New Hope Christian Fellowship
Wednesday Night Service
Given on February 13, 2008
"An Encounter with the King"
Isaiah 6:1-13
Sterling C. Franklin
Handout:
When God commissions us, these things often follow:
(1) An encounter with God (1-4 -> 5)
a. We see our own inadequacy (cf. John 15:5)
b. We realize His sufficiency (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9)
9 But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.
(2) A response of Humility and Submission (5)
a. God resists the proud (cf. James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:6)
b. God gives grace to the humble (cf. James 4:6, 1 Peter 5:6)
(3) The LORD sends purification and preparation (6-7)
a. Who can stand in His presence? (Psalm 15, 24:3-6)
b. Faithful is He who calls you… (1 Thess. 5:24)
The One who calls you is faithful and He will do it.
(4) An Obedient willingness to Go (8)
a. “Here am I, send Me” (Isaiah 6:8)
b. He has commanded us to go and make disciples (Matthew 28:18-20)
(5) Acceptance of a task, regardless of how difficult (9-13)
a. Nothing is too difficult for the LORD (Luke 1:37, Jeremiah 32:17)
Luke 1:37: 37 For nothing is impossible with God."
Jeremiah 32:17: 17 "Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.
b. We can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us (Philippians 4:13)
Scripture Reading
Theme: Who may abide in God’s presence?
Translation used for major texts: NIV
Psalm 15
1 A psalm of David. LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill?
2 He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous, who speaks the truth from his heart
3 and has no slander on his tongue, who does his neighbor no wrong and casts no slur on his fellowman,
4 who despises a vile man but honors those who fear the LORD, who keeps his oath even when it hurts,
5 who lends his money without usury and does not accept a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.
Psalm 24:3-6
3 Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? Who may stand in his holy place?
4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false.
5 He will receive blessing from the LORD and vindication from God his Savior.
6 Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob. Selah
== Prayer ==
Context: Historical Period – Year of King Uzziah’s death: between 742 and 735 BC (NAC 186). Some take this to be Isaiah’s call to prophetic ministry. It may have just been a specific commissioning for the task of continuing the hardening that the people had already decided upon.
Text: Isaiah 6:1-13
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. 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."
Verse-by-Verse
(1) Even though King Uzziah died, Isaiah had an encounter with the King of Kings who is from everlasting to everlasting God.
The Word used for this King is Adonai (yn"doa])
Lord or “Master”: Adonai (not Elohim for “God” or YHVH for “LORD”)
Observations of this King:
This Master was seated on a throne: He was a Rightful King.
He was High and Exalted: Glorious (weighty/important), Prominent, Lifted up.
Application: We should not be lifted up, as our King already is.
He wore a robe: Again, He was a Rightful King.
The train of his robe filled the Temple: Symbol of utmost majesty.
Length of Train: How much of a King was He?
The whole earth is full of His glory!
Isaiah had an encounter with Jesus.
- Note the use of Adonai.
- Note the Trinitarian reference in 6:8.
(2) There were Seraphs above him: prf: Fiery, burning
Seraphs: A type of angel
Six wings
Two covering their faces – Not to behold His full Glory
Two covering their feet – Euphemism – covering ‘less noble’ parts – Humility
Two used for flying – Service to do His Will (cf. Hebrews 1:14, Psalm 103:21)
(3) Isaiah witnesses the Corporate worship of Angels
HOLY HOLY HOLY – Triple emphasis – Utmost Holiness
Superlative use
What does Holy mean?
“Set apart”
Reason for Separation: impurity through sin.
This goes back to Psalms 15 and 24 – we are separated from God because of our sin. The only way for us to be brought back is through the Lord’s purifying Work. (Compare: Hebrews 9 – Jesus’ atonement)
Compare: 2 Kings 25:15
The whole earth is filled with His Glory – He is Glorious (Weighty, Important)
Compare: Revelation 4:8
8 Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under his wings. Day and night they never stop saying: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come."
(4) The Doorposts & thresholds shook because of the sound of their voices
- If the angels’ voices caused this all to happen, and they were covering themselves in humility and inadequacy compared to God’s Glory, how Glorious, then, is God?!
Illustration: Heralds of the King: Some majesty; declaring the Glory of the King of Kings – the heralds (here, the angels) declare the infinite Glory of God.
Temple filled with smoke: Cloud/presence – Compare to 2 Chronicles 5
(5) Isaiah’s first response: “Woe to me!” (OY to me, yli-yAa)
-- Where else is OY used?
ESV Numbers 21:29 Woe to you, O Moab! You are undone, O people of Chemosh!
ESV Numbers 24:23 "Alas, who shall live when God does this?
ESV 1 Samuel 4:7 the Philistines were afraid, for they said, "A god has come into the camp." And they said, "Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before.
ESV Proverbs 23:29 Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes?
ESV Isaiah 3:9 Woe to them! For they have brought evil on themselves.
11 Woe to the wicked! It shall be ill with him, for what his hands have dealt out shall be done to him.
ESV Jeremiah 4:13 Woe to us, for we are ruined!
ESV Jeremiah 6:4 Woe to us, for the day declines, for the shadows of evening lengthen!
ESV Jeremiah 13:27 Woe to you, O Jerusalem! How long will it be before you are made clean?"
ESV Jeremiah 48:46 Woe to you, O Moab! The people of Chemosh are undone, for your sons have been taken captive, and your daughters into captivity.
ESV Hosea 7:13 Woe to them, for they have strayed from me! Destruction to them, for they have rebelled against me! I would redeem them, but they speak lies against me.
ESV Isaiah 6:5 And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!"
(also yAh in Habakkuk – declarations against the nations)
“I am ruined”: or ‘I am cut off’/’I am finished’
“I am a man of unclean lips”: Isaiah sees his need for atonement for his sin.
Illustration: Atheist angry at God – ‘I’m going to make my case before Him.’ Will he even be able to do so?
Philippians 2:9-12
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Illustration: Walking into a clean house after rolling around in the mud – something feels majorly ‘off’
Not the Pharisaical response (Luke 18:10-14)
The Publican
Luke 18:10-14
10 "Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood up and prayed about {11 Or to} himself: ’God, I thank you that I am not like other men-- robbers, evildoers, adulterers-- or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ 13 "But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ’God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ 14 "I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Response to encountering God: the deep understanding of the necessity of purity, and thus, atonement for his (our) own sins and his (our) own inadequacy
(6-7) One Seraph takes a Live coal (piping hot?). The angel then purified Isaiah by touching his mouth with it.
-- The coal came from the altar, on which burnt offerings were consistently made.
-- Guilt taken away/sin atoned for.
-- It is only through sacrifice that sin can be atoned for.
(8) Isaiah has both Confidence and Willingness
Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?
Compare with Genesis 1:26-27
26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
Response: Here am I, send Me!
May we share Isaiah’s heart cry!
Faithfulness and Obedience are better measures of success than Numbers
Compare with 1 Corinthians 3
Compare with Jeremiah’s ministry
(9-10) The people were already dull of heart.
The mission given to Isaiah here was to magnify their response of hardness of heart
Jesus spoke in Parables.
How wicked is the human heart?
Mark 7:21-23
21 For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, 22 coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. 23 All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person."
Jeremiah 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
Proverbs 16:25
25 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.
Our inclination is to go running down the broad path that leads to destruction (Whee!). All we like sheep have gone astray, but we have a Good Shepherd to keep us with the fold.
(11-12) Length (time of Commission) – Judgment oracle…
Destruction and forsakenness…
God often will call us to something difficult, but even and especially in our weakness, He is glorified through us (cf. 2 Corinthians 12:9).
(13) A tenth remains in the land (remnant)
Throughout the prophets, the nation is cut down again and again as a tree – it is pruned throughout the centuries.
But as is a common theme in the Prophets, the LORD continues to promise a remnant: the holy seed will be the stump.
What to take (Application):
- When He calls us, let us go! Let us be willing to do as He commands!
- Let us realize our inadequacy but His sufficiency.
- Let us rely on God’s strength as He calls us to do difficult things.
