By Grace: Gift of a Holy God
Isaiah 6:1-13
"One of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand...With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'"
(Isaiah 6:6-7)
One of my favorite hymns is "Holy, Holy, Holy," based on Isaiah 6:3. The LORD - Yahweh - is the thrice-holy God. When the Hebrews wanted to give heightened significance to something in their language, they repeated it. Saying it three times raised it to the ultimate. The LORD God is ultimate holiness - He is the thrice-holy God. But what does it mean to be holy?
First, it means righteousness. Yahweh alone is altogether righteous - He always does what is right. Second, holiness means to be set apart. God is not a part of His creation, but altogether separate from it. On the other hand, Isaiah, as he is called to the prophetic office, realizes that he is altogether wicked. He is a "man of unclean lips." He cannot approach God's throne. Still God has a plan. By pure grace, He cleanses the prophet from sin, taking away his guilt. Like Abraham in Genesis 15:6, like Saul on the Damascus Road, and like you and me in rebirth, Isaiah has re-ceived an alien righteousness and has been set apart for service.
INSIGHT
The Gospel has three parts. They are all here: Who we are, who God is, and how His grace cleanses our sin and guilt.
READ THROUGH THE BIBLE IN A YEAR
Genesis 5-7
Psalm 3
Matthew 5
Isaiah 6:1-13
Isaiah’s Commission
1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory." 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 "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."
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
8 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!"
9 He said, "Go and tell this people:
"‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.[a]
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed."
11 Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?"
And he answered:
"Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
13 And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."
Footnotes:
a. Isaiah 6:10 Hebrew; Septuagint ‘You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; / you will be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’ / 10 This people’s heart has become calloused; / they hardly hear with their ears, / and they have closed their eyes
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