Isaiah 6:1-8
I had the privilege of being ordained this past May as an elder in the church of the Nazarene. For many of you the word ordination may not hold an overwhelming amount of meaning, but for a pastor it is a very important moment. It is the culmination of years of studying and years of practical experience within the church. And even after fulfilling education and experience requirements, there is still an interview process. Ordination is essentially a seal of approval from the general church for a pastor. And I was very fortunate to be approved by the Nazarene church for ordination at a relatively young age.
One of the things that I was looking forward to with ordination was a small gift given by the district to each ordinand. It is a small statue of Jesus and Peter. I was familiar with the statue because of the one in pastor Marks office. I already had the spot picked out in my office where it was going to go and then for some reason the district decided not to give the statue this year. I don’t know why. But I was pretty disappointed. Instead I received this lovely painting. Beautiful feminine colors. I can’t wait to put this on my wall. Can you hear the sarcasm? I don’t mean any offense to the artist, but it isn’t really something a male pastor would hang in his office.
So Christmas rolls around once again like it seems to do each year. Christmas with my in-laws is always an adventure because I have no idea what they are going to give me. So far they have done excellent. This year I knew that my mother-in-law had decided on a certain gift she wanted to buy me, but I had no idea the lies and down right sneakiness that was occurring. My very own wife has been working undercover for several months now to find out where this statue can be obtained. So after sneaking into Marks office and a couple emails Jen was able to tell her mother how to get one of these statues that I had been expecting.
On Christmas morning I was starting to get rather nervous. As the present were passed out and opened I slowly began to realize that my mother-in-law had placed all her eggs in one basket. I had only one present to unwrap and they were saving it for last. I began to think, what if I don’t like this one present that Jodie has bought me? Everyone is going to be looking at me when I open it. Well I did like it. So much so I scared Jodie because I didn’t say anything. Jens brother said, look at him, he can’t talk, finally! My eyes might have been a little watery, but for the record there was no crying. Jen told me later her mom asked if I liked it, she wasn’t sure because I looked upset.
The statue is called, The Calling. Jesus is standing beside Peter who is presumably mending his nets and Jesus calls him to follow him. We have several of these types of passages in the bible where God is placing a call on the life of someone and I want us to look today at the call of Isaiah.
Turn with me please to Isaiah 6. Keep your bibles open as we will be reading small sections and then discussing them. Let’s begin with verses 1-4. (Read) The fact that Isaiah saw seraphs is significant and helps us to understand the location of this event. You may have heard of cherubim and seraphim. Cherubim are what sit atop the Ark of the Covenant to protect the mercy seat in the temples Holiest of Holies. They are only spoken of in the bible as existing on earth. On the other hand, seraphim are only mentioned as existing in heaven. So the fact that Isaiah saw seraphim tells us that this was more than just an earthly experience in the temple in Jerusalem. This was God bringing Isaiah to a higher place in order to meet with him.
What else can be learned from these seraphs? If we pay attention to the way they behave we can take a little more from the text. They each had six wings. With two they flew, with two they covered their faces and with two they covered their feet. These seraphs exist in the presence of God, but God is so holy that not even they dare look at him, so they cover their faces. And feet in the Israelite culture were a symbol of impurity. We see examples of that during the time of Jesus as he washed the feet of his disciples. And so with two more wings the seraphs covered their feet.
These creatures spent their time proclaiming the holiness of God. Holy Holy Holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory. Yahweh is the holiest of all. He is more powerful than any other and for that reason he is proclaimed as Almighty. And the majesty of God is make known to all creation; the whole earth is full of his glory.
Continuing on to verse 5, which we will tie into verse 1. (Read v. 5) In the face of Gods holiness, Isaiah recognizes his sinfulness. But he also recognizes the sinfulness of the entire people. That makes me ask the question how it could be possible that in all of Israel there wasn’t a single righteous person. This is where we can tie back in to verse 1 which says in the year that King Uzziah died.
The manner in which the king lived and died was important for the entire Israelite people. The king was representative of the people. If the king followed God and was faithful, then the people followed God and were faithful. But if the king was not faithful to God, neither were the people. II Chronicles 26 tells the story of how king Uzziah died. After the king became powerful, his pride led to his downfall. He was unfaithful to the Lord and entered the temple to burn incense on the altar of incense. Azariah the priest along with eighty other priests confronted the king and said, “It is not right for you to burn incense to the Lord. That is for the priests who have been consecrated.” Uzziah became angry and while he was still raging in the Lords temple, leprosy broke out on his forehead. King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. Because the Lord struck the king with leprosy and he was unclean, the entire people of Israel were considered unclean. So Isaiah cries out, wow to me, I am unclean and I have seen the King. Not king Uzziah or king Ahaz who followed him, but Yahweh, the true King. When we are in the presence of God, we are able to recognize our own sinfulness more readily than in day to day life. As human beings I believe we are a comparative people. By that I simply mean that we like to make comparisons. And we walk around in a world filled with unclean people and those are who we compare ourselves with. In a way we are accustomed to the sin that exists, so much so that we can be numb to its presence in our own lives. Yet when we come into the presence of God, his glory and his holiness are like spotlights that point out our sinfulness. And so when we truly enter into the presence of God, we see our need for cleansing.
Let’s continue on and read verses 6 and 7. (Read) Having heard these two verses let me ask you a question. What is the desire of Gods heart? Is God eager to punish and separate us from Him? No. God desires to cleanse us of our sin and make us righteous. I preached a message on forgiveness in November and emphasized that forgiveness brings the renewal of relationship. That is the desire of Gods heart, to be in relationship with us and to do so, we must be cleansed.
So Isaiah, after recognizing his need for cleansing receives exactly what he needs. The seraph that came to touch his lips with the coal did not come of his own choosing; rather this heavenly being only does what it is instructed to do by God. So we see that God is reaching out to Isaiah, exactly where Isaiah is, to cleanse him. And he desires to reach out to each one of us today.
Now the beauty of the bible is that each text holds meaning for us on many different levels. And I want to bring something else out of the text that is perhaps missed with a surface read. If we pay close attention to where the seraph retrieved the coal we can learn a great deal. I said earlier that Isaiah was taken to a higher place to meet with God, which we know because he saw seraphs. But our understanding of the text is that he was taken along with the Jerusalem temple to a higher place. Isaiah describes the seraphs taking the coal with tongs from the altar. The only place in the temple where this type of altar would have been was in the Holy Place, outside the Holiest of Holies. Only the priests were allowed to enter this area. So if Isaiah was there, then we might draw the conclusion that he was one of the Levitical priests, which also means that he was ceremonially clean. According to the law he was cleansed of sin, yet when he came face to face with God he recognized a greater need for cleansing. And here is the connection with us today; could it be that even if we are not living in sin, we still have a need for a deeper cleansing from God? And that is what God did for Isaiah. He atoned for his sin and He removed his guilt.
The cleansing in verses 6 and 7 is crucial to this passage and verse 8 will help us see why (read 8). Then I heard…after the cleansing Isaiah is able to hear the voice of God. If we were to look back through the first seven verses of the passage we would see that God’s voice has not been heard until now. Isaiah saw God, he heard the seraphs, and we know God spoke in order to send the seraph to cleanse Isaiah, but Isaiah’s ears were closed off to the word of God.
Additionally this call, this question that God is uttering is not directed specifically at Isaiah, nor does it come with details. Rather it is a general question God is repeating many times. Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? Now that Isaiah has been cleansed he is able to hear the call and he may respond in saying Here I am, Send Me!
There are a few things that I am hoping you will take with you from this message. In reality, I would like for you to pick one thing that speaks most to you today
1. We can follow a list of rules and still need a deeper cleansing from God.
1. Nosotros podemos seguir una lista de reglas y aun necesitar una limpieza mas profundo de Dios.
2. The forgiveness of sin is received jointly with a removal of guilt.
2. El perdón de pecado se recibe junto con la eliminación de maldad.
3. When we go through times of silence from the Lord our responsibility is to ask God whether sin is blocking our ability to hear his voice.
3. Cuando pasamos por tiempos de silencio del Señor, nuestra responsabilidad es preguntar si el pecado esta impidiendo nuestro capaz de oír su voz.
4. When God calls us, the call does not necessarily come with details. Rather it is simply an opportunity to step out on faith and be obedient.
4. cuando el Señor nos llame, el llamado no viene necesariamente con detalles. Más bien es una oportunidad de vivir por fe y ser obediente.
(End in prayer)
