Throne, High and Lifted Up, and His Train Filled the Temple. Above It

A Vital Vision

Isaiah 6:1-8

Vital Vision

Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a

Throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it

The seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he did fly. And one,

cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the

whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the

voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I,

Woe is me! For I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I

dwell in the another midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have

seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphims unto me,

having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off

the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touches

thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard,

the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

What a difference one hour can make in a man’s life! This was without question the greatest hour the prophet Isaiah ever spent on earth. It was greater than any hour that preceded it, and greater than any hour that followed it. It was the hour when the vast world of unseen eternal realities came bursting from the distant background into the foreground of his life. Thomas Carlyle, the great Scottish, philosopher, historian, and writer, said, “One day, through the cobwebs of life, death and eternity sat staring at me.” Isaiah saw something even bigger than that- he saw the Lord. And this vital vision completely revolutionized his life. Note several that are revealed in his account of the vision.

I. THE OCCASION

First, let’s note the occasion of the vision. Actually, there is a two-fold occasion for this vision.

The vision occurred, first, in the midst if Isaiah’s ministry. Many people prefer to change the position of this vision and put it at the beginning of his ministry, but it does not occurred at this point in the book of Isaiah. A portion of the prophet’s ministry which covered five chapters of his book had already occurred when this vision came to him. And there is a noticeable difference between the massage of Isaiah’s ministry in the first five chapters and the message of the chapters seven through eleven, which immediately follow the vision. The main theme of chapters one through five is judgment. For example, the term, “Woe unto them,” is used six times in chapter five alone (vss. 8, 11, 18, 20,21,22). But once Isaiah has seen the Lord, the theme changes quite obviously. The next five chapters (7-11) are so full of prophecies of the Person of Jesus Christ that scholars call these chapters “The Book of Immanuel.” Some of the greatest of the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus are found in Isaiah chapters seven through eleven

(see 7:14 and 9:6-7, in particular). Do you see? Before Isaiah sees the Lord, his message is full of judgment; after he sees the Lord, his message is full of Jesus. Before, he is pronouncing woes upon others; after, he is proclaiming Christ.

Surely, Isaiah worked long and hard as he sought to serve God before the vision came. But, as someone said, “It is possible to work so long and so hard in the bakery that we lost our taste for the bread.” This might have happened to Isaiah, and it certainly happens to us. But what a difference there was in the man and in his message after his vision! Each Christian and every Christian church need just such a fresh vision, and we need it right in the midst of our ministry.

Then the vision occurred, secondly, in the midst of Isaiah’s mourning. It came “in the year that King Uzziah died” (vs.1). Uzziah was one if the most prominent and important kings in the history of Israel. He reigned for fifty-two years, and during that half-century, he led Israel to the peak of world prominence and power. He was Israel’s most useful king since the Golden Age of David and Solomon. He was a national hero, and it was thought that he could do no wrong. But he still died, and it was when “Uzziah died” that “Isaiah saw.” How often is this the case in our lives? It is only on the occasion of the death of some cherished idol in our lives that we see the eternal realities. It was while Isaiah was standing beside the grave of a king on earth that he saw the glory of the King of Heaven. It was when he observed a vacancy on earth that he saw a vision from Heaven. God likely turned Isaiah’s tears into a telescope so that he could see close-up the real King in His glory.

Also, in order to receive the full impact of the story, we must note the sad circumstance of King Uzziah’s death. He died more in disgrace than in dignity. Let the Biblical historian tell the story (II Chronicles 26:5, 15-21). “As long as Uzziah sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. He marvelously helped, till he was made strong. But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up to his destruction: for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense. And Azariah the priest went after him, and with him fourscore priests of the Lord, that were valiant men: And they withstood Uzziah the king, and the said unto him, It appertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn the incense unto the Lord, but to the priests the sons of Aaron, that are consecrated to burn incense: go out of the sanctuary; for thou hast trespassed; neither shall it be for thine honor from the Lord God. Then Uzziah was angry, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the Lord from beside the incense alter. And Azzariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked upon him, and behold, he was a leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out from thence; yea, himself hasted also to go out, because the Lord had smitten him. And Uzziah the king was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord: and Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.” So Uzziah’s death was marked by tragedy and disgrace. This surely increased the sensitive prophet’s mourning. But an astronomer will use the darkness to see the stars.” Isaiah went to church to bathe his sorrow in the worship of God, and his sorrow was a catalyst for this great vision of God. He saw things in the night of sadness that he had never seen in the light of gladness. He “saw the Lord” in the midst of his ministry and in the midst of his mourning. Every true believer in Jesus Christ will be involved in service to Him and to others in His Name, and every true believer will just as surely experience times of sadness. May God to each of us the “ Beatific Vision,” the sight of Him in His glory- one of the in dispensable ingredients in a life of faith, victory, and service.

II. THE OBJECT

Secondly, let’s observe the object of the vision. Again, there is a two-fold object of this vision.

The prophet Isaiah received a vision, first, of the sovereign God. Note the careful wording of the text: “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord.” What does the word “also” mean? He had seen the disaster and disgrace of Uzziah’s life; he had seen the disillusionment and despair of the people of Israel; he had anticipated the deterioration and decline of the nation upon the death of the kind- but now he “saw also the Lord.” The word Lord occurs four times in our story, and what an education there is in it. Actually, there are two different words used, and each adds to our understanding of God. In verses one and eight, the word translated is “Adonai,” which is used for the God who is fully capable of carrying out His plans and purposes. In verses three and five, the word is “Jehovah,” which is the word for the great “I Am” God, the self contained, self-sufficient God of personality and eternality, the God who enters into covenant with the people of His choice and offers Himself as the Answer to every one of their needs.

What did Isaiah discover in his vision of God? He discovered that this God can never be fully comprehended. He is “high and lifted up.” His ways are unsearchable, and His judgments are past finding out (Romans 11:33). His ways are not as our ways, neither are His thoughts as our thoughts. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so are His ways, and His thoughts are above our thoughts (Isaiah 55:8,9). Then Isaiah realized that God can’t be controlled. He saw the “the Lord sitting upon a throne.” God is the sovereign of the universe, and He does whatever He pleases. A little girl said to her mother, “Mommy, is God in this house?” “He surely is,” the mother replied. “Is He in this room?” “Yes.” “Is He under this table?” “Yes.” “Is He under this chair?” Yes.” “Is He in this sugar bowl?” “Yes.” “Then I got Him!” the girl exclaimed, as she clapped the lid on the sugar bowl. But we can’t capture and confine and control God. Also Isaiah saw that God can’t be changed or corrupted. The name “Jehovah,” is made up of the present tense of the Hebrew verb which means “to be;” it means “I Am.” God is forever the same. What He is, He always has been and always will be. With Him there is no variation, neither any shadow cast by turning (James 1:17). Though king Uzziah had corrupted himself and his throne, the King of Heaven is incorruptible.

In the year 1715, Louis XIV, one of the earth’s greatest monarchs, died. He had reigned over the nation of France for seventy-five years. This alone is an incredible fact. He had called himself “Louis the Great,” and sought to get the world to concur with his opinion of himself. He said, “I am the state; I am France.” But in spite of his vaunted greatness, he went “the way of all flesh” – he died. The Champlain of King Louis’ court was a respected Roman Catholic priest named Jean Baptiste Massilon. At Louis’ funeral, the Champlain delivered one of the most renowned funeral messages ever given. The King’s body was dressed in the richest royal robes, and placed in a coffin made of solid gold. Though it was customary for thousands of candles to be burned on the occasion of the funeral of a head of state, to emphasize his greatness, Louis had commanded before he died that only one large candle be burning, and that it be placed directly behind and over the coffin. The evening of the service, thousands crowded the great cathedral. When the service began all other lights were extinguished, leaving the light of the one large candle to shimmer against the gold of the King’s coffin. Then came the moment of the funeral message. Massilon stepped to the pulpit just behind the coffin and stood for a long time staring down into the coffin. Then he leaned forward and snuffed out the long candle, quenching it’s light between his thumb and his forefinger. As he did so, he spoke loudly and firmly- only four words: “ONLY GOD IS GREAT!”

Isaiah saw this truth in his perfect satisfaction in the Temple that day. Only God is great. He saw the sad collapse of one King, and the sovereign control of another, “the Lord sitting upon (His) throne, high and lifted up.”

But Isaiah saw a second thing. He saw the “seraphims” (vs. 2). This is the only time in the entire Bible that this order of creatures is mentioned. The seraphims are obviously one of the highest orders of created beings, probably similar to archangels. They seem to orchestrate heaven’s glorious worship of it’s great King, the Lord Almighty. Give careful attention to the two verses that give us their only revealed activities. “Above it (the Lord’s throne) stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his face, and with two he did fly.” What a picture! The use of the first two wings reveals the creatures’ acknowledgment of God’s majesty. Think of it: the holiest of created beings still hide their faces when facing God! Like a man emerging from the dark into the light and shielding his face, the seraphims cover their faces while ministering before God. With two wings they covered their feet, an apparent acknowledgment of their own humility. And with two wings they flew, an acknowledgment of their own readiness to serve God and obey Him. Four wings are used for worship, and two for work, a suggestion that though God highly desires our work for Him, He still prefers worship by two to one! The ratio for the seraphims was two-thirdshumility and one-thirdministry. And note that the worship precedes the work. How we need to adjust our priorities so that God’s will might be “done on earth, as well as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). “And one (seraphim) cried out to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” These angelic creatures formed an antiphonal choir and celebrated among them the glorious holiness of God. The triple occurrence of the word “Holy” may simply mean that God is very holy, or it may be a veiled reference to the Trinitarian nature of God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Here the name of God reveals Him as the sovereign, unchanging Captain of Heaven’s armies (“the Lord of hosts”).

The angelic chorus closes with a statement which we need to carefully remember: “The whole earth is full of His glory.” A family had gone for a Sunday afternoon drive in the country when a heavy rainstorm forced them to pull of the road and wait till its fury had subsided. When the storm stopped, the sun quickly broke through the clouds. Just as the father prepared to start the car and move on, the little girl in the back seat spotted a rainbow that had formed almost perfectly across the field. “Oh, Daddy,” she exclaimed, “let me go and see it.” The father declined, but she insisted, and finally allowed her to run across the wet, grassy field to one end of the rainbow. When she got to it she looked around and turned back toward the car, shouting, “Daddy, it’s not here; it’s gone!” Her father called back, “What do you mean? You’re standing right in the glory of it!” We stand daily on an earth that is “full of God’s glory,” but only the person with faith will see it.

“Earth is crammed with heaven, And every common bush is aglow with God, But only those who take off their shoes, The rest only stop and pick the blackberries!”

May God open the eyes of our understanding (Ephesians 1:17) to “see” His glory!

No wonder “the posts of the door (of the Temple) moved at the voice of him that

cried, and the house was filled with smoke” (vs. 4) This would have been a “moving experience” for any man.

The word “seraphim” means “burning ones,” or “flaming ones,” or “shining ones.” What principles of truth rush upon us from this sight of them. Let me mention only two:

(1)The closer any created being gets to God, the more it burns, and shines, and

glows. I can remember as a young Christian hearing such words as these again and again: “He is really on fire for God;” “they are really on fire for God;” “that church is really on fire for God.” We seldom hear such talk today, and we are much the worse for it. We are too icily regular and sinfully cool (Revelation 3:15, 16) in God’s Presence.

An American businessman went to France on a business trip. While there, he

picked up several souvenirs for each member of his family. Among the gifts he brought to his wife was a storage box which was supposed to glow in the dark. But when she opened the gift and turned off the light, there was no glow. At first, they both thought he had been cheated in buying this gift. But they noticed some French words on the back of the box. They immediately called a friend who taught French at a nearby school, and she translated the message for them. It read,