Dr. Rodney Plunket

This morning’s lesson focuses upon Isaiah 6, the passage in this week’s section of the Ancient Words/Open Hearts Bible Study Schedules.  Let’s look at it again together.

Isaiah (Isa) 6 begins by giving us a time marker.  It says, “In the year that King Uzziah died, . . .”  Uzziah ruled for about forty years in the eighth century B.C.  During his rule, the Kingdom of Judah was relatively independent and was even able to expand its borders.  So it was a good time.  After Uzziah’s death that changed.  The Assyrian empire began to flex its muscles and to exert its power in Syria and Palestine.  So what is reported in Isa 6 took place at a hinge point in Judah’s history.  The nation was about to move away from some very good times into some very bad times.

So what did Isaiah see, “In the year that King Uzziah died”?  “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple.”  Visualize the awesomeness of the God whom Isaiah saw, a God so massive that just the hem of his robe was sufficient to fill the temple.

Now please look with me at verses (vv) 2-3:

Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings:  with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew.  And one called to another and said:

          “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

          the whole earth is full of his glory.”

The Hebrew word transliterated into English as “seraph” is related to the Hebrew verb, “to burn.”  The word could be translated as “fiery beings.”  These are fright­ening creatures––quite unlike the cupids we might think of.  And yet these fear­some creatures are protecting themselves.  The phrase, “they covered their feet,” is a Hebrew euphemism; it means they covered their private parts.  They also covered their faces.  They covered themselves because they were in the presence of a God far more frightening than they were.

It is great having an Old Testament theologian in the house with you.  I would recommend it.  As many of you know, our daughter Callie is at home right now writing her doctoral dissertation on the Book of Isaiah.  One of her professors at Princeton Theological Seminary is Dr. J. J. M. Roberts (a graduate of Abilene Christian University).  Dr. Roberts is a noted expert on the Ancient Near East.  He point out that in the Ancient Near East seraphs normally were portrayed protecting the deity.  Their wings were used to shield the deity from harm.  The picture presented here could not be more different.  Here the seraphs are protecting themselves from this powerful God whom they serve.  This is an awesome God.

And there is more in this passage to make clear how powerful the seraphs were.  Please look with me at verse (v) 4:  “The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke.”  The power of these seraphs’ voices is such that when they cry out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory,” it causes the temple to shake and the presence of God and God’s entourage causes the temple to fill with smoke.  This description should take our minds back to Exodus 19-20 (a passage we focused on last week).  There God is on Mount Sinai and, because of God’s presence, the mountain shook and smoke rose up like the smoke from a kiln.  A very similar effect is reported here.

What is Isaiah’s response to the awesomeness of this vision?  Please look at v 5:

And I said:  “Woe is me!  I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”

He is awed by the power and majesty of this vision of the living God.  And the initial effect of that awe is to cause Isaiah to feel the ruination effected by sin.  The word translated “lost” here is a strong word.  It means to “be cut off, destroyed, ruined, . . . , undone.”  I think that Isaiah fears that the sin that he bears will cause him to be wiped out by the holiness of this God.

But he is not wiped out.  Please look with me at vv 6-7:

Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs.  The seraph touched my mouth with it and said: “Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.”

The fire on the temple’s altar went all the way back to the time of Moses.  It was first lit by fire that came down from God.  It was holy fire.  One of the seraphs, one of those fiery creatures, took a coal from that holy fire, placed it on Isaiah’s lips, and declared him cleansed from his sin.

And now Isaiah is permitted to hear words from God.  In v 8 we read:  “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!’”  God is not even speaking directly to Isaiah.  Isaiah just overhears what God is saying to the divine entourage that surrounds God.  But because of Isaiah’s awe––awe at the presence of God and, I suspect, an awed gratitude because of the cleansing he had been granted––because of that awe Isaiah speaks up and says that he will go.  He doesn’t know where; he doesn’t know what.  But his awe causes him to respond with commitment to the word and will of God even before he knows what he’s “signing up” for.

Sisters and brothers, that is the kind of obedience that genuine awe effects.  It causes us to long to do whatever God asks, whatever God wants done.  Those who have been transformed by awe are eager volunteers.  Their obedience is rash because they are so moved by the wonder of their God.

Do you think “rash” is too strong a word?  Look with me at the next few verses of this great chapter:

And he said, “Go and say to this people:

          ‘Keep listening, but do not comprehend;

keep looking, but do not understand.’

Make the mind of this people dull,

          and stop their ears,

          and shut their eyes,

so that they may not look with their eyes,

          and listen with their ears,

          and comprehend with their minds,

                    and turn and be healed.”

Then I said, “How long, O Lord?” And he said:

“Until cities lie waste

          without inhabitant,

and houses without people,

          and the land is utterly desolate;

until the Lord sends everyone far away,

          and vast is the emptiness in the midst of the land.

Even if a tenth part remain in it,

          it will be burned again,

like a terebinth or an oak

          whose stump remains standing

          when it is felled.”

The holy seed is its stump.

Look at the grievous task which Isaiah takes on.  He has spoken up for the job of proclaiming a message that will only cause people to grow harder against the Word of God.

So, how would like Isaiah’s job of preaching a message that no one will hear?  If I were to pass out job applications right now for that duty, I suspect that I would have no takers.

And that’s okay because I’m not awesome.  I’m just a preacher with sinful lips and sinful life.  I’m 5’ 7 ^3/4’’ tall, and this morning on the bathroom scales I weighed in at 148 pounds.  The hem of my robe doesn’t even keep me from see­ing my feet; it is a long way from filling any temple.  Yes, I’m about as intimidating as Daffy Duck.

But sisters and brothers we serve a God who is awesome.  The whole temple is filled by just the hem of our God’s robe.  The whole earth is filled with our God’s glory.  The fiery creatures who live in our God’s presence protect them­selves from our God.  They fear to look upon our God, and they cover themselves from the blazing radiance of our God.  And when our God shows up, things start shaking and smoking.  Our God indeed is an awesome God.  And when we really take that in, we will obey.

I believe the reality of God’s awesomeness can cause us to be more open to the power of God within us.  I believe it will cause us to give up on the notion of operating on the basis of our own strength, our own will, or our own determination.

God calls us all to purity.  When we feel the pull of sin, we should stop and see anew the holiness and majesty of our God; we should stop and be over­whelmed by the awesomeness of our God.  That vision takes away the prideful sense of self-sufficiency that blocks us from receiving God’s power.

Are you feeling the pull of sexual lust?  Put yourself back in Isaiah’s vision.  See the holiness of God.  Open up to the power of God.

Are you feeling the power of materialism?  Put yourself back in Isaiah’s vision.  See the holiness of God.  Open up to the power of God.

Whatever the sin that is pulling on you, put yourself back in Isaiah’s vision.  See the holiness of God.  Open up to the power of God.

The Apostle Paul had a life-changing vision of the risen Lord Jesus Christ.  It was such a powerful vision that it left Paul blind, and it took a miracle from a servant sent by God to restore his sight.  Paul never forgot his need for God.  His previous tendency to operate on the basis of his own power was forever negated.  In Romans 7:18 he writes, “For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh.  I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.”  In the very next chapter Paul declares the power of the Spirit in our lives.  God, Paul says, “will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).  And in Galatians 5, Paul makes clear that the righteous attributes of the Christian life come from the power of the Spirit, not from the power of human will or effort.

Stand in the presence of this awesome God and this awesome Son of God.  See their radiant holiness and righteousness.  Experience their majesty.

Hear the call to obey.  Feel the power to obey.  Be transformed by the living God.

If you are here and have never surrendered to this powerful God, please do so now.  Come and say, “Here am I,” to this awesome God.  Let God cleanse you from all your sins.  Let God give you the Holy Spirit to make you radically obedient to the living God.

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