Afraid of God
Isaiah 6:1-8
Over the past few weeks on Sunday evenings we have been looking at the Biblical portrait of Jehovah. We have looked at the fact that we were created by God with a holy hunger that only the creator can fill. Then we spent three weeks looking at the qualities we find in the Biblical picture of God.
First we compared God to our Father who provides for us a loving, accepting relationship that draws us to love Him in return.
Next we said that God is like a mother who is fiercely protective and endlessly devoted. And it is His devotion to us that draws us to be devoted to Him.
Then last week we looked at God as a Groom who is chasing His bride. We noticed that there was no beauty found in us until we entered a relationship with God and He made us beautiful.
All of these pictures point to the Nearness that God desires from his children. God is a personal God who comes to dwell among us and live in us. Though it is difficult for adults to believe that he could really be near us, children apparently don’t have that problem. A couple of books have published letters children were asked to write to God. They are filled with confidence that God is involved in our lives and that He’s an approachable God:
Dear God, Thank you for my baby brother but what I prayed for was a puppy. Joyce
Dear God, I would like to know why all the things you said are in red? Joanne
Dear God, Maybe Cain and Abel would not kill each [other] so much if they had their own rooms. It works with my brother. Larry.
Dear God, Why do so many persons who begin with "I" fight in wars. Iranians. Iracs. Israel. Indians. You name it. Is it just an accident? Maybe you should check on it. It gives all the "I" people a bad name! Best wishes, Ingred.
Special delivery to God, Why not have a few new commandments. How about one that goes - Thou should not have to wash dishes until you are big and older and have a family or two of your own. Think about this, Stephanie.
I often wish that I could have the same boldness to come before God that these children possess. They truly have the understanding that He is one who has chosen to be among us!
A Glimpse of God
But while Scripture describes God as a personal being, as we have noticed over the past 4 weeks, God is also portrayed as one who is completely sovereign. God is awe-inspiring, a being beyond comprehension, who is not made in our image. In one instance He is as close as a brother and then we are reminded of His awesomeness.
Right after describing the confidence we can have in drawing near to God, the writer of Hebrews reminds us: "It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (10:31).
Then in Chapter 12 we are admonished to "worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our ’God is a consuming fire’ " (12:28, 29).
I think that we need to be aware of focusing solely on one biblical picture of God, that excludes the other facets of His character. Although God is approachable, He is not just an extra-strong big brother. He is God, and we should be filled with wonder that we can approach Him.
If you can try to imagine what it would be like for an ant to try to contemplate a human. Even though the ant can see proof of our existence, we are the ones that brought the food to the picnic, they will never be able to comprehend what we know, our strength, or our ways of doing things. That’s undoubtedly what happens when humans contemplate God. We can only begin to grasp faint notions of his power, love, and holiness.
Though we might want to see him more clearly, we need to remember that, without exception, those in the Bible who glimpsed the holiness of God were dumbstruck and terrified.
Job, after hearing from the Lord, cried: "I am unworthy - how can I reply to you? ... My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes" (Job 40:4; 42:5, 6) .
Habakkuk, after entering the watchtower and waiting for God’s answer, was seized by dread: "I heard and my heart pounded, my lips quivered at the sound; decay crept into my bones, and my legs trembled" (Habakkuk 3:16) .
Peter, recognizing the glory of God in the works of Jesus, responds: "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful man!" (Luke 5:8) .
And John, having received a revelation of Christ’s glory, "fell at his feet as though dead" (Revelation 1:17).
There are so many words that we use in the church to describe this "otherness" of God: "transcendent," "sovereign," "awesome," "mysterious." And we so often use these words with out a clue to their real meaning. But the word Scripture uses most often is "holy."
In several Old Testament books, God is called "the Holy One of Israel." Most of the occurrences of the phrase, however, are in the book of Isaiah. And is it any wonder? This prophet could never forget the startling vision he had in 742 B.C. - a brief vision in which he caught a glimpse of God’s awesomeness. It is recorded for us in Isaiah 6
The Vision of Isaiah
The vision came "in the year that King Uzziah died" (Isaiah 6:1).
That short 7 word phrase might not seem like much to us but, this was a time of national tragedy. You see Uzziah had been king of Judah for fifty-two years. Imagine having a president who’s been in office since the 1950’s. The king had been basically good, but had been struck by God with leprosy in his older years after he fell into the pit of pride.
Now that the king has died, Isaiah enters the temple and sees another King - the One who sits on the heavenly throne.
I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ( verse 1-2)
Above the King hovered angelic beings called seraphs. In Egypt the seraphs would watch over the king to protect him. But in Isaiah’s vision they have to use four of their six wings to protect themselves. God doesn’t need protection from anyone.
Note carefully what the heavenly seraphs are caning out to one another:
Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory (v. 3).
"Holy, holy, holy" is a Hebrew expression for our word "holiest." There is no one to whom God can be compared. To complete the scene of mystery and majesty, Isaiah adds that "the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke" (v. 4).
Now I want you to notice the prophets response to what he is witnessing.
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!”
Immediately the prophet saw himself as ruined. "Woe to me!" he cried out. In the presence of God he could see his own impurity more than ever before. Only when a coal was taken from the altar and used to purge his lips was he able to stand and respond to God’s call to service.
John’s Vision
We can hear echoes of this vision in the New Testament when John describes his encounter with God’s throne room in the book of revelation chapter 4: 6-8
And around the throne, on each side of the throne, are four living creatures, full of eyes in front and behind: the first living creature like a lion, the second living creature like an ox, the third living creature with the face of a man, and the fourth living creature like an eagle in flight. And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!”
In both instances we see the Angels of heaven calling out Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty. But what is holiness? There are at least two aspects to the concept of God’s holiness.
First there is Separation
When Scripture speaks of a "holy day" it means a day that is set apart or specially designated for some purpose. Jerusalem is called a "holy hill" because it was separated from other cities to become the place of God’s temple.
God’s holiness implies that he is separate from us. Hosea 11:9 says I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst
God is a wholly supreme being, the essence of holiness. His ways are mysterious and can never be fully explored from our shallow perspective. God is not just a kind Grandfather-in-Heaven. He isn’t a cosmic Mr. Rogers. Even when God chooses to draw near to us there is still a clear line of distinction. That’s why Jesus’ claim to be God in John 8:58 "Before Abraham was born, I am!" was so scandalous. In fact, it was that claim that killed him.
German theologian Rudolph Otto says holiness refers to an "awful mystery." We are both drawn to and repelled by that which is holy. We desire both to run to the God who loves us and to run from the Presence that convicts us. With Peter we cry, "Go away from me, Lord; I am a sinful person!" Luke 5:8
Then there is Absolute purity
In God there is no hint of wickedness, not a drop of evil. Have you ever heard that old sermon 4 things that God cannot do? The very first point is that He cannot lie. This point comes directly from Titus 1:2 which says in hope of eternal life, which God, who never lies, promised before the ages began
We must remember that sin is a problem that infects humanity; it does not infect God.
Living Grace
At times we don’t see our sinfulness because we aren’t looking at God. Rather, we’re looking at all the people around us. We begin to play the “Better Than Game” and we deceive ourselves into thinking that we’re not really that bad, after all.
You know I am not all that Bad, I am a whole lot better than my neighbor who drinks, beats his children and cheats on his wife.
We have come up with an imaginary scale that puts Adolf Hitler at the 1 and the apostle Paul at 10. So as we look at ourselves, and all to often lie to ourselves, we picture ourselves much closer to the 10 than the 1.
But on God’s scale, the one that Isaiah discovered, we are all at the 1. God scale is found in Romans 3:23 For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God." Romans 6:23 "The wages of sin is death…" and Ezekiel 18:20 "The soul who sins will surely die."
John Calvin, the sixteenth century church reformer, wrote, "Men are never duly touched and impressed with a conviction of their insignificance, until they have contrasted themselves with the majesty of God."
The more we look at God, the more evil we discover within us. No wonder Isaiah exclaimed, "Woe to me!"
Those who are hungering for God never take sin lightly. They never tolerate it or make excuses for it. They understand that sin is immense treason. It is spitting in the face of a holy God. They no longer wonder how God could deal so severely with Ananias and Sapphira when He struck them dead in Acts 5; they now wonder how he can keep from dealing similarly with all of us.
The truth is that the only way we can live in God’s presence is by His own sovereign grace. Isaiah was a broken man whom God restored. God chose to take a man with a dirty mouth and make him into His own spokesman. Listen to how this beautiful story ends.
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for. Isaiah 6:6, 7
I believe that this text is a beautiful foreshadow of God’s atoning work at Calvary.
People are separated from God because of sin.
Because of His perfect holiness, God can’t just wink at our sins. A perfect sacrifice had to be made. And since we can’t make it because of our sins, God came himself in Jesus Christ to become the sacrifice.
Let Me Be like You, God
After Isaiah’s guilt was removed, he heard the voice of the Lord asking, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" The prophet responded, "Here am I, Send me!" (6:8).
I often wonder how do we believe that we could do anything less? Jehovah-Jireh, which means God our Provider, deserves our lives. He provided the sacrifice of His Son.
El-Elyon, or The Lord Most High has graciously declared us to be "saints," holy people.
El-Shaddai, or The God Who is Sufficient for the Needs of His People has given us everything that pertains to life and Godliness.
How can we do any less than offer Him our lives completely so that He can free us more and more from sin.
Paul reminds us in 1 Thessalonians 4:7 "For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life"
Tonight I don’t want you to walk out of here and just add the word "holiness" to your list of Qualities of God. Instead it has been my prayer that you will recognize that the God who longs for us is holy and that realization will drive us to our knees, begging Him to make us more like Him.
We must desire to treat people the way God does; to love those that He loves.
Our overwhelming desire should be to live with values that are the same as His.
We need to have attitudes that are godly; and actions that are pure.
More than anything else in this world we must desire to be near to Him.
Invitation
