Introduction
In August 1986 – I received Jesus as my Lord and Saviour. One Sunday in 1990 God spoke clearly into my life – calling me to full time vocational Christian ministry. On the ____________________ I married ___________. These were defining moments in my life. Days that changed me forever. I know you’ve had them too - days that changed your life forever. Maybe the day you met Jesus, or your Baptism, or an answer to prayer, or a time when God spoke clearly to you. Or perhaps it was your wedding day, or the birth of your child, or a change of job. Well, here for us today is a story of a defining moment, a turning point in Isaiah’s life. It’s a unique story, because it’s about a Bible Prophet. But it’s also a helpful story. It shows us what happens on those days when we come face to face with God. I invite you to follow with me in your Bibles & we’ll simply walk thru this story together.
1) v1a – We see Crisis in the land
It was about 700 years before Christ was born, that the sad announcement was made, “The king is dead”. King Uzziah, the 11th King of Judah, who’d reigned for 52 years.
They’d been years of national prosperity and stability. And now everyone could smell change in the air. It’s likely that Uzziah’s death had left Isaiah wondering what the future held. Yes, big changes in our personal lives can make us feel uncertain and anxious about the future. Crisis.
2) vv1b-4 – We see Clarity of vision
Isaiah’s in the temple, and says, ‘I saw the Lord’. He has a vision of God. Maybe God wanted to show him that King Uzziah might have gone, but there was still a King on the throne!
Just about every detail in these verses drives home the sheer majesty of God. Imagine with me. See the Lord, the King, the Almighty Sovereign Ruler, seated on a throne, high and lifted up over everyone else, the beautifully coloured edge of his robe fills the entire temple. It’s not his robe that’s filling the temple – it’s only the train or the edge of the robe. It’s as though Isaiah needs binoculars to see God, He is so high and lifted up, he is so huge that he is almost not fitting in the temple! See the Seraphs serving Him – fiery flying serpents, almost dragon-like creatures, covering their eyes for fear, and their feet for respect. Feel the almost entrancing effect that their words have, noisily repeated over and over and over again in a scene thick with awe. Hear the words Holy, holy, holy – 3 times holy for One God in 3 persons.
These days the idea of holiness seems difficult to understand. It basically means ‘other than’. That God is separate from the created order – he is totally different. It also means separate from sin and impurity. So it’s as if the Seraphs are calling, ‘Extraordinary and Pure, Extraordinary and Pure, Extraordinary and pure’. And He is Almighty – literally, the word means Lord of the vast armies of heaven. And although His robe’s hem and his smoke fills the temple, His glory – the shining out of all that He is – fills much more – more than the temple, more than just Israel, His presence fills the entire earth.
And the temple begins to shake, and fill with smoke, reminding us of when the Lord visited Mount Sinai at the giving of the 10 Commandments, when He came in fire and smoke filled the air – the atmosphere gets dark, awesome and threatening. And Isaiah gets worried.
We don’t tend to get worried about being around God, do we? The trouble is, very often we can have more of an all-matey-God than an Almighty one! I don’t know if you’ve ever had a caricature painting of yourself done. They sit you down for 20 minutes and come up with a funny painting of you. They may make your chin a bit pointier than it is or give you a slightly bigger nose, and it’s great! Although you do worry a bit if that’s how people really see you. But at the end of the day, we know a caricature isn’t accurate. It distorts the reality, the true picture.
And we can have caricatures of God. There are many floating around. Two of the extreme ones are the angry tyrant God, who’s just itching to send lightening bolts down on you if you put a foot wrong. No chance of heaven for most of us with this God! And then there’s the impotent bearded old God, who just wants a quiet life, and doesn’t mind too much what we do, but who’s usually ready to bail us out of trouble. He’s much too nice to send anybody to hell!
But Isaiah is worried… He’s just seen who God really is in all His purity, power, mystery and majesty.
3) v5a – We see Conviction of sin
Isaiah takes one look at God, and can only say, ‘Woe to me, I’m ruined!’ He knew you shouldn’t, couldn’t see God. The Bible says Moses hid his face when God came near; Ezekiel fell to the ground; Daniel collapsed and fainted; Job despised himself and repented & when John saw the Lord in his glory, he fell at his feet as though dead. People react intensely when they see God.
We see this so clearly in a story Luke (5) tells about the calling of the first disciples. Jesus meets Peter the fisherman, and tells him to where he should put his boat so he can catch a lot of fish. Peter’s a bit naffed-off that this Bible teacher thinks he can tell a professional fisherman how to do his job. And he says, ‘Look, we’ve worked all night & caught nothing, but, cos you say so, we’ll have a go. You know what happened next. They caught so many fish their boat started sinking! And Peter threw himself down and said, ‘Go away from me Lord; I am a sinful man’, but Jesus says, ‘Don’t be afraid; from now on you’ll catch people.’
When Peter saw the real Jesus, Peter also saw the real Peter. And just like Isaiah in v5, says, ‘I’m ruined!’
Isaiah saw God and he was ruined. His mouth was wide open, his hands were on his head, he was almost speechless, and he probably wanted to run for cover. Why? He’d not only seen God – he’d seen himself.
It’s only as we get to know Him that we get to know ourselves. It’s only as we see Him for who He really is, that we see ourselves for who we really are. Friends, when we meet God we often become deeply aware of our sin.
4) v5b – We see Confession of sin
If Isaiah feels ruined because of his sin, it leads him to confess, I’m a man of unclean lips! He sees God and then sees that his lips, his mouth is sinful. His unclean lips are symbolic perhaps for the unclean words he finds coming out of an unclean heart. Just like the Lord Jesus taught, Mark 7, it’s not non-kosher food going in us that makes us unclean, its what comes out of us, ‘from within, out of people’s hearts come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, murder, greed, envy, slander” So much sin comes out through the mouth, doesn’t it?
Never before have these verses been so true! We live among a people of unclean lips! The F word is Fashionable, Funny & Fine with most people. When we compare ourselves with what we see on TV or with many non-Christians, it’s easy to think we’re not as bad as they are! I can think, Well, I’m not too bad. But our standard isn’t other people – it’s God; not how others behave, but how God behaves. He’s the measure of how well we’re doing.
And when we compare ourselves with him, when we see how high & lifted up he is, when we see how much he is praised in heaven, we realise how little we praise him, when we see the attentiveness & swiftness with which he is obeyed and served, we see how sluggish & reluctant we are to serve Him. When we realise that he calls us to live at His standard of holiness, then there’s only one conclusion – guilty as charged. No room for any ‘holier than thou’ attitudes here. Isaiah’s right. He points the finger first of all at himself. I’m unclean – sinful.
And we have three choices. Deny our sin and turn away from Him. Or, admit our sin and wallow in the mud of false grief. Or do what Isaiah did: Admit the sin and let God deal with it. And that’s exactly what God does and wants to do…
5) vv6-7 – We see Cleansing from sin
Suddenly, the Seraph flies over to Isaiah with a red-hot coal, taken from the altar – the place of sacrifice. Perhaps Isaiah thought he was well and truly done for now, cringing as the creature pressed it onto his mouth. But the Seraph explains that instead of injuring, it’ll heal him and cleanse him of his sin. His sin and guilt’s dealt with. God loves Isaiah so much He’s provided a sacrifice that’ll make Isaiah clean.
You see, only by sacrifice can we be pardoned and cleansed. The Bible says, without the shedding of blood there’s no forgiveness. This blood soaked coal is symbolic – it looks forward to Christ’s death on the cross. It represents His cleansing blood. And the Bible tells us in 1 Jn 1 that if we confess our sins, the blood of Jesus purifies us from them. That’s what happened to Isaiah & what happens to us. God loves us and deals with our sin, so we can be near Him and live, near him and not be afraid.
6) v8 – We see Calling into service
Note that the moment he’s cleansed from his sin, as soon as he has been forgiven, something changes! He hears God speaking! And God is saying, ‘Whom shall I send? Who’ll go?’
God’s on a mission. God has things he wants done. God doesn’t need the help, but in His grace invites others to join Him in His work. And Isaiah immediately volunteers for the job. ‘Send me Lord!’ In vv9-13, we see him called and sent as a prophet.
But his response is so refreshing. Especially if you compare it to Moses’: ‘But Lord, I can’t go! I can’t speak properly!’. Or Jeremiah’s response: ‘Lord, I can’t go! I’m too young!’ No reluctance, no negotiating, no questions asked – just a person 100% available to God, ready to serve God’s purposes on earth. What a challenge to us that is. And Jesus only makes it plainer to us when he says in John 20:21, ‘As the Father has sent me, so send I you.’ Have you said, ‘send me Lord! I’ll go – no messing around. I’ll speak and act for you with my neighbours and friends, in my workplace, or I’ll say yes if I’m asked to be a deacon, or I’ll explore whether you are calling me to be a pastor, or a missionary. Have you said, ‘Yes Lord, I’ll go!’?
Summary
A mother asked a minister for help to sort out her naughty little son and daughter. After the minister agreed to speak to them separately, the older child, a girl of 8, went into the church office. She found the minister sitting solemnly sitting behind a big desk. Silence. And then the minister asked, ‘Where is God?’ More silence. The question was repeated. This happened 3 times when suddenly the girl ran out of the office and all the way back home. Finding her younger brother she said, ‘Boy are we in trouble…. God’s missing and they’re blaming US!
Well, God is missing in the hearts and minds of many. And even if he isn’t missing, a true picture of who is really is, IS missing!
But coming to this passage we’ve seen the mystery and majesty of God. We’ve seen that when we see God as He really is, we see ourselves for who we really are. We see that when we come in humility to an awesome God, we get a life-changing touch from a loving God; that once we’re healed and cleansed by Christ’s atoning sacrifice, our ears may be opened to hear God’s voice; and we see a God who is looking for forgiven and willing servants, those who are ready to do his will, to discover and use their gifts and their lives for Him.
Here for us today is a story of a defining moment, a turning point in a person’s life, a day that changed a person’s world. Have you had that moment, that turning point – that kind of day with God? Have you met Him and said, ‘Lord, here I am. 100% yours: Cleanse me & send me!’
