“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.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” 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!”
Isaiah 6:5-8
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). Encountering his holiness means confronting our frailty and sinfulness. Isaiah stands as a representative of a defiled nation, seemingly incapable of being the Lord’s servant. We have to examine any behavior that denies our God.
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.’ Isaiah is restored to the unenviable task of speaking God’s truth. It will be a word of judgment and hardening; a protracted process of refining and pruning, before a stump remains to issue a shoot in the future (v. 13). It will be a long and painful road, but life will never be extinguished. God will not quench the flame, however low it flickers.
CLOSING PRAYER
Father, give me wisdom to judge my attitudes and actions rightly. Please give what I need to do your will and reflect your love in the world around me.
(Edited from Encounter with God)