Seeing God

INTRODUCTION

There is a splendid moment in the 1993 movie Jurassic Park, when world-class paleontologist Allen Grant, who has devoted his life to the study of dinosaurs, suddenly comes face-to-face with real, live prehistoric creatures. He falls to the ground, dumbstruck. The reason is obvious. It is one thing to piece together an informed but nonetheless imperfect image of dinosaurs by picking through fossils and bones. But to encounter an actual dinosaur—well, there can be no comparison.

For many people, spirituality amounts to picking through the artifacts of faith that survive from long ago and far away. In that bygone era, humans saw God, heard His voice, and experienced his awesome, at times terrible, power. What might be the effect on you of a close encounter with God? A God who isn’t an illusion or a pipe dream, but who is real enough to see? How would it affect you to see God for who He really is?

Let’s travel back to Israel in 740 BC. Israel is doing well economically. Building projects are happening, business is booming, and people are prospering. Militarily, Israel is strong, but they are also at peace. It was a time of military peace and economic prosperity.

But spiritually, things aren’t so good. There’s a sense of apathy among the people, who have gotten caught up in the materialism that so easily accompanies prosperity. But the prophet Isaiah is working to counter his culture. Every Sabbath you’d see him in the temple, telling people what God has told him to say. And he’s been doing this going on 18 years now. But hearing God and seeing God are very different experiences, as Isaiah would discover this pivotal day in 740 BC.

Isaiah got up one morning, put on his robe, grabbed a bagel, and sat down at his kitchen table. He picked up his tablet of the Jerusalem Times. In big black letters, the headline screamed: “KING UZZIAH HAS DIED.” Isaiah’s mouth hung open in disbelief. He didn’t even know the king was sick, and here he’s dead! King Uzziah had ruled for 52 years over Israel (that’s all our U.S. Presidents back to Lyndon Johnson!) Uzziah was credited with all this economic and military success Israel was enjoying. But now, the king had died.

Isn’t that the way life is, though? Everything is going smoothly, life is good, and then the king up and dies. And suddenly our world is thrown into disarray—we go from calmness to chaos in just a blink:

• You just finished paying off your car, when suddenly …

• You’ve built that retirement savings account up, but suddenly …

• You've just gotten that job you'd been hoping for, then suddenly ...

• You wake up healthy one day, and the next morning, you’re in a hospital bed.

I think Isaiah wants us to understand that sometimes God allows the kings in our life to die, for a couple of reasons: First of all, to remind us that life is unpredictable. Even though we think we’re in control, really we have no control. The best we can do in life is just to manage to get along. Even with the best-laid plans, what can we really control? The second reason God allows the kings in our life to die is to help us see where we’ve put our trust. It’s easy to misplace our trust. We can put our trust in our bank accounts; our government, elected leaders and military; our skills and abilities; a relationship, or a family; our health. But the only security we have in life, the only constant when it comes to life, is the One who gives life, and that is God Himself.

Isaiah is stunned and discouraged. He goes to the temple as usual, but this day would be different. Priests prayed, but Isaiah didn’t hear them. People offered sacrifices, but Isaiah didn’t see them. Because on this day, in the year king Uzziah died, Isaiah "saw the Lord" (1).

WHEN WE SEE GOD FOR WHO HE IS, WE KNOW WHO IS TRULY KING (1-4)

[READ vv. 1-4]

Although a king named Uzziah has died, THE King is still enthroned. Isaiah declares, “I saw the Lord” (1), and while it is true that no one has ever seen God, sometimes He graciously condescends to appear in a vision for the instruction and comfort of His people.

The images and language used to describe God emphasize:

• His majesty (“seated on a throne”)

• His transcendence (“high and exalted,” “the train of His robe filled the temple,” “the temple was filled with smoke”)

• His holiness (“Holy, holy, holy”)

But notice that the Lord Himself is not actually described. I think it’s because Isaiah doesn’t have the words to articulate what he has seen. What the Lord is showing Isaiah is that He is the all-knowing, all-powerful, Almighty God with whom no one can compare!