Isaiah 6:1-4. In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Isaiah was awe-stricken by this vision of the glory of the Lord. It was a sight such as few eyes have ever seen. Isaiah was never actually in the holy place, for he was no priest, and therefore he could not stand there; but it was in vision that he saw all this glory, and it was a vision that must have remained upon his memory through the rest of his life. The holiness and the glory of God struck him at once.
Isaiah 6:5. Then said I, 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 mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
There was, indeed, enough to make him say, «Woe is me!» A sinful preacher, an imperfect preacher, among a sinful and imperfect people, he felt as if the society in which he moved was the reverse of the society in which God dwells. Pure seraphim cry, «Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts;» but as for us, our very talk is unholy: «a people of unclean lips.»
Isaiah 6:6-7. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
The live coal from off the altar does not represent the holy flame which burns in the prophet's heart; but it represents purgation, cleansing, participation in the sacrifice, and the putting away of sin. With a blister on his lip, Isaiah stood silent before God.
Isaiah 6:8. Also I heard the voice of the LORD, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
Here we have the Divine Trinity in Unity. «Whom shall I send?» There is Unity. «Who will go for us?» There is the Trinity. God is seeking a messenger to deliver his message to men.
Isaiah 6:8. Then said I,
Stammering it out with the blistered lip,
Isaiah 6:8. Here am I; send me.
Isaiah did not know the errand; perhaps, if he had known it, he would not have been quite so ready to go; who can tell? But God's servants are ready for anything, ready for everything, when once the living coal hath touched their lip. I thank God that I was never called to such a work as Isaiah had to undertake.
Isaiah 6:9-10. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
That was no gospel ministry; it was a ministry of condemnation. The house of Israel had rejected the prophets, and had rejected God; and in the fullness of time would reject God's own dear Son. When Isaiah in vision looked forward to all this, he was sent not to soften, but to harden; his word was to be a savour of death unto death, and not of life unto life.
Isaiah 6:11-12. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the Cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
This was a heavy task. for the prophet; he had no tidings of God's relenting, no tokens of divine mercy.
Isaiah 6:13. But yet «
You never get this deep bass note of divine justice without having a «but yet» to accompany it.
Isaiah 6:13. In it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.
When the oak sheds all its leaves, it is not dead; there is living sap that will again cause the tree to be verdant. Though the nation was to be brought very low, there was still to be left a remnant according to the election of grace. Sin never reaches such a point in God's people but what grace triumphs. Still, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. This is a terrible chapter; it shows the sovereignty of God in a lurid light, and reveals how, when sin comes to a certain point, the Lord gives men up, and leaves them to the blindness of their heart, so that even the means of grace, the prophetic message, becomes a means of condemnation to them.Now we are going to read in one of the many places in the New Testament in which this passage is quoted.
This exposition consisted of readings from Isaiah 6:1.; Matthew 13:10-17; and Luke 18:35-43.