A Transforming Vision of the Holy God
Isaiah 6:1-8
Introduction
Most of us here this morning will know the story of Watergate. The story of bungled breaking and entering that eventually led to the resignation of a President of the United States.
But some of you may not know the story of Charles Colson, one of the President’s men. He served time for his crimes and through the experience came to faith in God. But soon after his conversion, Colson found himself spiritually dry.
A friend suggested to Colson that he watch a video lecture series by R. C. Sproul on the holiness of God. And in one of his books, Colson writes what happened:
“All I knew about Sproul was that he was a theologian, so I wasn’t enthusiastic. After all I reasoned, theology was for people who had time to study, locked in ivory towers far from the battlefield of human need. However, at my friend’s urging I finally agreed to watch Sproul’s series. By the end of the sixth lecture I was on my knees, deep in prayer, in awe of God’s absolute holiness. It was a life-changing experience as I gained a completely new understanding of the holy God I believe in and worship. My spiritual drought ended, but this taste for the majesty of God only made me thirst for more of him.” [Loving God, 14-15]
Though knew God, he was utterly transformed by knowing of God’s holiness. So transformed was he that he developed a taste for God’s majestic holiness and longed for more.
Have you ever been transformed like that? Did you ever think it would be by understanding God’s holiness? Maybe his love, maybe his goodness, but his holiness?
This morning, we want to go to God’s word and see a powerful vision of God’s holiness. And pray that our own lives will be so transformed that like Colson, we will develop a deep hunger for God, that will help us lose our taste for sin.
Isaiah 6:1-8
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. [8] And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
1. The Hope of a Holy God (6:1)
Isaiah begins recounting his vision with the words, “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.”
We may be tempted to glance over the first of these words, thinking them to be unimportant. After all, Isaiah is seeing a vision of the Lord – who cares about King Uzziah, right?
Well, Isaiah cared. Israel cared. You see, for the most part, Uzziah was a pretty good king. He had defeated the Philistines, he had worked hard at building up the nation spiritually and economically. And yet, he got prideful in the end and it was his downfall. He tried to do what only a priest could do – offer incense in the temple.
But before he could do it, God struck him down with leprosy. And so, for the remaining years of his reign, Uzziah had to be put away from the temple, the royal palace, the very people of Israel. Now that king has just died, and a new, powerful king of Assyrian looms dangerously across the border. The entire future of Israel stands in jeopardy.
And it’s in the midst of this shadow of uncertainty that Isaiah has a vision whereby he sees, “the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.”
Notice that Isaiah saw the Lord, seated on a throne. The word ‘Lord’ here in verse is not his name, like it is in verse 3. Notice in v. 3, ‘Lord’ is in small caps. That is the way English translations signify the name of God (Yahweh) – “I am what I am” (in Exodus).
But in verse 1, it’s not the name of God, but a title, meaning the king, the sovereign One. And more than just a title, Isaiah saw the Sovereign sitting on a throne. Why is that important? Well, from where does a king rule his kingdom? – his throne.
More than that, it’s the sovereign Lord that is ‘high and lifted up, and the train of his robe fills the temple.” This is not like the train on a wedding dress; it is the hem of his royal robe. The Lord is pictured, not just as the one whose glory fills the temple but who is exalted high above all of creation.
Even as Uzziah was gone, the Lord was reminding his people of the truth of Psalm 118:8-9 – “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in princes.”
Right now, everyone is talking about the elections. As responsible citizens and Christians, we should have an interest in them, but the way some Christians carry one, you’d think the fate of the world hung on those elections. I’ve got news for you – from the view of God’s throne our elections mean nothing.
It doesn’t matter who sits in the Oval Office, God is still on his throne, ruling with sovereign omnipotence. And that is why we can have hope. When human leadership fails, or disaster seems to come to our lives – it’s a vision of the sovereign, holy God who forever reigns over heaven and earth that will give us hope.
2. The Worship of a Holy God (6:2-3)
Isaiah sees the exalted, sovereign Lord and says, “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!’”
When you go to the store, see all kinds of poster, statues, and calendars with angels on them. And invariable, they all get the pictures wrong. The angels in the presence of God are not supermodel women with wings or cute, cubby babies in heavenly diapers strumming harps.
No, these are the seraphim – powerful, glorious angelic beings. They are described as having six wings used to cover their eyes and feet, and to fly. The description here is meant to be symbolic. These mighty begins express humility and give honor to God, all the while hover before the throne, ready to execute God’s will at a moment’s notice.
In the mean time, what do they do? They give worship to God. Isaiah says, “[they] called [one] to another and said: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!’”
Everything in this text culminates to this worshipful declaration of God’s glory. Just as when you look at a mountain, your gaze does not remain on the base, but is naturally drawn up to its peak, so also in this passage – as Isaiah records for us his vision of God, he wants our eyes to be drawn up to the holiness of God. It is like the peak of a mountain, with the rest of the mountain, pointing to it, holding it up.
The truth is, the word ‘holy’ has a number of different usages, but when predicated on God, it’s as close to an adjective for God himself – it speaks of his God-ness. God is God and he alone in that sense is holy. He is everything he is, and not like us. Everything else that exists is not God. In that sense, only God is holy. And his holiness stands at the foundation for all of his other attributes.
We often think of moral purity when we think of something being holy. And that certainly is part of what the words means – if something is holy, it is morally pure, separated from sin.
But when the word ‘holy’ is used in reference to God, it means more than that. More than anything else in the Bible, God is described as holy. It’s the closest thing we have to an adjective for God in the Bible. For God to be holy is for God to exist in all of his God-ness.
So, what do we make of all this? I think what we should see from the seraphim is that God is holy. He alone is God, and no one else comes close to him in his deity. And in the glory of his deity, the entire earth is full of his presence.
In the Old Testament, it was the temple that signified a place of God’s presence. Above the ark of the covenant, in the most holy place, a visible representation of the glory of God dwelled. Here, the seraphim remind us that God’s presence – his glory – is not restricted to any temple. The whole earth is full of God’s presence!
It’s because of this – the grandeur and majesty and glory of the God’s holiness – it’s because of that, that more than over other being – angelic or human – it is God alone who deserves our worship.
3. The Humility Required by a Holy God (6:4-5)
God’s holiness speaks to his God-ness, but part of his God-ness is a separation of sin. In fact, so pure is God that the Bible tells us where God’s glory is manifested there is judgment on sin, for the two cannot coexist.
Thus, Isaiah’s response to this vision should not surprise us. He says, 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!”
The foundations of the thresholds are the bottom supports of the doorframe. Why does Isaiah say they shaking? I can only imagine it’s because that’s where his face is! Isaiah is prostrate – face down on the ground.
Isaiah’s physical position represents the heart position – the attitude – we should have when we come before the Lord. With our hearts bowed low, knowing that before the holy King, I am nothing. Isaiah knows this, and it’s why he says Woe is me! After encountering a glorious vision of the Lord, Isaiah suddenly realizes who he is before the king: a man of unclean lips in the midst of a people of unclean lips.
Isaiah was no peasant. He was part of the royal family. He worked in the palace as the court historian. He walked among kings and princes and was looked up to by others. But before God, he came to understand his true place in life.
We often fool ourselves into thinking we are better than we are by comparing ourselves to others sinners. We look at someone on television or our neighbors or the guy who works with us and think, ‘Man, look how bad they are! That is one wretched sinner. Good thing I’m not like that!’
And suddenly we have become the very Pharisee that Jesus’ speaks about in Luke 18. He says, “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. [11] The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. [12] I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ [13] But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’”
What does Jesus say about this? I tell you, [the tax collector] went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
John Calvin says, comparing ourselves to others is like comparing a dingy gray rock to lump of jet black coal and thinking the gray rock looks white. Instead, he says we must hold our lives up the burning, pure glory of God himself and only then we will come to a true knowledge of ourselves. Likewise, when we come face-to-face with the holiness of God, we likewise will be humbled.
But many do not seek to see the glory of God’s holiness, because they fear this humbling. The truth is, such an experience is actually freeing. Because being humbled before prepares us to be cleansed by him.
4. The Cleansing of a Holy God (6:6-7)
I’ve always thought it is revealing that Isaiah makes no plea before God. We are so quick to defend our sin make excuses for it. But here in the burning, glorious presence of God, there is no pretence, no excuses. Isaiah knows that he is guilty of being an unclean sinner.
Isaiah is probably lying here waiting for God’s judgment. Instead, he receives God’s mercy. For out of the smoke comes one of the seraphim with a burning coal. Isaiah says, “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.’”
The amazing reality that has been true since the beginning until this very day is this – God saves sinners. In fact, God takes the initiative in saving sinners. When God reveals himself it is never to destroy us. After all, he doesn’t need to reveal himself to do that, we are sinners from birth already headed for destruction!
Instead, God reveals himself in order to redeem us. Understand, the burning coal was not what took away Isaiah’s sin. The coal was merely a symbol of the purifying effect of God’s grace upon a person’s heart. Just as the bread and the cup earlier symbolized Christ, so here, the coal vividly pictures God making a sinner to be holy in his sight.
Fire is often an image of God’s holiness; it is a fire of righteousness that consumes all unrighteousness. And it’s by the purifying power of God’s holiness that the repentant are made holy like Him.
And that’s what brings freedom. Because sin is a slave-driver. Sin is a captivating force that will gladly take control of your life if you let it. And you will let it, unless you give control of your life over to God. Paul says, before we are saved by God, we are enslaved to sin.
But when we humble ourselves before God, acknowledging the true nature of our heart, the real need that that we have before him to be cleansed from our sinfulness, God promises he will cleanse us. In fact, the atonement has already been made for his people.
God sent his own Jesus Christ to die like a sinner, in place of sinners. The Bible says Jesus’ death was substitutionary. That he died as a substitute for God’s people. Why? So that could punish your sin without punishing you.
Christ paid the penalty for your sins in the death of Christ, he can do for you what he did for Isaiah – he cleanse you. He can declare you to be innocent and begin actually removing the sin from your life with his own purifying presence. In all of this, then you are made free from the enslaving power of sin.
5. The Service to a Holy God (6:8)
Only now does the Lord speak. It’s almost as if Isaiah wasn’t yet ready to hear his voice. But now, having been cleansed from his sins, he hears the word of the holy God. Isaiah says, “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?’ Then I said, ‘Here am I! Send me.’”
Isaiah’s response is a perfect example of the appropriate response of one who has experienced the grace of God: “here am I – send me!”
Many have pictured Isaiah as boldly announcing his willingness to go. As if he is special, or God should be glad to have him. But I do not think that is how we should read the text. I think it should be more desperate than that: “I’ll go! I’ll do it. I’ll do whatever is needed of me!”
You see Isaiah has experience God’s mercy. God didn’t have to cleanse him. He didn’t have to save him from the punishment that was due his sin. God didn’t owe it to Isaiah. And Isaiah knows all of this. And it’s because he knows all of this that Isaiah is more than willing to do whatever God’s asks of him.
Isaiah has known what it’s like to live with sin in his life. He’s known what’s like to be enslaved to his sinful desires. He’s known the pain and guilt that comes from sin. And he’s knows the judgment that he deserves because of it.
And now he knows something better. He has seen a vision of the glory of the holiness of God. And even in the midst of terror it brought to his heart because of his sin, even in the midst of the humility it created in his heart,
Isaiah knew that day in God’s presence was better than a thousand elsewhere. That he would rather be a doorkeeper in God’s house than the king of a sinful palace. So, it was nothing for Isaiah to offer up himself a servant of God.
What about us? Have we tasted and seen that that Lord is good? Have we come to delight and be transformed by his holiness? Have we come to terms with the great mercy God has shown us in calling us to himself and forgiving our sins? If we have, then no service to him could ever be too great. No sacrifice would ever be too large. No sin would ever be as enjoyable as the experience of knowing and serving God.
Conclusion
In John 12, we see people confronted with the ministry and teaching of Christ, yet are still unwilling to believe. And then the apostle quotes from this very chapter, and makes this remarkable statement – “Isaiah said these things because he saw Jesus glory and spoke of him” (John 12:41).
Who is the exalted sovereign over things? It’s Christ who though died, was raised back to life and was exalted as Lord of all creation!
Who is the holy Lord whose glory fills the earth? It’s Christ whom God the Father promised would be high and lifted up that all men might see his glory!
Who is the merciful Lord who calls sinners to himself and cleanse them by the power of his own holiness? It’s Christ who though holy, died in the place of sinners that they might be saved!
Whose glory is so pure and radiant that even the most powerful are humbled in his sight and long to serve him? It’s Christ who commands his people to go and tell others of his glory that they too might experience joy and life and forgiveness from sins!
Oh, that we might worship at his feet where wrath and mercy meet! That we might know by experience that a day in his presence is worth far more than a thousand elsewhere!
Oh, that we might find the deepest longings of our heart fulfilled in him – the most-satisfying source of joy – that we continually thirst and hunger for him, and long to serve him all the days of our life!
