Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ the Redeemer Church Manhattan, KS (6 Aug 2006/30 Apr 2017)
1 In the year of the death of the King, Uzziah,
I saw The Emperor
sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up, and
His train filled the temple.
2. Six-winged fiery-creatures were hovering over Him.
Each had six wings:
with two he covers his face, and
with two he covers his feet, and
with two he flies. 3. and
This one calls to that one and says,
“Holy, holy, holy Jehovah of Hosts.
All the earth is full of His glory!”
4. And the bases of the thresholds vibrated
from the voice of the one who called, and
the house was filled with smoke.
5. And I said, “Woe to me!,
For I am undone,
for I am a man of unclean lips,
and in the midst of a people of unclean lips I am dwelling,
For my eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of Hosts!”
6. Then one of the fiery-creatures flew to me, and
in his hand was a glowing coal he had taken from the altar with tongs.
7. And he touched upon my mouth and
said, “Look, this has touched upon your lips, and now
your iniquity is taken away and
your sin is covered.”
8. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Whom shall I send, and
who will go for Us?”
And I said,
“Look at me;
send me!”
9. And He said,
“Go and say to this people,
‘Hear and hear, but don’t understand;
see and see, but don’t perceive.’
10. Fatten the heart of this people and
weigh down their ears and
plaster their eyes,
otherwise
it will see with its eyes
and hear with its ears and
its heart will understand and turn
and He bring healing to it.
11. Then I said, “Unto what extent, Lord?”
And He said, “Until whenever
cities crash to ruin without inhabitant,
and houses are without a human
and the ground is ruined – a desolation. 12.
And Jehovah puts humanity far away, and
her forsaken places be many within the land.
13. and only a tenth is in her
and she will return and she will be for feeding on.
The holy seed is her stump, like the elm and like the oak whose stump is with them even in their fallen state.
This passage starts: “In the year of the death of the King, Uzziah, I saw The Emperor.” In English we think of a “lord” as inferior to a “king” so I avoided the word “lord” here which is in most English translations. In Isaiah’s day, kings generally governed only one metropolitan area, so the contrast between melek and adonai in verse 1 is between what we would think of as a mayor and an emperor.
The things we see at the opening of Isaiah 6 are impressive. They impress upon all five senses that this “Lord” is really big stuff. In rock concerts and other entertainment events, our contemporaries do similar things to make a performing artist seem really impressive: smoke, pyrotechnics, tall stages and sets, packing out the house with crowds of fans, loud music with earthquake bass that you can feel in you stomach, bodyguards, stage managers, announcers and hype men. At a kind of tawdry level, we do all the same stuff to make people look really impressive, but it’s all for human performers who are essentially no different from anybody else. God really is impressive. More on this later.
Chronologically, this chapter actually stands before any of the previous chapters in Isaiah. Isaiah’s cleansing from sin and His calling to the ministry of a prophet happened first, but they stand here, six chapters in, to show a transition from the prophecies of hardening to the prophecies of comfort that come in chapters 7-11.
The year is about 750 BC (almost 3,000 years ago), and the place is Jerusalem, Israel.
And it is at this particular time in history that God gives him a vision of the spiritual realities going on.
This chapter can be organized into three parts:
1. …I saw the Emperor sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2. Six-winged seraphim were hovering over Him. Each had six wings: with two he covers his face, and with two he covers his feet, and with two he flies. 3. And this one calls to that one and says, “Holy, holy, holy is Yahweh of Hosts. All the earth is full of His glory!” 4. And the bases of the thresholds vibrated from the voice of the one who called, and the house was filled with smoke.
Isaiah seems to be standing just outside the door of the temple, looking in, seeing the robe filling the temple (or possibly, instead of a robe, a large retinue of people filling the temple), the doorframe vibrating from the noise of the worship, and the temple filling with smoke. It was a lot like when other Biblical characters saw the glory of God:
· 1 Kings 8:6-11 “Then the priests brought the ark of the covenant of the LORD to its place in the inner sanctuary of the house, in the Most Holy Place, underneath the wings of the cherubim. For the cherubim spread out their wings over the place of the ark, so that the cherubim overshadowed the ark and its poles... 10. And when the priests came out of the Holy Place, a cloud filled the house of the LORD, 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.” (NASB)
· Ezekiel 10:1-4 Then I looked, and behold, on the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim there appeared above them something like a sapphire, in appearance like a throne. And he said to the man clothed in linen, "Go in among the whirling wheels underneath the cherubim. Fill your hands with burning coals from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city." And he went in before my eyes. Now the cherubim were standing on the south side of the house, when the man went in, and a cloud filled the inner court. And the glory of the LORD went up from the cherub to the threshold of the house, and the house was filled with the cloud, and the court was filled with the brightness of the glory of the LORD.
· Revelation 15:8 and the sanctuary was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power, and no one could enter the sanctuary...
Now, who was this divine emperor that Isaiah saw? John 12:41 explicitly says that Isaiah saw the glory of Jesus, quoting from this chapter of Isaiah 6. Now what’s interesting is that if you go down to verse 5, he says he has seen Jehovah of Hosts, whom we normally associate with God the Father. If there’s any doubt in your mind that Jesus is God, here is a definite statement from the Bible where Isaiah says he saw Jehovah God, and the Apostle John in chapter 12 of his gospel says that Isaiah saw Jesus! Interestingly enough, the Apostle Paul, in Acts 28, also quotes this same chapter from Isaiah, saying that it was the Holy Spirit speaking. The Trinity is there when we look at the whole council of scripture!
Here, it is the Kingship of Jesus that is emphasized: Power, majesty, attendants, a kingly robe, throne, court, and Isaiah says in verse 5 – “my eyes have seen the King.” Again, remember that in Isaiah’s culture, sitting down was not a posture of retirement; it was a signal that the King was ready to conduct business and execute justice as a king.
This is the only place seraphim are mentioned in the Bible,
What an awesome God we worship!
v5. I said, “Woe to me! For I am undone, for I am a man of unclean lips, and in the midst of a people of unclean lips I am dwelling, For my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Hosts!”
This is the proper response. “Oh God, I am unholy, I deserve to die. I can’t see You and live because I am unclean!”
Isaiah acknowledged the contrast between the pure praises of the Seraphim and his own impure lips.
We should do the same. How do we sin against God with impure lips? Lying, cutting people down, exaggerating, making ourselves look good with a little spin, cursing and profanity, complaining…
It is the work of the Holy Spirit, who convicts us of sin, righteousness, and judgment (John 16:8), so if you respond somewhat like Isaiah did to God’s glory, then be assured that it is God working in you – you can’t generate this kind of conviction humanly.
Before a holy God we must recognize that we are not o.k. We are unworthy, we are guilty of breaking his law, and we are doomed. Like Samson’s parents, we should say, “We will surely die, for we have seen God!” (Judges 13:22) But thank God the story doesn’t end here!
v6. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal he had taken from the altar with tongs. 7. And he touched upon my mouth and said, “Look, now that this has touched on your lips, your iniquity has been taken away and your sin has been covered.”
God, in His mercy, touches the very part of Isaiah’s body that Isaiah recognized as sinful and cleanses it.
Notice that Isaiah did not cover his own sins; he confessed them and God took care of them without any further effort from Isaiah
Also note the transferr. The coal was from the altar. Symbolically God was pointing back to the sacrifice for sins, showing that Isaiah’s holiness comes from the sacrifice for sins offered upon the altar. This is also where our holiness comes from. The book of Hebrews tells us that Jesus was our final sacrifice for sins, and His righteousness is imputed to us by God’s hand so that when God looks at those of us who believe in Jesus, instead of seeing our unclean lips and our sin, He sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ and does not punish us for our sin. This is very important.
v8. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”
And I said, “Look at me; send me!”
We respond by living lives that are available to God to fulfill His purposes. We have been bought back by God and now we are his servants. As God’s holy people we now can participate in His holy purposes.
If you have asked God to forgive your sins because you trust in Jesus, then your next step is to say, Here I am, Lord, send me!”
v9. And He said, “Go and say
to this people,
‘Hear and hear, but don’t understand; see and see, but don’t perceive.’
(Or “Listen all you want, but
y’all won’t understand, and look all you want, but ya’ll aren’t gonna ‘get
it.’”)
10. Fatten the heart of this people and weigh down their ears and plaster their
eyes,
otherwise it will see with its eyes and hear with its ears and its heart will understand and turn
and He bring healing to it.
God can accommodate Himself to human sensory perception through His prophets, but the chasm between holy God and sinful man is so great that none of it will register. People can blithely exist in a world brimming with true information about God and still be, in the words of 1 Peter, “willingly ignorant.”
At the same time, when God has revealed Himself to a particular group of people and they disbelieve and rebel against Him, God has ways of hiding further truth from them. Some 700 years later, Jesus and the apostles brought further knowledge of God to a remnant of the same ethnic group that Isaiah had prophesied to, and they struggled with the same issue:
· Mark 4:10-12 And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that "they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven."
· Matthew 13:10-16 Then the disciples came and said to him, "Why do you speak to them in parables?" And he answered them, "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. For to the one who has, more will be given, and he will have an abundance, but from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away. This is why I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. Indeed, in their case the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled that says: "'You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.' But blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears, for they hear.
· Acts 28:25-28 And disagreeing among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one statement: "The Holy Spirit was right in saying to your fathers through Isaiah the prophet: "'Go to this people, and say, You will indeed hear but never understand, and you will indeed see but never perceive. For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed; lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and understand with their heart and turn, and I would heal them.' Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen."
Don’t misunderstand the meaning of the “otherwise.” The “lest/otherwise” is not a condition that God is absolutely trying to prohibit, it is an alternative course that the ones God chooses to save will follow. There is mercy and hope of salvation.
This is a hard task that Isaiah is called to – it is not a glorious ministry with lots of applause and understanding and appreciation, but it parallels the work of God as God brings His salvation to those He chooses to save. Just as Jesus purposefully obscured His message by using parables so that His disciples would understand, but the ones He was not seeking to save did not understand, so it was in Isaiah’s time, and so it is in our time. We can’t bridge the chasm for other people and bring unclean people into fellowship with a holy God by ourselves. We are in partnership with a God who chooses whom He wants to save. It is our task to tell everybody about Jesus and then trust that God will use the words we speak to either harden the hearts of those who are not going to be saved or bring God’s light to those who will be saved.
It is a terrifying thought that God could use preaching to harden your heart. The Heidelberg Catechism Question 84 affirms that the kingdom of heaven is open and shut through preaching. “According to the command of Christ, the kingdom of heaven is opened when it is proclaimed and publicly testified to each and every believer that God has really forgiven all their sins for the sake of Christ's merits, as often as they by true faith accept the promise of the gospel. The kingdom of heaven is closed when it is proclaimed and testified to all unbelievers and hypocrites that the wrath of God and eternal condemnation rest on them as long as they do not repent. According to this testimony of the gospel, God will judge both in this life and in the life to come.”
If you do not understand and don’t care about what you are hearing in church, be afraid and call out to God to save you and not let you be hardened!
11. Then I said, “Unto what extent, Lord?”
This response of, “How Long?” is a valid prayer, prayed by David (Ps. 13:1), by Job (7:19), and by Habakkuk (1:2), in their distress, and it is also the prayer of the martyrs waiting for God’s judgment to fall upon the wicked in Rev. 6:10.
This prayer expresses:
The passage closes with a prophecy of the exile to come and a hint of the holy seed which is to come – Jesus Christ, who would be a descended of those Jews who survive the exile and rebuild in Judah. Hope is once again held out (and that hope becomes more explicit in chapter 7), but here God answers:
The question of “How long” by saying, “Until whenever
cities crash to ruin without inhabitant,
and houses are without a human
and the ground is ruined – a desolation. 12.
And Jehovah puts humanity far away and
her forsaken places be many within the land.
13. and only a tenth is in her
Then she will return but she will be for feeding on. (feminine pronouns refer to “land”)
The holy seed is her stump, like the elm and like the oak whose stump is with them even in their fallen state.
So what does it take before we see revival? The number of similarities between our day and Isaiah’s day could indicate that it will take the same kinds of things before we see revival, that is: