliness, his proclamation of who God is and God’s holiness prompted the Seraphim to bring the cleansing fire from the altar to allow Isaiah to communicate with God.
The Seraphim acted as an intercessor in this vision to allow Isaiah to hear God’s call.
Isaiah’s profession of iniquity, his understanding of God’s holiness were ways in which his faith acted to allow him to be given the further commands to go forth and proclaim the Holiness of God.
Your Call to the Temple
Put yourself in Isaiah’s shoes.
A time where the people surrounding you are completely disillusioned to the holiness of God.
Where their country was established through the miracles of God drawing them out of persecution, slavery, and wandering to a life comfortable, established, and proclaiming they know God.
Are you willing to acknowledge that the vision you may have in the Holy presence of God would render you speechless?
Would you understand your separateness from the Holy Lord and notice your uncleanliness due to the things which come from your heart, come from your mouth, and come from your actions?
Hopefully, your vision and presence in front of the Holy God is what prompts your understanding of the calling that is knocking at your door.
Your Call to be a Witness
Close your eyes and imagine the vision that Isaiah witnessed.
Imagine the ground shaking as the holiness of God commands all of creation to obey Him.
Picture the fiery serpents with six wings proclaiming the holiness of God around you as you have nothing left to do but to prostrate yourself before this holiness in a recognition of your sinful state.
This calling is not destructive but redemptive.
It is God’s calling you to recognize His mercy through the cleansing He is offering you.
If you are able to recognize this, your faith in God is greater than the faith you have in yourself.
You will recognize that you need cleansed with God’s help.
Your Call to Go and Obey
Your calling does not stop with the forgiveness of your sins.
God desires that you continue to listen to Him, continue to see with your eyes the vision that He has for the world.
Remind yourself of the constant proclamation of the holiness of God that the seraphim have in His presence.
As you honor God through worship and obedience, He will work through you to reach others.
God Himself will dwell with you to make this happen.
You must listen for His voice and His instruction.
Do not shy away from the truth.
Understand that the holiness of God will dwell with the world in the future for eternity and it is better for them to hear the truth now than to wait too long.
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