ISAIAH’S VISION
Isaiah 6:1-7. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, &c. [712]
[712] God is invisible; yet in that heavenly world in which He has His special and eternal residence He manifests Himself in ineffable glory, dwelling in what the Scriptures call “the light which no man can approach unto.” Of that heavenly world, the tabernacle and temple were splendid emblems; they were “patterns of heavenly things.” But why the astonishing fact, that when sinful creatures erected a tent in the wilderness, and a temple subsequently at Jerusalem, the visible glory of God descended, taking possession of the place? God thus came down from heaven to earth, with all these impressive circumstances of visible majesty, to teach His creatures that He was awfully glorious, and fearful even in His praises; that even in His acts of grace His holiness is solemnly declared; and thus to show with what reverence and purity man ought to approach to Him. So when Isaiah was to be appointed to an office in which he was to fear God, and not the face of man, and which, to give it weight and authority, required an entire sanctity, a scene similar to that which had been displayed in the temple at its consecration, but greatly heightened and magnified, was disclosed to him in vision. The space of this visionary temple appears to have been far more ample than that of the one at Jerusalem; the throne was greatly elevated, it was “high, and lifted up;” the “train,” the “skirts” (as in the margin) of the cloud of the Divine presence filled the whole place; instead of the carved representations of the cherubim of glory fixed on the mercy-seat, the prophet beholds the cherubim themselves, living, and all ardour, activity, and adoration; they are not represented in the vision as the cherubim in the holiest of all, silently gazing on the glory of God and the mysteries of His covenant, but as hymning His praises, proclaiming His spotless purity, and declaring “the whole earth to be full of His glory.” The prophet, beholding the wondrous scene, sinks oppressed and self-abhorred, until a coal from the altar touches his lips, and he is thus sanctified to the service of God, and put among His ministers.—Watson.
Behold, in these temple scenes, both what the Lord your God is, and what He requires from you.
I. The first of these temple scenes presents to our view the majesty of God: “I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high, and lifted up.” One of the first and most important truths for us to learn is the absolute rule of God—over nature, man, the principalities of heaven. Mark the scenic circumstances. He sitteth upon His throne: this is the attitude,
1. Of supremacy and dignity; He sitteth while all other beings stand before Him to receive His commands, bow in adoration, or are prostrate in abasement.
2. It is the attitude of ease and perfect security [715] But, above all, mark the place of His throne as displayed in this wonderful vision. It stands in the temple; it has been sprinkled with the blood of propitiation; it is now the mercy-seat. To the truly penitent all its terror appears softened with grace.
[715] No rebellions shake the throne of God; though “the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing,” yet “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision.” The throne of God is a rock in the midst of the ever-rolling ocean of created existence, that heaves and swells with ceaseless change; but, in comparison of Him, its mightiest billows have but their moment of existence, and sink into the mass at the base of the immovable throne of the Everlasting One.—Watson.
II. The second of these temple scenes displays to us the ineffable and incomprehensible nature of God. Let not man suppose that he can by searching find out God, or know the Almighty unto perfection. This is scenically, but most impressively, represented to us in the vision before us: “His train”—the skirts of the shekinah—“filled the temple,” its fainter rays beaming from the central blaze in the holiest of all, and irradiating the more distant objects. But even that was too much for man, and it is therefore added, “And the house was filled with smoke;” a veil was thus drawn over what was too bright and dazzling for mortal vision; and though God dwelt in the light, yet it was light involving itself in thick darkness (Psalms 97:2; Exodus 16:10). Revelation has not superseded mystery (Job 26:14). As to His dispensations, we are all still to walk by faith rather than by sight; and as to the depths of His nature, rather to adore than reason. An infinite being is necessarily incomprehensible by finite beings [718] He must be mysterious. If we could fully know God, we must either be equal to Him, or He must lose the glory of His nature and come down to ourselves (1 Corinthians 13:9; Romans 11:33).
[718] An observer on a mountain-cliff may be able to survey the whole circumference of a lake that lies beneath him, but no man can see the whole of the ocean, simply because it is the ocean, and not a lake.—Watson.
III. The third view presented by this vision is that of the adorable and awful holiness of God (Isaiah 6:3). This is seen in His titles (Psalms 71:22; Deuteronomy 32:4); in His acts; in His law; in His visible image on earth, His Son incarnate; in His Gospel; in His judgments; in the reward of the righteous.
IV. In the next scene which the vision presents we behold a sinful man convicted and laid prostrate before this holy God (Isaiah 6:5).
V. In the final scene we behold a convicted, self-abased, and penitent man pardoned and consecrated to the service of God (Isaiah 6:6-7). What are we taught by this wondrous representation? That for guilty man there is pardon, that for unholy men there is purification, and that lips, once unclean, but now sanctified, may join in the hymns of seraphim, and, without dread, approach to God, and celebrate the glories even of His holiness. This we are taught, but not this only; not merely is the fact, but the manner of it, brought before us. See, then, the means. The instrument of purification is fire; but not any kind of fire, fire from any place; it is fire from the altar, the altar where atonement is made for sin; fire, therefore, both of divine origin, and coming to us through the great Propitiation. We can be at no loss for an interpretation of the symbols thus employed. Our altar is the cross; the propitiatory sacrifice, the spotless Lamb of God; by the merit of His death, and the baptizing fire of His Spirit, are the guilty and polluted pardoned and sanctified to God.—Richard Watson: Works, vol. iv. pp. 143–153.