Slices
Prepare
Prepare to meet your wonderful God!
Bible passage
Isaiah’s commission
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.’
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 ‘Woe to me!’ I cried. ‘I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.’
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, ‘See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.’
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?’
And I said, ‘Here am I. Send me!’
9 He said, ‘Go and tell this people:
‘“Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.”
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.’
11 Then I said, ‘For how long, Lord?’
And he answered:
‘Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12 until the Lord has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
13 And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.’
Explore
Meeting someone face to face can be life-changing. It was for Saul on the Damascus road (Acts 9:1–6) and it also was for Isaiah. ‘I saw the Lord,’ he said, ‘My eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty’ (vs 1,5). It was the most formative experience of his life.
Isaiah was stunned facing the majesty and holiness of God, whose glory filled the earth and whose smoke filled the Temple (vs 1–4). Heavenly beings covered their faces. Isaiah lost all sense of respectability before the One who is ‘holy, holy, holy’. ‘My God, how wonderful you are, your majesty how bright … your endless wisdom, boundless power, and awesome purity!’*
‘Woe to me! … I am ruined’ (v 5) is Isaiah’s reaction, but then he discovers that the Lord in all his holiness is not aloof. The Lord reaches down and takes away the prophet’s guilt and cleanses his lips (v 6,7). Immediately, it seems, the prophet is eager to serve. He offers himself (v 8), not knowing what awaits him. Perhaps the ability God looks for most is our avail-ability. Isaiah, foremost among the prophets, is given a hard task. He is to go to this people whose mindset will not receive the message (vs 9,10). So he does this, faithfully and imaginatively, for 40 years amid national disintegration… and a promise of hope (vs 11–13).
*FW Faber (1814–1863)
Respond
Almighty or all-matey? How similar is our attitude to Isaiah’s? In our easy-going age, how should we approach the Holy One, high and exalted, seated on his throne?
Deeper Bible study
‘O Jesus Christ, grow thou in me, / and all things else recede; … That I am nothing, thou art all, / I would be daily taught.’1
Chapter 5 ended with a threat: an imminent Assyrian attack (and future Babylonian invasion?). Chapter 6 begins with a death – hardly a promising start. It marks a significant transition, since King Uzziah had overseen great prosperity in his 52-year reign. The king is dead, long live The King, he who surpasses all other monarchs. He has no limitations in his might (all-mighty), his holiness (three times over, in verse 3) or the scope of his reign (the whole earth). The magnificent Temple cannot contain him. Encountering his holiness means confronting our frailty and sinfulness. Isaiah is ‘undone’ and ‘dismantled’.2 He stands as a representative of a defiled nation, incapable of being the Lord’s servant. We have to examine any behaviour that denies our God: ‘I hold this against you’ is the word to Revelation’s churches.3
We are incapable of being God’s true representatives and speaking his truth. The solution? God’s initiative in cleansing (v 7). Such holiness is frightening, revealing our distance from God's perfection, but ‘Merciful grace belongs as much to the essence of holiness as justice and purity’.4 Isaiah is restored to the unenviable task of speaking God’s truth. It will be a word of judgement and hardening; a protracted process of refining and pruning, before a stump remains to issue a shoot in the future (v 13).5
Israel was meant to be a witness to truth and justice, reflecting the character of a holy God, but it knows neither the greatness of God nor its own uncleanness. The people could not be witnesses until they acknowledged both. Isaiah gets it and volunteers for the somewhat thankless task which will confirm some in their rebellion. It will be a long and painful road, but life will never be extinguished. God will not quench the flame, however low it flickers.
Could you gather with others to seek God and to acknowledge your part in society’s ills?
1 Johann Casper Lavater, 1741–1801 2 Walter Brueggemann, Isaiah 1–39, Westminster, 1998, p59 3 Rev 2:4,14,20 4 John Goldingay, Isaiah, 2001 5 Isa 11:1; 37:31
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Nehemiah 7,8; Luke 8
Pray for Scripture Union
The summer holidays are nearly here. Please pray for the Mission Events team as they support our event leaders to get everything in place ready for the busy season of holidays and missions.
