Isaiah-6
Isaiah 6
The death of Uzziah occurs… It marks a turning point in Judah’s history. A great king dies, however, when he was strong, “he grew proud, to his destruction.”
The reign of the wicked king Ahaz now rules in Judah with war and weakness being characterized in his reign. Assyria will become the dominant international power on earth.
READ: Isaiah 6:1-4 (ESV)
1 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.
1st – let’s look at Isaiah 6:1-4 and the scene described there.
This is a scene about where God is, not what he looks like. Isaiah saw a heavenly visionary revelation of God’s position over the earth or at his throne. It shows: god being lifted up and exalted as well He should be. Mentally seeing such would humble us mankind such as ourselves.
We see that the throne room of God is a busy place. The King’s angelic attendants are seraphim, which means something like ‘burning ones.” The seraphim hover in constant motion, ready to do God’s will.
God is multi-faceted with kingship being just one of many. The royal garment testifies to the exalted importance of this divine king. This scene is beyond the human sphere of experience and understanding.
V.2 – The heavenly royal dwelling place of God. Hosts: Seraphs, burning ones.
Is6a
Is6b
H6918. קָדוֹשׁ qâdôwsh, kaw-doshe´; or קָדֹשׁ qâdôsh, kaw-doshe´; from H6942; sacred (ceremonially or morally); (as noun) God (by eminence), an angel, a saint, a sanctuary:—holy (One), saint.
H 6942. קָדַשׁ qâdâsh, kaw-dash´; a prim. root; to be (causat. make, pronounce or observe as) clean (ceremonially or morally):—appoint, bid, consecrate, dedicate, defile, hallow, (be, keep) holy (-er, place), keep, prepare, proclaim, purify, sanctify (-ied one, self), × wholly.
Holiness is part of God’ inner distinctiveness of God that is revealed in all his activity. His glory is the outward manifestation of the brightness of his majesty and holiness.
“Holy, holy, holy” is not just repetition; it is emphasis. It isn’t one + one, it’s perfection x perfection x perfection. The holiness of God distinguishes him absolutely, even from the sinless angels.
“Holy, holy, holy” with each word boosting the force of the previous one exponentially. No other threefold adjective appears in all the Old Testament. He is a different category from all else in existence.
What is meant when seraphs say: “the whole earth is full of his glory”?
Quote: R Ortlund:
And the holy God is filling the earth with his glory. He is not only out there; he is also down here. He is why there is a “down here.” Think back to the beginning. Why did God create anything at all? Throughout eternity past, before time was launched, God was complete in himself. He was never lonely within the blazing fellowship of the Trinitarian Godhead. He has always been happy and full. Why does that kind of God create anything? Not to remedy a lack in himself, but to enjoy spreading his goodness. The delight that God feels in being God is so great that his exuberance spills over into a creation filled with his glory.
We are not just ordinary. Nothing is just ordinary. “The whole earth is full of his glory.” Do you realize that it is God’s will to make this earth into an extension of his throne room in Heaven? Do you realize that it is God’s will for his kingdom of glory to come into your life and for his will to be done in you as it is done in Heaven? Heaven is expanding, spreading in your direction. That is the meaning of your existence, if you will accept it and enter in. Heaven is taking over. Yield.
Plodding through our daily routines, we seldom feel God’s glorious presence. We are absorbed in our own petty ambitions. But the truth is, God not only deserves to reign supreme, he does reign supreme. And his reign is glorious. Isaiah is enabled to sense the power of God’s presence.
Isaiah 6:5-7 (ESV)
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.”
V.5 – Isaiah immediately becomes aware of his unworthiness and need for atonement as he sees the presence of a holy God. His own uncleanness and that of the nation of Judah. Note the different translations:
Isaiah 6:5 (ESV)
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!”
Isaiah 6:5 (NASB)
5 Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”
Isaiah 6:5 (NKJV)
5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because 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.”
Isaiah 6:5 (TEV)
5 I said, “There is no hope for me! I am doomed because every word that passes my lips is sinful, and I live among a people whose every word is sinful. And yet, with my own eyes I have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
Isaiah 6:5 (HCSB)
5 Then I said: Woe is me for I am ruined because I am a man of unclean lips and live among a people of unclean lips, ⌊and⌋ because my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Hosts.
Isaiah 6:6-7 (ESV)
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.”
After his expression of his need for forgiveness then God reaches out to him through His instrumentality of a seraph to bring him atonement. When the Seraph symbolically touched Isaiah’s lips, it announced that God ‘removed’ Isaiah’s guilt (an active verb is used here in the text) and that his sin ‘was atoned’ by God.
It is the expression of a sinful heart in the presence of a holy God. He tells us a clue: That the first step before any true confession of sin is having an understanding of the glory and holiness of the Almighty God who rules the heavens and the earth.
Quote: Ray Ortlund:
As this awareness forms in Isaiah’s mind, he blurts out the obvious conclusion: “Woe is me!” Those are the first words spoken by Isaiah himself in his book, and they pronounce a prophetic woe upon himself. He doesn’t saunter into God’s presence. For the first time he really worships God. For the first time his mouth speaks with “the highest sort of simplicity, of naiveté, … the intuition of a soul which has seen itself in the light of the divine holiness.” For the first time, he sees that he’s typical of his generation, whose faith was unthinking and glib. Their mouths were not filled with seraphic worship but with flippant repetitions and self-justifying excuses. But now Isaiah sees himself, because he sees God. And something new is entering his heart—humility.
Isaiah 6:8-10 (ESV)
8 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.”
9 And he said, “Go, and say to this people: “‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’
10 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.”
Instead of bring conviction, humility, and confession of sins, Isaiah’s divine messages will have the primary effect of hardening people or confirming their hardened unwillingness to respond positively to God. Hearing the words of God from Isaiah will make their hearts calloused, their ears dull, and their eyes closed to the truth. These people have repeatedly chosen to refuse to follow God; therefore, God has decided that it is time to punish these hardened people. For the most of them it is past the time of repentance as they refused to take advantage of the opportunity to seek healing by God.
The hardening comes at the end of God’s dealing with rebellious sinners and just before their judgment. God starts out graciously revealing his will and offering repentance, however, if repeatedly rejected, then the ‘day of hardening and judgment’ comes.
Quote NAC – At time it may be hard for the believer to follow God, but life will be far harder for those who harden their hearts and refuse to listen to God’s voice. In the parable of the sower Jesus repeatedly encourages those with ears to hear to respond positively, yet the parable makes it clear that sometimes the Word of God falls on the soil of hard hearts and it will not sprout or produce fruit (Mk 4). In these cases the parables that Jesus taught only furthered the hardness of the audience and confirmed their rejection of God. His warning to all who are exposed to God’s Word is that they should be careful what they hear and accept because more of what you accept will be given (Mk 4:23–25).
What’s the insight? Simply this. Every time you hear the Word of God preached, you come away from that exposure to his truth either a little closer to God or a little further way from God, either more softened toward God or more hardened toward God. But you are never just the same. And if you think you can hold the gospel at arm’s length in critical detachment, that very posture reveals that you are already deadened. The same truth enlivening someone else is hardening you. And don’t tell yourself that if only God would perform a miracle in your life, you would believe and open up. Jesus performed miracles, and the people who saw them only became further hardened (John 12:37–41). And if God’s Word isn’t saving you, what will? “Receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls” (James 1:21). Ray Ortlund: (Not In Student Notes)
Isaiah 6:11-13 (ESV)
11 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,
12 and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 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.
V.11,12 indicates that this hardening responsibility will continue until the land is destroyed. God, himself, will send the people out of their land.
V.13 –What is meant by a 10th remain in it? Isa. 6:11-13.
Ray Ortlund puts it into words better than I could ever say it:
Isaiah concludes with an assurance of the finality of God’s grace. God will judge his people, but not with finality. He will preserve a living remnant of people who are responsive to him. He will set them apart as holy and will use them for a great, though now hidden, purpose. Spiritual life will survive in one last stump, from which a little shoot of life will eventually sprout: “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit … for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Isaiah 11:1, 9). God was finished with Isaiah’s generation, but they did not defeat salvation. Jesus did come, and his grace will remake the whole world.
If your heart does not leap at God’s grace in Christ, what you need is more grace. Nothing else can save you from your own deadness. Therefore, fear your own hardness of heart more than anything else. Beware of rigidity, ingratitude, a demanding spirit. Beware of an unmelted heart that is never satisfied. Beware of a mind that looks for excuses not to believe. Beware of the impulse that always finds a reason to delay response. Beware of thinking how the sermon applies to someone else. God watches how you hear his Word. If you are ever again to receive it with at least the capacity for response that you have at this very moment, Isa. 66:2.