Isaiah 6:1-8
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”4At 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.”
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8Then 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’s Grace Is More Glorious than the Grand Canyon
This may seem like a strange question, but have you ever been to the Grand Canyon? If so, was it worth it? Seth Myers hosts a podcast with his brother called Family Trips where they explore different families’ experiences on holiday together. I think he does this for every guest that comes on the podcast, one of – if not the last question he asks is, “Have you ever been to the Grand Canyon, and if so, was it worth it?”
Seth is a skeptic. He doesn’t believe it’s worth the hype. He’s convinced that a picture would be more than enough to capture the grandeur of the Grand Canyon, which would mean that you wouldn’t have to travel so far out of your way to stand in the exact same place where millions of people have stood before just so that you could see with your own eyes the exact same thing you could see in high definition at home on a screen.
Respectfully, I disagree and so do, I think, the many millions of people who do make the trip every year to see the Grand Canyon with their own eyes. There are some things that a camera just can’t capture. Maybe you’ve had that experience yourself. You’re driving through Del Bonita on the Montana border and you see the Rocky Mountain range rise out of the prairie. You’re blown away by its beauty. You pull the car over. You take your phone out. You snap the picture that you think you’ll print out and hang on your wall at home, but then you look at your screen and it doesn’t look like anything.
There are some views that just defy description. There are some images that are so beautiful you can’t find words to match. There are some sights that can only be seen, and cannot be shared unless you were there.
That’s what we read about in Isaiah’s prophecy this morning. Isaiah says,
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.[1]
Does it strike you as it does me that Isaiah starts by saying, “I saw the Lord,” and then proceeds to describe everything but the Lord? You hear about his robe. You hear about the temple and the throne. You get more description of the seraphim than the Lord. But who cares about the angels? God is right there! So few people have seen him and lived to tell the tale. Tell us what God looks like!
But Isaiah doesn’t. He tells us so much that we need to know about God, but some things are complex beyond understanding. Some things are too beautiful for words to describe. And what Isaiah does tell us is enough to leave us slack-jawed and starry-eyed more than you’d be if you stood at the rim of the Grand Canyon.
The first thing Isaiah draws our attention to is God’s grandeur – high, exalted, on a throne; he is massive in size and importance. There are angels whose sole occupation is to fly around praising his name. In fact, he is even so glorious that these holy angels – who have never committed a sin and have no reason for guilt or shame – cover their faces and their feet as an expression of modesty in his presence.
The first thing Isaiah notices and draws our attention to is God’s grandeur. The second thing Isaiah notices is his significant lack of grandeur or glory.
Have you ever gone to one of those Instagram worthy hotspots and you want your own picture of Peyto Lake or Lake Louise but then you look at the picture you took and it’s not the same as what you saw online? The glory was right there. It’s not that you caught the lake on a bad day. It’s that you’re not as good a photographer – or you don’t have as good a camera or you don’t know how to use it as well as someone else. So, despite having seen this amazing view, you walk away a little disappointed because you didn’t get the keepsake that you wanted and you know that every time you show that picture you’re going to have to say, “It looks even better than this in person.”
When we’re in the presence of glory or greatness, it can be equal parts awe inspiring and guilt inducing at the same time.
Maybe it’s not a landscape. Maybe it’s a person. You have a classmate who is just better than you. You have a coworker or a competitor who just does a better job than you. It can be inspiring. It can make you want to be better. But it can also be deflating and defeating.
Imagine what Isaiah must have been feeling standing in the presence of the holy God. We don’t have to wonder. He tells us:
“Woe to me! 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.”[2]
Isaiah had just witnessed what clean lips do. They praise the Lord perfectly and perpetually. The angels were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.”[3]
Isaiah’s lips didn’t always do that. Standing before the holy, sinless, perfect Lord God Almighty, Isaiah suddenly remembered all the hasty words he spoke out of pride or anger. He remembered all the lies and the slander that didn’t seem all that important at the time, but now… He remembered all the moments when the right word properly spoken would have made a world of difference, but it never escaped his lips.
Can you relate? I know I can. I haven’t stood in the throne room of God, but my unclean lips and life rob me of sleep at night. It’s a terrifying prospect to stand at the brink of such glorious holiness, and Isaiah was rightly afraid. It was a powerful reminder of how unworthy he really was. There was one thing that didn’t fit in this picture and it was Isaiah. He was the only unholy thing in it.
But as glorious as the sight of God was – beautiful beyond description, complex beyond understanding – what was even more glorious on that occasion than God’s holiness was his graciousness.
Can you imagine what must have been going through Isaiah’s mind after this? A holy, unworldly angel unlike anything you had ever seen or dreamed of comes flying at you holding a burning coal in a set of tongs and rushing toward your face. Isaiah was terrified. I would have been too. But far from being a judgment or a punishment, that angel tenderly (if also painfully) applied that holy coal at the precise place where Isaiah felt his guilt the most.
Isaiah didn’t melt for standing in the Lord’s presence. He wasn’t vaporized by God’s glory. His guilt didn’t disqualify him from being there. His guilt was forgiven, cleansed, cauterized out of him. He need not fear the holy God before him. And although Isaiah doesn’t describe his facial features for us, a little extra Bible study will reveal some details about that holy God that we never could have known or imagined. After quoting Isaiah twice in two sentences, the Apostle John says:
Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.[4]
When Isaiah saw the Lord, he was actually looking at Jesus, i.e. the second member of the Trinity, the eternal Son of God, the Saviour of the world. And when we realize this, what the angel did for Isaiah takes on even greater significance.
It was Jesus, our Saviour, who sent a messenger directly, personally to Isaiah with an announcement of forgiveness and salvation. And the means to convey that message is significant too – a coal from the altar. That’s where sacrifices are made to pay for sin. That’s what Jesus did to forgive yours. He sacrificed himself – not on an altar, but on the cross – to take away your guilt and to atone for your sin.
And, Christian, this is so important. We all have guilt. We are all unworthy. We have all done things, said things, that are not only unkind but unchristian. We have all failed to make the most out of every opportunity that God has given us to praise his name in our own lives, let alone proclaim that name to others. We have all fallen short and failed to measure up to the holy standard of our holy God.
But what God does here for Isaiah is so beautiful. He doesn’t say, “It’s OK. Don’t worry about. You did your best. I understand.” In fact he emphasizes the severity of your sin by drawing your attention to the sacrifice your sin necessitated. But then he displays his grace in applying that sacrifice to you personally, individually in the same way he did for Isaiah.
No, there will be no communal cauterization today, but think about what God has given you to touch your lips and take away your guilt. For many of you, that’s his own body and blood given and poured out for the forgiveness of your sins. For most of you, that’s his Holy Spirit whom he poured out on you along with the waters of your baptism. For all of you, that’s his holy Word that enters through your ears and takes residence in your heart, so that you can know that this holy, perfect, sinless, glorious God loves and cares about and forgives a sinner like you.
And not only that – not only does God take away your guilt and assure of his love – he rights the wrong. He gives you strength where you were weak. He gives you purpose and direction where you have faltered and wandered. And he does it in an equally tender, compassionate, gracious way:
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”[5]
That’s what God said to Isaiah, who was self-conscious about his sins of speech. Not only did God cleanse his lips, he gave him opportunity to willingly use those lips for God’s glory and for the benefit of other people.
God does that for you too. He takes away your guilt, and gives you opportunity to put your formerly sinful, now forgiven body parts to use for his glory and for the benefit of other people. To speak. To praise his name in your own life and to proclaim that name to others. That’s not an office or occupation that you earn by years of hard work and experience. It’s a gift that gives to each and every one of you, purely out of his grace and forgiveness.
Whom shall God send? And who will go for him?
By his grace and power and by the working of his Holy Spirit in your heart, may your daily answer be: “Here am I. Send me!” Amen.
[1] Isaiah 6:1,2
[2] Isaiah 6:5
[3] Isaiah 6:3
[4] John 12:41
[5] Isaiah 6:8