“It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’ Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing.” Then I said, “Lord, how long will this go on?” And he replied, “Until their towns are empty, their houses are deserted, and the whole country is a wasteland; until the Lord has sent everyone away, and the entire land of Israel lies deserted. If even a tenth—a remnant—survive, it will be invaded again and burned. But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.””
Isaiah 6:1-13 NLT
Isaiah engages with his vision of God in a way that seems to be foreign to our western understanding of him. Instead of seeing God as affirming to his being, Isaiah is immediately overcome with his own need for cleansing and his own failings as a sinful being. This realization was total and immediate. Upon this confession, God immediately responds with his saving grace in the form of a hot coal. In juxtaposition to Isaiah, and more in line with a western perspective, the nation of Israel had an opposite reaction to God’s presence. This is to say that they mistook his holiness for their own. Their condemnation was so pervasive that even a remnant left unjudged would condemned the nation. All of this is connected to their understanding of God and who he is, rather than Israel and who it was. No matter how great Israel stood, it would never even compare to the holiness of God in any positive way. The fact that Isaiah so quickly realized this about himself is the correct ideology that all who wish to serve God must have. We must on the one hand say, “I am not worthy,” and also say “Here I am.” Leaning to much in any direction ultimately condemns us. God is Holy.
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