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Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Isaiah 6:1

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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.

1. In the year that king Uzziah died ] i.e. about 740 b.c.; see Chronological Note, pp. lxxv f. Whether the event happened before or after the king’s death cannot be determined. It lends an additional interest to the vision if we adopt the latter view, and regard this as the divine answer to the anxious foreboding thoughts which naturally arose in a susceptible mind at the death of a strong and successful ruler. The earthly king has passed away, and now Isaiah sees the true King in His glory.

I saw also the Lord ] Many codices read here Jehovah, but the name in the received text is Adonai, the Sovereign (see on ch. Isa 1:24). The word “also” answers to nothing in the original. The words high and lofty apply to the throne, not to Jehovah Himself, as in ch. Isa 57:15.

his train filled the temple ] The skirts of His vesture fill the whole space, and on these alone, not on the person of Jehovah, Isaiah allows his eyes to rest.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1 4. Jehovah appears to the prophet in human form, and as a King, seated on a throne, surrounded by ministering servants who sing His praise (cf. 1Ki 22:19 ff.). The scene is the Temple ( Isa 6:1), where Isaiah probably was when the vision occurred. There is no occasion to suppose that a “heavenly palace” is meant. What the prophet sees is the spiritual reality of which the Temple was a symbol, Jehovah’s presence as King in the midst of His people. Cf. ch. Isa 8:18.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

In the year – This naturally denotes a period after the death of Uzziah, though in the same year. The mention of the time was evidently made when the prophecy was composed, and it is to be presumed that the death of Uzziah had occurred at the time when the prophet saw this vision. If so, it is clear that this was not the first of his prophecies, for he saw his visions in the days of Uzziah; Isa 1:1. The Chaldee, however, reads this: in the year when Uzziah was smitten with the leprosy; and most of the Jewish commentators so understand it; 2Ch 26:19-20. The rabbis say that the meaning is, that he then became civilly dead, by ceasing to exercise his functions as a king, and that he was cut off as a leprous man from all connection with the people, and from all authority; see the Introduction, Section 3. This is, doubtless, true; but still, the more natural signification is, that this occurred in the year in which he actually died.

I saw – That is, he saw in a vision; see the Introduction, Section 7. (4). A similar vision is described by Micaiah; 1Ki 22:19; see also Amo 7:1; Amo 8:1; Amo 9:1; Dan 7:13, …

The Lord – In the original here the word is not y^ehovah but ‘adonay; see the notes at Isa 1:24. Here it is applied to Yahweh; see also Psa 114:7, where it is also so applied; and see Isa 8:7, and Job 28:28, where Yahweh calls himself Adonai. The word does not itself denote essential divinity; but it is often applied to God. In some MSS., however, of Kennicott and DeRossi, the word Yahweh is found. We may make two remarks here.

(1) That Isaiah evidently meant to say that it was Yahweh who appeared to him. He is expressly so called in Isa 6:5-8, Isa 6:11.

(2) It is equally clear, from the New Testament, that Isaiah saw the messiah. John quotes the words in this chapter, Isa 6:10, as applicable to Jesus Christ, and then adds Joh 12:41, these things said Esaias when he saw his glory, and spake of him.

An inspired man has thus settled this as referring to the Messiah, and thus had established the propriety of applying to him the name Yahweh, that is, has affirmed that the Lord Jesus is divine. Jerome says, that this vision was designed to represent the doctrine of the Trinity. In Joh 1:18, it is said, No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. In Exo 33:20, God says, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live; see also 1Ti 6:16. These passages may be reconciled with what is here said by Isaiah, in the following manner:

(1) Isaiah does not say that he saw the Divine Essence; and all that his words fairly imply, is, that he saw a manifestation, or vision of Yahweh – some striking symbolic representation of him.

(2) It was the manifestation of Yahweh in the person of the Messiah, of the only begotten Son who hath revealed or declared him, that he saw Such manifestations of God have been made often, and all that the declaration of Isaiah implies, of necessity, is, that he had a vision of God incarnate seated in glory, from whom he now received a new commission to go out and proclaim the truth to that wicked and rebellious generation.

Sitting upon a throne – God is thus often represented as a king, sitting on a throne; 1Ki 22:19; Eze 43:7; Jer 17:12.

High and lifted up – That is, the throne; an indication of state and majesty. And his train. The word train shulayv, properly signifies the skirt of a garment, or a robe; Exo 28:33-34. Here it is evidently designed as a representation of a large, flowing robe, that filled all the most holy part of the temple. The Orientals regarded such large robes as indicative of grandeur and state. The Messiah was seen seated on a throne as a king; clothed in a large, loose, flowing robe, in the manner of oriental monarchs, and surrounded by his ministers. The design of this magnificent vision was not only to impress the prophet with a sense of the holiness of God, but also to give additional weight to his commission, as having been derived immediately from the divine majesty; compare Isa 6:9-10. It is remarkable that Isaiah attempts no representation of Yahweh himself. He mentions his robes; the throne; the seraphim; but mentions no form or appearance of God himself. In this there is great sublimity. There is enough mentioned to fill the mind with awe; there is enough concealed to impress as deeply with a sense of the divine majesty. It is remarkable, also, that it is not the usual appearance of God in the temple to which he refers. That was the Shekinah, or visible symbol of God. That was on the mercy-seat, this was on a throne; that was a cloud, of this no form is mentioned; over that the cherubim stretched forth their wings, over this stood the seraphim; that had no clothing, this was clad in a full flowing robe.

Filled the temple – Probably, the most holy place only is intended. The large, full, magnificent robe seemed to fill up the entire holy of holies. Some have supposed that this vision was represented as appearing in the heavens. But the expression here evidently implies, that it was seen in the temple at Jerusalem.

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Isa 6:1-13

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw also the Lord

The story of the prophets call–why inserted here

Why the narrative of the prophets call was not, as in the cases of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, allowed to occupy the first place in the book, is a question which cannot be certainly answered.

One conjecture is that chaps. 1-5 were placed first for the purpose of preparing the reader of the book for the severity of tone which marks the end of chap. 6, and of acquainting him with the condition of things in Judah which led to such a tone being adopted. Or, again, it is possible that chap. 6 may have been placed so as to follow chaps. 1-5, because, though describing what occurred earlier, it may not have been actually committed to writing till afterwards–perhaps as an introduction Isa 7:1-25; Isa 8:1-22; Isa 9:1-7. (Prof. S. R. Driver, D. D.)

Why did Isaiah publish this account of his call?

Why was it needful to publish a private transaction between God and Isaiah? The only reason we can conceive of is that the prophet needed to give a justification of his public assumption of prophetic work. And that implies in the community a suspicion of prophetic men, and in the young prophets mind struggles and hesitation such as we can easily conceive. This picture of his call he holds up half before himself, as the answer to all the timid fears of his own heart, and half before his countrymen, as his reply to all the objections they might raise against his prophetic commission. This is strongly confirmed when we proceed to look at the message which the prophet is sent to deliver (verses 9, 10). (P. Thomson, M. A.)

The circumstances of the vision

Let us try, if we can, and present to our imaginations some idea of this extraordinary scene. The shades of evening are closing in, and all is still within the sacred precincts of the temple. The daily ritual has been duly observed, and priests and worshippers have withdrawn from the hallowed fane. The noise and stir of the great city, hard by is subsiding; a solemn hush and stillness pervades the place. One solitary worshipper still lingers within the sacred courts absorbed a reverie of prayer. He is a religions and devout man; probably a member of the school of the prophets, well instructed in the faith of his fathers, and familiar with the sacred ritual of the temple, and the lessons that it inculcated. There he is, looking forward possibly to a prophets career, yet feeling keenly the responsibilities which it will involve, and perhaps pleading earnestly to be fitted for his mission. He cannot be blind to the unsatisfactory condition of his people. Amidst much outward profession of religiousness and readiness to comply with the ceremonial demands of the faith, he cannot but discern the presence of barren formalism and hypocrisy, and of a latent superstition that might at any moment, were the restraints of authority removed, blossom out into open idolatry. And who shall say what heart searchings may have occupied his own mind as he knelt there in the temple all alone with God. Was he more spiritual than those around him? Was he sufficiently pure and devout to stand up in protest against a nations sins? One moment all is silence and stillness as he kneels in prayer; the next, and lo! a blaze of glory and a burst of song! Startled and awe-stricken, the lonely worshipper raises his head to find himself confronted with a sublime and dazzling spectacle. His bewildered vision travels up through ranks of light till it finds itself resting for a moment, but only for a moment, on an Object too august for human gaze. I saw also, the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. Around that dread Presence the forms of vast and wondrous intelligences of glory, the attendant ministers of the Majesty Divine, seem bending in adoration, and the voice of their worship falls like the roll of thunder on his ear, shaking the very pillars of the temple porch with its awe-inspiring resonance, as they echo and re-echo with answering acclamations the antiphon of heaven–Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. (W. Hay Aitken, M. A.)

The vision

Isaiah might probably have said, as St. Paul did on a like occasion, Whether I was in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, but he would undoubtedly have confirmed the plain meaning of his words that the vision was a reality and a fact. (Sir E. Strachey, Bart.)

The Symbolism of Isaiahs vision

There is a variety of opinion among the commentators as to the basis of the symbolism of this vision. Some assert that the imagery by which the prophet sets forth the wealth and splendour of the heavenly kingdom is taken entirely from the scenery and ritual of the temple; that when the worshippers had left, and the sacrifices had been offered, and only a few of the most devout remained for prayer and vigil, Isaiah, lingering with the few, unsatisfied and perplexed, beheld this vision, and consecrated himself to his prophetic activity: In this view the picture presented of the celestial world is the inner features and ritual of the temple idealised and expanded. Dr. Cheyne casts doubt upon this interpretation, and leans to the opinion that not the temple but the palace is the point from which the prophets inspired imagination takes its departure. The figures, the messengers, and the throne are from the court, not from the temple. It is impossible wholly to accept either of these views. There is no reason why we should not blend both in our exposition of Isaiahs vision. There are certainly some references to the temple in the altar, the purging away of sin, and the smoke-filled house. In the throne and the train filling the temple there are suggestions of the court. As Isaiah was an attendant on both, it is probable that the ideas under which he sets forth the kingship of Christ, as priestly and yet regal, were drawn from his own observation of the centres of government and worship in his own country. Ideas of righteousness, and sympathy, and sacrifice unite in his conception of the invisible kingdom. (J. Matthews.)

Isaiahs vision of God

The inaugural vision of Isaiah

The inaugural vision of Isaiah contains in brief an outline of his prophetic teaching. The passage besides this has a singular psychological and religious interest of a kind personal to the prophet. It consists of a series of steps, each one of which naturally follows upon the other.

I. There is first A VISION OF THE LORD, THE KING, surprising and majestic, with a singular world of beings and activities around Him (cars. 1-4).

II. THIS VISION OF JEHOVAH REACTS UPON THE MIND OF THE PROPHET and makes him think of himself in relation to this great King, the Holy One, whom he had seen; and one thought succeeds another, so that in a moment he lives a history (vats. 5-7).

III. Having passed through this history, the beginning of which was terror, but the end peace, AN ALTOGETHER NEW SENSATION FILLED HIS MIND, as if the world, which was all disorder and confusion before, and filled with a conflict of tendencies and possibilities, had suddenly, in the light felling on it from the great King whom he had seen, become clear and the meaning of it plain, and also what was his own place in it; and this was accompanied with an irresistible impulse to take his place. This is expressed by saying that he heard the voice of the great Sovereign who had been revealed to him proclaiming that He had need of one to send, to which he replied that he would go.

IV. Finally, there comes THE SERVICE WHICH HE HAS TO PERFORM, which is no other than just to take his place in the midst of that world, the meaning of which his vision of the Sovereign Lord had made clear to him, and state this meaning to men, to hold the mirror up to his time and declare to it its condition sad its tendencies, and what in the hand of the great King, God over all, its issue and the issue of all must be (verses 8-13). (A. B.Davidson, D. D.)

Isaiahs vision

I. We have to contemplate A REMARKABLE MANIFESTATION OF GOD.

II. WHAT WAS ITS EFFECT ON THE PROPHET?

III. THE MEANS BY WHICH THE PENITENT PROPHET WAS PURIFIED.

IV. THE CALL OF THE PROPHET.

V. HIS COMMISSION. (T. Allen, D. D.)

Realising God

A mans realisation of the character of God does not depend altogether on his religious experience; it depends also on original capacity, temperament, and on suitable physiological conditions both of body and of mind. (T. Allen, D. D.)

An anticipation of the Incarnation

This vision was an anticipation of the Incarnation of our Lord. St. John tells us distinctly that the glory which the prophet saw was the glory of the Redeemer. No man hath seen God at any time. God is a spiritual being, and therefore He does not appeal to sense. He reveals Himself to faith, to conscience, and to love. But sense is an avenue through which the soul is reached and influenced, and Almighty God, in revealing Himself to man, has not overlooked this constitutional fact. The Incarnation was a tribute of respect paid to our senses. What the prophet saw only in symbol we realise in the form of a glorious historic Presence. (T. Allen, D. D.)

Vision and service

I. THE PROCESSION OF THE DEAD FROM EARTH BRINGS US FACE TO FACE WITH THE ETERNAL KINGDOM. We cannot look upon any visible forms, and note their changefulness and yet the permanence of the ideas they illustrate, and not infer the existence of the world of thought, and law, and reality from which they proceed. But while all life is based on the unseen, and witnesses to its presence ever, the procession of the generations of men on the earth more powerfully still reveals the higher kingdom. Think of the populations that have lived in this planet, and received their first schooling and drill here. After a brief preparation and teaching in the knowledge of the laws and facts of existence, they depart. The procession into the pale kingdoms is endless and crowded. The majority the other side becomes greater each day. It is impossible to think of that succession and deny the celestial world. The law of continuity suggests a life beyond. The principle which secures the completion of all great work rightly begun, speaks of it. Our sense of the justice at the heart of things assures us of a realm of compensation for unrequited labour and unexplained sorrow. The union with God that begins here must be consummated elsewhere. Such facts as these would be forced upon the thought of Isaiah as all Israel mourned the death of their leader and king.

II. THE SUPREME FACT OF THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM IS THE SOVEREIGNTY OF CHRIST. After Johns statement (Joh 12:41) that Isaiah saw His glory, and spake Of Him, there can be no question with any Christian mind as to the Messianic reference of the manifestation. Isaiah may not have known of the sacrifice and resurrection by which that throne was gained, but the general outlines of the mediatorial kingdom are fully recognised here. I saw the Lord, high and lifted up. All else in heaven was subordinated to that central fact.

1. The supremacy of our Lords rule over heaven and earth, over angels, monarchs, events, the great and the little, the present and the future.

2. The absorbing attraction of that rule. For as prophet, and angels, and men, discern the glory of His love, and mercy, and power, they are constrained to praise.

3. The perfect serenity and sufficiency of His rule are indicated here. Beneath is storm and tumult. He sits above the flood.

4. The universality of His rule is clear. His train fills the temple. Those who went before, and those who came after, cried Hosanna!

5. The design of Christs rule on earth is to bestow pardon and purity.

6. The King who confers cleansing and peace demands service.

7. He does not hesitate to discipline His unfaithful servants until their loyalty is assured.

III. THE EFFECT OF THE VISION OF CHRISTS LORDSHIP ON THE BEHOLDER.

1. A deep sense of personal sinfulness.

2. A deep sense of insufficiency for the work of God.

3. The vision that humbles, clothes with power, fills with certitude, directs our steps, inspires with invincible heroism, and makes us partakers of its glory and its resources. (J. Matthews.)

The vision of God

No truth is more familiar than that God cannot be seen by mortal eye. But God has so manifested Himself that we may say, without impropriety or mistake, that we have seen Him. He did so–

I. OCCASIONALLY, BEFORE THE CHRISTIAN ERA. We have illustrations of this in the case of the burning bush (Exo 3:1-22), of Moses on the mount of God (Exo 34:1-35), of Micaiah, the Hebrew prophet (1Ki 22:1-53), and in that before us in the text. In such experiences, each one of which may have been unlike the others, a very special privilege was granted to these men; so special and peculiar that they felt, and had a right to feel, that they stood in the very near presence of the High and Holy One Himself.

II. PERMANENTLY, IN THE TEMPLE. The religion of the people of Israel differed from that of the surrounding nations in that there was not to be found in their sacred places any image or statue or visible representation of God. If any such were found it was a marked violation of law, a distinct apostasy. Only one visible indication of the Divine presence was permitted, and that was as immaterial as it could be, and was only beheld by one man once in the year–the Shechinah in the Holy of holies. Once a year the high priest might use the words of our text; for when he entered within the veil, on the great day of atonement, he stood in the presence of manifested Deity.

III. ONCE FOR ALL IN THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST. All previous historical manifestations were lost in the presence of the Son of God. He manifested the Divine so that those who saw Him did in truth see God. They saw nothing less than–

1. Divine power, including control over the body and the spirit of man, over the elements of nature, over disease and death.

2. Divine wisdom, reaching to all those truths that concern the nature and will of God, and also the character, life, and destiny of man.

3. Divine purity, shown in an absolutely blameless life.

4. Divine love, shining forth in tender, practical sympathy with men in all their sufferings and sorrows; showing itself in compassion for men in their spiritual destitution (Mar 6:34); culminating in the agony of the garden and the death of the Cross. Well might the Master say that His disciples were privileged beyond kings and prophets, for as they walked with Him they saw the Lord. Conclusion–We can see God in nature, in history, in the outworkings of His providence, in the human conscience and human spirit. But the way in which to seek His face is by acquainting ourselves with, and uniting ourselves to, Jesus Christ, His Son. (W. Clarkson B. A.)

The empty throne filled

I. THE VISION ITSELF. The centre truth is that the Lord of hosts is the King–the King of Israel

II. THE MINISTRATION OF LOSS AND SORROW IN PREPARING THE VISION. If the throne of Israel had not been empty, the prophet would not have seen the throned God in the heavens. And so it is with all our losses, with all our sorrows, with all our disappointments, with all our pains; they have a mission to reveal to us the throned God.

III. THE TEXT SUGGESTS THE COMPENSATION THAT IS GIVEN FOR ALL LOSSES. The one God will become everything and anything that every man, and each man, requires. He shapes Himself according to our need. The water of life does not disdain to take the form imposed upon it by the vessel into which it is poured. The Jews used to say that the manna in the wilderness tasted to each man as each man desired, of dainties or of sorrows. And the God who comes to us all, comes to us each in the shape that we need; just as He came to Isaiah in the manifestation of His kingly power, because the throne of Judah was vacated. So when our hearts are sore with loss the New Testament manifestation of the King, even Jesus Christ, comes to us and says, the same is my mother and sister and brother, and his sweet love compensates for the love that can die, and that lass died. When losses come to us He draws near, as durable riches and righteousness. In all our pains He is our anodyne, and in an our griefs He brings the comfort; He is all in all, and each withdrawn gift is compensated, or will be compensated, to each in Him. So let us learn Gods purpose in emptying heart and chairs and homes. He empties that He may fill them with Himself. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The rectal and mediatorial dominion of God

I. PECULIARITIES OF THIS DOMINION.

1. The law of belief, or what we may otherwise phrase, the law of intellectual humility. Revelation was never intended to be a revelation to our comprehension or to our reason. The revelation of the Bible is made to faith.

2. The law of evangelical faith.

3. The law of holiness. You will find a great difference between the nature of the obedience which God in the Gospel requires and that which earthly governments require.

(1) Earthly governments take cognizance of the outward act, but none at all of the motives, the affections, or the tempers: but God in the Gospel government controls these.

(2) Earthly governments are usually backward in interfering with the private arrangements of commercial and domestic life, and with the personal property of their subjects. But Christianity puts everything under law. Its sway is universal, all-pervading, absolute.

(3) Earthly governments, earthly systems of ethics, either fail to inculcate, or are at positive variance with, much of the more elevated and spiritual morality of the Bible. The great peculiarity of the government of Jehovah the Saviour in this respect is, that He requires men to be holy and not merely to be moral.

4. The law of disciplinary suffering.

II. EXCELLENCIES OF THIS DOMINION.

1. It is a spiritual government.

2. It us a mediatorial government–a government, therefore, of mercy.

3. The supremacy of this dominion might be adverted to. It is a throne high and lifted up above all the thrones and dynasties of the earth. Let this comfort the people of God.

4. It is eternal. (W. M. Bunting.)

The dead king; the living God

Israels king dies, but Israels God still lives. From the mortality of great and good men we should take occasion, with the eye of faith, to look up to the King eternal, immortal, invisible. (M. Henry.)

Government human and Divine

I. THE CHANGE IN CIVIL SOCIETY TAKE PLACE UNDER THE DIRECTION AND GOVERNMENT OF THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD.

II. THE PERMANENCY OF THE DIVINE GOVERNMENT AFFORDS A STRIKING CONTRAST TO THE FADING CHARACTER OF EARTHLY GOVERNMENTS.

III. THE SPIRITUAL KINGDOM IN THE HANDS OF THE LORD JESUS CHRIST PROCEEDS WITH MAJESTIC PROGRESS NOTWITHSTANDING, AND EVEN BY MEANS OF, THESE VARIOUS CHANGES. (R. Winter, D. D.)

Seeing God

Isaiah saw God: do men see Him today? Was He any nearer to Jerusalem than He is to London and New York? Did that old Hebrew possess faculties different from ours?

1. God can be seen and known. He has been seen and known. Moses, Isaiah, Elijah, Paul, John–all saw Him. He has been seen and known in all lands and among all religions.

2. What do we mean by seeing and knowing God? A spirit cannot be seen with physical eyes. We mean that we are so convinced of the nearness and reality of God that our thinking and living are all determined by that conviction–so sure of Him that we live as if we saw Him by physical sight.

3. But have not men seen their own imaginings, and thought that those were God! Is not a perfect God the noblest work of man! It has not been proved that any have actually known God. It would, in the nature of things, be impossible to demonstrate that to anyone who did not himself possess the same knowledge; but it has been proved that these whom the world always heeds when they speak concerning other things have believed that they had this knowledge; and that faith has been the inspiration of dauntless heroism, most patient endurance, and most sacrificing service.

4. How is God known! Many answers are given. Probably all are partially correct. As each individual sees natural objects from his own standpoint, so must he approach the highest knowledge. We are not asking whether men have known about God, but whether they have known Him. We know about Caesar, but we do not know him; we about the Mikado of Japan, but we do not know him. Many know about God who show no signs of knowing Him. I think that no one has been able to tell how this knowledge is attained: Some say, We are conscious of Him; others, We see Him with the inner eye; others, Reason leads to Him; and others still, He is seen and known in the things which are made. But after all, the most that any can say is, I know Him. Isaiah said, I saw the Lord, but all is hazy and indistinct when he comes to detail

5. All who have learned to love man in the spirit of Christ never can fail of coming to the knowledge of God, for whosoever loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Love is the new life; and love secures knowledge.

6. When we want to know about God we stand before the majesty of an ocean in a storm, before the terrible splendour of Alpine crests and glaciers, beneath the host of the heavens that in solemn silence thread the mazes of the sky, and say: Behold the greatness of God! We study the movement of history, and see how the dispersion of the Jews sent true spiritual ideas into all lands; how the triumphs of Alexander gave a common language to the world; how the supremacy of Rome made nations one; how the carnival of blood called the French Revolution overthrew more abuses than it worked; how the American Civil War ended in the proclamation of freedom, and we say, God is revealing Himself in history. We read the story of the life and death of Jesus, and say, if that is a revelation of God, then He is the One for whom our souls long. But all these revelations may be accepted without personal knowledge. The Father, who is a Spirit, comes to us in spirit; speaks in a still voice in the chambers of memory, conscience, aspiration; and we know Him and yet may not be able to explain that knowledge to those who do not have it. I know my Father; He knows His child. That is the highest human experience. That is eternal life.

7. If eternal life is not a question of dates, of the succession of months and years, but knowing God, then no question is more imperative than, Is it possible for me to know Him? It is a great thing to claim that knowledge. It should never be done irreverently or lightly, but always humbly and with great joy. The mission of the pulpit and the Church is primarily to help men to know God. How, then, may we know Him? However many answers are possible, only one need be given. All who follow Jesus Christ are sure, sooner or later, to realise that, like Him, they, too, are sons of God. (Amory H. Bradford, D. D.)

Removing the veil

1. A king must die! There almost seems to be something incongruous in the very phrase. The very word king means power. The king is the man who can–the man who is possessed of ability, dominions, sovereignty; and the shock is almost violent when we are told that the range of kingship is shaped and determined by death. How the one word suffices for all sorts and conditions of men! The registrar deals with us very summarily! We look through his books. His vocabulary is very limited. He has two words, born and died, and between the two he Can fit in all mankind; there is no exception to disturb his little printed form; we all take our place in it, prince and peasant, emperor and slave. And all this irrespective of character.

2. As kings went in those days, Uzziah had proved himself an admirable king, a wise ruler, a good man. He was distinctly a progressive man, a man of action and enterprise. His energies were not absorbed in merely foreign affairs, nor shaped by the lust of mere dominion. He proceeded upon the principle that a successful foreign policy must be based upon a wise domestic policy; that an efficient and stable rulership must begin at home. I like the way in which the chronicler sums up the kings motives and gives us the very spirit of his home policy, he loved husbandry? He loved husbandry, and therefore you find him hedging his people about with security as they go about their daily life. He digged many wells, he attended to the requirements of irrigation, he laid the hand of protection and favour upon husbandmen and vine dressers, and in every way he showed that he regarded agriculture as the fundamental and primary pursuit of national life. Upon that home policy he built his foreign policy. If you have peace, security, and contentment at the centre it is easier to extend and widen the bounds of your circumference; and with order and prosperity at home, Uzziah was able to enlarge the borders of his empire. He could raise from his devoted people an army of mighty power. The limits of his kingdom were being continually expanded. His name spread far abroad. He was marvellously helped, till he was strong. Such was the nations king; loved by all his people, feared by all his foes. Is it, then, any wonder that King Uzziah–skilled organiser in home affairs, subtle strategist in foreign affairs–became the pillar of the nations hopes, the repository of her trust, the ultimate security of her prosperity and permanence?

3. Now, there is a strange tendency in human nature to deify any person who gives evidence of possessing any kind of extraordinary power. We place them on the hearts throne–the throne on which are centred the souls hopes and which carries with it the ultimate sovereignty and apportionment of life. Extraordinary power of any kind appeals to the godlike within us, and upon the object evincing the extraordinary power we too often fix our trust. Watch the principle in the narrative before us. Here is Isaiah. Before his call and consecration he had lived on the political plane of life. His thought was ever moving among the forces of diplomacy and statecraft. How intensely absorbed he was in the game of national politics! The national problem was to Isaiah a political problem. The ultimate foundation of national prosperity was stable government. The wise handling of political forces was the one essential for the continuity and grandeur of the nations life. That was the plane of thought and life on which Isaiah moved, and on that plane he must find his heroes. He found the hero in Uzziah. What then? He had won Isaiahs admiration. Next, he won his confidence, next his love, next his devotion; then Uzziah became Isaiahs god! Uzziah filled the whole of Isaiahs vision. How now did Isaiahs reasoning run? Thus–What will become of the world when Uzziah dies? When the master of statecraft is gone, in whose hands will the rulership rest? When the political nave is removed, will not all the spokes of the national wheel be thrown into the direst confusion? That was Isaiahs fear, begotten by his hero worship. Well, Uzziah died. What then! Says Isaiah, In the year that King Uzziah died–what?–All my worst fears were abundantly realised? No, no! In the year that King Uzziah died I had my eyes opened; I saw there was a greater, kingdom with a greater King–I saw the Lord. The hero died to reveal the heros God. What, then, did the revelation do for Isaiah? It gave him an enlarged conception of all things. It gave him a new centre for his thoughts and life.

It taught him this, that the ultimate security for all national greatness is not kings and crowns but God. It taught him this, that big armies, and walled cities, and quiet husbandry, and subtle diplomacy, and complex civilisations am not the fundamental forces on which mankind rests. The eternal centre of all true life, the centre which time cannot weaken and which death cannot corrupt, is not diplomacy, but holiness–not Uzziah, but the Lord. The earthly king had come between Isaiah and his God, and it was only when the earthly king was taken away that Isaiah saw the King of kings. I saw the Lord high and lifted up–a limited interest replaced by a larger one, a low standard supplanted by a loftier one, a loom monarch stepping aside to reveal the universal King.

4. This teaching has a most pertinent application to the life of today. Which is the most prominent in English national life today–King Uzziah or King Jesus, the representative of diplomacy or the representative of holiness? Which are we most concerned about–the science of politics or the science of holy living? What are the forces on which we are chiefly depending for the continuity of our national supremacy? The eternal forces are not material, but spiritual, proceeding not from the earth, but coming down from heaven. Material forces must be kept secondary, because they are transient; spiritual forces must be primary, because they are eternal. What is the conclusion of the whole matter? Dont let us lay the stress and emphasis of life upon secondary things–not upon Uzziah, but upon the Lord. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

The Uzziahs of history and the Lord

History tells us the stories of nations who have looked no further than King Uzziah, and who have been accustomed to use the temporal and earthly forces which Uzziah represents. And how has it fared with them? Ancient Phoenicia looked no further than King Uzziah. She built her national temple upon the foundation of commerce, and the only binding force among her people was the relationships of trade. Ancient Greece looked no further than King Uzziah. She raised a palatial national structure upon the foundation of literature and art, and the structure was exceeding beautiful, the wonder and admiration of all time. Ancient Rome looked no further than King Uzziah. She raised an apparently solid masonry, compact and massive, upon a political foundation, and all the stones in the building were clamped together by a tie of patriotism, such as the world has elsewhere never known. Now what has become of them–Phoenicia, Greece, and Rome! How has it fared with the nations so constituted, the houses so built? This is the record. They stood for a time, proud, august, radiant with imperial splendour, fair with the smile of fortune, and reflecting the sunny light of the prosperous day. But the rains descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon those nations, and they fell, and great was the fall of them! Surely that is a lesson for today, that national foundations must not be laid by Uzziah but by the Lord. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

The material fleeting: the spiritual enduring

I spent a little time in the old castle at Stifling, and in one of the rooms of the tower were two curiosities which riveted my attention. In one corner of the room was an old time worn pulpit. It was John Knoxs pulpit, the pulpit from which he used to proclaim so faithfully the message of the King: In the opposite corner were a few long spears, much corrupted by rust, found on the field of Banncokburn, which lies just beyond the castle walls. John Knoxs pulpit on the one hand, the spears of Bannockburn on the other! One the type of material forces, forces of earth and time; the other the type of spiritual forces, forces of eternity and heaven. The spears, representative of King Uzziah; the pulpit, representative of the Lord. Which symbolises the eternal? The force and influence which radiated from that pulpit will enrich and fashion Scottish character when Bannockburn has become an uninfluential memory, standing, vague and indefinite, on the horizon of a far distant time. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

Gain through loss

God puts out our little light that we may see Him the better. When you are looking out of the window at night, gazing towards the sky, you will see the stare more clearly if you put out your gaslight. That is what God has to do for us. He has to put out the secondary lights in order that we may see the eternal light. Uzziah has to die, in order that we may see it is God who lives. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

The compensations of life

I know a little cottage which is surrounded by great and stately trees, clothed with dense and massy foliage. In the summer days, and through all the sunny season, it just nestles in the circle of green, and has no vision of the world beyond. But the winter comes, so cold and keen. It brings its sharp knife of frost, cuts off the leaves, until they fall trembling to the ground. There is nothing left but the bare framework on which summer hung her beauteous growths. Poor little cottage, with the foliage all gone! But is there no compensation? Yes, yea Standing in the cottage in the winter time and looking out of the window, you can see a mansion, which has come into view through the openings left by the fallen leaves. The winter brought the vision of the mansion! My brother, you were surrounded by the summer green of prosperity. It had become your king. There your vision ended. But the Lord wished to give your thought a further reach. He wanted your soul to see the mansion which the Father hath prepared for them that love Him. So He took away your little king. He sent the winter and stripped your trees; and in the year that the little king died you saw the Lord. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.)

Isaiahs call

I. THE MEDIUM THROUGH WHICH IT WAS GIVEN A VISION. Why was it recorded? Not to indulge the conceit of the prophet, nor even chiefly to certify him to the Jews; but because of the messages to them which it so vividly conveys, and the representative interest of the experience to all spiritual minds.

II. THE STATE OF MIND THE VISION PRODUCED. (verse 5.) Fear, dejection, self-humiliation. Both personally and as representative of the Jewish nation he was convicted of sin is the invariable result of close intercourse with God. Our inborn sin is brought to light and rebuked. And the more Christlike we are the more will our brothers sin likewise weigh upon our hearts. It is in this very experience that our preparation for service begins.

III. HOW THIS WAS DEALT WITH. The fact of sinfulness is not denied by Him to whom it is confessed. It is tacitly confirmed by what takes place. Yet how tender and considerate is the silence of the Judge of all the earth! At once He institutes and sets in operation a mediatorial agency. Such guilt and impurity no water can cleanse: fire is needed, fire from the Consuming Fire.

IV. THE CALL.

I. Couched first in a universal question,–Whom shall I send? etc.

2. After the prophets response the call is more direct and personal: Go, and tell this people, etc the more general call to us consists, as it did to Isaiah, in the sense of our neighbours need and our own duty with regard to supplying it. But if a Christian It in earnest, and willing to surrender himself to the commandment of his Lord, more specific direction will not be wanting.

V. THE RESPONSE. (verse 8) Then said I, Here am I; send me. A sacrifice and a petition. (Homiletic Magazine.)

Isaiahs vision

I. THE INEFFABLE MAJESTY OF GOD.

1. His Supreme authority. Sitting upon a throne, high and lifted ups He is the high and lofty One. He ruleth over all, matter and mind, the evil and the Good.

2. His magnificent upset. His train filled the temple. This is an allusion to the flowing robes of Oriental monarchs, which signalise their stately grandeur, What is the costume of the Infinite? Thou clothest Thyself with light as with a garment. The flowing robes of His majesty filled the temple of immensity.

3. His illustrious attendants. Above it stood the seraphim. Eastern monarchs had numerous princes and nobles as their attendants; but these fiery ones are the ministers of the eternal King.

4. His absolute holiness. One cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The repetition indicates the intensity of their conviction.

II. THE LOFTY SERVICES OF CELESTIAL INTELLIGENCES. Their services are–

1. Reverential.

2. Alert. They do not move with a tardy reluctance in the service of their Lord; but with wings expanded they stand ever ready to execute His behest.

3. Individual. One cried unto another. Each was intensely alive to his own responsibility and duty.

4. Harmonious. After the separate cries there was a blending of all in one grand chorus, The whole earth is full of His glory.

5. Enthusiastic. As the peal of a majestic organ sometimes shakes the cathedral, the voice of one worshipper in heaven is represented as moving the posts of the door. The grand solo sends a tremor through the temple.

III. THE AMAZING CAPACITY OF THE HUMAN SOUL. Isaiah saw all this, not with the outward eye, but with the eye of his mind. Unlike all other creatures on this earth, man has a capacity to see God. He can see God enthroned in the universe.

1. Sin has injured this capacity. Whilst all men have the power to see God, few men do.

2. The Gospel restores this capacity. It opens the spiritual eye, sweeps away the carnal atmosphere, and shows God filling the temple. (Homilist.)

The Trinity in unity

(for Trinity Sunday):–

I. AS TO THE UNIVERSAL PREVALENCE OF BELIEF IN THE DOCTRINE. The doctrine of the Trinity has always been one of those things, to use the language of St. Luke, which have been most surely believed among us.

II. THE SCRIPTURAL PROOF OF THE DOCTRINE. It underlies the whole Bible, and is inextricably interwoven with its fabric and its structure.

III. THE NATURE OF THIS DOCTRINE. We grant at once that it is mysterious, and that it is inexplicable. We walk by faith, not by sight. This great doctrine in its inner being is hidden from us; but it presents a countenance to us full of beauty and loveliness, the features of which are discerned by the eye of faith. It is a golden casket, containing a most precious jewel; locked, if you like, which we cannot open, but enriching us nevertheless. It is a song in a strange language, the meaning of it in a great degree unintelligible, but the melody most exquisite. Practical application of the doctrine–

1. It is bound up with our duty to God. We have duties to pay to each of the three Persons if we would perfectly know our glorious God, if we would worthily magnify His holy name.

2. It is bound up with our hope of salvation.

3. It is bound up with the fulness of Gospel blessings. Take the apostolic benediction; what more can you conceive of spiritual life and blessing than is contained within that? (R. W. Forrest, M. A.)

The command and encouragement to communicate the Gospel

The communication of the will of God to others is connected with the manifestation of the excellency of all the perfections of the Deity, but appears in the passage before us in more especial relation to the glory of the Divine holiness.

I. THE REVELATION WHICH GOD HAS MADE TO HIS INTELLIGENT CREATURES MANIFESTS HIS SUPREME AND PERFECT HOLINESS. The great lesson which the vision taught was the holiness of Jehovah, and that by the manifestation of this the whole earth was to be filled with His glory. This, if not the source and end, has always formed a part, and has often been preeminent in the manifestations God has made to His intelligent creatures. Although inseparably blended with the infinite benevolence and perfect rectitude, we find this perfection more frequently associated with the name, and employed to qualify the attributes of Jehovah, than any other. The arm of the Lord, the emblem of His power, is called His holy arm; His eyes, emblems of omniscience, the eyes of His holiness; His presence, Holy of holies; His majesty, the throne of His holiness; His name, the holy name; Himself, the Holy One. This is equally applicable to the Father, Holy Father,–the Son, Holy Child,–the Spirit, Holy Ghost. All the manifestations God has ever made of Himself, so far as our limited and imperfect knowledge extends, have been those of His holiness. He is holy in all His works. It was because they beheld a new impress of the moral image of Jehovah that the sons of God shouted together for joy. The Divine holiness was also exhibited, under a new aspect, to all orders intelligent creation, in the contrast between the state of the first human pair and that of fallen spirits. All the manifestations which, since the fall the Divine Being has condescended to make to our race, either of His dominion over the affairs of men, the intimations of His will, or the operations of His grace and Spirit on the soul, have been revelations of the Divine holiness. In the human nature of Christ, the glory of Divine holiness was enshrined in a temple more pure than that in which the Shekinah had appeared; here was an altar that sanctified both the giver and the gift; a sacrifice in which Omniscience saw no imperfection; a Priest who needed not to offer sacrifice for His own sins, for He was holy, harmless, and undefiled. The purity of God had been shown in the creation; in the consequences of the fall: the destruction of the old world; and the giving of the law: but on Calvary, though softened by the veil of humanity through which it was revealed, it beamed forth with an intensity and effulgence which rendered it at once the most stupendous and sublime display of the Divine equity and holiness that ever has, or, we have reason to believe, ever will take place. The design of the sacrifice displays more vividly this glorious perfection. It was not simply to redeem from sin, but to redeem to holiness. The dispensation which terminated with the return of the Redeemer to the bosom of the Father, has been followed by another, less imposing, but equally clear and more extensive, manifestation of the Divine holiness, the descent of the Holy Spirit. The volume of inspiration is a revelation of the Divine holiness; all its precepts and promises are holy. With what superiority in moral excellency does this view of the connection between the diffusion of the Gospel and the glorious holiness of Jehovah invest this sacred cause; what impressive instruction does it impart to all engaged in its varied departments, at home or abroad; and how imperative its requirement, that, on every order of agency in its support, direction, and application, holiness unto the Lord should ever be distinctly inscribed!

II. THE COMMUNICATION TO OTHERS OF THE REVELATION WHICH GOD HAS MADE, IS ENJOINED BY DIVINE AUTHORITY. Whatever motives may engage the people of God to communicate to others what He has revealed to them, the Divine command constitutes the foundation, augments the force of every other, and must give vitality and efficiency to all This commission has been either special or ordinary; but the authority has been the same in all, and the obligation equal.

III. KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE WILL, AND EXPERIENCE OF THE DIVINE MERCY, DEMAND AND ENCOURAGE PROMPT AND CHEERFUL OBEDIENCE. This is strongly and beautifully shown in the vision of the prophet. Many of the communications of the Divine will appear to have been preceded by peculiar manifestations of the Divine glory. Thus Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel; the disciples, after the resurrection, and on the mountain in Galilee; Saul, on his way to Damascus; and the beloved disciple in Patmos, were favoured. This was probably designed to strengthen their minds with vivid and solemn impressions of the greatness and majesty of that God whose message they were to declare, and to encourage their fidelity. It is a humiliating fact, that, with authority equally distinct, motives more numerous and strong, and facilities greater than at any former time, discouragements and difficulties still keep many at home, who ought to be on the broad plains of moral death, pointing the nations to the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sins of the world. These difficulties principally arise from the views which are taken of the nature of the work and the qualifications it requires.

1. Physical unfitness.

2. Deficiency of natural or acquired abilities.

3. Moral unfitness.

4. Attachment to home, and the privations and perils of the work.

5. The magnitude and importance of the work.

Let us glance at the encouragements to obedience.

1. The dominion and omnipotence of the Redeemer.

2. The grateful import of the message.

3. The measure of success, though not the rule of duty, is cheering.

4. The spirit of the times and the aspect of the world. (W. Ellis.)

The idea of God

I. ISAIAHS VISION OF GOD. This was, in all probability, the greatest incident in his whole life, and it left an indelible mark on his thinking, lust as the thinking of St. Paul, and, in fact, his whole activity, sprang out of what happened to him on the way to Damascus. That day he saw God. That is his own account of the matter. Now, as he prophesies through three reigns after the death of Uzziah, Jothams, Ahazs, and Hezekiahs, and probably lived sixty years after this date, he must at the time have been a very young man, and I am strongly inclined to think that this was not only the commencement of his activity as a prophet, but the beginning of his own religious life. It was what, in modern language, would be called his conversion. He says that he saw the Lord, and what better account could anyone give of the crisis by which real religion commences? Before this, Isaiah had heard plenty about God, because he seems to have been the son of a wealthy family living in Jerusalem; but, as another eminent Old Testament writer indicates, there is a vast difference between hearing about God and seeing Him. I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye sooth Thee. It is really just the transition from the religion of tradition to the religion of experience. Religion comes to us all first as a tradition. It is the tradition of our home, the tradition of our Church, the tradition of our country, and so on; but as long as it is merely that, it is vague, unreal, and remote. But some day this God of whom we have heard is realised by us to be here; and this Christ, of whom we have heard that He has saved others, comes seeking for entrance into our own soul; and if we let Him in, our religion passes into an entirely new stage. Now, this was what happened to Isaiah.

II. THE EFFECT OF THE VISION ON HIS WORK. One of the seraphim cried to another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. That is to say, two attributes of God overawed and overwhelmed these supernal beings–His holiness and His omnipotence. The one of these is the inner glory of God; the other is the outer glory. He is holy, holy, holy inwardly–that is perfectly, unspeakably, uncompromisingly holy; and then outwardly, the whole earth is full of His glory; or rather, to put it quite literally, the fulness of the universe–that is to say, all the variety of suns and stars, of heaven and earth, of land and sea–all that is His glory, or the garment by which He is made visible. We are wont in secular things to say that the child is father of the man, and if any man does anything very remarkable in the world it will usually be found that he has seen by the instinct of genius very early what he was intended to do. And this is true of Isaiah in the spiritual sphere. What he saw that day in a moment it took a whole lifetime to write out. Manifold as is the truth in the Book of Isaiah, it may all be deduced from these two things–the holiness of God and the omnipotence of God. The one half of his prophecies may be summed up in this word which I borrow from one part of his writings: Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show My people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. The book opens with an extraordinary description of the sins of the nation, and this theme occurs all through. And what is all that but just an echo of holy, holy, holy? If God is what the seraphim said that day He was, then sin must be such as Isaiah represents it to be. Then, the other great note of his writings is that which is expressed in the first verse of the opening of the second part of the book: Comfort ye, comfort ye My people, saith your God. Isaiah is among all the prophets the prophet of comfort. He was indeed a prophet of calamity, and perhaps in no other book of the Old Testament do we see so clearly as in his the cruel and the irresistible might of the great world monarchs by which the people of that age were surrounded; but mighty as these were, a Mightier was known to Isaiah; One to whom they were just like the dust; One that could call them like dogs to His feet, and wield them as the woodman in the woods wields his axe; and therefore those people whose God is the Lord do not need to fear these great monarchs; let them only trust and hope. That was the Gospel of Isaiah, and who does not see that it is merely an echo of what he heard the seraphim say: The whole earth is full of His glory. For these two ideas about God, Isaiah has two names that recur all through his writings. To denote the holiness of God, he calls Him the Holy One of Israel; and to denote His omnipotence he calls Him the Lord of hosts.

III. THE EFFECT OF THE VISION ON HIMSELF. The revelation made to him that day about God, namely, that He is the Holy One, had an immediate and transforming effect on himself. My idea is that up to this time Isaiah was a man of the world, perhaps indulging in the vices which the young nobility of Jerusalem of that day were famous for; but now, in a moment, in the light of God, he sees the error of his ways and the putridity of his heart, and hence there bursts from him the exclamation: Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. You see he felt his sin chiefly on his lips–i.e., it was sins of speech he became conscious of. I should think that few will doubt that when he says, I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, he means to refer to a prevalence of profanity amongst his companions. Well, is it not the most natural explanation to believe that he had in his previous life given way to that sin, and now that is the sin that burns in on his conscience? But he learned at this point also something very precious about the holy God. As soon as he had confessed his sin, one of the seraphim, doubtless obeying a secret hint from Jehovah, flew to the altar, and, seizing the tongs, lifted from the altar a hot stone, and laid it on the lips of the prophet–on the place where his sin was. The meaning was that his sin was burned away. And this became to Isaiah the cause of one of the greatest features of his work as a prophet in his subsequent life. There is no writer in the Bible that in language more tender and convincing speaks about Gods willingness to forgive. And where did Isaiah learn that! He learnt it that day when the seraph laid the burning stone upon his own lips and burned his sin away. The other half of the revelation, the omnipotence of God, had its immediate practical effect also. But it was the Maker of Isaiah that was playing on his mind on this occasion for His own purpose. He was playing as an artist might play on an exquisite instrument, and in point of fact the mind of Isaiah was one of the most exquisite instruments that have ever existed in this world. There has hardly ever been a mind in this world, in its native structure, so perfect, and the Maker of it was now touching it to splendid issue. He was needing a messenger to that generation, and He had fixed on Isaiah to be His messenger, and He was making him ready. Isaiah had just realised that God was the Omnipotent, to whom all creatures and he himself belonged, and now that the relief and joy of forgiveness were thrilling through him, he realised in a still higher sense he belonged absolutely to the God who had pardoned. (James Stalker, D. D.)

Isaiahs vision in the temple

God often prepares His servants for special work by special grace.

I. The views with which this vision furnishes us concerning GOD.

1. His sovereignty.

2. His holiness.

3. His mercy.

II. The views with which this vision furnishes us concerning ANGELS.

1. Their humility.

2. Their obedience.

3. Their devotion.

III. The views with which this vision furnishes us respecting MAN.

1. His sinful condition.

2. His gracious recovery.

3. His exalted calling. (G. T. Perks, D. D.)

Preparation for the Lords work

I. SPECIAL PREPARATION IS NECESSARY FOR A SPECIAL WORK OF GRACE, WHETHER IT BE IN THE INDIVIDUAL HEART, OR IN THE CHURCH.

II. THE BLESSED RESULTS OF THE WORK WILL BE LARGELY PROPORTIONED TO THE CHARACTER AND DEGREE OF THE PREPARATION. (J. Sherwood.)

The three-fold vision

I. A VISION OF GOD. This can only come to us in our present state indirectly, parabolically, or as here, symbolically. It will include a conception of Gods–

1. Authority: a throne high and lifted up.

2. Glory: His train filled the temple.

3. Holiness: seraphic action and seraphic tones proclaimed Him as the Thrice Holy.

II. A vision OF SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE. Just as the prophet came to understand that there was a vast spiritual universe behind and beyond the material, and of which the material was but the hint and type, so must we. He saw in the seraphim a revelation of the existence of spiritual beings.

III. A VISION OF SELF. There is a vision of his–

1. Own individuality. The right use of the pronouns I and me, is a lesson worth learning, he finds.

2. Relationship to others: I dwell among a people, etc.

3. Sinfulness. To this–

(1) The vision of God as holy;

(2) The vision of spiritual beings as pure; and

(3) The consciousness of his own condition, all contributed.

4. Possible purification. Here we have–

(1) The supernatural means of this purification. A seraph.

(2) The connection of these means with sacrifice. From off the altar, etc.

5. Life mission. Here we note–

(1) Gods care for the world. It is He who cries Who will go for us?

(2) The godly mans response. It is for him eagerly, obediently, loyally to cry, Here am I, send me.–In Isaiah, in Paul, in every godly man, the vision of God leads to unselfish consecration to the good of others. (U. R. Thomas, B. A.)

Isaiahs vision

I. THE VISION WHICH THE PROPHET BEHELD (verses 1-4).

1. Of the Divine supremacy.

2. Of the Divine attendants. Their name signifies fiery ones. There is a remarkable analogy between what is said here, and what is stated of the mysterious beings in the Book of Revelation–They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. The holiness of God is the great burthen of the celestial songs.

3. The vision connects holiness with the Divine greatness–The whole earth is full of His glory. All His creatures speak His praise.

4. A remarkable effect is stated to have been produced by this celebration of the Divine majesty and holiness–The posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. This may be intended to show the terrors of the Divine holiness, when it is kindled and brought into exercise by human transgression. Smoke is connected in Scripture with the tokens of rising wrath in the Almighty. Deu 29:20; Psa 18:7-8; Rev 15:8.) And the sequel informs us that He had determined to waste the cities, and depopulate the habitations, until there should be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. Observe from the vision here granted to the prophet, how necessary it is that those who go out on the work of the Lord should have a vision of His glory and greatness that they may have a proper sense of the work in which they are engaged. How can he speak of the glory of God, who has not seen it? Or how can he speak of the holiness of God, of the terrors of me Almighty, who has himself no true idea of either?

II. THE EFFECT WHICH THIS VISION PRODUCED UPON THE PROPHETS MIND. Then said I, Woe is met for I am undone. etc. The vision of the glory of God which he beheld, became the means of filling him with reverence, humility, and fear. The prophet was filled with an awful sense of his own depravity in two respects–

1. As a man. Why are the lips mentioned! Not because the depravity, is merely superficial, or resting on the surface; but because the depravity of the heart rends and rages without, and finds vent in the tongue. The vision of the Divine holiness is the best way of impressing our minds with a sense of our own defects and vileness.

2. As an intended messenger of God. He saw how unworthy he was to receive messages from God and go out to the people. If private Christians should feel their depravity and unworthiness, how much more should those who are ministers. He who has not been humbled under a sense of his own unworthiness before God has no right at all to go out to speak to others.

III. THE SUSTAINING VISITATION WHICH WAS MADE IN CONNECTION WITH THE EFFECT PRODUCED. To prevent the prophet from sinking into despair, Divine consolation was given. Notice–

1. The agent sent. One of the seraphim. These are often employed in messages of goodness to man. Observe his celerity–he flew. These celestial beings take an especial interest in the fulfilment of the designs of God.

2. The assurance communicated. Thine iniquity is taken away, etc.

3. The manner in which the assurance is testified. Then flew one, etc. Fire is symbolical of purity. The Spirits influence is compared to fire. This transaction signifies–

(1) The purity of the ministry.

(2) The fervour of the ministry.

IV. THE COMMISSION WHICH, IN CONNECTION WITH THIS VISITATION, WAS PROPOSED AND ACCEPTED. Whom shall I send, etc. Observe–

1. That the messenger who goes out, God sends by His own power.

2. Such messengers are fully devoted to God. They may indeed say Corban with respect to all they have. What an honourable work is this! It is also a work of responsibility.

3. The messenger of God must proceed without debate as to the object of his mission. (J. Parsons.)

Isaiahs vision

The scene is Messianic. Christ is in it.

I. WHAT THE PROPHET SAW AND HEARD. There is no special stress to be laid on the term Lord, as used here. It is not the incommunicable name of essence, Jehovah; but the title of dominion, of mastership and ownership. The awe of His appearance is in the circumstances or surroundings.

1. He is upon a throne, high and lifted up. It is the throne of absolute sovereignty; of resistless, questionless, supremacy over all.

2. He is in the temple, where the throne is the mercy seat, between the cherubim, over the ark of the Covenant, which is the symbol and seal of reconciliation and friendly communion. And He is there in such rich grace and glory that the whole temple is filled with the overflowing robe of His redeeming majesty.

3. Above, or upon, that ample overflowing train of so magnificent a raiment stood the seraphim. These are not, as I take it, angelic or super angelic spirits, but the Divine Spirit Himself, the Holy Ghost; appearing thus in the aspect and attitude of gracious ministry. In that attitude He multiplies Himself, as it were, according to the number and exigencies of the churches and the individuals to whom He has to minister. He takes up, moreover, the position of reverential waiting for His errand, and in an agency manifold, but yet one, readiness to fly to its execution. The cherubim are on almost all hands admitted to be representative emblems of redeemed creation, or of the redeemed Church on earth. And I cannot think it wrong to give to the seraphim in this, the only passage in which the name occurs, a somewhat corresponding character as representative emblems of the active heavenly agency in redemption. Nor is the plural form any objection. I find a similar mode of setting forth the multiform and multifarious agency of the Spirit in the opening salutation of the

Apocalypse–the seven Spirits which are before His throne Rev 1:4). It is the Holy Ghost, waiting to go forth from the Father, to apply and carry forward the threefold work of the Son, as Prophet, Priest, and King; and to do so as if He were becoming seven Spirits in accommodation to the seven churches; as if each church was to have Him as its own; yes, and each believer, too.

4. With this great sight, voice and movement are joined. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory. It is not necessarily the voice of the seraphim, though that is the ordinary I would rather take the words abstractly and indefinitely. There is an antiphonic cry or song. It is not said among whom. Of course, the readiest reference is come seraphim. But the text does not require that; it is literally this cried to this. And the attendance of an angelic choir, of all hosts of heaven, may be assumed. Assuredly Christ is here. He is here as revealing the Father. And He is here, not merely outwardly, in outward manifestation; but inwardly, in the deepest inward contact and converse of the soul with God.

II. HOW THE PROPHET FELT (verse 5). It is a thorough prostration.

III. HOW THE PROPHETS CASE IS MET. Lo! an altar; the altar of propitiation, on which lies the ever freshly bleeding victim. One of the seraphim–the Holy Spirit in one of His varied modes of operation–flies, as if in haste, with what is as good as the entire altar and its sacrifice to apply it all effectually. And the effect is as immediate as the touch. Nothing comes in between. There is no waiting, as for a medicine to work its cure; no bargaining, as if a price were to be paid; no process to be gone through; no preparation to be made.

IV. THE SUBSEQUENT OFFER AND COMMAND (verses 8, 9). Two things are noticeable here.

1. The grace of God in allowing the prophet, thus exercised, to be a volunteer for service. The Lord might issue a peremptory command. But His servant has the unspeakable privilege of giving himself voluntarily to the Lord who willingly gave Himself for him.

2. The unreservedness of the prophets volunteering. It is no half hearted purpose conditional on circumstances; but the full, single-eyed heartiness of one loving much, because forgiven much, that breaks out in the frank, unqualified, unconditional self-enlistment and self-enrolment in the Lords host, Here am I, send me. Hence, accordingly, the crowning proof and pledge of his conversion, his cleansing, his revival, his commission. He now learns for the first time, after he has committed himself beyond the possibility of honourable retraction or recall, what is the errand darkly indicated by the heavenly voice, Whom shall I send? At first there may be secretly the feeling that any mission on which such a master may send me must have in it the elements of intrinsic glory and assured triumph. But as it turns out it is far otherwise than that. The case is altogether the reverse. The mission is to be a mission of judgment. But what then? Does the freshly quickened volunteer withdraw his offer? or qualify it? or raise any question at all about it? No; he simply asks one question; a brief one; comprised in three words–Lord, how long? It is a question indicating nothing like reluctance or hesitation; no repenting of his offer; no drawing back. For himself he has nothing more to say. It is only in the interest of his people, and out of deepest sympathy with them, that the irrepressible cry of piety and of patriotism bursts from his lips–Lord, how long? how long? (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)

Isaiahs vision

I. THE LIGHT IN WHICH THE SON OF GOD APPEARS TO THOSE WHO ENJOY AN INTIMATE UNION WITH HIM AND A NEAR CONTEMPLATION OF HIM. He is represented–

1. As seated on a lofty throne.

2. As attended by celestial spirits.

3. As receiving their homage and praise.

(1) The matter of it.

(2) The manner of it.

II. THE EFFECT WHICH THIS INTIMATE UNION AND NEAR CONTEMPLATION WILL PRODUCE.

1. Humility. It is ignorance of God that is the parent of pride. True knowledge of Him tends to humility. Qualities are never seen so clearly as by contrast. The application of a straight rule marks the obliquity of a crooked line.

2. Purification.

3. Self-devotion. As eyes dazzled by the sun see not the glittering of drops of dew upon the earth, so the glory of worldly objects ceases to interest a soul that is taken up with the contemplation of God; while he will be led, by a regard to Him whose word has been the instrument of his purification and encouragement, to devote himself unreservedly to His will. (R. Brodie, M. A.)

Isaiahs vision of Gods glory

I. The first view of the Divine glory in the text is that of RULE AND DOMINION. The Lord is King–this is the first character under which to approach Him whenever we engage in worship.

II. The second view of the majesty and glory of God is that IN HIS NATURE AND PERFECTION HE IS INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

III. The third view of the Divine Majesty is HOLINESS.

IV. The fourth view is that of A PENITENT, ABASED MAN SINKING BEFORE THIS OVERPOWERING MANIFESTATION.

V. The fifth view we have is that of THIS HUMBLE, SILENCED MAN OBTAINING MERCY. (J. Summerfield, M. A.)

Isaiahs vision of Christs glory

He who sat upon the throne Isaiah saw is none other than God Himself. But in his Gospel (Joh 12:41) John tells us, these things said Esaias, when he saw Christs glory, and spake of Him. It is the throne of Jesus. Let us examine the manner in which they who actually saw the vision were affected by it, and this will best show us at once its consummate splendour and the sentiments it should awaken.

I. It was seen by ANGELS AND THE SPIRITS OF THE JUST MADE PERFECT, AND HOW WERE THESE AFFECTED.

1. They were astonished.

2. They were filled with joy. Because Gods grace runs in the channel of justice.

3. They celebrate it with songs.

4. They were ready to advance the cause of redemption, for with their wings they were ready to fly.

II. Let us understand from the experience of Isaiah HOW BELIEVERS ARE AFFECTED BY THE VISION OF OUR TEXT.

1. Isaiah was overwhelmed at the first. He sees in himself nothing but the dry stubble of guilt, and in God an insatiable fire, approaching to devour it. He sees no fitness for heaven, either in himself or those he loved.

2. But he is immediately revived.

3. Then called to active duty.

III. We would now consider HOW THE WORLD IS AFFECTED BY THE VISION THAT ISAIAH SAW. Isaiah preaches the Gospel, but his message is rejected. So now. (J. J. Bonar.)

The enthroned Lord

The Lord is always upon a throne, even when He is nailed to the Cross; this Lord and His throne are inseparable. There are dignitaries that have to study how to keep their thrones; but the Lord and HIS throne are one. (J. Parker, D. D.)

Isaiahs vision of God

I. THE OCCASION OF THE VISION. The emptied throne is the occasion for the manifestation of the true King. Gods purpose in all His withdrawals is the same as His purpose in all His gifts, that we may be led to see Him more clearly as the one foundation of all things, the anchor of our lives and the hope and stay of our hearts. The text not only teaches us the purpose of all withdrawals, but comes to us heavy-freighted with the blessed thought that God is able to fill every place that He empties. This King of Judah was followed by another, a decent enough young man in his way, who on the whole went straight and did Gods will. But that was no comfort to the prophets heart. It did not avail to show him a Jotham behind an Uzziah. What he needed, and what you and I need, to fill the empty places in our hearts and lives, is the vision that flamed upon his inward eye; and the conviction that the Lord, the King Himself, had come when the earthly shadow passed away.

II. THE CONTENTS OF THE VISION. The temple here is, of course, not the mere earthly house, but that higher house of the Lord, of which the temple of earth is a shadow. Isaiahs vision was none the less objective, none the less distinguishable from an imagination of his own, none the less manifestly and marvellously, a revelation from God, because if we had been there we should have seen nothing, any more than the Sanhedrim shared in the vision of the opened heavens which gladdened Stephens dying eyes. Mark, how there is no word of description here of what the prophet saw in the centre of the light. But if we listen to the description given to us, there are two great thoughts in it. I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up–the infinite exaltation of that Divine nature which separates Him from all the lowness of creatures, and makes Him the blessed and incomprehensible infinite foundation of good and of blessedness and the source of life. Correspondent and parallel to this thought of the sovereign exaltation is the song that is put into the mouth of the seraphim. The same idea is expressed by Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, as is expressed by high and lifted up. The holiness of God means the infinite separation of the infinite nature from the finite creature; and that separation is manifest both in the incomprehensible elevation of His being and in the perfect purity of His nature. But whilst thus a great gulf is fixed between us and Him, and we, like the seraphs, have to veil our faces that we see not, and our feet that we be not seen, there is another side to the thought, His skirts filled the temple, and that is paralleled with the other number of the seraphs song, the whole earth is full of His glory. For the glory of God is the manifestation of His holiness. And just as the trailing skirts of that great robe spread over the whole floor of the temple, so through the whole earth go flashing the manifold manifestations of His glory. These twin thoughts, never to be separated from each other, of the infinite separation and the immeasurable self-communication of our Father-God, are all as true for us today as they ever were. That vision is as possible to us as it was to Isaiah. It was no prerogative of the prophets office. Our eyes too, if we will, may behold the King in His beauty. It is Christ that explains to us by His Incarnation how it ever came to pass that to mans inward or outward eyes there was granted a manifestation of Deity in the form of humanity as here; and His permanent revelation of God to us puts us more than on a level with any of those of old to whom were granted the foreshadowings of that historical fact of God manifest in the flesh. He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.

III. THE EFFECTS OF SUCH A VISION ON THE LIFE. A man that sees God will know his own impurity. Where there is a sense of sin roused by the sight of God there will come the fiery coal from the altar that purifies; and where there is a sense of sin, and the taking away of it, by the sacrifice not brought by the prophet, but provided for the prophet by God, there will follow the glad surrender of self for all service, and any mission. Here am I, send me. So this vision of God is the foundation of all nobleness of life. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Isaiah a typical prophet

This is not a story of individual experience only. Isaiah was a typical prophet with special duties, and, consequently, with special qualifications for their right discharge. But in many respects he is also representative of the faithful preacher of the Gospel and worker for Christ. In its inspirations, its aims and motives, its responsibilities and difficulties, the prophets office was like that of Christs servant everywhere, and from this record we may gather lessons of universal application.

1. The prophet must be a man whose soul is possessed with God, to whom God is a reality, not an abstraction, a living and present Friend, not a distant and unknown Ruler. There must be visions of God in the glory of His holiness as well as in the tenderness of His condescension, or there will be neither desire nor capacity to testify of Him. It is the pure in heart who thus see God, and even as Isaiah needed that the live coal from the altar should touch his lips and he should be cleansed from all iniquity, so must Christs messenger know for himself the blessedness of that salvation which he preaches to others. This does not supersede the necessity for intellectual qualifications for the work. Impulse, however pure and noble, cannot fit a man for even the humblest work, much less for the noblest, the most difficult, the most responsible of all. God does lay His hands upon some whom the wisdom of this world would pronounce incompetent for the work. As in the case of Bunyan, the working of His grace in the heart may develop gifts of fancy or of eloquence which might else have lain dormant.

2. Of the special gift of inspiration which Isaiah enjoyed suffice it to say that if that is to be reduced to a genius for righteousness which he shared in common with the rest of the Jewish race, the unique character and supreme authority of the Bible are gone. Define inspiration how men will, it must, at all events, imply that God revealed His will to these prophets and seers by whom the Sacred Volume was penned, as He did not to the great poets and writers of the world, or this Book has no distinctive value.

3. The prophet must be a consecrated servant–one who lives not to do his own pleasure, but to glorify God. (J. G. Rogers, B. A.)

The making of a prophet

1. The experience that made Isaiah a prophet took the form of a vision. It happened in a period of distressing perplexity and gloom. Wrestling passionately with the darkness, craving wistfully for light, the yearning to see God in the mans soul became so intense and sensitive, that the great Heart in heaven answered the longing of the heart on earth, and aspiration leapt into realisation, and faith flashed into vision That sight of God–the living, holy, loving God–made Isaiah a prophet. Preachers and teachers of today! if we are to be prophets, we need lust such a sight of God.

2. The vision of God made Isaiah a prophet; but the immediate result was something different. The first effect of contact with God was to produce in his soul an intolerable sense of sin. Had Isaiah been Pharisee, he would have seized the opportunity of his sudden vicinity to the Almighty to direct the Divine attention to his virtues and superiority over other men. Had he been one of those philosophers in whom the heart has been overlaid by the intellect, he would have calmly proceeded to make observations of the Divine for a new theory of the absolute and unconditioned, in sublime insensibility to the deepest problem of existence, the awful antithesis of human sin and of Divine holiness. Because Isaiah was a good man, his new proximity to God woke within him a crushing horror of defilement and undoneness. And it was so, precisely because, he had never been so near to God before, and had never felt himself of so much importance. Away down here, sinning among his fellow men, the blots and blemishes of his soul seemed of little moment. But up there, in the stainless light of heaven, with Gods holy eyes resting on him, every spot of sin within him grew hot and horrible, every defiling stain an insult and a suffering inflicted on the sensitive holiness of God. These two things are linked together, and no man can divorce them–the dignity of humanity and the damnableness of sin.

3. The ethical process by which, in the imagery of the vision, Isaiahs sense of sinfulness came home to him, is finely natural and simple. It was at his lips that the consciousness of his impurity caught him. I am a man of unclean lips. That, judged by our formulas and standards, might seem a somewhat superficial conviction of sin. We should have expected him to speak of his unclean heart, or the total corruption of his whole nature. But actual conviction of sin is very regardless of our theories, and is as diverse in its manifestations as are the characters and records of men. Sin finds out one man in one place, and another in a quite different spot, and perhaps the experience is most real when it is least theological.

4. Isaiah, in the presence of God, felt within him the pang of that death, which must be the end of unpardoned sin in contact with the Divine holiness. He felt himself as good as dead, yet never in all his life had he so longed to live as now, in sight of God and heaven and holiness. He did not ask to escape. He was too overwhelmed to pray or hope. But to Gods heart that cry of despair was an infinitely persuasive prayer for mercy. Pagan sages and Christian saints alike unite in proclaiming the overmastering strength of sin.

5. Is there, then, no possibility of recovery? no way of cleansing? One there is, and one alone. Aye, if only God so loves our sin-stained race as that His stainless purity enters really into our humanity, and wrestles with our impurity in a contact that must be suffering to the Divine holiness, and is sin cleansing to us–that were salvation surely; that were redemption. But is it a reality! Jesus Christ has lived, and died, and lives again, and we know that His Holy Spirit dwells in us and in our world. That, and that alone, is salvation; not any theories nor any rites, but Gods Holy Spirit given unto us.

6. It was at Isaiahs lips that the sense of sin had stung him, and it was there that he received the cleansing. He, too, might now join in heavens praise and service; no more an alien, but a member of the celestial choir and a servant of the King. That act of Divine mercy had transformed him.

7. He was a new creature, and instantly the change appeared. The voice of God sounds through the temple, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And the first of all heavens hosts to offer is Isaiah A moment before, he had shrunk back, crushed and despairing, from Gods presence, feeling as if the Divine gaze were death to him. Now he springs forward, invokes Gods attention on himself, and before all heavens tried and trusty messengers proposes himself as Gods ambassador. Was it presumption! was it self-assertion? I think, if ever Isaiah was not thinking of himself at all, and was conscious only of God and goodness and gratitude, it was then, when his heart was running over with wonder, love, and praise for Gods unspeakable mercy to him. It was not presumption; it was a true and beautiful instinct that made him yearn with resistless longing to do something for that God who had shown such grace to him. (Prof. W. G. Elmslie, D. D.)

Christian missions

I. WHAT ISAIAH SAW.

II. WHAT HE SAID. Woe, etc.

III. WHAT HE FELT. The assurance of pardon.

IV. WHAT HE HEARD. The pardoned sinner is all ear, all eye. I heard the voice of the Lord, etc.

V. WHAT HE DID. He made consecration. (Richard Knill.)

Isaiahs vision

1. Inasmuch as sitting upon a throne implies a human form, we are inclined to agree with those expositors who speak of Isaiahs vision as a vision of Jehovah-Jesus.

2. The vision rebukes those who entertain the notion that, so far as Divine superintendence is concerned, the universe is in a state of orphanage.

3. The vision likewise rebukes those who picture God as absorbed in the contemplation of His own excellence, and as existing in solitary grandeur. God is of a social nature. Like earthly kings He has a court, as much superior to theirs as He is Himself above them.

3. Isaiahs vision further teaches us, that the creatures referred to, and represented by the seraphim, possess such a knowledge of God, are in such sympathy with Him, and have such confidence in Him, that their lives are spent in an element of worship.

4. The vision was designed to qualify Isaiah for the fulfilment of his course as one of the prophets of Judah; and nobly it answered its purpose. (G. Cron, M. A.)

Isaiahs vision

(for Trinity Sunday):–We have here the proper inauguration of the great evangelical prophet to his future work; and one which, in its essential features, resembles very closely the inauguration which other eminent servants of God, alike under the Old Covenant and under the New, obtained;–Moses (Exo 3:6); Jeremiah Jer 1:6-9); Paul; Joshua (Jos 1:1); Gideon (Jdg 6:12-24); Ezekiel (Eze 1:3); Peter (Luk 5:4-10). Gods messengers go mot until they are sent, and presume not to deliver a message which they have not received directly from the Sender.

1. And, first, he gives the date of the vision. What meaning may there sometimes be in a thing which seems so simple as a date! What significance, what solemnity may it sometimes have, as surely it has here. How simply and yet how grandly are earth and heaven here brought together, and the fleeting phantoms of one set over against the abiding realities of the other.

2. But if Gods throne is in heaven, the skirts of His glory reach even to the earth: His train filled the temple.

3. The glimpse afforded here to the Church of the elder dispensation of that great crowning mystery which the Church of the newer dispensation throughout all the world is celebrating today. In this Trisagion we have, it is true, no more than a glimpse of the mystery; even as in the Old Testament more is nowhere vouchsafed. More, in all likelihood, the Church could not then, nor until it had been thoroughly educated into a confession of the unity of the Godhead, with safety have received; while yet it was a precious confirmation of the faith, when, in a later day, this mystery was fully made known, to discover that the rudiments of it had been laid long before in Scripture.

4. But what is the first impression which this glorious vision makes upon the prophet? His first cry is not of exultation and delight, but rather of consternation and dismay. Woe is me, etc. Even the heathen, as more than one legend in their mythology declares, could apprehend something of this truth. If Jupiter comes to Semele arrayed in the glories of deity, she perishes, consumed to ashes in a brightness which is more than mortality can bear. So, too, it must have fared with Moses, if to him, still clothed in flesh and blood, that over-bold request of his, Show me Thy glory, had been conceded; if it had not been answered to him, Thou canst not see My face; for there shall no man see Me and live. We shall perish, for we have seen the Lord of hosts, was the ever recurring cry of those saints of old; and even such is the voice of the prophet here.

5. Yet that moment with all its dreadfulness is a passage, in some sense the only passage, into a true life. And such the prophet found it. Observe the manner in which sin, the guilt of sin, is here, as evermore in Holy Scripture, spoken of as taken away by a free act of God, an act of His in which man is passive; in which he has, so to speak, to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord; an act to which he can contribute nothing, save indeed only that Divinely awakened hunger of the soul after the benefit which we call faith.

6. Behold in the prophet the fruit of iniquity taken away, and sin purged. Behold the joyful readiness with which he now offers himself for the service of his God. (Abp. Trench.)

The triune Name a call, a message, a chastening

The contemplation of the majesty of God is the source of the largest hope for all His creatures. For beings pure and holy that vision is the call to unfaltering adoration and limitless faith; for men of unclean lips–sin-stained, and labouring in a sin-stained world–it is the reassuring call to the prophets work

I. The vision of God THE CALL OF THE PROPHET.

1. Nowhere is the thought presented to us in the Bible with more moving force than in this record of Isaiahs mission. The very mark of time by which the history is introduced has a pathetic significance. It places together in sharp contrast the hasty presumption of num and the unchanging love of God. The king died an outcast and a leper because he had ventured to take to himself the function of a priest in the house of God; and in close connection with that tragic catastrophe an access to God, far older than that which the successful monarch had prematurely claimed, was foreshown to the prophet in s heavenly figure. Isaiah, a layman, was, it a appears, in the heavenly court, and he saw in a trance the way into the holiest place laid open. The veils were removed from sanctuary and shrine, and he beheld more than met the eyes of the high priest, the one representative of the people, on the one day on which he was admitted, year by year, to the dark chamber which shrouded the Divine presence. For an eternal moment Isaiahs senses were unsealed. He saw that which is and not that which appears. For him the symbol of God dwelling in light unapproachable, was transformed into a personal presence; the chequered scene of human labour and worship was filled with the train of God; the marvels of human skill were instinct with the life of God. The spot which God had chosen was disclosed to his gaze as the centre of the Divine revelation; but, at the same time, he was taught to acknowledge that the Divine presence is not limited by any bounds, or excluded by any blindness, when he heard from the lips of angels that the fulness of the whole earth is His glory. Now, when we recall what Judaism was at the time–local, rigid, exclusive–we can at once understand that such a revelation taken into the soul was for Isaiah an illumination of the world. He could see all creation in its true nature through the light of God.

So to have looked upon it was to have gained that which the seer, cleansed by the sacred fire, was constrained to declare. Humbled, and purified in his humiliation, he could have but one answer when the voice of the Lord required a messenger: Here am I; send me.

2. Isaiahs vision and call are for us also, and they await from us a like response. When he looked upon that august sight, he saw Christs glory; he saw in figures and far off that which we have been allowed to contemplate more nearly and with the power of closer apprehension. He saw in transitory shadows that which we have received in a historic Presence. By the Incarnation God has entered, and empowered us to feel that He has entered, into fellowship with humanity and men. As often as that truth rises before our eyes, all heaven is indeed rent open, and all earth is displayed as God made it. For us, then, the vision and the call of Isaiah find a fuller form, a more sovereign voice in the Gospel than the Jewish prophet could know

3. What does the mystery, the revelation of God, even Christ Col 2:2), mean, the mystery of which we are ministers and prophets, the mystery which brings the eternal within the forms of time, the mystery which shows to us absolute love made visible in the Incarnate Word? It means that the outward, the transitory, is a yell woven by the necessities of our weakness, which half hides and half reveals the realities with which it corresponds; that the changing forms in which spiritual aspirations are clothed from generation to generation and from life to life, are illuminated, quickened, harmonised in one supreme fact; that beyond the temples in which it is our blessing to worship, and beyond the phrases which it is our joy to affirm, there is an infinite glory which can have no local circumscription, and an infinite Truth which cannot be grasped by any human thought; that man, bruised and burdened by sorrows and sins, was made for God, and that through His holy love he shall not fail of his destiny; that all creation is an expression of Gods thought of wisdom brought within the reach of human intelligence; that Gods Spirit sent in His Sons name will interpret little by little, as we can read the lesson, all things as contributory to His praise; that we also, compassed with infirmities and burdened with sins, may take, up the song of the redeemed creation, the song of the unfallen angels, and say, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the fulness of the earth is His glory. It means this, and more than this.

II. The vision of God THE MESSAGE OF THE PROPHET. It is this vision which the prophet has to proclaim and to interpret to his fellowmen, not as an intellectual theory, but as an inspiration of life. The prophets teaching must be the translation of his experience. The Gospel of Christ Incarnate, the Gospel of the Holy Trinity in the terms of human life, covers every imaginable part of life to the end of time, and is new now as it has been new in all the past; as it will be new, new in its power and in its meaning, while the world lasts. True it is that such a vision of God–Creator, Redeemer, Sanctifier–entering into fellowship with the beings whom He has made, gathering up all things to Himself, making peace through the blood of the Cross, shows life to us, as Isaiah saw it, in a most solemn aspect: that it must fill us, as it filled Isaiah, with the sense of our immeasurable unworthiness in the face of Christs majesty and Christs love: that it must touch us also with something of a cleansing power. And because it is so we can take heart again. For such emotion, such purification of soul, is the beginning of abiding strength.

III. The vision of God THE CHASTENING OF THE PROPHET. In the fulfilment of our prophetic work we need more than we know the abasing and elevating influences which the vision of Isaiah and the thoughts which it suggests are fitted to create or deepen. In the stress of restless occupation we are tempted to leave too much out of sight the inevitable mysteries of life. We deal lightly with the greatest questions. We are peremptory in defining details of dogma beyond the teaching of Scripture. We are familiar beyond apostolic precedent in our approaches to God. We fashion heavenly things after the fashion of earth. In all these respects then for our strengthening and for our purifying, we must seek for ourselves aria strive to spread about us the sense of the awfulness of being, as those who have seen God at Bethlehem, Calvary, Olivet, and on the throne encircled by a rainbow as an emerald: the sense, vague and imperfect at the best, of the illimitable range of the courses and issues of action; the sense of the untold vastness of that life which we are bold to measure by our feeble powers; the sense of the majesty of Him before whom the angels veil their faces. If we are cast down by the meannesses, the sorrows, the sins of the world, it is because we dwell on some little part of which we see little; but let the thought of God in Christ come in, and we can rest in that holy splendour. At the same time let us not dare to confine at our will the action of the light. It is our own irreparable loss if in our conceptions of doctrine we gain clearness of definition by following out the human conditions of apprehending the Divine, and forget that every outline is the expression in terms of a lower order of that which is many-sided; if in our methods of devotion we single out the human nature of the Lord, or rather the manifestation of His unascended manhood, as the object of our thoughts, and forget that He leads us to the Father; if we rest in things visible and do not rather strive to read ever more clearly the spiritual lessons to which they point; if we concentrate our worship in isolated rites and fail to bear to the world of daily thought and action the teaching and the promises of sacraments. (B. F. Westcott, D. D.)

Uzziah and Isaiah: George III and John Wesley

The year in which King Uzziah died must have appeared a very noteworthy one to the Jewish contemporaries of Isaiah, most of whom, in all probability, regarded the death of one king and the accession of another as the most important events which occurred in it. Yet to us, who know that this was the year in which Isaiah was called to the prophetic office, these occurrences shrink into insignificance when compared with the last named fact, although that would take place without attracting the notice of any one besides the prophet himself . . . In the year 1738, on May 24 th, the prince was born who was afterwards known as George III. The event would soon be proclaimed all through England. On the evening of the same day, in a quiet meeting in Aldersgate Street, London, another event took place, known only to one man: John Wesley believed to the saving of the soul, and obtained assurance of sins forgiven. In a few years George III will become to all but a few a name, and nothing more; but John Wesley will become more illustrious, and the influence of his work will be more widely felt, as the ages roll on. (B. Hellier.)

The elevating presence of God

How well I remember when first I visited Switzerland that my bedroom window, perched in Les Avants, looked across the blue of the Lake of Geneva towards that noble line of snow-capped mountains that border its southern shore. It seemed for the brief fortnight that I lived there as though the spell of that mighty vision held me enthralled. I slept and awoke and wrote and conversed as one on whom a new dignity had fallen. Could I ever be mean or selfish in the presence of that mystery of purity and solemnity? This and much more shall be the temper of the soul which by the grace of the Holy Spirit has learnt habitually to recognise and cultivate the presence of God as revealed in Jesus Christ our Lord. (F. B. Meyer, B. A.)

Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER VI

This chapter, by a particular designation of Isaiah to the

prophetic office, 1-8,

introduces, with great solemnity, a declaration of the whole

tenor of the Diving conduct in reference to his people, who, on

account of their unbelief and impenitence, should for a very

long period be given up to a judicial blindness and hardness of

heart, 9, 10;

and visited with such calamities as would issue on the total

desolation of their country, and their general dispersion,

11, 12.

The prophet adds, however, that under their repeated

dispersions, (by the Chaldeans, Romans, c.,) a small remnant

would be preserved as a seed from which will be raised a

people, in whom will be fulfilled all the Divine promises, 13.

As this vision seems to contain a solemn designation of Isaiah to the prophetic office, it is by most interpreters thought to be the first in order of his prophecies. But this perhaps may not be so for Isaiah is said, in the general title of his prophecies, to have prophesied in the time of Uzziah, whose acts, first and last, he wrote, 2Ch 26:22; which is usually done by a contemporary prophet; and the phrase, in the year that Uzziah died, probably means after the death of Uzziah; as the same phrase (Isa 14:28) means after the death of Ahaz. Not that Isaiah’s prophecies are placed in exact order of time. Chapters ii., iii., iv., v., seem by internal marks to be antecedent to chap. i.; they suit the time of Uzziah, or the former part of Jotham’s reign; whereas chap. i. can hardly be earlier than the last years of Jotham. See note on Isa 1:7, and Isa 2:1. This might be a new designation, to introduce more solemnly a general dedication of the whole course of God’s dispensations in regard to his people and the fates of the nation; which are even now still depending, and will not be fully accomplished till the final restoration of Israel.

In this vision the ideas are taken in general from royal majesty, as displayed by the monarchs of the East; for the prophet could not represent the ineffable presence of God by any other than sensible and earthly images. The particular scenery of it is taken from the temple. God is represented as seated on his throne above the ark, in the most holy place, where the glory appeared above the cherubim, surrounded by his attendant ministers. This is called by God himself “the place of his throne, and the place of the soles of his feet,” Eze 43:7. “A glorious throne exalted of old, is the place of our sanctuary,” saith the prophet Jeremiah, Jer 17:12. The very posture of sitting is a mark of state and solemnity: Sed et ipsum verbum sedere regni significat potestatem, saith Jerome, Comment. in Eph 1:20. See note on Isa 3:2. St. John, who has taken many sublime images from the prophets of the Old Testament, and in particular from Isaiah, hath exhibited the same scenery, drawn out into a greater number of particulars; Re 4:1-11.

The veil, separating the most holy place from the holy or outermost part of the temple, is here supposed to be taken away; for the prophet, to whom the whole is exhibited, is manifestly placed by the altar of burnt-offering, at the entrance of the temple, (compare Eze 43:5-6,) which was filled with the train of the robe, the spreading and overflowing of the Divine glory. The Lord upon the throne, according to St. John (Joh 12:41,) was Christ; and the vision related to his future kingdom when the veil of separation was to be removed, and the whole earth was to be filled with the glory of God, revealed to all mankind: which is likewise implied in the hymn of the seraphim, the design of which is, saith Jerome on the place, Ut mysterium Trinitatis in una Divinitate demonstrent; et nequaquam templum Judaicum, sicut prius, sed omnem terram illius gloria plenam esse testentur; “That they may point out the mystery of the Trinity in one Godhead; and that the Jewish temple alone should not be, as formerly, the place of the Divine glory, for the whole earth should be filled with it.” It relates, indeed, primarily to the prophet’s own time, and the obduration of the Jews of that age, and their punishment by the Babylonish captivity; but extends in its full attitude to the age of Messiah, and the blindness of the Jews to the Gospel, (see Mt 13:14; Joh 12:40; Ac 28:26; Ro 11:8,) the desolation of their country by the Romans, and their being rejected by God. That nevertheless a holy seed-a remnant, should be preserved; and that the nation should spread out and flourish again from the old stock.-L.

NOTES ON CHAP. VI

Verse 1. The Lord] Fifty-one MSS. of Kennicott’s, and fifty-four of De Rossi’s, and one edition; in the 8th verse, forty-four MSS. of Kennicott’s, and forty-six of De Rossi’s, and one edition; and in the 11th verse thirty-three MSS. of Kennicott’s, and many of De Rossi’s, and one edition, for Adonai, “the Lord” read “JEHOVAH,” which is probably the true reading; (compare Isa 6:8😉 as in many other places, in which the superstition of the Jews has substituted Adonai for Yehovah. One of my own MSS., a very ancient and large folio, to which the points and the masora have been added by a later hand, has Yehovah in the 1st and 8th verses, in the teeth of the masora, which orders it in both places to be read Adonai.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

I saw in a vision or ecstasy. The Lord; either,

1. God the Son, who frequently appeared to the patriarchs and prophets, and that sometimes in the form of a man. Or rather,

2. The Divine Majesty as he subsisteth in three persons, as may be gathered both from the plural number us, used of this Lord, Isa 6:8, and comparing other scriptures; for God the Father is described as sitting upon a throne, Dan 7:9,13, and elsewhere; and the glory of God here manifested is said to be Christs glory, Joh 12:41, and the words of the Lord here following are said to be spoken by the Holy Ghost, Act 28:25. Sitting upon a throne, in the posture of a judge, to hear causes, and give sentence. Lifted up towards the roof of the temple.

His train; or, as the word properly signifies, and is here rendered by divers, the skirts or borders of him, or of it, to wit, his royal and judicial robe; for he is represented as a judge.

Filled the temple; his glorious robes reached down to the bottom of the temple, and were spread abroad in the temple, which was an evidence of a more than ordinary majesty. The temple may be here taken either,

1. Largely, and so it includes the courts as well as the house, as that word is oft used; or,

2. Strictly, for the house itself, or for that part of the temple in which this vision was exhibited, which may seem to have been the porch, for that was much higher than the other parts.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

1. In . . . year . . . UzziahdiedEither literal death, or civil when heceased as a leper to exercise his functions as king [Chaldee],(2Ch 26:19-21). 754B.C. [CALMET]758 (Common Chronology). This is not the first beginning ofIsaiah’s prophecies, but his inauguration to a higher degree of theprophetic office: Isa 6:9, c.,implies the tone of one who had already experience of the people’sobstinacy.

Lordhere Adonai,Jehovah in Isa 6:5 JesusChrist is meant as speaking in Isa6:10, according to Joh 12:41.Isaiah could only have “seen” the Son, not thedivine essence (Joh 1:18). Thewords in Isa 6:10 areattributed by Paul (Act 28:25;Act 28:26) to the Holy Ghost.Thus the Trinity in unity is implied; as also by the thrice “Holy”(Isa 6:3). Isaiah mentions therobes, temple, and seraphim, but not the form of God Himself.Whatever it was, it was different from the usual Shekinah: that wason the mercy seat, this on a throne; that a cloud and fire, of thisno form is specified: over that were the cherubim, over this theseraphim; that had no clothing, this had a flowing robe and train.

Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

In the year that King Uzziah died,…. Which was the fifty second year of his reign, and in the year 3246 from the creation of the world; and, according to Jerom l, was the year in which Romulus, the founder of the Roman empire, was born: some understand this not of his proper death, but of his being stricken with leprosy, upon his attempt to burn incense in the temple; upon which he was shut up in a separate house, which was a kind of a civil death: so the Targum,

“in the year in which King Uzziah was smitten;”

that is, with leprosy; and so Jarchi and others interpret it, from the ancient writers; but the first sense is the best. Some, as Aben Ezra, would have this to be the beginning of the prophecy of Isaiah, because of the mission of the prophet in it; but others rightly observe, that this mission respects not the prophecy in general, but the particular reproof the prophet was sent to give to the Jews herein mentioned. The title of this chapter, in the Arabic version, is remarkable; according to which, this chapter contains the vision which Isaiah, the son of Amos, saw three years, or, as others affirm, thirty years, after prophecy was taken from him. He had prophesied about ten years before this, in the reign of Uzziah; and only this vision was in the reign of Jotham; the next prophecy was delivered out in the reign of Ahaz, Isa 7:1 and others in the time of Hezekiah; and the date of this vision is only mentioned, to observe the order of the visions, agreeably to Isa 1:1 and moreover it may be observed from hence, that kings must die as well as others; but the King of kings ever lives, he is the living God, and the everlasting King, as follows:

I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; not God essentially considered, whose essence is not to be seen; but personally, Father, Son, and Spirit, for all the three Persons appear in this vision, Isa 6:3 particularly Christ, as, is clear from

Joh 12:41 who is the “Adonai”, or Lord; he is Lord of all, of all men, even of the greatest among them, and of all the angels in heaven, and of the church of God, by his Father’s gift, by his own purchase, in right of marriage, and through the conquest of his grace. This sight was not corporeal, but with the eyes of the understanding, in the vision of prophecy; and to have a sight of Christ as the Lord, and especially as our Lord, is very delightful and comfortable; for though he is a sovereign Lord, he is no tyrannical one, is very powerful to protect and defend, and has all fulness for supply; and particularly as “sitting upon a throne” as a king, for he having done his work as a priest, sits down on his throne as a king; and a lovely sight it is to see him enthroned at the right hand of the Majesty on high; and therefore is said to be “high and lifted up”; for this is to be understood not of his throne, as if that was high and lifted up in the highest heavens, as the Targum paraphrases it; but of himself, who is high and exalted above all creatures, as Aben Ezra observes; and this sense the accents determine for: the vision refers to the exaltation of Christ, after his humiliation here on earth; and to behold him crowned with glory and honour is very delightful, since he is exalted as our head and representative in our nature, and acts for us in this his exalted state; and we may be assured of being exalted also. It follows,

and his train filled the temple; either the material temple visionally seen, where his feet were, and his throne in heaven, as Jarchi interprets it; or heaven, as Kimchi, which is the Lord’s holy temple, where his throne is, Ps 11:4 or rather the human nature of Christ, the temple where the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily, and which the train of divine perfections fill; though it may be best of all to understand it of the church, the temple of the living God; and “his train” may denote the effects of Christ’s kingly and priestly offices, with which the Church was filled upon his exaltation; as the gifts and graces of his Spirit in an extraordinary manner on the day of Pentecost, and since in a more ordinary way; whereby men have been made ministers of the New Testament, and churches filled with them, and these made useful in filling the churches with members. The Targum is,

“and the temple was filled with the splendour of his glory;”

the “train” is the skirts, borders, or lower parts of the garments, in allusion to those of a king, or rather of the high priest, a type of Christ.

l Epist. Damaso, tom. 3. fol. 37. K.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

The time of the occurrence here described, viz., “the year that king Uzziah ( Uzyahu ) died,” was of importance to the prophet. The statement itself, in the naked form in which it is here introduced, is much more emphatic than if it commenced with “it came to pass” ( vay’hi ; cf., Exo 16:6; Pro 24:17). It was the year of Uzziah’s death, not the first year of Jotham’s reign; that is to say, Uzziah was still reigning, although his death was near at hand. If this is the sense in which the words are to be understood, then, even if the chapter before us contains an account of Isaiah’s first call, the heading to chapter 1, which dates the ministry of the prophet from the time of Uzziah, is quite correct, inasmuch as, although his public ministry under Uzziah was very short, this is properly to be included, not only on account of its own importance, but as inaugurating a new ear ( lit. “an epoch-making beginning”). But is it not stated in 2Ch 26:22, that Isaiah wrote a historical work embracing the whole of Uzziah’s reign? Unquestionably; but it by no means follows from this, that he commenced his ministry long before the death of Uzziah. If Isaiah received his call in the year that Uzziah died, this historical work contained a retrospective view of the life and times of Uzziah, the close of which coincided with the call of the prophetic author, which made a deep incision into the history of Israel. Uzziah reigned fifty-two years (809-758 b.c.). This lengthened period was just the same to the kingdom of Judah as the shorter age of Solomon to that of all Israel, viz., a time of vigorous and prosperous peace, in which the nation was completely overwhelmed with manifestations of divine love. But the riches of divine goodness had no more influence upon it, than the troubles through which it had passed before. And now the eventful change took place in the relation between Israel and Jehovah, of which Isaiah was chosen to be the instrument before and above all other prophets. The year in which all this occurred was the year of Uzziah’s death. It was in this year that Israel as a people was given up to hardness of heart, and as a kingdom and country to devastation and annihilation by the imperial power of the world. How significant a fact, as Jerome observes in connection with this passage, that the year of Uzziah’s death should be the year in which Romulus was born; and that it was only a short time after the death of Uzziah (viz., 754 b.c. according to Varro’s chronology) that Rome itself was founded! The national glory of Israel died out with king Uzziah, and has never revived to this day.

In that year, says the prophet, “I saw the Lord of all sitting upon a high and exalted throne, and His borders filling the temple.” Isaiah saw, and that not when asleep and dreaming; but God gave him, when awake, an insight into the invisible world, by opening an inner sense for the supersensuous, whilst the action of the outer senses was suspended, and by condensing the supersensuous into a sensuous form, on account of the composite nature of man and the limits of his present state. This was the mode of revelation peculiar to an ecstatic vision ( , Eng. ver. “in a trance,” or , “in the spirit”). Isaiah is here carried up into heaven; for although in other instances it was undoubtedly the earthly temple which was presented to a prophet’s view in an ecstatic vision (Amo 9:1; Eze 8:3; Eze 10:4-5; cf., Act 22:17), yet here, as the description which follows clearly proves, the “high and exalted throne”

(Note: It is to this, and not to Adonai , as the Targum and apparently the accents imply, that the words “high and exalted” refer.)

is the heavenly antitype of the earthly throne which was formed by the ark of the covenant; and the “temple” ( hecal : lit., a spacious hall, the name given to the temple as the palace of God the King) is the temple in heaven, as in Psa 11:4; Psa 18:7; Psa 29:9, and many other passages. There the prophet sees the Sovereign Ruler, or, as we prefer to render the noun, which is formed from adan = dun , “ the Lord of all ” ( All-herrn , sovereign or absolute Lord), seated upon the throne, and in human form (Eze 1:26), as is proved by the robe with a train, whose flowing ends or borders ( fimibrae : shuilm , as in Exo 28:33-34) filled the hall. The Sept., Targum, Vulgate, etc., have dropped the figure of the robe and train, as too anthropomorphic. But John, in his Gospel, is bold enough to say that it was Jesus whose glory Isaiah saw (Joh 12:41). And truly so, for the incarnation of God is the truth embodied in all the scriptural anthropomorphisms, and the name of Jesus is the manifested mystery of the name Jehovah. The heavenly temple is that super-terrestrial place, which Jehovah transforms into heaven and a temple, by manifesting Himself there to angels and saints. But whilst He manifests His glory there, He is obliged also to veil it, because created beings are unable to bear it. But that which veils His glory is no less splendid, than that portion of it which is revealed. And this was the truth embodied for Isaiah in the long robe and train. He saw the Lord, and what more he saw was the all-filling robe of the indescribable One. As far as the eye of the seer could look at first, the ground was covered by this splendid robe. There was consequently no room for any one to stand. And the vision of the seraphim is in accordance with this.

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament

Isaiah’s Heavenly Vision.

B. C. 758.

1 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. 2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. 3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

The vision which Isaiah saw when he was, as is said of Samuel, established to be a prophet of the Lord (1 Sam. iii. 20), was intended, 1. To confirm his faith, that he might himself be abundantly satisfied of the truth of those things which should afterwards be made known to him. This God opened the communications of himself to him; but such visions needed not to be afterwards repeated upon every revelation. Thus God appeared at first as a God of glory to Abraham (Acts vii. 2), and to Moses, Exod. iii. 2. Ezekiel’s prophecies and St. John’s, begin with visions of the divine glory. 2. To work upon his affections, that he might be possessed with such a reverence of God as would both quicken him and fix him to his service. Those who are to teach others the knowledge of God ought to be well acquainted with him themselves.

The vision is dated, for the greater certainty of it. It was in the year that king Uzziah died, who had reigned, for the most part, as prosperously and well as any of the kings of Judah, and reigned very long, above fifty years. About the time that he died, Isaiah saw this vision of God upon a throne; for when the breath of princes goes forth, and they return to their earth, this is our comfort, that the Lord shall reign for ever,Psa 146:3; Psa 146:4; Psa 146:10. Israel’s king dies, but Israel’s God still lives. From the mortality of great and good men we should take occasion to look up with an eye of faith to the King eternal, immortal. King Uzziah died under a cloud, for he was shut up as a leper till the day of his death. As the lives of princes have their periods, so their glory is often eclipsed; but, as God is everliving, so his glory is everlasting. King Uzziah dies in an hospital, but the King of kings still sits upon his throne.

What the prophet here saw is revealed to us, that we, mixing faith with that revelation, may in it, as in a glass, behold the glory of the Lord; let us turn aside therefore, and see this great sight with humble reverence.

I. See God upon his throne, and that throne high and lifted up, not only above other thrones, as it transcends them, but over other thrones, as it rules and commands them. Isaiah saw not Jehovah–the essence of God (no man has seen that, or can see it), but Adonai–his dominion. He saw the Lord Jesus; so this vision is explained John xii. 41, that Isaiah now saw Christ’s glory and spoke of him, which is an incontestable proof of the divinity of our Saviour. He it is who when, after his resurrection, he sat down on the right hand of God, did but sit down where he was before, John xvii. 5. See the rest of the Eternal Mind: Isaiah saw the Lord sitting, Ps. xxix. 10. See the sovereignty of the Eternal Monarch: he sits upon a throne–a throne of glory, before which we must worship,–a throne of government, under which we must be subject,–and a throne of grace, to which we may come boldly. This throne is high, and lifted up above all competition and contradiction.

II. See his temple, his church on earth, filled with the manifestations of his glory. His throne being erected at the door of the temple (as princes sat in judgment at the gates), his train, the skirts of his robes, filled the temple, the whole world (for it is all God’s temple, and, as the heaven is his throne, so the earth is his footstool), or rather the church, which is filled enriched, and beautified with the tokens of God’s special presence.

III. See the bright and blessed attendants on his throne, in and by whom his glory is celebrated and his government served (v. 2): Above the throne, as it were hovering about it, or nigh to the throne, bowing before it, with an eye to it, the seraphim stood, the holy angels, who are called seraphim-burners; for he makes his ministers a flaming fire, Ps. civ. 4. They burn in love to God, and zeal for his glory and against sin, and he makes use of them as instruments of his wrath when he is a consuming fire to his enemies. Whether they were only two or four, or (as I rather think) an innumerable company of angels, that Isaiah saw, is uncertain; see Dan. vii. 10. Note, It is the glory of the angels that they are seraphim, have heat proportionable to their light, have abundance, not only of divine knowledge, but of holy love. Special notice is taken of their wings (and of no other part of their appearance), because of the use they made of them, which is designed for instruction to us. They had each of them six wings, not stretched upwards (as those whom Ezekiel saw, ch. i. 11), but, 1. Four were made use of for a covering, as the wings of a fowl, sitting, are; with the two upper wings, next to the head, they covered their faces, and with the two lowest wings they covered their feet, or lower parts. This bespeaks their great humility and reverence in their attendance upon God, for he is greatly feared in the assembly of those saints, Ps. lxxxix. 7. They not only cover their feet, those members of the body which are less honourable (1 Cor. xii. 23), but even their faces. Though angel’s faces, doubtless, are much fairer than those of the children of men (Acts vi. 15), yet in the presence of God, they cover them, because they cannot bear the dazzling lustre of the divine glory, and because, being conscious of an infinite distance from the divine perfection, they are ashamed to show their faces before the holy God, who charges even his angels with folly if they should offer to vie with him, Job iv. 18. If angels be thus reverent in their attendance on God, with what godly fear should we approach his throne! Else we do not the will of God as the angels do it. Yet Moses, when he went into the mount with God, took the veil from off his face. See 2 Cor. iii. 18. 2. Two were made use of for flight; when they are sent on God’s errands they fly swiftly (Dan. ix. 21), more swiftly with their own wings than if they flew on the wings of the wind. This teaches us to do the work of God with cheerfulness and expedition. Do angels come upon the wing from heaven to earth, to minister for our good, and shall not we soar upon the wing from earth to heaven, to share with them in their glory? Luke xx. 36.

IV. Hear the anthem, or song of praise, which the angels sing to the honour of him that sits on the throne, v. 3. Observe,

1. How this song was sung. With zeal and fervency–they cried aloud; and with unanimity–they cried to another, or one with another; they sang alternately, but in concert, and without the least jarring voice to interrupt the harmony.

2. What the song was; it is the same with that which is sung by the four living creatures, Rev. iv. 8. Note, Praising God always was, and will be to eternity, the work of heaven, and the constant employment of blessed spirits above, Ps. lxxxiv. 4. Note further, The church above is the same in its praises; there is no change of times or notes there. Two things the seraphim here give God the praise of:–

(1.) His infinite perfections in himself. Here is one of his most glorious titles praised: he is the Lord of hosts, of their hosts, of all hosts; and one of his most glorious attributes, his holiness, without which his being the Lord of hosts (or, as it is in the parallel place, Rev. iv. 8, the Lord God Almighty) could not be so much as it is the matter of our joy and praise; for power, without purity to guide it, would be a terror to mankind. None of all the divine attributes is so celebrated in scripture as this is. God’s power was spoken twice (Ps. lxii. 11), but his holiness thrice, Holy, holy, holy. This bespeaks, [1.] The zeal and fervency of the angels in praising God; they even want words to express themselves, and therefore repeat the same again. [2.] The particular pleasure they take in contemplating the holiness of God; this is a subject they love to dwell upon, to harp upon, and are loth to leave. [3.] The superlative excellency of God’s holiness, above that of the purest creatures. He is holy, thrice holy, infinitely holy, originally, perfectly, and eternally so. [4.] It may refer to the three person in the Godhead, Holy Father, Holy Son, and Holy Spirit (for it follows, v. 8, Who will go for us?) or perhaps to that which was, and is, and is to come; for that title of God’s honour is added to this song, Rev. iv. 8. Some make the angels here to applaud the equity of that sentence which God was now about to pronounce upon the Jewish nation. Herein he was, and is, and will be, holy; his ways are equal.

(2.) The manifestation of these to the children of men: The earth is full of his glory, the glory of his power and purity; for he is holy in all his works, Ps. cxlv. 17. The Jews thought the glory of God should be confined to their land; but it is here intimated that in the gospel times (which are pointed to in this chapter) the glory of God should fill all the earth, the glory of his holiness, which is indeed the glory of all his other attributes; this then filled the temple (v. 1), but, in the latter days, the earth shall be full of it.

V. Observe the marks and tokens of terror with which the temple was filled, upon this vision of the divine glory, v. 4. 1. The house was shaken; not only the door, but even the posts of the door, which were firmly fixed, moved at the voice of him that cried, at the voice of God, who called to judgment (Ps. l. 4), at the voice of the angel, who praised him. There are voices in heaven sufficient to drown all the noises of the many waters in this lower world, Psa 93:3; Psa 93:4. This violent concussion of the temple was an indication of God’s wrath and displeasure against the people for their sins; it was an earnest of the destruction of it and the city by the Babylonians first, and afterwards by the Romans; and it was designed to strike an awe upon us. Shall walls and posts tremble before God, and shall we not tremble? 2. The house was darkened; it was filled with smoke, which was as a cloud spread upon the face of his throne (Job xxvi. 9); we cannot take a full view of it, nor order our speech concerning it, by reason of darkness. In the temple above there will be no smoke, but everything will be seen clearly. There God dwells in light; here he makes darkness his pavilion, 2 Chron. vi. 1.

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary

Isaiah CHAPTER 6

A PROPHET’S CALL AND COMMISSION

Verse 1-5: A TRANSFORMING VISION

1. The vision is located “in the year that king Uzziah died”; whether before or after his death is not specifically stated – though Isaiah was definitely in the prophetic office before his death, (Isa 1:1).

2. In the midst of trying times, Isaiah was granted a glimpse of Judah’s Divine King – enthroned, exalted, glorious and adequate to meet her deepest need, (Rev 4:2-3; Rev 20:11; comp. Eph 3:20; Php_4:19).

3. Above him hovered the six-winged seraphims (burning ones) proclaiming, in antiphonal chant, or responsive song, the perfect holiness and earth-filling glory of “Jehovah of hosts” – the pre-incarnate Christ and covenant-God of Israel, (Joh 12:41; comp. Rev 4:8; Rev 5:9-13; Num 14:21; Hab 2:14; Psa 22:27).

4. At the sound of the angelic voices the doorposts of the temple trembled, and smoke (probably suggestive of divine displeasure against sin) filled the house, (comp. Exo 19:18; Isa 33:14; Deu 4:24; Heb 12:29).

5. This was truly a humbling and prostrating experience for Isaiah – the man of God, who identified himself with Judah and her sins, comp. (Neh 9:32-37; Dan 9:4-19) – the deep sin-consciousness resulting from his beholding “the king, the LORD of hosts”, (comp. Exo 33:22; Job 40:4-5; Job 42:5-6).

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary

1. In the year that king Uzziah died. This is usually the beginning of the sixth chapter; but some think that it is the beginning of the book itself, and that in collecting the prophecies of Isaiah an error was committed. The reason which they assign is, that the Prophet here declines the office of a teacher, which he would not have refused if he had hitherto discharged it; that he appears to be a mere novice as yet unacquainted with his calling; and besides, that he declares that he has now seen the Lord, and that he has not seen him, before. But such arguments I consider, as I have already noticed, to be too feeble and unsatisfactory; and I reply that it ought not to be thought strange that he was so completely overpowered by this extraordinary vision as to forget that he was a prophet. For there was no feeling in him which was not overpowered by the presence of God, so that, like one who had lost his senses, he willingly plunged himself in darkness, or rather, like one who despaired of life, he of his own accord chose to die. And it is necessary that the godly should be affected in this manner, when the Lord gives them tokens of his presence, that they may be brought low and utterly confounded. Besides, in the person of his servant God intended to strike his rebellious people with alarm; and therefore we need not wonder if he offers an apology for himself under the overwhelming influence of fear, and likewise because he had not felt the weight of his office, as he now felt it, after having beheld an illustrious display of the majesty of God.

But why was not this vision exhibited to him at the beginning? I answer, it was necessary in regard to the time, that he might be more and more confirmed in the discharge of his office. We have an instance of this in the Apostles themselves; for at first they were sent out with an injunction not to pass beyond the limits of Judea, (Mat 10:5😉 but after that Christ had risen, he again set them apart in a new and solemn manner, breathed on them, bidding them receive the Holy Ghost, (Joh 20:21😉 and not only so, but sending his Spirit from heaven in the forms of tongues of fire, invested them with extraordinary power. (Act 2:3.) Thus, on account of the various changes of times and of kings, it was necessary that Isaiah should be encouraged and again attested by a new vision; that he might be excited to perseverance, and might afterwards proceed with greater cheerfulness in his course; and also that the Jews might perceive his ministry to be supported by heavenly authority.

This appears to me to be a sufficient reason why this vision was not exhibited to him at the very beginning, but after that he had for some time discharged the office of a teacher. That this was not the beginning of the prophecy is evident enough from the consideration that the preface, which we have already examined, is much better adapted for the commencement, and more appropriate than what is contained in this chapter; and every approach having been shut up by the hard-hearted obstinacy of the people, it was proper that he should burst forth in this vehement manner. Besides, it is probable that he had long performed the office of a teacher under King Uzziah, who, I think, was dead before this prediction was published. In short, the Prophet means that it was not till he had commenced his course that God appeared to him.

Some think that death here means leprosy, which undoubtedly was a civil death, when the king was compelled to withdraw from the society of men, and to lay down the reins of government, (2Kg 15:5😉 but I choose rather to take death in its literal sense. So then, I think that Isaiah uttered the former predictions during the reign of Uzziah, even after he had been struck with leprosy; and that when he had died, and Jotham had succeeded him, this vision was presented to Isaiah. We know what various commotions are produced by a change of kings, so that we need not wonder that Isaiah had his calling again sealed. But the prophecy itself, which follows, will sufficiently show that he had been a public teacher for some time before he saw the Lord; for it relates that the blinding of the people, whose obstinacy he had experienced to such an extent that he might have been induced to cease from his undertaking, for he saw that he was doing no good. The Lord, therefore, confirms him by this vision, that the opposition may not prevent him from boldly discharging his office, and performing what he undertook at the commandment of God.

I saw the Lord It is asked, How could Isaiah see God who is a Spirit, (Joh 4:24,) and, therefore, cannot be seen with bodily eyes? Nay, more, since the understandings of men cannot rise to his boundless height, how can he be seen in a visible shape? But we ought to be aware that, when God exhibited himself to the view of the Fathers, he never appeared such as he actually is, but such as the capacity of men could receive. Though men may be said to creep on the ground, or at least dwell far below the heavens, there is no absurdity in supposing that God comes down to them in such a manner as to cause some kind of mirror to reflect the rays of his glory. There was, therefore, exhibited to Isaiah such a form as enabled him, according to his capacity, to perceive the inconceivable majesty of God; and thus he attributes to God a throne, a robe, and a bodily appearance.

Hence we learn a profitable doctrine, that whenever God grants any token of his presence, he is undoubtedly present with us, for he does not amuse us by unmeaning shapes, as men wickedly disfigure him by their contrivances. since, therefore, that exhibition was no deceitful representation of the presence of God, Isaiah justly declares that he saw him. In like manner, when it is said that John

saw the Holy Spirit in the shape of a dove, (Joh 1:32)

the name of the Holy Spirit is applied to the outward sign, because in the representation there was no deception; and yet he did not see the essence of the Spirit, but had a clear and undoubted proof, so that he could not doubt that the Spirit of God rested on Christ.

Secondly, it is asked, Who was that Lord? John tells us that it was Christ, (Joh 12:41,) and justly, for God never revealed himself to the Fathers but in his eternal Word and only begotten Son. Yet it is wrong, I think, to limit this, as some do, to the person of Christ; for it is indefinitely, on the contrary, that the Prophet calls him God. Nor do their views derive any support from the word אדוני, ( adonai,) which seems particularly to apply to Christ; for it is often applied to God in an absolute and unrestricted manner. In this passage, therefore, God is mentioned indefinitely, and yet it is correctly said that Isaiah saw the glory of Christ, for at that very time he was the image of the invisible God. (Col 1:15.)

Sitting upon a throne. He could not have given a better description of God, in regard to place, than in the person of a Judge, that his majesty might strike greater terror into the Jews; for we shall afterwards see the dreadful judgment which the Lord pronounced from his judgment-seat. But lest we should suppose that the Prophet contrived the manner in which he would paint God, we ought to know that he faithfully describes the very form in which God was represented and exhibited to him. It may be questioned whether the Prophet was conducted into the temple, or saw this vision while he was asleep. Though many things are frequently adduced on both sides, which are fitted to leave the matter in doubt, yet it may be conjectured with some probability, that even if he had not been within the temple, this vision might have been presented to him, either in his own house or on a field, in the same manner as to other prophets.

And his remotest parts filled the temple. (92) Almost all the commentators understand by this the fringes of his robe, though it may be understood to refer to the extremities of the judgment-seat, giving us to understand that its dimensions were so vast as to extend to every part of the temple. He intends to ascribe to God a venerable aspect, and far beyond any human form. There is great weight in the circumstance that he appeared in the temple; for he had promised that he would meet with his people there, and the people expected his answers from that place, as Solomon had expressly stated at the dedication of it. (1Kg 8:30.) In order, therefore, that the people might understand that those things came from God, on whom they called every day, and on whom they relied with a vain confidence which puffed them up, this vision was exhibited to the Prophet in the temple. To the certainty of what was said it contributed not a little, that he openly proclaimed that the discourse was not pronounced to him by any mortal man, but was a heavenly oracle, uttered by that God whose name they were accustomed disdainfully to hold out as a pretense, whenever they wished to make any extravagant claims; for otherwise this prophecy would have been harsh and repulsive, and needed great confirmation. It was also not uncommon with the Prophets to say that the Lord spake to them from his temple, or from his sanctuary

(92) And his train filled the temple. [ Or, the skirts thereof. ] — Eng. Ver. And the train of his robe filled the temple. — Lowth. And his flowing train filled the temple. — Stock. That author adds in a note: “I add the epithet flowing, to distinguish the train of a robe from what the English word equally imports, a train of attendants; and שול is from של to loosen, to flow loosely.” — Ed

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary

THE SERVICE OF THE SERAPHIM

Isa. 6:1-2; Isa. 6:5-7. I saw also the Lord, &c.

In that perfect prayer which our Lord bequeathed to His disciples we are taught to ask that Gods will may be done in earth as it is done in heaven. Thus angelic service is set before us as a model and pattern. Not that the services we are called upon to render are the same with those assigned to angels. Their sphere is heaven, ours for the present is the earth; and each of these spheres has its distinct and peculiar duties, appropriate to the nature and faculties of its occupants. But the spirit in which the employments of angels and men should be prosecuted is the same. One common sentimentthe sentiment of adoration and devotednessshould animate and govern them all. Hence the passage before us, although containing a record of the transactions of another sphere, contains a lesson, if not respecting the nature of our duties, yet respecting the method in which we should seek to fulfil them.

I. The twofold life of a servant of God, whether human or angelic, is here very beautifully exhibited to us. The seraphim are represented as veiling their faces and feet with their wings while they stand in adoration before the throne of God. But although engaged in ceaselessly adoring the Divine perfections, they do not lead a life of barren contemplation. The words, with twain he did fly, intimate to us that they are also engaged in the active execution of those errands with which God has charged them. The Christians life, like that of the seraphim, branches out into the two great divisions of contemplative devotion and active exertion. It is the life of Mary combined with that of Martha (P. D. 2417).

1. The devotional branch of the Christians life. In the exercises of the closet and of the sanctuary are to be found the springs of the Christians exertions in his Masters cause. These exercises are not originating sources of grace, but they are channels and vehicles through which Gods Spirit conveys Himself to the soulpitchers in which may be drawn up the waters of the River of Life to refresh and recruit the energies of him whom a painful resistance to evil within and without has rendered weary and faint in his mind (H. E. I. 3426, 4107, 4108, and 34383448). If devotion be essential to the perfection of a seraphs service, how much more essential must it be to ours, our necessities being so immensely greater than those of the bright inhabitants of heaven! The exigencies of our time make devotion especially needful now. The present is emphatically a period of the worlds history in which many run to and fro, and knowledge is increased. Moreover, there is a revival of outward energy and activity in the cause of religion. This is a blessing. But remember, days of excitement are not days of deep devotion. There may be much of rapid movement abroad in the world without a corresponding adoration of God in the secret chamber of the heartmuch of flying without veiling of the face [1303]

[1303] If this be the case with any of us, if, with the busy occupation of the hands in the furtherance of religious objects, we have allowed the inward life of communion with God to decline, how painfully do we resemble those virgins who took no heed to provide for their dying lamps a continual supply of oil! The profession which we have made before men, however bright its blaze, will one day be shown to have been delusiveto have been destitute of those animating principles of faith and love from which alone can flow an acceptable service.Goulburn.

2. The outward manifestation of the Christian life discernible by the world. Care must be taken not only that the lamp shall be filled with oil, but that there shall be a light shining before men (Mat. 5:16; H. E. I. 1042, 1044, 3906). The seraphim are not so wrapt up in adoration of God that they are forgetful of active service. With twain they did fly for the execution of the errands on which they were commissioned.

Here is a reproof of the monastic principle, that seclusion from the society of our fellow-men and from the active duties of life is necessary in order to secure an uninterrupted period of leisure for solitary spiritual exercises. Undue predominance is thus given to one branch of Gods service, to the prejudice and neglect of the other and no less important branch. Exercise as well as nourishment and repose is essential to the health of the body, and so toil in the vineyardearnest endeavour to advance the kingdom of God in our own hearts and the hearts of othersis no less essential to the health of the soul. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; but for what purpose? That they may walk in good works, and run with patience the race that is set before them (chap. Isa. 40:31; H. E. I. 17361742).

II. Some practical lessons concerning the maintenance and manifestation of the twofold Christian life.

1. A lesson as to the spirit which should pervade all devotion. These bright and glorious beings are without sin. Still, such is their sense of the infinite distance between themselves and their Creator, that they veil their faces and their feet before His throne in token of adoring reverence. The first and most essential element of devotion is a feeling of deep awe flowing from a sense of Gods transcendent excellences and leading to profound self-abasement (H. E. I. 3798, 3799, 5074). If reverence was befitting in the seraphim, how much more is it necessary in sinful men! (Luk. 18:13; Ezr. 9:6).

The vision of God wrought in Isaiah a feeling almost akin to despair. It seemed to him as if the perfect holiness of God was engaged to banish for ever every creature possessing the slightest taint of moral evil (Isa. 6:5). In Isa. 6:6-7 we have the glorious remedy. What is the significance of the symbols? By the work of the Son of God a mighty Altar of Propitiation has been reared up, and thence there comes to the penitent sinner cleansing as well as pardon. The live coal is an emblem of that love and zeal in Gods service with which the Holy Spirit imbues the souls of those who flee to the Altar of Atonement as their only refuge from the wrath to come. A participation in that Spirits influence is absolutely essential to our true participation in the chorus of the angelic host (H. E. I. 2887).

2. A few words on that active service which is the outward manifestation of the principles nourished by devotion.

(1.) We must prepare for it by the care and culture of our own heart [1306]

(2.) There is also an outward work which God has made binding on all of us. He has assigned to each of us a certain position in life. Every such position involves its peculiar responsibilities, snares, and occupations. The responsibilities must be cheerfully and manfully met, the occupations diligently fulfilled, as a piece of taskwork allotted to us by the Lord of the vineyard (Eph. 6:7). Besides, God has intrusted to us, in various measures, substance, time, abilities, influence, and these we are diligently to use for the promotion of the cause of God in the world. In our busy path through life, which brings us in contact with so many individuals, opportunities are ever and anon presented to us of being useful to our fellow-men; and to watch for, seize, and improve such opportunities is not the least important of these branches of active service (P. D. 40, 3567, 3569).

[1306] God requires us to set a strict watch over its outgoingsa watch such as sentinels keep over the persons and goods which pass out of a city whose allegiance to the sovereign is suspectedto curb and quell at its earliest outbreak every rising of vanity, temper, bitterness, passion, and justto drag forth from its dark recesses and to slay every cherished iniquity which has found there a harbour and a hiding-place. Our own heart is a vineyard over which God hath set every one of us to dress it and to keep it. We are to extirpate the soils poisonous produce, and to implore upon the soil of this vineyard the precious dews of the Divine Spirit, which may remedy its native barrenness and turn it from a desert into the garden of the Lord.Goulburn. See also H. E. I. 1841, 1 42, 26952708.

CONCLUSION.

1. It is not the intrinsic dignity of our duties, nor the large result of our fulfilment of them, which renders the diligent performance of them an acceptable work in Gods eyes. The great design of our being placed in this world is not that we may do some signal service, or large amount of service, to our Creator, but rather that we may execute the service (be it great or small) allotted to us in a spirit of fidelity, zeal, and love. The spirit which is thrown into and pervades the work is everythingthe work itself (comparatively) nothing. Be the sphere what it may which Divine Providence has assigned us, let the duties of it be executed in a seraphic spirit (P. D. 1484).
2. We have overwhelming motives, if we did but rightly appreciate them, to devotedness of our every faculty to the service of our God. The redeemed sinner owes to God far more of allegiance than the angel who has retained his integrity. Angels no such Fall have known, angels no such Love have known, as we.E. M. Goulburn, D.C.L.: Sermons, pp. 7799,

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

THE TRINITY IN UNITY
(For Trinity Sunday.)

Isa. 6:1-3. In the year that King Uzziah died, &c.

Scene of this sublime vision, the Temple; time, the year that King Uzziah died. Why is this fact mentioned? Uzziah had profaned the Temple (2Ch. 26:16-21); his son and successor was Jotham, the only king of the house of Judah whose character has not one dishonouring blot; was it not appropriate that, when the disobedient king was removed, and a king who honoured God and His house had succeeded him, there should have been this glorious revelation of the King of kingsnot merely as a preparation of the prophet for his mission, but as an encouragement to the monarch to persevere in his loyalty towards God and His truth?

That which was granted to the prophet was a vision of the Triune God. Proofs: Isa. 6:3, which shows the plurality of persons in the Divine unity; Joh. 12:41, where it is asserted that that which the prophet saw was the glory of Christ; Act. 28:25, where it is asserted that the voice which the prophet heard was the voice of the Holy Ghost; Isa. 6:3, the threefold repetition of holy. I purpose, therefore, to make some observations on this important subject of the Trinity.

I. The doctrine of the Trinity has been believed by the Church of Christ in all ages. This is at least a presumption that it is taught in Scripture, successive generations of devout men could scarcely have been mistaken on such a vital point.

II. This doctrine of the Trinity underlies the whole Bible, and is inextricably interwoven with its fabric and structure. The Old Testament testifies to the Divine unity, as contrasted with the polytheism which prevailed among heathen nations; the Gospels record the manifestation of the Incarnate Son of God; the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles set forth the work of the Third Person in the Church. There is direct testimony to this doctrine, such as Mat. 28:19, 2Co. 13:14. But just as circumstantial evidence when it is clear and complete is even more satisfactory and decisive than the very best direct testimony, still more valuable is the indirect testimony to this doctrine underlying the whole Bible; like a threefold cord, it runs through the whole book, and binds the whole of Divine revelation together.

III. This doctrine of the Trinity, while it is clearly taught in Scripture, is mysterious and inexplicable. We can no more comprehend it with the unaided human understanding than by uplifting the fingers we can touch the starry firmament [694] This is no reason for refusing to accept it [697] for we accept many other facts which we cannot explain (we cannot explain even the familiar fact of sight), but it is a reason for not insisting dogmatically that other men should accept our explanations of it.

[694] See Article: THE TRINITY, in my Homiletic Encyclopdia of illustrations, and section 1501 in my Dictionary of Poetical Illustrations.

[697] See Article: THE TRINITY, in my Homiletic Encyclopdia of illustrations, and section 1501 in my Dictionary of Poetical Illustrations.

As we cannot stay to consider the effect of this vision upon the mind of the prophet, I shall conclude with just three words of practical application of the doctrine itself.

1. It is bound up with our duty to God. We are bound to accept it, because He has revealed it; and accepting it, we are bound to yield to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost the homage and love of our souls.

2. It is bound up with our hope of salvation. If it is not true that the Everlasting Son came forth from the bosom of the Father, and took upon Him to deliver man; and if it is not true that the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son raises men from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, and restamps upon their souls the lost lineaments of our Makers image, what foundation is there left for our hope of everlasting life?

3. It is bound up with the fulness of the Gospel blessings. These are all summed up in the Apostolic benediction, 2Co. 13:14. If these be ours, we have all and abound.R. W. Forrest (Christian World Pulpit, i. 492).

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

REVELATIONS OF GOD

Isa. 6:1-5. In the year that King Uzziah died I saw, &c. [700]

[700] The scene of the Vision is the Temple, and its features will have been the same whether we suppose them to have risen before Isaiahs imagination while he was absent from the spot, in the solitude of his chamber or his house-top, or assume (as I myself prefer to do), that he was actually praying in the Temple at the time.

Though it is unlikely that any of the successors to what was but a small remnant of Solomons kingdom perfectly restored the Temple after it was deprived of its original splendour by Shishak in the reign of Rehoboam, yet we see the worthier princes from time to time repairing the structure when it had been suffered to fall into decay, and replacing, as far as they could, the treasures and the costly decorations of which it was repeatedly despoiled to buy off foreign invaders; and probably there was no period in which the restoration would be more complete than in the reign of Uzziah, who in his power, wealth, and magnificence, came nearer than any other to Solomon. And there will be much more of fact than of fancy in the picture, if, for the clearer understanding of the scene of this vision, we figure to ourselves the youthful prophet in his rough hair or woollen garment (probably not unlike that of the Capuchin friar as we now see him in the streets or churches of Rome), going up to the Temple to worship;and if we look with him at the Temple as, at the end of 300 years from its building, it must have presented itself to his eyes, with its ample courts, and colonnades, and porch, and its holy house, and holy of holies, well-proportioned, and of the most elaborate workmanship, though rather massive than large according to our notions. As he crossed the variegated pavement of the great court of the congregation, and stoppedfor we have no reason to suppose him a Leviteat the entrance to the inner, or priests court, on each hand would rise one of the tall pillars which Solomon set up in token that the kingdom was constituted by Jehovah, and would be upheld by His might (1Ki. 7:21; 2Ch. 3:17), and which, once of bright brass, but now mellowed into bronze, had their square capitals richly wreathed with molten lilies, chain-work, and pomegranates; before him, resting on the back of the twelve oxen, and cast like them in brass, would appear the molten sea, a basin of thirty cubits in circumference, and containing two or three thousand baths of water, its, brim wrought like the brim of a cup with flowers of lilies, and under these a double row of ornamental knobs; while on each side stood five smaller lavers, the bases of which rested on wheels, and were most elaborately ornamented with oxen, lions, cherubims, and palm-trees engraved upon them; and beyond these again he would see the great brazen altar of burnt-offering, with its never-extinguished fire; and overhead the roof of thick cedar beams resting on rows of columns. These were the courts of the palace of the divine King of Israel, for the reception of His subjects and His ministers.[Compare the description of Solomons own house, which besides its inner porch had another where he sat to judge the people, 1Ki. 7:7. The arrangement of the Temple is plainly that of a palace.] The house itself again consisted of two parts, the outer of which, the holy place, was accessible to those priests who were in immediate attendance on their unseen Sovereign, while the inner, or holiest place, was the very presence-chamber of the Monarch who dwelt between the cherubims, which spread their golden wings over the ark containing the covenant He had vouchsafed to enter into with His people, and itself forming a mercy-seat, where was the place of His throne and the place of the sole of His feet. In the position which I have, following the requirements of the narrative in the chapter before us, supposed Isaiah to be placed, he would see through the open folding-doors of cypress, carved with cherubims, and palm-trees, and open flowers, and covered with gold upon the carved work, into the holy place, which he could not enter; and the light of the golden lamps on either side would show him the cedar panelling of the walls, carved with knobs and open flowers, with cherubims and palm-trees, festooned with chain-work, and richly gilt; the mosaics of precious stone; the cypress floor; the altar of incense; the table with the shew-bread; the censers, tongs, and other furniture of pure and perfect gold; and before the doorway at the further end, and not concealed by the open leaves of the olive-wood doors (carved and gilded like the others), would be distinguishable the folds of the vail of blue, and purple, and crimson, and fine linen, embroidered with cherubims. In the East the closed vail, or purdah, declares the presence and secures the privacy of the monarch, into which no man may intrude and live; and in the Temple at Jerusalem it was the symbol of the awful presence and unapproachable majesty of the King Jehovah, Lord of hosts. Perhaps on this occasion, or certainly on many others, Isaiah had been joining in the public daily sacrifice and worship and had afterwards brought his own free-will offeringa bullock or a lamb without blemish. Such an offering, the symbol of his dedication of himself to Jehovahs service, would be the natural expression of his earnest desire for some token that at last it was permitted him to enter on the actual functions of the prophetic office for which he had been so long preparing; and that this vision was the answer to such beautiful prayerful desireitself an inspiration from on highwe may well believe.Strachey.

I. Earthly powers fade and perish, but the Eternal Power that uses them all lives on (Isa. 6:1). Comfort here, when a great king or statesman is taken away from the head of a nation; when a great leader of an arduous reformatory movement, such as Luther, is laid low; when an eloquent preacher or wise pastor is summoned to his rest; or even when the head of a household is cut off just when his family most need his care. He who has wrought by their instrumentality can work without it (Psa. 68:5, &c.)

II. In Gods temples there is room only for God. His train filled the Temple. Ahaz could build in the courts of the Lords house an altar to the god of Damascus (2Ki. 16:10-16), but he could not worship two gods there, for the only living and true God departed when His sanctuary was thus profaned. God will have all, or none (Isa. 42:8). All His earthly temples must be counterparts of the one heavenly temple, where He reigns alone. In no church will God divide His empire with the State or with popular opinion: we must choose between Him and all other authorities. In no heart will He reign along with any other principle or passion (Mat. 6:24.)

III. Until we reach the land where there is no temple, we cannot see God as He is [703] To Isaiah a vision of God was granted, and yet it was but a symbolic vision. He saw a throne, and on it seated? Being of indescribable majesty; but who imagines that he saw God as He is? Does God sit on a throne, after the fashion of kings, such as Uzziah, who fade and die? The vision was a condescension to the human faculties of the seer, and served its purpose, that of impressing upon him the majesty and holiness of the Most High. And he tells us more of the ministers who surround the throne than of its Occupant! Him no words can describe; of Him no absolute disclosure is now possible; He can but give us revelationsvisionsadministrations of Himself. And this He has done.

1. In nature. The purpose of the manifold and wondrous universe is not accomplished if we look only at the creation, and do not discern in it veils not thickly hiding, but helping to re veal the Creator (Rom. 1:19-20) [706]

2. In Providence. The manner in which the world is governed is, to the man who studies it comprehensively, earnestly, and reverently, a revelation of the character of the Ruler.

3. In His Word. That man miserably mistakes, who studies the Bible as anything less than a many-sided disclosure of God.

4. In Christ [709] a familiar thought this, yet how seldom do we enter into its depths! We do not worship an un known God, yet we cannot see Him as He is until we have entered into that light which is inaccessible and which no mortal can approach unto, until we have been ourselves trans formed into children of Kght, and so rendered capable of looking on the Father of lights.

[703] See my Dictionary of Poetical Illustrations, No. 1501; and my Homiletic Encyclopdia of Illustrations, Nos. 22292240.

[706] D. P. I., 1489, 1493, 1496, 1502, 15041506, 1508, 1509, 1511, 1514, 1519, 1526, 2545, 2552, 2563; H. E. I., 2242.
[709] H. E. I., 854857, 2241, 2243.

IV. Those to whom He reveals Himself most fully are most humble, and those whom He most exalts are most ready to serve. We have both these truths illustrated in the seraphim and in Isaiah.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

ISAIAHS VISION

Isa. 6:1-7. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord, &c. [712]

[712] God is invisible; yet in that heavenly world in which He has His special and eternal residence He manifests Himself in ineffable glory, dwelling in what the Scriptures call the light which no man can approach unto. Of that heavenly world, the tabernacle and temple were splendid emblems; they were patterns of heavenly things. But why the astonishing fact, that when sinful creatures erected a tent in the wilderness, and a temple subsequently at Jerusalem, the visible glory of God descended, taking possession of the place? God thus came down from heaven to earth, with all these impressive circumstances of visible majesty, to teach His creatures that He was awfully glorious, and fearful even in His praises; that even in His acts of grace His holiness is solemnly declared; and thus to show with what reverence and purity man ought to approach to Him. So when Isaiah was to be appointed to an office in which he was to fear God, and not the face of man, and which, to give it weight and authority, required an entire sanctity, a scene similar to that which had been displayed in the temple at its consecration, but greatly heightened and magnified, was disclosed to him in vision. The space of this visionary temple appears to have been far more ample than that of the one at Jerusalem; the throne was greatly elevated, it was high, and lifted up; the train, the skirts (as in the margin) of the cloud of the Divine presence filled the whole place; instead of the carved representations of the cherubim of glory fixed on the mercy-seat, the prophet beholds the cherubim themselves, living, and all ardour, activity, and adoration; they are not represented in the vision as the cherubim in the holiest of all, silently gazing on the glory of God and the mysteries of His covenant, but as hymning His praises, proclaiming His spotless purity, and declaring the whole earth to be full of His glory. The prophet, beholding the wondrous scene, sinks oppressed and self-abhorred, until a coal from the altar touches his lips, and he is thus sanctified to the service of God, and put among His ministers.Watson.

Behold, in these temple scenes, both what the Lord your God is, and what He requires from you.

I. The first of these temple scenes presents to our view the majesty of God: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high, and lifted up. One of the first and most important truths for us to learn is the absolute rule of Godover nature, man, the principalities of heaven. Mark the scenic circumstances. He sitteth upon His throne: this is the attitude,

1. Of supremacy and dignity; He sitteth while all other beings stand before Him to receive His commands, bow in adoration, or are prostrate in abasement.

2. It is the attitude of ease and perfect security [715] But, above all, mark the place of His throne as displayed in this wonderful vision. It stands in the temple; it has been sprinkled with the blood of propitiation; it is now the mercy-seat. To the truly penitent all its terror appears softened with grace.

[715] No rebellions shake the throne of God; though the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing, yet He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision. The throne of God is a rock in the midst of the ever-rolling ocean of created existence, that heaves and swells with ceaseless change; but, in comparison of Him, its mightiest billows have but their moment of existence, and sink into the mass at the base of the immovable throne of the Everlasting One.Watson.

II. The second of these temple scenes displays to us the ineffable and incomprehensible nature of God. Let not man suppose that he can by searching find out God, or know the Almighty unto perfection. This is scenically, but most impressively, represented to us in the vision before us: His trainthe skirts of the shekinahfilled the temple, its fainter rays beaming from the central blaze in the holiest of all, and irradiating the more distant objects. But even that was too much for man, and it is therefore added, And the house was filled with smoke; a veil was thus drawn over what was too bright and dazzling for mortal vision; and though God dwelt in the light, yet it was light involving itself in thick darkness (Psa. 97:2; Exo. 16:10). Revelation has not superseded mystery (Job. 26:14). As to His dispensations, we are all still to walk by faith rather than by sight; and as to the depths of His nature, rather to adore than reason. An infinite being is necessarily incomprehensible by finite beings [718] He must be mysterious. If we could fully know God, we must either be equal to Him, or He must lose the glory of His nature and come down to ourselves (1Co. 13:9; Rom. 11:33).

[718] An observer on a mountain-cliff may be able to survey the whole circumference of a lake that lies beneath him, but no man can see the whole of the ocean, simply because it is the ocean, and not a lake.Watson.

III. The third view presented by this vision is that of the adorable and awful holiness of God (Isa. 6:3). This is seen in His titles (Psa. 71:22; Deu. 32:4); in His acts; in His law; in His visible image on earth, His Son incarnate; in His Gospel; in His judgments; in the reward of the righteous.

IV. In the next scene which the vision presents we behold a sinful man convicted and laid prostrate before this holy God (Isa. 6:5).

V. In the final scene we behold a convicted, self-abased, and penitent man pardoned and consecrated to the service of God (Isa. 6:6-7). What are we taught by this wondrous representation? That for guilty man there is pardon, that for unholy men there is purification, and that lips, once unclean, but now sanctified, may join in the hymns of seraphim, and, without dread, approach to God, and celebrate the glories even of His holiness. This we are taught, but not this only; not merely is the fact, but the manner of it, brought before us. See, then, the means. The instrument of purification is fire; but not any kind of fire, fire from any place; it is fire from the altar, the altar where atonement is made for sin; fire, therefore, both of divine origin, and coming to us through the great Propitiation. We can be at no loss for an interpretation of the symbols thus employed. Our altar is the cross; the propitiatory sacrifice, the spotless Lamb of God; by the merit of His death, and the baptizing fire of His Spirit, are the guilty and polluted pardoned and sanctified to God.Richard Watson: Works, vol. iv. pp. 143153.

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

THE PROPHETS CALL

Isa. 6:1-13. In the year that King Uzziah died, &c.

We have here the history of Isaiahs call to his great life-work. Perhaps in a modern biography this chapter would have been placed first. But there was wisdom in placing it where it stands; it was well to give us some insight into the real character of the men among whom Isaiah was called to labour, for thus we are enabled more easily to understand the nature of the mission on which he was sent [688] Studying this chapter as a history of the prophets call, I learn

[688] This vision evidently contains the designation of Isaiah to his work as a prophet. It does not follow that he may not himself have put his book together in the form, or nearly in the form, in which we have received it. The early chapters as they describe the state of the people, not at one particular moment but through a course of years, announcing the punishments which must follow from that state with the blessings which could come out of them, are a living index to the subsequent prophecies and history. The place which they occupy, supposing it was assigned by Isaiah, cannot hinder us from accepting his own express words as a proof, that the year in which King Uzziah died was the critical year of his life, that which explained to him why he was sent into the world and what task he had to perform in it.F. D. Maurice.

I. That a threefold spiritual preparation is needed for effective service of God [691] It is generally admitted that some kind of preparation is needed, e.g., for the ministry of the Gospel; but it is not generally recognised that a merely professional preparation is of no avail whatever. A man may pass through the whole routine of college life, both literary and theological, and yet not be a prophet of the Lord. Such preparation is not merely not enough, it is not even essential. Schools of the prophets may exist without sending forth a single prophet, and God calls many prophets who have never been inside a school door. This is true of every kind and form of Gods service, e.g., the Sunday-school, the home, Christian literature. In every case a threefold spiritual preparation is necessary. Without it we may pretend to be Gods servants; but the disguise will always be imperfect, and we shall always be betraying what we really are. Even the old blind Isaacs whom we deceive will not be sure about us: we may have on Esaus garments, but we shall never perfectly imitate Esaus voice. What, then, is this preparation?

1. A vision of God. Before we can serve God effectively, we must to some extent see Him as He is. In all departments of human activity, knowledge of the person served is essential to perfect service. Those who have never seen an earthly king cannot serve him as do those who are in daily intercourse with him; their loyalty is at the most a sentiment, not a constraining power. The biographies of Gods most eminent servants in all ages make it plain that the first and indispensable stage in preparation for His service is a vision of God Himselfa revelation of His majesty and holiness (Isa. 6:1-4).

2. What a man needs before he can effectively serve God is a vision of himself. The great hindrance to such service is self-satisfaction and self-sufficiency. But when a man really sees God as He is, he straightway sees himself as he is (Isa. 6:5). Jobs experience (Job. 42:5-6). Peters experience (Luk. 5:8). He sees himself to be utterly unfit and unable to serve God, and so attains to the second indispensable qualification for such service (Eph. 3:8; 1Co. 15:9, &c.)

3. The third thing which a man needs before he can effectively serve God is participation in Gods salvation. This is a rule that needs to be stated with wisdom. As a matter of fact, God has used the ministry of unconverted men. Such men may be guide-posts, though not guides. How much better to be a guide! How much more useful is a guide! But we cannot thus serve our generation unless we have been made a partaker of Gods salvation. By a sanctifying process,a process involving in some cases terrible pain (Isa. 6:6-7),we must have been made separate from sinners.

[691] Once for all must he who was to be a prophet have become absolutely certain of the true relation of the world and Jehovah,must have beheld, as in a distinct form, the sublime and holy character of Jehovah, and felt that he was directed by Him alone; once for all must he have recognised the divine power of truth against the whole world, and himself as living and moving in it alone; once for all must he have entered, with the effectual energy and act of his whole inner being, into the counsels of God, and found himself for ever bound by them, and endowed by these bonds with true power and freedom:this was the first condition and the true beginning of all the work of the prophet, the holy consecration and the inner call, without which none can become a true prophet.Ewald.

II. Those who have undergone this preparation will devote themselves unreservedly to Gods service.

1. There will spring up spontaneously within them a desire to serve God. They will not need to be pressed into this service; they will volunteer (Isa. 6:8).

2. They will not be deterred by the difficulty or painfulness of the service to which they are called. It was a hard and distasteful service that was demanded of Isaiahto prophesy to an unbelieving and scoffing generation (Isa. 5:18-19); to enter upon a ministry that would leave men worse than it found them (Isa. 6:9-10). Nor was this ministry to be brief; it was to be prolonged through many years (Isa. 6:11-12). Note: in sending Isaiah on such a ministry there was nothing inconsistent with the Divine righteousness or goodness. Gods truth must be proclaimed, whether men will heed or reject it; and the inevitable effect of such proclamation of the truth is to render those who reject it more stupid and wicked than they were before (2Co. 2:16; Joh. 9:39). But, painful as it was, Isaiah did not shrink from it. Nor do any who have passed through such a preparation as his. They do not ask concerning a work or duty, Is it easy? Is it pleasant? but, Does God call me to it? Paul: (Act. 21:13).

III. There is great encouragement for those who have unreservedly devoted themselves to the service of God.

1. What God demands from them is not success, but faithfulness. He did not require Isaiah to convert his fellow-countrymen, but to prophesy to them faithfully. There his responsibility began and ended. So is it with preachers, teachers, and priests to-day. Men measure by success, but God by faithfulness. What a difference is the result, e.g., in such a case as that of Carey, who laboured for years without making one convert! or in such a case as Isaiahs!

2. No faithful servant of God will ever labour without some success. Isaiah was not to toil altogether in vain. There was to be a wide-spread apostacy of his countrymen, but not a universal apostacy; a small remnant would still cleave to the Lord (Isa. 6:13); and doubtless Isaiahs ministry did much to keep them in the paths of righteousness. So is it with us; much of our seed may be wasted, but not all of it (Psa. 126:6; 1Co. 15:58).

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell

CHAPTER SIX

D. ILLUMINATION FROM THE ALMIGHTY Isa. 6:1-13

THE PROPHET SEES GOD Isa. 6:1-7

a. THE GLORY

TEXT: Isa. 6:1-4

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.

Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

And one cried into another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

QUERIES

Why mention that Uzziah had died?

Who are the seraphim?

What does the shaking of the thresholds symbolize?

PARAPHRASE

The year King Uzziah died I saw the Lord! He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the Temple was filled with His glory. Hovering about Him were mighty, six-winged seraphs. With two of their wings they covered their faces; with two others they covered their feet, and with two they flew. In a great antiphonal chorus they sang, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Hosts; the whole earth is filled with His glory. Such singing it was! It shook the Temple to its foundations, and suddenly the entire sanctuary was filled with smoke.

COMMENTS

Isa. 6:1-4 THE GLORY: The throne of David is the throne of God on earth. Exo. 19:4-6; 1Sa. 8:7; 2Sa. 7:12-16 it should be established forever. 1 Chronicles 29-23. Now the King is dead, the throne is vacant till a new King is crowned. Knowing the helpless, weak, vacillating condition of the people, a sense of impending national trouble comes to Isaiah. At this time is granted to him a vision of the glory of God. God is on the throne! Supremacy! Permanence and Power! The earthly throne may be vacant, the scepter fallen from dead hands; but here is One whose throne is never vacant, from whose hand the scepter never falls. Here is assurance, positive and beyond doubt that however weak man had corrupted the earthly counterpart of Gods throne, God still reigns and controls all things. His train, skirts, robes, fill the Temple, His house, palace. Flowing robes of priestly royalty flll the temple. No room for human glory and authority in Gods house. Seraphim Fiery ones. Cf. Rev. 4:8. Four living creatures. Six wings rapidity in carrying out Gods orders, Gods will. In the Holy Presence, however, the Seraphim covered his face with his wings from the intolerable effulgence of Divine Glory; another pair of wings covered the feet, soiled in their various ministrations, unmeet for all pure presence; while the third pair of wings sustained him in his place near the throne. Ceaseless activity in Gods service. One cried kept crying (Cf. Rev. 4:8). This cry of worship and adoration was a result of their vision. Its first note is the affirmation of the holiness of God. Its second is the declaration that the earth is full of His glory.

A Sermon from Seraphim

The lowliest Reverence becomes the Highest Created Beings Isa. 6:2

The Heavenly Life is largely spent in active service Isa. 6:2

The Celestial Intelligences have a keen appreciation of the Divine Holiness Isa. 6:3

The highest Intelligences see all things in their relation to God Isa. 6:3

The earthquake symbolizes that material, earthly things are temporary and shaken. Though the very temple itself be shaken and Old Testament religion itself undergo a change and old established customs of worship and institutions of administration pass away, Gods throne and authority are eternal. In this vision of Isaiah we have a prelude or a preparation for what Isaiah is going to teach about the Messiah and His Kingdom. Isaiah will soon begin to proclaim that when the Messiah comes and establishes His Kingdom (the church), it will seem to the Jews as if the throne of God had been abandoned. All the Old Testament institutions were to be replaced. But what the Jews would need to understand was that God was still on His throne and that all the Messianic activity would really be God ruling. Paul deals with this Jewish problem in Hebrews (esp. Heb. 12:18-29). The word holy attributed to God emphasizes His absolute separation from man. He is Lord and not a man. Although the creation depends upon Him, He himself is entirely independent thereof. This is the heart and core of Isaiahs theology. Gods holiness is a necessity if we are to be able to entrust our eternal destiny to Him.

QUIZ

What is the connection between Uzziahs death and Isaiahs vision?

What do we learn about Heaven from the actions of the Seraphim?

When would the O.T. religion be shaken?

Why is the holiness of God an absolute necessity?

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series

VI.

(1) In the year that king Uzziah died.Probably before his death. Had it been after it, the first year of king Jotham would have been the more natural formula. The chapter gives us the narrative of the solemn call of Isaiah to the office of a prophet. It does not follow that it was written at that time, and we may even believe that, if the prophet were the editor of his own discourses, he may have designedly placed the narrative in this position that men might see what he himself saw, that all that was found in the preceding chapters was but the development of what he had then heard, and yet, at the same time, a representation of the evils which made the judgments he was commissioned to declare necessary. On the relation of the call to the prophets previous life, see Introduction.

The date is obviously given as important, and we are led to connect it with the crisis in the prophets life of which it tells. He had lived through the last twenty years or so of Uzziahs reign. There was the show of outward material prosperity. There was the reality of much inward corruption. The king who had profaned the holiness of the Temple had either just died or was dragging out the dregs of his leprous life in seclusion (2Ch. 26:21). The question, What was to be the future of his people? must have been much in the prophets thoughts. The earthquake that had terrified Jerusalem had left on his mind a vague sense of impending judgment. It is significant that Isaiahs first work as a writer was to write the history of Uzziahs reign (2Ch. 26:22). (See Introduction.)

I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne.Isaiah had found himself in the court of the Temple, probably in that of the priests. He had seen the incense-clouds rising from the censer of the priest, and had heard the hymns and hallelujahs of the Levites. Suddenly he passes, as St. Paul afterwards passed, under the influence of like surroundings (Act. 22:17), into a state of ecstatic trance, and as though the veil of the Temple was withdrawn, he saw the vision of the glory of the Lord, as Moses (Exo. 24:10) and Micaiah of old had seen it (1Ki. 22:19), as in more recent times it had appeared to Amos (9:1). The King of kings was seated on His throne, and on the right hand and on the left were the angel-armies of the host of heaven, chanting their hymns of praise.

His train filled the temple.The word for temple is that which expresses its character as the palace of the great King. (Comp. Psa. 11:4; Psa. 29:9; Hab. 2:20.) The train answers to the skirts of the glory of the Lord, who clothes Himself with light as with a garment (Exo. 33:22-23). It is noticeable (1) that the versions (LXX., Targum, Vulg.) suppress the train, apparently as being too anthropomorphic, and (2) that to the mind of St. John this was a vision of the glory of the Christ (Joh. 12:41).

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

The Inaugural Vision, Isa 6:1-4.

[This could not be an inauguration of Isaiah to the prophetic office, for that he had filled during Uzziah’s reign, (see Isa 1:1,) and probably the last preceding four chapters (2-5) are records of some of his previous publications. It seems more properly the inauguration of a new and fearful period in Judah’s theocratic history; marking the crisis of hopelessness, the nation’s utter giving over, at the close of good Uzziah’s reign. The divine Presence is in the holy of holies, and a herald is called for, and the prophet answers. His message (Isa 6:9-13) announces that such is now the state of Judah’s mind that all preaching will harden the heart, and that the sentence of long desolation is now pronounced, its execution certain, its duration for ever, except for a remnant which will return from the banishment and produce the Messiah.]

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1. I saw An insight into the invisible world. The prophet’s mind is in communication with heaven, but his mode of apprehension is by symbol. The holy of holies in the temple, with the veil removed, is the scene where the vision occurs. It is told us, in Joh 12:41, that the “Lord,”

=Jehovah, whom Isaiah saw in this vision, was the yet unincarnated Jesus. [Compare the much sublimer theophany of Revelation iv, where see notes. Isaiah gives the apocalypse of Jerusalem’s downfal, John of the mystical Babylon’s.] In this vision the beholder sees the sovereign Jehovah on his throne, high and lifted up, with the folds of his train, or skirts, filling all the temple. Above the throne were standing or hovering, as attendant ministers before the ineffably glorious One, seraphim, or burning ones; beings with the radiance and glory of fire an essence, so to call it which symbolized certain intense qualities of character. The word is here only used with this sense in Scripture. It is from , ( saraph,) to burn, and the being is evidently spoken of as wearing a human form, with brilliant fiery appearance, covered with wings. [This word, to burn, is often used in the Old Testament, and for some reason the noun saraph, burner, signifies a serpent. Rabbi Solomon says, (quoted by Barnes,) “serpents are called seraphim, because they burn men with the poison of their teeth.” Better, however, is perhaps the suggestion of Nagelsbach, (Lange’s Bibelwerk,) that serpents were called burners from the resemblance of their vibratory creeping to the vibrations of a flame; they were flamers. And these present holy beings are called burners, not as serpents, but as representing, or, as we may say, incarnating, the burning, consuming purity and holiness of God. Hence their ascription, holy, to God, indicates their own holy nature. They are pure flames of purity and love; and though seen in repose by the prophet they have a radiant human form yet we may conceive that when on the wing, sent forth by Jehovah, they may become (what the flying flamingo of the south seems to be) a darting flame. As fire they either purify or destroy, as the object they touch may be; they purified the prophet, they consumed the guilty people, all save the final remnant.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The Vision of God ( Isa 6:1-4 ).

At the heart of Isaiah’s ministry lies this vision of God. In it he sees the glory of God, and yet he makes no attempt to describe God Himself, probably because what he saw was indescribable. So instead he is satisfied with describing all that surrounded Him, leaving the impression of what he saw to our imagination.

Analysis of Isa 6:1-4.

a In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple (Isa 6:1).

b Above Him stood burning ones (seraphim), each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet and with two he flew (Isa 6:2).

b And one cried to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory” (Isa 6:3).

a And the foundations of the thresholds were moved at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke’ (Isa 6:4).

In ‘a’ he says that he saw Yahweh sitting on His throne, high and lifted up, and in the parallel the Temple is shaking, and is filled with smoke. The whole picture is reminiscent of Mount Sinai, with God being revealed and yet hidden (Exo 19:18). In ‘b he sees the ‘burning ones’ (seraphim) and in the parallel the ‘burning ones’ cry to one another and declare His utter holiness.

Isa 6:1

‘In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.’

It is unusual for Isaiah to date his prophecies, or for a regnal year to be defined in terms of death, (but compare Isa 15:28) and we are therefore probably justified in seeing in these words some kind of implication. The year would be 740/739 BC. King Uzziah had been a good king, favoured by God, but he had been very foolish in the matter of burning incense before Yahweh, a practise forbidden to all but priests (2Ch 26:16-18) and had been punished for his folly with leprosy (2Ch 26:19-21). He had thus become a recluse, an isolated leper king, with his son Jotham reigning as regent (2Ki 15:5) and was probably at this time seen to be approaching death with his leprosy still affecting him. But there was no doubt that his death would be a great blow to the people.

It was at such a time that Yahweh visibly revealed Himself to Isaiah in order to demonstrate that there was a yet more powerful King Who was sat upon the throne, One Who was over all, One Who, far from being a leper, was the essence of purity itself, (‘the Holy One of Israel’), and who far from dying was the very essence of life (‘the living God’). These two kings were in total contrast. The one sinful, frail and temporary, and despite the glory that had been his, passing away a helpless leper, and the Other holy, glorious, Almighty, permanent, unchanging and everlasting.

In view of what follows we are probably justified too in considering that Isaiah saw in the state of the king a picture of the spiritual condition of Judah and Jerusalem (see for example Isa 1:6). For just as Uzziah was seen to be approaching his end after being smitten by God, so were they. The whole combined nations of Israel and Judah were leprous and doomed and awaiting their end.

Note that here God is called ‘the Lord’, the One Who is Sovereign over creation. At the time that this occurred Isaiah was in the Temple, aware that in ‘the Holiest of All’ (the Holy of Holies), the inaccessible inner sanctuary, Yahweh’s earthly throne was hidden behind the great Veil, set over the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh. But now he was to see something that was beyond this, something which filled him with awe. For he saw a heavenly throne on which was seated the exalted, glorious and holy Lord. And the sense that he had was of the whole Temple being filled by this glorious figure, seated in majesty and purity, for the whole Temple appeared to be filled by His swirling train. It was a sight that filled him with an awe beyond anything he had ever known. Indeed it made him cry out with awe. For now he knew as never before that God was Lord indeed.

We do not have to ask how he could see One Whom no man can see and live. We must as always accept that the heavenly vision was in some way partially concealed so that he as frail man could bear what he saw, as previously in the case of Moses (Exo 33:21-23), so that while he saw God, it was not all that was God (1Ti 6:16). But it was more than enough, and the sense of His presence alone would have been sufficient to prostrate him on the ground.

Isa 6:2-3

‘Above him stood burning ones (seraphim), each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet and with two he flew. And one cried to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.” ’

It is noteworthy that Isaiah does not try to describe the glory of the Lord. Rather he seeks to bring out His glory by the description of His throne and temple-filling train, by the description of Him as ‘high and lifted up’ (compare Isa 57:15), and here by the vision of the burning ones, winged flames of fire, and yet presumably in human form having both faces and feet, that hovered around and over Him.

We are probably to see them as representing the heavenly cherubim, but in different form and shape from the earthly cherubim in the temple (Rev 4:8 seems to combine the two). This is no earthly vision. And so holy was the presence of the One on the throne that these glorious beings shielded their faces and feet before His awesome ‘otherness’, their faces because they could not look on His glory and total purity, and felt unworthy to see His face, and their feet because such were seen as contaminated by the touching of some inferior, or earthly, thing. We are not told what they stood on but it was clearly sufficient to defile them by its contact in the light of the awesome presence of the One Who was totally separate, and totally holy. We can consider how the feet of the priests had to be washed continually when they entered the sanctuary or approached the altar to sacrifice, for the same reason (Exo 30:19-21; Exo 40:31).

And the cry and attention of these holy beings is centred only on the Lord. Compared with Him they recognise their own nothingness. And they proclaim His holiness in a threefold cry, a sign of His complete and absolute holiness. He is the holy of holy of holies. Indeed so much so that the whole earth is full of His glory.

So the earth also is seen here as manifesting His glory. All creation speaks of His creative power (compare Rev 5:13; Psa 145:21; Psa 150:6; Rom 1:18-20), and none more so than the earth with its wonderful God-given provision for man, its living creatures into which God had breathed life and finally man himself, who had received life from God of an even more wonderful kind, made with a heavenly nature, even though now a sadly fallen one, God’s ‘image’ on earth. That is why all Nature also cries out to proclaim His glory, and to wonder at man’s sinfulness (Isa 1:2-3).

The word ‘holy’ is central to Isaiah’s awareness of God. He is the Sovereign Lord, He is the Mighty God, He is Yahweh of Hosts, but above all He is ‘the Holy One’. Distinct, unique, set apart from all else in being and purity, He is the One compared with Whom there is no other.

Isa 6:4

‘And the foundations of the thresholds were moved at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.’

At the words of each of these mighty beings as they declared the glory of Yahweh, the very foundations of the Temple shook, and every entranceway responded, vibrating vigorously to the voice of the seraphim (a reminiscence of Sinai – Exo 19:18). And at the same time ‘the house was filled with smoke’ as a result of the presence of the glory of God and of His power (Rev 15:8), revealing, while at the same time concealing, the figure on the throne. Such smoke was reminiscent of theophanies , and especially of the theophany at Sinai (Exo 19:18; Deu 4:11; compare Exo 13:21; Exo 40:34).

The glory, and the smoke, and the shaking could hardly have failed to remind Isaiah, steeped in his nation’s holy writings, of the original giving of the covenant (Exodus 19-20). And now here was the covenant God come in a similar way to call His people to account.

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett

Isaiah’s Divine Commission We often find a divine commission at the beginning of the story of God’ servants in the Scriptures. We see in the book of Genesis that Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob each received their commissions at the beginning of their genealogies which divide the book of Genesis into major divisions. We also see how Moses received his divine commission near the beginning of his story found within Exodus to Deuteronomy. Joshua received his commission in the first few verses of the book of Joshua. Also, we see that Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel each received a divine commission at the beginning of their ministries. The book of Ezra opens with a divine call to rebuild the Temple and the book of Nehemiah begins with a call to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem, which callings Ezra and Nehemiah answered. In the New Testament, we find Paul the apostle receiving his divine commission in Act 9:1-22 at the beginning of the lengthy section on Paul’s life and ministry.

Each of these divine callings can be found within God’s original commission to Adam in the story of Creation to be fruitful and multiply. For these men were called to bring the about the multiplication of godly seeds. The patriarchs were called to multiply and produce a nation of righteousness. Moses was called to bring Israel out of bondage, but missed his calling to bring them into the Promised Land. Joshua was called to bring them in to the land. Esther was called to preserve the seed of Israel as was Noah, while Ezra and Nehemiah were called to bring them back into the Promised Land. All of the judges, the kings and the prophets were called to call the children of Israel out of sin and bondage and into obedience and prosperity. They were all called to bring God’s children out of bondage and destruction and into God’s blessings and multiplication. The stories in the Old Testament show us that some of these men fulfilled their divine commission while others either fell short through disobedience or were too wicked to hear their calling from God.

Isaiah’s vision and commission is recorded in Isa 6:1-13. This commission reflects the atoning work of Christ in that the prophet’s call to pronounce Israel’s sins is rejected by his people in the same way Jesus’ atonement will be rejected by the Jews centuries later. In contrast, Jeremiah’s commission reflects the office and ministry of God the Father’s divine plan of redemption in that the prophet is set over nations to “root out, pull down, destroy, throw down, build and plant.”

One of the unique features of Isaiah’s vision and commission is that it does not come in the opening chapter of his book, as does the commissions of Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Perhaps the reason for Isaiah’s calling coming after two recorded prophecies is the fact that a person can give a prophecy without standing in the office of a prophet. For example, we read about King Saul laying on the ground all night prophesying, but this event did not make him a prophet (1Sa 19:24). Isaiah may have given a number of prophecies before his vision and calling in Isa 6:1-13.

1Sa 19:24, “And he stripped off his clothes also, and prophesied before Samuel in like manner, and lay down naked all that day and all that night. Wherefore they say, Is Saul also among the prophets?”

Isa 6:1-13 Isaiah’s Divine Commission (The Vision of the Throne of God) David (Psalms 2; Psa 110:1-7), Ezekiel (Eze 1:1-28), Stephen (Act 7:55-56) and John the Apostle (Rev 1:9-20; Rev 4:1 to Rev 5:14) also had visions of the glory of God and of His throne.

Isa 6:1 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.

Isa 6:1 “In the year that king Uzziah died” Comments – King Uzziah ( ) or ( ) (H5818), or Azariah ( ) or ( ) (H5838), reigned over Judah for fifty-two years beginning at young age of sixteen (792-740 B.C.). See 2Ki 15:1-7 and 2Ch 26:1-23 for the story of his reign.

We are told in the opening verses of the book of Isaiah that the prophet ministered during the reign of King Uzziah. Therefore, if the prophecies in the book of Isaiah follow some pattern of chronological order, it is possible that the first two prophecies recorded in Isaiah 1-5 were given to him during this king’s reign.

Isa 6:1 “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne” Comments – God was still ruling and in control during the most difficult times of our lives. Even though the earthly king of Judah had died, the heavenly king was still in control. When we look to man, we find him as mortal and limited and some times failing. But we know that God will always be there for us.

Isa 6:1 “high and lifted up” Comments – In Africa, when a king is seated at a local function or event, his chair is set up higher than all other chairs around him. Even his wife, the queen, is seated in a chair placed lower than the king’s chair. Thus, the higher and larger this throne the greater the person who sits upon it. This is why God has the highest throne of all.

Isa 6:1 “and his train filled the temple” Comments – The length of robe measures magnitude of greatness. So, God’s robe shows that he is the greatest.

Isa 6:2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

Isa 6:3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.

Isa 6:3 “And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts” Comments – Why do the angels cry, “Holy, holy, holy!”? Jesse Duplantis said that when he visited heaven and saw these angels crying these words, he found out that every time the angels behold God Almighty in all of His glory, they see a new aspect of His being. Therefore, this continuous revelation of God moves them to cry these words. Benny Hinn replied to Jesse Duplantis by saying that the Lord once spoke to him that the angels cry out, “Holy, holy, holy!” because of the revelation they are receiving from God. [21]

[21] Jesse Duplantis, interviewed by Benny Hinn, This is Your Day (Irving, Texas), on Trinity Broadcasting Network (Santa Ana, California, July 16, 2002), television program.

Scripture References – Note a similar verse:

Rev 4:8, “And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.”

Isa 6:3 “the whole earth is full of his glory” Comments – Rick Joyner writes, “I could not understand how they could say, ‘The whole earth is filled with His glory,’ when the whole earth seemed to be filled with wars, disease, child abuse, treachery and evil on every side. Then the Lord spoke to me one day and said, ‘The reason that these cherubim say that the whole earth is filled with My glory is because they dwell in My presence. When you dwell in My presence, you will not see anything but glory.’” [22]

[22] Rick Joyner, The Call (Charlotte, North Carolina: Morning Star Publications, 1999), 38-9.

Isa 6:4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

Isa 6:5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

Isa 6:5 Comments – After declaring eight woes upon the nation of Israel, Isaiah then sees himself in the presence of God. This experience brings a woe upon himself as he sees himself as unrighteous in the presence of God’s holiness.

In the presence of God, we feel so unclean and small, but when we are around people of this world we feel comfortable in our sins. This is because in God’s presence we see the true wickedness of our own hearts and minds in this corrupt body. Isaiah has experienced a true encounter with Almighty God. His response is similar to the words of others in the Scriptures when they had an encounter with God.

Gideon felt this way in his encounter with an angel:

Jdg 6:22, “And when Gideon perceived that he was an angel of the LORD, Gideon said, Alas, O Lord GOD! for because I have seen an angel of the LORD face to face.”

Samson’s father felt this way in his encounter with an angel:

Jdg 13:22, “And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die, because we have seen God.”

Job had an encounter with God and felt this way:

Job 42:5, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Agur, the author of Proverbs 30 had an encounter with God and felt this way:

Pro 30:2, “Surely I am more brutish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man.”

The apostle Peter felt this way in his realization of the divinity of Jesus Christ:

Luk 5:8, “When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

The apostle John had an encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ and felt this way:

Rev 1:17, “And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:”

Isa 6:5 Illustration – In 1990 I was sitting in my apartment meditating. I had just finished lunch, and was about to go back to work. I worked at the apartment complex as a maintenance man. I suddenly saw in a vision, the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ descending upon the Mount of Olives. I then felt the fear of God come upon me. I began to shake and tremble inside. All I could say was what Isaiah said in this passage, “Woe is me.” I then cried out “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty.”

In the years before, I had experienced the presence of the Holy Spirit coming in my room as a sweet anointing, a place where one would want to enjoy the presence of God. But in this experience, the uncomfortable fear of God was filling my room and my heart. I finally got up and went back to work, but the presence of God continued with me for several hours before completely lifting.

Isa 6:6 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:

Isa 6:7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

Isa 6:8 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.

Isa 6:8 Scripture References Note similar statements made later in the book of Isaiah:

Isa 42:18-20, “Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD’S servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.”

Isa 44:18-19, “They have not known nor understood: for he hath shut their eyes, that they cannot see; and their hearts, that they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire; yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof; I have roasted flesh, and eaten it: and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? shall I fall down to the stock of a tree?”

Isa 6:9-10 Prophecy of Israel’s Blindness The prophecy in Isa 6:9-10 regarding Israel’s blindness is quoted five times in the New Testament. It is quoted within the parallel passages of the Parable of the Sower (Mat 13:14-15, Mar 4:12, Luk 8:10), when the Jews rejected Paul’s message in Rome (Act 28:26-27), and when the hearts of the disciples of Jesus were blinded (Joh 12:40). When we ask the question of why this prophecy is given to Isaiah during his divine commission to preach to the nation of Israel, we find the answer in referring to the underlying theme of the book of Isaiah, which is a book of prophecies about the First Coming of the Messiah and how the Jews will reject His Gospel. This is exactly what this prophecy in Isa 6:9-10 is saying. This is the context within which it is quoted in the New Testament.

Mat 13:14-15, “And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

Mar 4:12, “That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them.”

Luk 8:10, “And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand.”

Act 28:26-27, “Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.”

Joh 12:40, “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”

Isa 6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.

Isa 6:9 Comments – The Jews hears Jesus’ teachings and they saw His miracles, and yet they did not believe in Him as the Son of God.

Isa 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Isa 6:10 Comments – Isa 6:10 tells us that God will speak to His people in three ways. He will give them visions and dreams to see into the heavenly realm; He will speak to them prophetic words that they can hear; and He will give them spiritual discernment in their heart. I have had dreams and visions in which I saw into the heavenly realm; I have also had the Lord speak to me with words, whether personal, or for someone else; and I have had the gifts of the word of knowledge or word of wisdom imparted into my spirit so that I knew things supernaturally.

It is possible that this 3-fold method of divine revelation is mentioned in 1Ch 29:29, where Samuel is called a “seer” ( ) (H7200), which literally means, “to see,” but figuratively means, “to discern, perceive” ( Strong); Nathan is called a “prophet” ( ) (H5030), which means, “a prophet, inspired man” ( Strong); and Gad is called a “seer” ( ) (H2374), which means, “a beholder in vision” ( Strong).

1Ch 29:29, “Now the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer,”

Isa 6:11-13 Israel’s Blindness – Isaiah asks how long this blindness will be upon the nation of Israel (Isa 6:11). The Lord replies that the nation of Israel will first be utterly destroyed and scattered far away among the nations (Isa 6:11-12). Then, a remnant will return and the nation will be reborn. The rebirth of the nation of Israel took place on 14 May 1948. [23] This rebirth will precede the Second Coming of Christ, at which time Israel’s blindness will fall off of their eyes when they see their Messiah in His glory coming in the clouds with a host of angels. At this Second Coming the Jews will accept their Messiah (Isa 6:13), having rejected Him at His First Coming.

[23] Bernard Reich, “Israel,” in The World Book Encyclopedia, vol. 10 (Chicago: World Book, Inc., 1994), 487.

Isa 6:13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

Isa 6:13 Comments – Note two modern English translations of Isa 6:13:

ASV, “And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth, when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof.”

NIV, “And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leaves stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”

If we follow the readings of the ASV and NIV, then we can say that some trees, such as the teil tree or the oak, can be cut down to the ground and its stump will sprout new growth. Other trees, such as the pine tree, will die if they are cut close to the ground. Thus, Isa 6:13 means that the nation of Israel will be utterly and entirely destroyed, yet a remnant of the nation of Israel will sprout up after it has been cut down and it will produce a nation again in the future. We saw this in the rebirth of Israel in 1948.

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Prophecies Against Israel Isa 1:2 to Isa 12:6 contains a collection of prophecies against the nation of Israel. The phrase, “for all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still,” is repeated five times within this passage of Scripture (Isa 5:25; Isa 9:12; Isa 9:17; Isa 9:21; Isa 10:4).

Also found within this first major section of Isaiah are three prophecies of the Messiah’s birth. These prophecies reflect three characteristics of the Messiah. He will be born of a virgin as the Son of God dwelling with mankind (Isa 7:14-15). He will rule over Israel in the Davidic lineage (Isa 9:6-7). He will come from the seed of David and be anointed as was David (Isa 11:1-5).

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures

Jehovah Revealed in his Glory

v. 1. In the year that King Uzziah died, that is, in the last year of this king’s successful reign, 2Ki 15:1-7; 2 Chronicles 26, in the year 758 B. C. I saw also the Lord, the All-powerful, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, the prophetic vision, beyond the range of the normal ability of human senses, permitting the prophet to see the revelation of God, not face to face, -for God dwells in an inaccessible light, but in a manner which uncovered the divine glory to his inner mind, and his train filled the Temple, that is, His kingly robe with its majestic train, fitting emblem of the divine glory, covered and filled the heavenly Sanctuary.

v. 2. Above it stood the seraphim, heavenly spirits of the highest rank, ministers of the Lord serving as guardians of the throne. Each one had six wings, in accordance with their nature as heavenly beings; with twain he covered his face, for even the seraphim cannot endure the sight of the essential holiness of God, and with twain he covered his feet, for even the angels, with a proper feeling of humility and modesty, prefer to keep their forms covered before the eyes of the Most Holy One, and with twain he did fly, floating about the throne of the Lord.

v. 3. And one cried unto another, in a wonderful antiphonal chorus, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts, thrice holy not only on account of the supreme excellence of His essential holiness, but also on account of the Trinity of persons, each of which is the possessor of the divine holiness in its fullness and glory; the whole earth is full of His glory, literally, “filling the whole earth is His glory”; for all men on earth will see the revelation of His divine majesty, all His works, in creation, redemption, sanctification, will serve to magnify Him as the supreme and only God. Cf Rev 4:8.

v. 4. And the posts of the door, the foundations of the sills, or thresholds, the heavenly temple with its portals down to the lowest foundation, moved at the voice of him that cried, the powerful sound of the entire chorus, and the house was filled with smoke, as from the incense of all the prayers of the saints, uniting with the angels above to give praise and adoration to the great Lord of heaven, Rev 5:8; Rev 8:3-4.

v. 5. Then said I, overcome with awe and terror at the tremendous impressiveness of the scene, Woe is me! for I am undone, lost, threatened with death and destruction, because I am a man of unclean lips, the feeling of his own sinfulness coming over him all the more strongly in view of the perfect holiness which he had just seen, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, descendant and member of a generation of sinners; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts, between whom and man is not only the gulf separating the Creator from His creatures, but the greater abyss between the holy God and the world of sinners. Cf Exo 33:20.

v. 6. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar, the altar of incense evidently being referred to;

v. 7. and he laid it upon my mouth, he caused the glowing coal to come into contact with the prophet’s lips, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged, atoned for. The act of the angel evidently had a symbolical meaning, first of all with reference to the atonement made in and through the person of Jesus Christ, the work of redemption carried out in accordance with the Triune God’s counsel. Not only, however, is the prophet, sinful man as he was, assured of the grace of God, but the Lord also imparts special strength to him and fits him to be the instrument of His inspiration.

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann

SECTION III. ISAIAH‘S VISION OF GOD UPON HIS THRONE (Isa 6:1-13.).

EXPOSITION

Isa 6:1-4

THE VISION OF GOD SEEN BY ISAIAH. It is thought by some that this vision, and its sequel, constitute the original call of Isaiah to the prophetical office, and in order of time precede all the other contents of the book. But the position of the “vision” in the book is strongly against this view. Prophets who relate their original call naturally place it in the forefront of their narrative (Jer 1:10; Eze 1:1). It is quite possible, as Bishop Lowth says, that this was “a new designation, to introduce more solemnly a general declaration of the whole course of God’s dispensations in regard to his people, and the fates of the nations.” The vision itself may profitably be compared with Ezekiel’s first vision, which it much resembles (Eze 1:4-28).

Isa 6:1

In the year that King Uzziah died. The year B.C. 759, probably. We cannot determine from the phrase used whether the vision was seen before or after Uzziah’s death. I saw also; rather, then it was that I saw (comp. Exo 16:6). The Lord. Not “Jehovah,” as in Isa 6:3 and Isa 6:5, but “Adonay,” for greater reverence. Sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up. The imagery is, of course, taken from the practice of earthly kings. Elaborate thrones were affected by the great monarchs of Egypt and Assyria. Solomon’s throne was perhaps even grander than any of these (see 1Ki 10:18-20). It was placed at the summit of “six steps,” so that its occupant was “high and lifted up” above all his courtiers. His train. Not his train of attendants, but “the skirts of his robe.” Flowing robes were commonly worn by great monarchs. Filled the temple; or, the palace. The same word is used in Hebrew for both. Dr. Kay supposes the prophet to be “in vision gazing on the actual templeto see its veils drawn aside, and instead of the Shechinah enthroned on the cherubim, to behold the King of glory, enthroned on high, the fringes of his royal robe filling the temple, so that no human priest could minister there.” But, as Mr. Cheyne observes, “palace is more in harmony with the picture than temple.” It is the heavenly palace of the King of kings into which the prophet’s gaze is allowed to penetrate.

Isa 6:2

Above it stood the seraphims; rather, above him were standing seraphim. The “seraphim” are introduced, not as well known, with the article, but without it, as unknown. The word means “fiery ones,” and is supposed to denote the burning love of the blessed spirits spoken of. They appeared to the prophet as standing above the King as he sat upon his throne”standing” to show their readiness to minister; but why “above him” is not so clear. Perhaps, simply, as those that stand are “above” those that sit; perhaps as ready to fly through infinite space at the bidding of him who was seated in his palace, as it were upon the ground. Their form, as seen by the prophet, appears to have been human, and only distinguished from ordinary humanity by the wings. Thus, though in name they resembled those other “fiery ones,” which had punished the Jews in the wilderness (Num 21:6-9), there is nothing to show that Isaiah in any way connected the two. Each one had six wings. Gesenius is mistaken in saying that there are at Persepolis any six-winged figures. The Persians not infrequently represented their genii with four wings; but no six-winged figures have been found, so far as I know, among the Persian remains. With twain he covered his face, etc. The general idea of the six wings was probably rapid flight, the carrying out of God’s behests “with speed swiftly.” But, in the Divine presence, the wings were applied to a different use. One pair veiled the seraph’s head from the intolerable effulgence of the Divine glory; another concealed the feet, soiled in their various ministrations, and unmeet for the all-pure presence; the third pair alone sustained the seraph in mid-air, as he hovered in readiness to depart on any errand on which Jehovah aright send him.

Isa 6:3

One cried; rather, kept crying (comp. Rev 4:8, “They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy”). But the prophet scarcely goes so far; he describes only his visionthey did not rest while the vision was vouchsafed him. Holy, holy, holy. The Church on earth has taken pattern by the Church above; and the “Trisagion” is ever being repeated in one part of the earth or another without ceasing: “Thou continuest holy, O thou Worship of Israel.” There is no attribute so essential to God as this. It is for his holiness, more than for anything else, that his creatures worship him. The triple repetition has been understood in all ages of the Church as connected with the doctrine of the Trinity. Holy is he who has created us, and bidden us worship him in the beauty of holiness Holy is he who has redeemed us, and washed away our sins, and made us by profession holy! Holy is he who day by day sanctifies us, and makes us in very deed and truth, so far as we will permit him, holy! The whole earth is full of his glory. Even in heaven the seraphic thoughts are turned to earth, and its relation to its Divine Creator is made the subject of angelic utterances. The lesson which they gather from their contemplation, even under all the miserable circumstances of the time, is a cheering one: “The whole earth is full of God’s glory.” Men, whether they will it or not, are working out God’s purposes, advancing his designs, accomplishing the ends that he desires (see Homiletics on Isa 5:25-29).

Isa 6:4

The posts of the door moved; rather, the bases of the thresholds shook (compare Revised Version). The shout of the seraphs shook the very foundations on which the thresholds of the gates of heaven resteda testimony to the energy with which it was uttered. At the voice of him that cried; i.e. “at the voice of each and all.” The house was filled with smoke. “Smoke” is sometimes the mere sign of the presence of God, as in Isa 4:5; but more often it indicates his presence in anger or judgment (see Exo 19:18; Exo 20:18; Rev 15:8). Here there had been no smoke at first, and we must suppose it, therefore, a sign of the anger which finds vent in verse 9-12.

Isa 6:5-7

THE SEQUEL OF THE VISIONTHE PROPHET‘S SENSE OF UNWORTHINESS.

The vision of God in this life, whether natural or ecstatic, cannot but produce in the beholder a deep feeling of his unworthiness. God “is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity;” even “the heavens are not clean in his sight” (Job 15:15). Man, being never wholly purged from sin while on earth, cannot but shrink from contact with the absolutely Holy. Hence Isaiah’s cry (verse 5); and hence, to comfort him, the symbolic action of the seraph (verse 6) and his encouraging words (verse 7).

Isa 6:5

I am undone; literally, cut off, destroyed (comp. Isa 15:1; Jer 47:5; Hos 4:5, Hos 4:6, etc.). God once said himself, “There shall no man see me and live” (Exo 33:20). Men expected to die even when they had seen angels of God (Gen 32:30; Jdg 6:22, Jdg 6:23; Jdg 13:22). How we are to reconcile Exo 33:20 with this passage, Job 42:5, and Eze 1:26-28, is uncertain. Perhaps the ecstatic sight was not included in the “seeing“ of which God spoke to Moses. I am a man of unclean lips. A man must be indeed” perfect” never to offend in word (Jas 3:2). Isaiah felt that he had often so offended. His lips were not “clean“ in God’s sight, and if not his lips, then not his heart; for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh” (Mat 12:34). I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. Men catch up the phraseology of their time, and use wrong forms of speech, because they hear them daily. “Evil communications corrupt good manners” (1Co 15:33).

Isa 6:6

A live coal; or, a glowing stone, as Gesenius, Rosenmller, Knobel, and Mr. Cheyne understand. The tongs the altar. The presence of an altar in the heavenly dwelling, with the usual appurtenances, is assumed (comp. Rev 6:9; Rev 8:3). The altar is, no doubt, an altar of incense, and of gold, not of stone; but the incense is burnt upon stones heated to a glow, and it is one of these stones which the angel takes with the golden tongs of the sanctuary (Exo 25:38).

Isa 6:7

He laid it upon my mouth; literally, he caused it to touch my mouth; i.e. “he touched my mouth with it.” He brought it into contact with that part of him which the prophet had recognized (Isa 6:5) as the seat of impurity. Thine iniquity is taken away. By the contact the prophet’s impurity is purged, and he is freed from it. The symbolical net showed

(1) that sin could be purged;

(2) that the highest angelic nature could not, alone and of its own force, purge it; and

(3) that the purging could come only from that fire which consumes the incense that is laid upon the altar of God. Dr. Kay suggests that this fire is “the Divine love.”

Isa 6:8-13

THE PROPHET ENTRUSTED WITH A SPECIAL MISSON. We do not know what special call Isaiah had had previously. Perhaps he had been brought up in the “schools of the prophets.” Perhaps, when the “word of the Lord” came to him, he had accepted the fact as sufficient call. Now, however, he had, in vision, a clear and distinct call and mission (verses 8, 9). He was told to “go,” and instructed as to what he was to say (verses 9, 10). As before (Isaiah 1-5.), while in the main he was to denounce woe, he was still to proclaim the survival of a remnant (verses 10-12).

Isa 6:8

Whom shall I send?. Such questions enable those who wait in the courts of heaven to show their zeal and readiness. Who will go for us? Some explain the plural pronoun as used of the Almighty and those with whom he is consulting. But he does not really “consult” his creatures (infra, Isa 40:14; Rev 11:1-19 :34), nor do his messengers do his errands for them. The plural form is best explained by the light which Isa 6:3 throws on it, as indicative of the doctrine of the Trinity (comp. Gen 1:26).

Isa 6:9

Hear ye indeed see ye indeed; literally, In hearing hear in seeing seewith the force of “Listen and bear; look and see;” “Attend, “that is,” with the outward souse, and catch all that sense can catch, but without perception of the inward meaning”. This is what they would do. Isaiah is bidden to exhort them, in grave irony, to do it.

Isa 6:10

Make the heart of this people fat. Isaiah is commanded to effect by his preaching that which his preaching would, in fact, effect. It would not awaken the people out of their apathy, it would not stir them to repentance; therefore it would only harden and deaden them. The words have a national, not an individual, application. Shut their eyes; literally, besmear their eyes; or, seal them up. Such sealing has been employed by Oriental monarchs as a punishment. And convert; i.e. “turn to God.” Our translators have used the word in an intransitive sense.

Isa 6:11

Then said I, Lord, how long? Either, “How long am I to continue this preaching?” or, “How long is this blindness and callousness of the people to continue?” Isaiah assumes that he has not heard as yet God’s final purpose; that there is some merciful intention kept in reserve, which is to take effect after the close of the period of judgment. The cities the houses; rather, cities houses. An entire desolation of the whole land, and extermination of its inhabitants, is not prophesied, and never took place. Nebuchadnezzar “left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen” (2Ki 25:12; Jer 39:10). Even when the great mass of these persons went into Egypt and perished there (Jer 44:11-27), a certain number escaped and returned to Palestine (Jer 44:14, Jer 44:28). The land; rather, the ground, the soil.

Isa 6:12

And the Lord have removed men far away. The Assyrian and Babylonian policy of deportation is pointed at. Pul had attacked the kingdom of Israel ten or twelve years before Uzziah’s death, and had perhaps made the Assyrian policy known, though he had allowed himself to be bought off (2Ki 15:19, 2Ki 15:20). And there be a great forsaking; rather, and the desolation be great; i.e. till a great portion of Judah be depopulated.

Isa 6:13

But yet in it shall be a tenth, etc.; rather, and should there still be in it a tenth; i.e. should there still remain, after the great deportation, a tenth part of the inhabitants, “this again shall be burned up,” i.e. shall be destined to further judgment and destruction. The trials of the Jewish nation under the Persian, Egyptian, and Syrian monarchies may be intended. As a teil tree, and as an oak, etc.; rather, as the terebinth tree and as the oaktrees which shoot up again from the stock after being cut down; or, as the prophet expresses it, “have a stem in their destruction.” So to Judah shall remain, after all, a “holy seed,” which shall be its “stem” or “stock, “and from which it shall once more “take root downward, and bear fruit upward” (Isa 37:31).

HOMILETICS

Isa 6:1-4

The vision of God.

Sight is a thing of degrees. The healthy eye sees with infinite shades of distinctness and indistinctness, according to the amount of light which is vouchsafed it. The diseased eye has an equal variety of gradation in its powers of seeing, owing to the variations in its own condition. And it is with our spiritual as with our natural sight. The vision which men have of God varies infinitely with varying circumstancesfrom extreme dimness up to perfect distinctness. Amid this infinitude of gradation, depending mainly on the internal condition of the visual power, three main varieties, depending on the circumstances under which the spiritual sight exerts itself, may be distinguished.

I. THE NATURAL VISION OF GOD IN THIS LIFE. This is, even in the best men, dim and unsatisfying. “Now we see through a glass darkly” (1Co 13:12). We have to look within us and without us; and, among the confused shadows of things, as sight and memory and imagination present them to us, we have to piece together a conception of that mysterious and inscrutable Power which alone exists of itself and has brought all that is beside itself into existence. How should not the vision be unsatisfactory? Agnosticism denies that any conception which we can form can possibly bear any resemblance at all to the reality, if there be a reality. Agnosticism, to be consistent, ought not to go so far, but should content itself with saying that we cannot tell whether there be a resemblance or no. Some conception, however, of God all men form who reflect at all; and there is so much likeness among the conceptions of men of all times and countries as to point to some basis of truth underlying them all as the only conceivable ground of the similarity. The conceptions differ less in their essential character than in their vividness and their continuousness. Most men “see God” dimly and rarelyby snatches, and as through a cloud or mist. A small number have a somewhat clearer and more frequent vision. To a few only is it given to “set God always before their face,” and to see him with something approaching to distinctness.

II. THE ECSTATIC VISION OF GOD IN THIS LIFE. It has been the privilege of some great saints to be lifted up from earth into that condition which is called ecstasy, and while in that state to have a vision of God. In ecstasy Moses saw “the glory of God” from the “cleft in the rock” on his second ascent of Sinai (Exo 33:18-23; Exo 34:6-8). In ecstasy Isaiah now saw him. In ecstasy Ezekiel saw him “by the river of Chebar” (Eze 1:26-28). So St. John the divine beheld him in the island of Patmos (Rev 4:2-11). The exact nature of such visions we do not know; but it is only reasonable to suppose that they were, to those favored with them, revelations of God more distinct, more vivid, more satisfying, than any which belong to the ordinary course of nature, even to those which are vouchsafed to the “pure in heart” (Mat 5:8). They fall short in respect of duration; they are transientsome of them, perhaps, momentary. But their vividness seems to have so impressed them on the beholders as to have given them a quasi-permanency in the recollection, which made them possessions for life, and gave them an undying influence on the character.

III. THE BEATIFIC VISION OF GOD IN ANOTHER LIFE. What this is no tongue of man can tell. “Eye hath not seen,” etc. We know only what the Word of God declares. “Then shall we see him face to face; then shall we know even as we are known,” (1Co 13:12). That this vision transcends even the ecstatic one is reasonably concluded, from its being the final reward of God’s saintsthe beatitude beyond which there is none other (Rev 22:4). But it is scarcely reverent to speculate on a theme so far above human imagining. Even Bishop Butler seems to overstep the just limit, when he supposes the beatific vision to include the contemplation of the scheme of the universe in the mind of him who contrived it. We shall not know what the beatific vision is until we are admitted to it. Perhaps it will not be the same to all. Probably, as on earth “the eye sees that which it brings with it the power of seeing,” so, in the world beyond the grave, the vision of God will stand in a certain correlation with the seeing faculty of the beholders. All will “see his face,” but all will not be capable of receiving from the sight that which it will convey to some. There are degrees of happiness in the next world no less than in the present. If we would derive from that blessed sight all that God intended man to derive from it, we must in this life cultivate the power of “seeing God” and delighting in the contemplation of him.

Isa 6:5

Man’s unworthiness brought home to him by nothing o much as seeing God.

The natural man is, for the most part, very well contented with himself. He does not deal much in self-scrutiny, and is not often troubled with twinges of conscience. If at any time be has any misgivings, he compares himself with other men, and readily persuades himself that he is quite as good, or even very much better than his neighbors. “God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are,” is his self-satisfied utterance; or, if he is not quite so arrogant as this, at any rate he thinks himself “quite good enough”as honest, industrious, liberal, moral generally, as he needs to be. Occasionally he may be startled a little out of his self-complacency by coming in contact with persons of a different stamp from himself, whom he sees to have a different rule of life, a different conception of their duties to God and man. But it is seldom that he wakes up to any true conviction of, in until in some way or other, there is revealed to him some “vision of God,” some conception of the true nature of that pure and holy Being who has made and rules the universe. Once let him open the eye of his soul and see God as he isperfectly pure, holy, just, immaculateand he cannot but be driven by the contrast to recognize his own weakness, wickedness, impurity, unrighteousness, deeply engrained sinfulness. Some conviction of sin must flash on him. Well for him if it be deep and strong! Welt for him if it brings him, first to confession (Luk 18:13), and then to earnest, heartfelt prayer for pardon! God’s seraph will then haply bring him such a “burning coal” from the altar before the throne of God as he brought to Isaiah, and convey to him the assurance that, for the merits of Christ, his “iniquity is taken away, and his sin purged.”

Isa 6:11-13

The loving-kindness of God shown in his judgments.

“I know, O Lord, that thy judgments are right, and flat thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me,” says the psalmist (Psa 119:75). No doubt, at last God must simply punish the obdurate and impenitent; but for the most part he sends his judgment upon men in mercy, either to turn them from their sins, or to refine and improve their characters.

I. EVEN WHEN GOD SIMPLY PUNISHES, IT IS IN LOVING–KINDNESS TO MANKIND AT LARGE. When a nation, like Israel, as distinct from Judah, has persisted in evil-doing for centuries, in spite of warnings, teaching, remonstrance, knowledge of the truth, its case is hopeless”there is no remedy” (2Ch 36:16). The blow that then falls upon the nation is penal and finalthe requital of its ill desert. But if the blow is dealt to the nation itself in mere justice, it is also struck for the benefit of all neighboring nations, in mercy. It warns them from their evil ways; it says to them, in a voice which they can scarcely fail to hear, “Take heed, lest ye too perish.”

II. MOST OF GOD‘S JUDGMENTS ARE CHASTISEMENTS, SENT TO TURN MEN FROM THEIR SINS. “We have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us” (Heb 12:9) when we had done wrong, and strove thereby to deter us from evil. So God acts with his children. So he chastened Judah, bringing calamity after calamity upon her, until at last there was a “remnant” which truly turned to him, and became the germ of the Christian Church. So be has chastened many a nation besides. So, too, he chastens individuals, sending on them sickness, and poverty, and loss of friends, and other misfortunes, to check them in a career of sin, and cause them to pause, and reflect, and tremble at his mighty hand, and humble themselves under it, and change their course of life. In this way he chastened David by the loss of Bathsheba’s first child, and by the revolt of Absalom and Adonijah; Hezekiah by war and sickness; Solomon by “adversaries” at home and abroad. Of this kind again are the natural punishments which he has attached to sins, the natural tendency of which is to deter men from them.

III. ONE CLASS OF HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRIALS, SENT TO PROVE MEN, AND THEREBY TO PURIFY THEM AND RAISE THEM TO GREATER SAINTLINESS. “Every branch in me that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit” (Joh 15:2); “The trying of your faith worketh patience” (Jas 1:3). Christ himself, we are told, was in his human nature “made perfect through suffering.” The discipline of affliction is needed for forming in us many of the highest Christian graces, as patience, resignation, forgivingness, mildness, long-suffering. The sons of God are taught to expect a chastening which shall be “for their profit, that they may be partakers of his holiness” (Heb 12:10).

HOMILIES BY E. JOHNSON

Isa 6:1-13

The prophet’s call and consecration.

There are turning-points in life which give a meaning to the whole of its after-course. A light may be given to the ‘mind at such moments by which it may have to steer its course for years. In moments of despondency the man of God will fall back on memory, and encourage himself by the recollection that, having once received and followed Divine guidance, that guidance will not desert him in the future. Such was this moment in the history of Isaiah. Life stood before him like a crowded picture; he foresaw the difficulties with which he would have to contend, yet that picture did not dismay him. “Like Christ from the first beginning of his Messianic labors, he thought of the end, nor did he shrink flora the image of death, so that the fact as it came nearer only confirmed what had Dot seemed strange from the beginning” (Ewald). It is the sense, not of our own faithfulness, nor of our own means, but of a Divine destiny working in and through us that must be our support in weak and lonely hours. To feel that we are moving against the course of the sun, even in the midst of external comfort or popular applause, is to be weak and unnerved; while a stern yet sweet joy fills the soul in the prospect of duty and danger, in which, though we seem to fail, we must be victors forever. Every true man has his hours of prophetic revelation; and well for him whose will is strong, and who abides by the truth of that revelation through good and through evil report, unswervingly to the end.

I. THE VISION OF THE DIVINE MAJESTY.

1. Its date is fixed in memory. “The year that King Uzziah died.” Dates are the resting-places of memory and fancy, around which accumulates the lore of our years. The accessions and the deaths of kings, battles, peaces, revolutions, acts of parliament that wrought weal for the people,such are the dates of nations. And every soul has its epochsbirth, youthful events of pleasure, love, struggle, defeat, success; and for each there must be more to him than the events recorded in the calendar. The most “uneventful” year, as we speak, is eventful for the hidden sphere of many a spirit. How hint and poor are our public memorials of history compared with those private recollections which are written in the invisible ink of memory! Let us own that history means, first and foremost to every one of us, the history of our own spirit. By a Divine providence the fragment of an Isaiah’s, a Jeremiah’s, an Ezekiel’s autobiography is preserved through the ages, to remind us that the inner life, the contact of God with the soul, is our real concern, our deepest interest. Between the two dates on the tombstone that will mark our entrance into the world, our passage from it, what a record must lie, stored in the archives of eternityof visions beheld, of voices heard, whether obeyed or disregarded! “In the year that King Uzziah died.”

2. It is a vision of the sublimity of God. Seated on a high, exalted throne, God in this image is conceived under the analogy of the Ruler. Father and Rulersuch is the Bible view of God; his rule based upon his fatherhood, his fatherhood imparting benignancy and tenderness to the sterner character of the Lawgiver of the universe. But here the Father seems for the moment absorbed in the awful Sovereign, whose throne is in the heights of heaven, his footstool earth. It is only his skirts that are visible to the awe-struck gaze of the prophet. Amidst the most magnificent scenes of external nature, the Alps or the Andes, we may gain a passing soul-expanding vision of the Higheststill only part revealed, but much more hidden. The verdure bejeweled with flowers, the forests glancing with the luster of dazzling birds of plumage,these may represent the vesture of the great King, hinting an unutterable beauty on which none can look and live. And so in the inward or moral world. In the history of a people or of a man there are moments when God, in the still more impressive might of his holiness, sweeps by, an awakening and a purifying Spirit. Or in higher moments of devotion we may gain a momentary glimpse of that pure love, so full of terror yet so full of blessing, which burns at the core of things, and whose light is reflected in the light of every human conscience. Yet these are partial revelations, like that to the prophet; glimpses of the skirts of Jehovah’s majesty, tastes of a “burning bliss” which in its fullness could not be endured. It is this sense that there is a beauty all around us, ready at any moment to break into glowing manifestation, were not our mortal eyes too dim to look upon it; an eternal music from which this “muddy vesture of decay grossly closing us in” protects us, which otherwise might paralyze by its thunderous tones;it is this sense which does, or which should, impress an habitual reverence upon the mind. We should all be able to look back upon moments of our history when we have seen in the inner chamber of the mind something of what Isaiah saw, and to cherish the recollection as a lore never to be forgotten. For if we have never known a time when we were reduced into insignificance in the presence of God, and felt that he was all and we were naught, and that the best tradition about God must be hushed into silence before what we personally know of God, we have missed an elementary lesson which, when once obtained, adds weight and worth to all our after-experience.

3. The seraphs and their song. “Seraphs stood high around [or, ‘above’] him.” It is impossible to gain a true notion of the seraphic figures without consulting works of art. Like the cherubim and the griffins and the sphinxes, their origin is in the remotest fore-time. All these were, in fact, among man’s earliest efforts to represent to himself in visible art the Divine power which he felt to be working in and through nature; in the flash of the lightning, the thunder’s roar, the might of the blast, and all those mysterious sounds and sights which usher in the changes of the year. As this is the only place where the seraphim are named, their character must remain for the most part speculative. Similar winged figures are, however, found in Oriental sculpture (such as those in the British Museum) as attributes of a sovereign. And we can hardly be wrong in considering them as appropriate signs of Jehovah’s sovereignty over nature in the vision of Isaiah. Wings in art-figures generally denote the wind. If, then, we compare the passages in the Old Testament whence Jehovah’s power is described as revealed in storm and wind, e.g. Psa 18:10 (“He rode upon a cherub, and did fly: yea, he did fly upon the wings of the wind”) or Psa 104:3, Psa 104:4 (“Who walketh upon the wings of the wind; who maketh his messengers spirits, his ministers a flaming fire”), we may gain a fair understanding of what is meant. The stormy winds at the turning-points of the year reveal forcethe force of the omnipotent Creator. And at the same time, the Creator is concealed behind, as well as revealed in, these expressions of his might. And so the seraphic figures are seen by the prophet doubly veiled by their own wingsin face and feet. For we can neither look upon the face of God nor follow the viewless track of his footsteps. As the noble verse of Cowper aptly expresses it

“God moves in a mysterious way,

His wonders to perform;

He plants his footsteps in the sea,

And rides upon the storm.”

We shall not be far wrong if we find this truth symbolically set forth by the six-winged seraphic figures of the prophet’s vision. But the wind is full of music as well as of might, and the seraphs give utterance to a solemn song, which falls into two members, sung antiphonally by these celestial choristers. “One called to the other,” just as the priests in the temple-music below. Profound and weighty is the burden of this alternate chant

“Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts!
The fullness of the whole earth is his glory!”

How shall we think of the holiness of Jehovah? As height, like that in which the seraphs singa nature and a life so “far above” our base and groveling ways? Alas for us, if we do not ever recollect in our worship that, high as yonder empyrean above this “dim spot that men call earth,” distinct as the clouds in fleeciest white from the stagnant and foul spots below, are the thoughts of Jehovah above our thoughts, and his ways above our ways! Shall we think of holiness as separation? Woe to us if we know not that purity, which, like the flame, retirees to wed with ought that is alien to itself; which, like the light, divides and discriminates the evil from the good wheresoever it comes! The thrice-holy God is none other than the supremely pure Intelligence, the perfect chastity of Love. But the infinite glory as well as the holiness of Jehovah is celebrated. It is the “fullness of the earth,” teeming with life, throbbing with mysterious forces, covered with a rich robe of rare embroidery, holding rich treasures in her keeping; which embodies to our thought the nature of God in its vast extent, just as the pure sky represents the intensity of that nature as a principle of holiness. Silent and inaccessible as sun and stars, he is yet near to us in the throbbing of great nature’s heartnay, of our own.

“Speak to him, then! for he hears,

and spirit with spirit may meet;

Closer is he than thy breathing,

nearer than hands and feet.”

“God in all”this was the thought of Paul the apostle, as of Isaiah the prophet. Incarnate in the flower and in the stem, vocal in the “sound of many waters,” or in the tinkling of brook or murmur of zephyr; there is nothing in the world in which he is not revealed.

“Thou art, O God, the Life and Light

Of all this wondrous world we see!

Its glow by day, its smile by night,

Are but reflections caught from thee:

Where’er we turn, thy glories shine,
And all things fair and bright are thine.”

4. The yoke of God. A loud cry is heard even above the hymn of the seraphim, and it causes the thresholds to tremble. The thunder was among all ancient nations listened to as the voice of God. It is the natural expression of supreme and irresistible power, before which man, in the last height of his own intelligence and power, must bow. Instantly the smoke soars from the altar, and the temple is filled with smoke. Worship is man’s answer to God’s voicethe answerer his conscience, the answer of his heart. Nor can we truly worship without the sense of being face to face with unutterable mystery. For behind the most glorious visions remains he “whom no man hath at any time seen, nor can see;” at the heart of the thunder is that Divine emotion which must slay us were it fully discharged into our souls. The rising smoke may fitly typify that sacred silence, the “offspring of the deeper heart,” in which our worship should begin and end.

II. THE PROPHET‘S CONSECRATION.

1. The effect of the revelation on his mind. First, there is the sense of utter weakness. When the true glory of the spiritual world bursts upon us, it seems as if we must die. Every difficulty conquered brings us a new sense of strength; every human being we have fairly faced in the consciousness of our own manhood we may reduce to our own level; for one man is virtually the peer of every other, the world over. But who can look and live in the presence of the white intense light of the pure and burning Spirit of God? Already, like Abraham (Gen 18:1-33.), the man feels himself as if reduced to “dust and ashes;” or, like Moses, that he cannot see the Eternal and live, but must shelter himself in a cleft of the rock, and hide behind the hand of God (Exo 33:1-23.); or, like Manoah, forebodes a deathful doom as he gazes into the mystic altar-flame (Jdg 13:1-25.). In Greek and other Gentile legends we read of children receiving a nightly birth of fire as the condition of immortality, the meaning of which was that none but those destined to divinity could endure the fiery ordeal Profound enigma of our nature! That we to whom has been imparted the longing for life eternal, the dim consciousness of an undying destiny, should yet know moments when we seem on the verge of “dusty death.” But the man whom God calls to be mighty in word and deed must pass through the whole gamut and scale of human emotion, from the lowest mood of self-distrust to that of loftiest confidence in God. No note must be left unstruck in our own heart, if we are to make it sound in the conscience of others. There is, besides, the consciousness inefficiency. The very calling which already glimmers before Isaiah’s mind as his is that for which he finds himself unfit, lie is to be a nabi, a prophet; that is, a man of fluent lips and pure, through which the streams of Divine eloquence are to flow. Alas! how can this be? For he is a “man of unclean lips,” and will not the truth be muddied passing through them, and so cease to be truth? All this is a typical experience. The man who has never felt unfit will never be fit for any great thing. Jeremiah, at his call, felt that he was “a child;” and Moses that he was “slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exo 4:10); and John fell at the feet of the Son of man “as one dead,” brain and hand paralyzed, before he took up the pen that glowed with apocalyptic fire. Who is the fit man for God’s ends? The self-confident man? It depends on what we mean by “self-confidence.” Appearances deceive; the show of strength is not the same thing with strength itself, nor the demeanor of weakness a certain index of inefficiency. To read our own hearts is our business. And heart-experience may teach us that absolute confidence in our resources bodes humiliation, while trembling self-distrust may hint that something is to be done by God through us. “Do the very thing you are afraid to do,” is in certain moments the voice of conscience and of God. So it proved in this instance.

2. Purification and pardon. One of the burning beings flies to the prophet’s side, bearing a herded stone (for such seems to be the meaning of the word ritzpah) forming part of the altar, and detached without difficulty from it. With this he touches the lips of the trembling seer, saying, “Lo! this hath touched thy lips, and so will thy guilt depart, and thy sin may be atoned for.” More meaning can be condensed into a symbolic action than into any mere words. Fire is the enemy of all impurity; and the idea of a fire-baptism as the means of cleansing is deeply rooted in the lore of olden time. In this respect it seems nearly allied to the sprinkling of blood. And just as when Moses sprinkled all the people with the sacrificial blood, or the priests sprinkled the altar and other sacred objects, one drop seemed sufficient to diffuse ceremonial cleanness on the object on which it fell, so the mere touch of the hot coal or stone is enough to signify the completeness of the purification. It is not the quantity of the fiery element, but the quality, which does the work. A small spark may kindle a mass of fuel, or, falling on the hand, spread a keen pain through all the nervous network of the body; so a glimpse of God, a touch from his hand, may change the mood of our being for a lifetime. It may set up a glow which shall not die down till all that is selfish, sensual, base, in us shall lie in ashes. The sense of guilt lies deep in the mind; and never is it so clear and keen as in moments of bodily sickness or mental depression. The moment when we are tempted to say, “I cannot help it,” there rises up the thought that there is help in God, and therefore that we are not helpless. No sooner does the cry of weakness, the complaint concerning the unclean lips, escape Isaiah, than the eternal evangel, in all its supernatural strength to heal, comes homo to his heart. For this is the eternal gospel’ in its essence, whether borne by lips of seraph, prophet, or Son of God: “Thy guilt will depart, thy sin may he atoned for.” And in those blessed moments when we grasp this message in its fullest meaning, and believe it in its inmost truth, the heart is set free, and, despite present fetters and prisons in which fact or fancy holds us bound, we know that it will not ever be thus. Then, indeed, the yoke of duty becomes easy, the burden of toil, for the sake of the love which pardons and emancipates, light.

3. The call to service. Again the august and dominant voice of the Eternal is heard: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” A ready answer, full of devotion, full of self-abandonment, comes from that lately overwhelmed heart: “Here am I; send me.” Out of weakness Isaiah has been made strong, and there is no hesitation now. There is “triumph lingering in his eyes, wide as of some swimmer’s who descries help from above in his extreme despair.” The foolish imprudence which cries, “Here am I; send me,” without having calculated the cost of the enterprise and the extent of the resources, is not that of Isaiah. Still less is the unfaithful trifling with one’s powers and opportunities under the excuse of modesty, or the delight in dreams of action rather than in action itself, seen in him. We see some men rashly staking their future on the cast of a die, impetuously crossing a Rubicon; others lingering on the brink, or moving superstitiously in a fancied circle, beyond which seems to lie the frowning impossible. And we see a third class who have learned the Divine magic of the word “obey,” and who alone move safely and with high heart to ends greater than their dreams. The servant’s readiness, his quickness of eye and ear, is what we need. Can we allege that we have never seen our vision, heard our call from the unmistakable voice? If the plea he sound, then our mistakes and aberrations cannot be charged against us. But can we maintain such plea so long as there is any meaning in the words” truth” and” duty?” Truth is ever beckoning to us, duty’s low clear voice is ever sounding, though the paths to which they guide lie but dimly before. The call to act is for us all; the call to act greatly but for God’s elected few. Let us not mistake our wishes for Divine commands, nor in vanity create a destiny which is only our own fiction. Still less let us treat impressions which have seized us and shaken us with awe, and against which reluctant flesh and blood have struggled, as dreams to be set aside and fancies to be overcome. If, after straining eye and ear, God seems to leave you through wide tracts of life’s way to struggle with your ignorance and to work out your problems unaided,be it so. This is your call. If otherwise you are the subject of strong and extraordinary impressions, reaching into the reality behind the shows of things, hearing with open ears where others know but confused sounds,be it so. Your call is more direct. If only we will not indulge the blindness of those who will not see, the deafness of those who stop their ears, the proud weakness of those who hate to obey, all may be well.

III. THE MISSION.

1. It will be thankless and disappointing. Isaiah is to go and waste, as it seems, his eloquence upon dull ears, upon intelligences sealed up, and hearts that are proof against religious feeling. The light of truth as it streams from him will encounter rocks that will not melt in the sun, natures that can neither be softened nor sweetened. It is the height of a preacher’s joy when every word comes back to him a silent echo from the conscience of the people; and his day of mourning is when he feels himself to be speaking in a valley full of dry bones, or before beings who seem to have life and conscience, set are but as specters of men. In his best moments it seems that all the eloquence is in the people, and he is “gathering up in a mist” from them that which he is to “return upon them in a flood.” In other moments of discouragement it seems that he is alone in the world, with a sublime cry upon his lips, now become meaningless, because there are none to whom it has a meaning. We know the legend of St. Antony preaching to the fishes; and, indeed, it seems better to talk with the dumb creatures whom we can win to silent sympathy, than to a people which “does not consider.” The company of the ox or the ass seems better than that or men who have become as “stocks and stones, and worse than senseless filings.” The preacher and teacher will know these trials, and let him recollect that it is pro uncommon experience. We find its pathos repeated in different ways in all the great prophets, in John the Baptist, the “voice in the desert,” and in Christ himself. Ate we to cease crying when the echo ceases? Rather let us go on until we hear once more the truth coming back to us. Let us believe that what is true to us in our inmost heart will one day be true for all the world. One of our great countrymen said that he was wont to iterate the same statement again and again until he heard it on the tongue of common talk; and this was a statesman to whom the people owed the greatest material blessings. The test of truth is not the way in which it is received, but the immediate reflection of it in our own mind.

2. The gloom of the time will deepen. “How long, O Lord?” The answer describes a prophet shut in by clouds and mist, or overhung by some all-pervading pall of gloom. Sin is to go on working out its waste, until there be an empty and depopulated land; Things bad begun to make themselves strong by ill.” And there are times when evil must be left to gather to a head and run its full course. It may even be the part of the prophet to hasten it on its way. But when we say, “Things are getting worse and worse,” let us remember that beyond the worst remains the best, and after last returns the first; for God is the principle of an inexhaustible and unconquerable life.

3. The gleam of hope. There is now visible at the close a gleam on the dark horizon, denoting a coming dawn. A section, an elect few, a tenth, will survive these coming disasters. The fire of judgment and purification, of which the burning seraphs are symbolic, must wither the goodly branches of the national tree, and leave the stem all blackened and charred. Still the stump will remain with its root still fastened in the earth. “Just as the trunk of terebinth or oak, deeply and ineradicably sunk in the earth, bears constantly new shoots, an image of eternity and immortality, springing from an inward “rejuvenating power,” so with the spiritual life of the nation and the individual. Here, then, we see how the deepest seriousness and sadness is yet compatible with undying hope.

(1) The nation that hopes in the Eternal can never perish. That terebinth root lives on; all fresh developments of Christianity spring from its undying life.

(2) The man who hopes in the Eternal shall be saved. He may, he must, pass through the fire of trial; but if he endure to the end, he shall be saved. Amidst his ashes he will discover fresh life; for there is hope of the tree, and hope of the man, that though felled, he shall rise again.

(3) Holiness is the secret of life. It is health, it is the sanity of the mind which has made truth its portion, God its delight, and his service its eternal choice.J.

HOMILIES BY W.M. STATHAM

Isa 6:8

The call of God.

“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.” The symbol of the seraphim had been on the prophet’s head, and the voice of the Lord had come to his conscience and his heart. The live coal had touched his lips. Prophets, apostles, teachers, must be sent of God. Other qualifications are appropriate and excellent, but this is indispensable.

I. THE DIVINE QUERY. “Whom?” Then God takes thought about Divine government in human history. Just as Nature expresses, in all her forms of beauty, his skill and care, so in grace God is observant of character, and watchful for the wisest means. He knows the secret places of grace and genius, and he can call them forth at the appropriate time. Isaiah now; Paul in the great epoch to come.

II. THE ELECTIVE HONOR. “Whom shall I send?” Here we have the sublime election to privilege, so far as responsibility is concerned, which, rightly considered, explains God’s calling of Jews then, and Jews and Gentiles now. It is not an election to salvation, but to a status of honor and influence in witnessing for him. “Send!” Then God is the great Father of all human spirits, not willing that any should perish. The Jewish Church was a city set on a hill to enlighten others; the salt to save the world from death and putrefaction.

III. THE QUICK RESPONSE. There is no hesitation. “Here am I.” Men should fulfill their own prayers. They ask for grace and strength to work and give. Let them inquire within whether they cannot turn supplication into consecration. “Here am I.” How few say that! They look round and exclaim, “Send others!” “Send reel” says the prophet, fulfilling the commission which makes him the great evangelic spirit of the Old Testament.W.M.S.

HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON

Isa 6:1

The vision of God.

“I saw the Lord,” writes the prophet. These simple, strong words suggest to us

I. THE VISION WHICH IS IMPOSSIBLE. “NO man hath seen God at any time,” our Lord declares; and his declaration is sustained by the philosophic truth that he who is a Divine Spirit must be invisible to mortal eye. So far as our apprehension by sense is concerned, God must remain, to every human being, “the King eternal, immortal, invisible.” Himself, in his own essential nature, we cannot look upon.

II. THE VISION WHICH IS EXTRAORDINARY. God has, on some few occasions, granted special and particular manifestations of himselfsuch that those to whom they were vouchsafed might say, without impropriety, that they had “seen the Lord.” Of this kind were the burning bush (Exo 3:1-22.), the vision granted to Moses on the mount (Exo 34:5, Exo 34:6), that of Micaiah (1Ki 22:19), this one narrated in the text, those of the Apocalypse. In these cases there was a manifestation of Deity in Some form, temporarily assumed, cognizable by the senses, and bringing the soul into close communion with the Eternal One himself.

III. THE VISION WHICH IS CONSTANT. It is something more than poetry to think and speak of God as being in the various objects and operations in nature. It is something deeper than fanciful sentiment, and truer than Pantheistic thought, to say that “nature is the robe of God.” For his power is immanent in all living things. The forces of nature, which are working everywhere and in all things, are, in truth, the out-workings of his own Divine hand, in constant and regular, and therefore in measurable and reliable activity. When we watch them, we do well to feel that we are near to him; they are directly suggestive of him, and we ought not to be able to regard them with interest without reaching and resting in him of whose presence and skill and love they continually speak to us.

IV. THE VISION WHICH IS HISTORICAL. There are two manifestations of Deity which stand by themselves, the latter being transcendently the greater and more gracious of the two.

1. One was in the visible Shechinah: which remained the constant symbol of the presence of Jehovah for many generations; there in the midst of the camp, visible to any eye that looked within the veil, but only to be seen by one man on one great day in the sacred calendar.

2. The other was found in him who was able to say, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” They who looked on him in the days of his flesh, and who heard his voice, might say with peculiar meaning, “I have seen the Lord.” And we, before whose eyes a once-crucified Savior has been conspicuously upheld (see Gal 3:1), and who, in him, have presented to our spiritual vision the holy and loving One, infinitely’ worthy of our reverent affection, may also say, with profound truthfulness, that we too “have seen the Lord.”

V. THE VISION WHICH IS OCCASIONAL. There are certain exceptional experiences which God grants to us now, when he comes very near to us and reveals himself to our souls. It may be on the occasion of some outward incident, the apparent nearness of death and the future world, or the passing of some intimate friend or relation into the unseen realm, or the powerful presentation of the truth by some faithful minister of Christ, or it may be the sudden illumination of the Spirit of God apart from all special circumstances whatsoever; but there are times in individual history when God comes to us, when he makes his person, his claims upon us, his grace to us in his Son, and with these, our highest, eternal interests, to assume to our souls their true, their grand proportions. Then is it well, indeed, for us so to act that we can thereafter say,” I was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision.”C.

Isa 6:2-4

A sermon from the seraphim.

Taking the seraphim of this prophetic vision as symbols of the “highest creaturely intelligences,” we gather from the text

I. THAT THE LOWLIEST REVERENCE BECOMES THE HIGHEST CREATED BEINGS. “With twain [of his wings] he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feel.” Of the six wings each seraph possessed, four were used to indicate their sense of unworthiness in the near presence of God; two only were in readiness for active service. May we not fairly infer that, as we go upward in the order of intelligence, we become more impressed with the majesty and greatness of the Divine, and consequently with our own littleness? Elevation in rank does not mean diminution, but increase in reverence of spirit and in homage of worship. The higher the intelligence, the deeper the sense of lowliness, and the fuller the devotion of power in the attitude and act of adoration.

II. THAT THE HEAVENLY LIFE IS LARGELY SPENT IN ACTIVE SERVICE. “With twain he did fly.” The seraphim are represented as so equipped as to be ready for the most prompt and speedy service. The heavenly life may be one of sacred song and peaceful rest; but it certainly is also one of joyous, holy activity. It will be the very crown of our blessedness that, unclothed of all that hampers and impedes, and clothed upon with those celestial organs which fit for fleetest and strongest service, we shall do the King’s behests with untiring wing, with unflagging energy, with unfading love and joy.

III. THAT THE CELESTIAL INTELLIGENCES HAVE A KEEN APPRECIATION OF THE DIVINE. HOLINESS. “Holy, holy, holy,” etc. It is significant enough that, in this ascriptive utterance, only one of the attributes of God finds a place. The repetition of the epithet marks the fullness and clearness of the thought, as also the intensity of the feeling. In Jesus Christ we rightly magnify the grace and mercy, the gentleness and considerateness, of the heavenly Father to whom we are reconciled through him; but we must see to it that we do not so dwell on the more gracious aspects of the Divine character as to lose sight of, or even dwarf his other and opposite attributes. As we draw near to the heavenly world we must take the celestial view, which is one of a deep and strong conviction of his perfect purity, of his stainless holiness, of his utter and eternal hostility to every shade and taint of sin.

IV. THAT THE HIGHEST INTELLIGENCES SEE ALL THINGS IN THEIR RELATION TO GOD. “The whole earth is full of his glory.” Those who will receive no more helpful and decisive teaching than that of science and philosophy fall short of this; they come to the irreverent conclusion that the heavens and the earth declare the glory of those only who have studied their secrets and discovered their laws. But the highest, the heavenly intelligences find God everywhere and his glory in everything. The psalm of the seraphim declares that “the whole earth is full of his glory.” And we as we ascend in mental power and spiritual worth, shall let all earthly things speak to us of God. The multitude of all created things and of all living creatures will speak of his power; the intricacy and delicacy and adaptation of all things will tell of his wisdom; the vast and measureless amount of happiness scattered over all the earth’s surface and even in its depths will sing of his beneficence; the sorrow and the death which are beneath its skies will chant the righteousness of his holy rule; the upward struggle and the better life, which grow clearer and stronger age by age, will beat’ witness to his regenerating goodness. All things will speak of God, the whole earth will be full of his glory.C.

Isa 6:5-7

Spiritual agitation.

The passage depicts the prophet in a condition of great mental agitation; his state may suggest to us

I. THE ALARM OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT UNDER THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE. Anything which brings us into close contact with the unseen world powerfully affects our spirit and produces an apprehension for which we may not be able to account.

1. Any visitant, real or imaginary, from the spiritual realm fills us with fear (see Jdg 6:22; Jdg 13:22; Job 4:15; Dan 10:8; Luk 1:12; Luk 2:9). We have not the slightest reason to apprehend any act of hostility from such a being, and may be said to have a positive interest in knowing that such as they are do exist and do concern themselves in our welfare. But there are few men who would not be considerably agitated if they believed themselves to be in the presence of a disembodied (or unembodied) spirit.

2. We are affected with lively apprehension when we think ourselves to be on the confines of the future, the spiritual world.

3. The conception of the near presence of the Lord himself awakens the greatest disquietude of soul. So was it with Isaiah now. “Woe is me! I am undone,” he exclaimed. So was it with Peter when the miraculous draught revealed the presence of his Divine Master. “Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord,” was his prayer. And whenever we are brought into such a spiritual condition that we are ready to say, “Surely God is in this place,” whenever the hand of the Lord is felt to be upon our souls and his voice to be manifestly addressing our hearts, we are awed, agitated, even alarmed, with a peculiar and inexpressible apprehension.

II. ITS JUSTIFICATION IN OUR HUMAN GUILT. We may not be able to explain our alarm at the nearness of any created being from the other world, but we can well understand how it is we are affected as we are under the consciousness of the divine presence. It is that our littleness is abashed at the presence of Divine majesty, our ignorance in presence of Divine wisdom, our feebleness in presence of Divine power. But this is not the explanation of our alarm. It is found in the fact that when we find ourselves before God we are conscious that a guilty soul is in the near presence of the thrice-holy One (see verse 3). The clue to our agitation is in the words, “I am a man of unclean lips;” “I am a sinful man.” There is a twofold reason why sinful men should be alarmed at the felt presence of God: one, that all sin by its very nature shrinks and cowers in the conscious presence of purity; the other, that the guilty human soul knows well that it is the province, and is in the power, of the righteous God to inflict the penalty which is its due; and it knows that the rightful penalty of sin is sorrow, shame, death.

III. ITS DIVINE REMOVAL. (Verses 6, 7.) Under Divine direction one of the cherubim took a live coal from that altar of sacrifice which God had caused to be built for the purging of the sins of the people, and with the coal he touched the “unclean lips” of which the prophet had made confession and complaint; so was his “iniquity taken away,” and, we may conclude, his spirit calmed. The removal of that spiritual agitation which comes to our soul when we realize that our guilt is in the full view of the Holy One can only come from God himself. We may bless his Name that he has made such ample provision for this gracious purpose.

1. He has provided the sacrifice and the altar; that is found in him who is the Propitiation for our sins, in the cross of Calvary.

2. He has provided the messengers of mercy; these are found in those faithful servants who carry the gospel of his grace on the wings of their ardent love.

3. He has provided the means by which the sacrifice and the soul are connected, and the virtue of the one is made to touch and heal the other; this is found in that living faith by which the Lamb of God takes away our sin, and our soul, “being justified by faith, has peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.”C.

Isa 6:8

On God’s errand.

Our thought is naturally divided into

I. THE DIVINE DEMAND. “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”

1. There are some demands God makes of us all. He requires that we should hearken when he speaks; that we should be especially attentive to his Son (Mat 17:5); that we should accept Jesus Christ as our Lord, Savior, Friend, Exemplar; that we should honor him before the world.

2. There are other demands he makes of most of his children. That they should actively engage in the work of extending his kingdom; that they should suffer some kind of persecution for his sake.

3. There remain some demands he only makes of a few. Work requiring specially hard toil, or particular preparation in study, or unusual tact and versatility, or exceptional powers of mind or body. Then he says, “Whom (of all my servants) shall I send; and who will go?”

II. THE INDIVIDUAL RESPONSE. “Here am I; send me.” In order to say this wisely and rightly, there must be:

1. Thorough devotedness; half-heartedness will never succeed on such errands as these.

2. Special qualification, by native faculty or favorable antecedents.

3. Freedom from other and more pressing obligations. These conditions being fulfilled, all the highest considerationsthe will of Christ, the pitiful necessities of the sons of want and sorrow and shame, the example of the noblest, the recompense of the righteouscombine to say, “Go, and the Lord be with you.”C.

Isa 6:9-13

The shadow of sacred truth.

We may view these words in

I. THEIR NATIONAL ASPECT. Thus regarded, they point to:

1. Painful and guilty obduracy. The prophet should speak, but the people would disregard; all that was froward and perverse in them would repel and reject the Divine message; their reception of the truth would only end in spiritual deterioration and greater moral distance than ever from deliverance (Isa 6:9, Isa 6:10).

2. Protracted impenitence and Divine judgment (Isa 6:11, Isa 6:12).

3. Long-lingering mercy ending in partial restoration (Isa 6:13). But we shall gain most from these verses by regarding them in

II. THEIR INDIVIDUAL ASPECT. The ninth and tenth verses have the most direct and serious bearing on our condition now. They suggest to us that sacred truth not only sheds a bright light, but casts a deep shadow where it falls.

1. It casts the shadow of solemn responsibility everywhere. When a greater than Moses legislates, and a wiser than Solomon speaks to us, we have more to be responsible for than they who received the Law from Sinai, and they who lived under the reign of the son of David. From those to whom much is given will much be required.

2. It casts the shadow of a heavy condemnation on those who reject it. “Of how much sorer punishment,” etc. “It shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment,” etc.; “This is the condemnation, that light is come,” etc.; “He that knew his Lord’s will and did it not shall be beaten with many stripes.”

3. But the special lesson from our text is that it casts the shadow of spiritual deterioration on those who refuse it. “Make the heart of this people fat shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes,” etc. The apparent sense of these words cannot be, and is not, the one that should be accepted. They cannot possibly be meant to signify that God desired his prophet deliberately and intentionally to cause moral obtuseness, spiritual blindness, in order that the people of Judah might be prevented from repenting and so from being saved. Such a thought not only outrages every reverent idea of the Divine character, but flatly contradicts the most express statements of the Divine Word (see Eze 18:23; 1Ti 2:4; 2Pe 3:9; Jas 1:13). There is one sense of which the words are susceptible, and which is in accordance with the plainly revealed character of God; it is that the prophet was to declare such truth as would actually result in spiritual blindness, and therefore in incapacity for repentance and redemption, Now, it is the solemn duty of the minister of Christ to do the same thing continually. He knows that, as his Divine Master was “set for the fall” as well as for the “rising again of many in Israel” (Luk 2:34), and as he had occasion to say, “For judgment am I come into this world, that they who see may be made blind” (Joh 9:39), that as his gospel was in earliest times a “stone of stumbling and a rock of offence” (Isa 8:14; and see Mat 21:44; 1Co 1:23; 2Co 2:16), so now the truth of the living God must prove, to those who reject it, the occasion of moral and spiritual degeneracy. He must lay his account with this sad fact, must go forth, like Isaiah, well aware that it is a two-edged sword he wields. But let the sons of sacred privilege understand what is their peril as well as their opportunity. Deliberately rejected truth leads down to

(1) a diminished sensibility, the lessening of pure religious emotion;

(2) loss of spiritual apprehension, an enfeebled capacity to perceive the mind and meaning of the Divine Teacher;

(3) a vanishing likelihood of personal salvation. When the ear is shut and the eye is closed, is it likely that the feet will be found in the way of life? Will they not wander off to the fields of folly, up to and over the precipice of ruin?C.

HOMILIES BY R. TUCK

Isa 6:1-4

Symbolic impressions of the Divine holiness.

This is the only vision recorded in Isaiah’s prophecy. It did not come at the beginning of his labors, but as an inauguration to a higher degree of the prophetic office. From the tone of the latter part of the chapter, it is evident that he had found out the rebelliousness and obstinacy of the people, and perhaps had become, like Elijah, greatly distressed and discouraged; needing, therefore, such a reviving and encouragement as this vision was fitted to afford. It introduces the prophet as outside, near the altar in front of the temple. The doors are supposed to be open, and the veil hiding the holy of holies to be withdrawn, unfolding the sight of Jehovah as a Monarch sitting on his throne, and surrounded by his ministers of state. According to the tradition, Isaiah’s assertion that he had seen God was the pretext for sawing him asunder, in the reign of Manasseh. In the record of the vision it should be noticed that Isaiah gives only surroundings of God, no description of the Divine Being himself. If this had been the only vision recorded as granted by God to his people, its explanation would have been difficult. It is, however, but one of a long series, and it appears to illustrate a recognized mode of Divine dealings. God takes opportunities of impressing the Divine holiness and claims by symbolic manifestations. We review the principal illustrations from Bible records.

I. The word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Fear not, Abram: I am thy Shield, and thy exceeding great Reward.” And Abram, by Divine direction, took a heifer, a goat, a ram, a turtle-dove, and a young pigeon, killed them, divided them, and while a horror of great darkness fell upon him, “behold! a smoking furnace and a burning lamp”symbols of Divine holiness”passed between the pieces, and the Lord made a covenant with Abram.”

II. A vision was granted to Jacob, from which the whole tone of his life was changed, and he began a covenanted, God-fearing career. As he lay wearily on his stone pillow, under the clear-shining stars of an Eastern sky, “behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it. And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father the land whereon thou liest, to thee and thy seed will I give it.”

III. Moses led the flock of Jethro, one memorable day, to the back side of the desert, and “came to the mount of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And God called unto him out of the midst of the bush”symbol of the holiness that consumes and purifies”and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I.”

IV. When commencing his arduous life-work, a similar impression was wrought upon Joshua. One day he looked towards Jericho, and lo! “there stood a man over against him with his sword drawn in his hand.” In answer to Joshua’s question he said, “As Captain of the Lord’s host have I come Loose thy shoe from off thy foot; for the place whereon thou standest is holy.”

V. In the times of the judges Gideon and Manoah beheld angels who delivered messages, and ascended in the smoke of sacrificial fires. Samuel, when a little lad, heard the very voice of God speaking his own name, and entrusting him with prophetic messages. Solomon was honored by God’s appearing to him in a night-dream, and offering the bestowment of the best blessings upon him. Elijah, after the lightning, and thunder, and earthquake, and wind had passed, heard God in the “still small voice.” Job exclaims, as in the rapture of a vision, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself.” Jeremiah was directly set apart for his prophetic work. “The Lord put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.”

VI. In the New Testament records we find similar scenes. Manifestations of angels to shepherds. A wonderful scone of transfiguration for our Lord himself. The descending sheet, and its strange contents, for Peter. The overwhelming light and voice on the road to Damascus, and the elevation into the third heavens, to see the unspeakable, for St. Paul. And the apocalyptic vision for St. John. Isaiah’s vision is in fullest sympathy with all these. For its explanation, see the exegetical portion of the Commentary. It bore upon the prophet, through its symbols, overwhelming impressions

(1) of the holiness,

(2) of the direct claims of God.R.T.

Isa 6:5

Seeing God and the sense of sin.

“Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.” To Isaiah a work of unusual solemnity had been entrusted, one that needed to be done in a most serious and reverent spirit. He was at once the prophet of the Lord’s terror and of the Lord’s mercy. He was to denounce sin with the solemnity of one who knew what God’s thought of sin was. He was to produce the conviction of sin before God in the corrupt minds and hearts of the people, and he was to announce the coming, presently, of the great Messenger of Divine mercy. Therefore it was necessary for him to have his own soul filled with the infinite glory and holiness of God, and filled with a very humbling sense of sin. These effects were wrought by the vision granted to him. It took its form from its design. All about it is holy. It is the holy place. The seraphim bow before the infinitely Holy. They cry, “Holy, holy.” The threshold and the posts tremble before the Holy. And the soul of the prophet is abased. He is humbled in the sight of his own uncleanness, and the uncleanness of his people; for how can a man seem pure before his Maker?

I. A MAN NEEDS VISIONS OF GOD WHO HAS THE WORK OF DENOUNCING SIN. No man should dare to touch that work whose own soul is not oppressed with the evil of sin. Denunciation of sin is no flippant, easy work; it involves a tremendous expense of feeling. We talk about sin so freely, that for many of us it has lost its exceeding sinfulness. We confess it so often in familiar general terms, that it has lost almost all its terror. It may have been thus with Isaiah. He may have been so constantly talking about sin, that he had exhausted his feeling of its evil, and could even speak lightly about abomination that it is said “God hateth.” Certainly we need such visions of God to fill our minds and hearts with seriousness; we well may pray, “Lord, show me thyself.”

II. WHEN A MAN HAS VISIONS OF GOD, HE AT FIRST FEELS HELPLESS, AND DARES NOT UNDERTAKE GOD‘S WORK. Compare the feelings of Moses and Jeremiah, after their visions. The first feeling will be, “I dare not.” “Who is sufficient for these things?” But this will soon pass into humble dependence on Divine strength, and patient readiness to go where God sends, and do what God bids. When a man before God says, “Woe is me!” etc; he will soon respond to God’s call, saying, “Here am I; send me.”R.T.

Isa 6:5

The true inspiration for workers.

“Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” What a scene is presented in this chapter for our imaginations to reproduce! The throng of worshippers had left the courts of the sacred temple; the chanting, in alternate parts, of the choir of singers, clothed in white linen, had died into silence. Other devout Israelites were praying apart, and white-robed priests silently presented their prayers in the fragrant cloud of incense which rose from the golden altar of the holy place; “then the veil of the temple seemed to be withdrawn, and the holy of holies discovered to the prophet’s eye. He saw the Lord, sitting as a King upon his throne, actually governing and judging. His train, the symbol of dignity and glory, filled the holy place, while around him hovered the attendant seraphim, spirits of purity, zeal, and love, chanting in alternate choirs the holiness of their Lord. The threshold vibrated with the sound, and the white cloud of the Divine presence, as if descending to mingle itself with the ascending incense of prayer, filled the house. The eternal archetypes of the Hebrew symbolic worship were revealed to Isaiah; and, as the center of them all, his eyes saw the King, the Lord of hosts, of whom the actual rulers, from David to Uzziah, had been but the temporary and subordinate viceroys. In that presence, even the spirits of the fire, which consumes all impurity while none can mix with it, cover their faces and their feet, conscious that they are not pure in God’s sight, but justly chargeable with imperfection; and much more does Isaiah shrink from the aspiring thoughts he had hitherto entertained of his fitness to be the preacher of that God to his countrymen; he, a man of unclean lips, sharing the uncleanness of the people among whom he dwells. In utter self-abasement he realizes the exceeding sinfulness of sin, and the separation it makes between man and the holy God” (Sir E. Strachey). This was a vision of God granted to a worker, a man actively engaged in God’s service, and about to enter on more serious and more arduous duties. Visions have seldom, if ever, been granted to individuals merely as helps to their private religious life. They are gracious aids to workers; and God’s willing servants can only reach adequate convictions, feel worthy impulses, or gain a suitable and inspiring impression of the dignity of their work, through some direct manifestation of God himself to their souls. No man can do great things save as he is sustained by the conviction that God has sent him to do them, and is with him in the doing. The smallness of our aims, our endeavors, and our attainments, reveal how small and how unworthy are our views of God. It is evident that we cannot yet be said to have seen him. He has not yet overawed us with his glory and his claims, and swelled our souls with great thoughts, great resolves, and a great consecration. Those only who have seen” the King in his beauty” can give their very noblest powers, can lay down their lives, in his service.

I. CAN THERE BE PERSONAL REVELATIONS OF GOD TO HIS WORKERS IN OUR DAY? We have sadly lost in spiritual power, in self-abnegation, and in holy enthusiasm for the glory of the Lord, because we have so easily settled this question by answering, “Certainly not. God does not now give visions. Christian workers now need not expect such. We are left now to the ordinary illuminations of the Holy Spirit.” But will this answer bear looking at and thinking about, and testing by the light of actual experience? God’s forms of Divine dealing do indeed differ in different ages, but the essential features of God’s relationship with men do not change. He can reveal himself still to individual souls; and he is not limited to the particular forms of vision which he has used in ancient times. He may adapt his visions to the altered circumstances of each age; and if once he appeared in human form to meet the sight of bodily eyes, he may now reveal his glory in the spheres that lie open to the vision of the loving and believing soul. It he be the living God, ruling, guiding, choosing out his instruments, fashioning them for his purposes, and sending them upon his commissions, he must still have visions for his servants. They will take less of outward symbolic shape, they will relate more to thought and less to dreams; but that only makes them more immediate and direct Divine communicationscontacts of the Divine Spirit with the human spirit without the intervention of any earthly symbols. God spoke to the boy Samuel with an audible voice, he spoke afterwards to the man Samuel in a spirit-voice; but both were his voice. The New Testament promise is, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God,”

II. WHEN IN OUR LIFE MAY WE LOOK FOR SUCH DIVINE VISIONS TO WORKERS? Is there any special time or occasion at which they may be expected? They will net necessarily come at the beginnings of our special labors, though that might seem to be the most fitting time. They do often come at the outset, but sometimes we are permitted for a while to” go the warfare at our own charges;” we have a period of trial and of comparative failure, as Isaiah appears to have had, and then we are renewed in our consecration by some holy scenes of communion and revelation. Among the visions of the Old Testament we find several that were granted in the very midst of life’s work: e.g. Abraham’s, Moses’, Joshua’s, this of Isaiah; compare our Lord’s transfiguration, and Paul’s ascent to glory. The times for God’s personal disclosures of himself to a man can never be fixed ‘rod anticipated. Like other workings of grace, they are divinely, sovereignly free; the fitting occasion for them the unsearchable Wisdom alone can decide. This only may we sayNo Christian man has ever become truly great and noble and enthusiastic, no man has become utterly self-denying in the Lord’s work, until he has been called and solemnized and prepared by some soul-vision of God. He may be a Christian worker before, but he is not inspired and spiritually powerful until then. Life takes on its highest nobility only after we are able to say, “Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” We may not say that such visions come only once in a man’s life. They will be given as often as there is need for them, and openness to receive them. Christ, our Lord, had visions at his baptism, at the mount, in the wilderness, and in the garden. The Apostle Paul had visions on the road to Damascus, of the man from Macedonia, of the third heaven, and amid the dangers of shipwreck. We often hear of our dying friends seeing something of which those around their beds cannot catch the faintest glimpse. And this is true of Christian souls in life. They have times of insight, times of seeing truth and seeing God; times when, apart from study and thought, they seem to be plunged in all the glory of Divine and eternal things; moments in which they could not tell whether they were “in the body or out of the body.” Two or three instances may be given in illustration. While Luther was laboriously climbing up Pilate’s staircase at Rome, seeking to win a righteousness out of his own works, he heard a voice thundering in his soul and saying, “The just shall live by faith.” That was a New Testament vision el the truth, and from that vision Luther’s power began. The following is a testimony rendered concerning a godly man: “About a year after his conversion, returning from a meeting greatly distressed with a sense of his unworthiness, he turned aside into a lonely barn to wrestle with God, and while kneeling on the threshing-floor he gained a little light. Shortly after his eyes were opened to see all clearly. He felt that he was nothing, and Christ was all in all; and from that time commenced a life of most devoted and successful labor for Christ.” “The holy John Flavel, being alone in a journey on horseback, and willing to make the best improvement of the day’s solitude, set himself to a close examination of the state of his soul, and then of the life to come, and the manner of its being and living in heaven, Going on his way, his thoughts began to swell, and rise higher and higher, like the waters in Ezekiel’s vision, till at last they became an overflowing flood. Such was the intention of his mind, such the ravishing taste of heavenly joys, and such the full assurance of his interest therein, that he utterly lost the sight and sense of this world, and all the concerns thereof; and for some hours knew no more where he was than if he had been in a deep sleep in his bed.” The following passage is taken from the margin of John Howe’s study Bible. It is the only record of his personal experience preserved for us. “After I had, in my course of preaching, been largely insisting on 2Co 1:12, this very morning I awoke out of a most ravishing and delightful dream, that a wonderful and copious stream of celestial rays, from the lofty throne of the Divine Majesty, seemed to dart into my expanded breast. I have often since, with great complacency, reflected on that very signal pledge of special Divine favor vouchsafed to me on that memorable day, and have, with repeated fresh pleasure, tasted the delights thereof. But what, on Oct. 22, 1704, of the same kind I sensibly felt far surpassed the most expressive words my thoughts can suggest. I then experienced an inexpressibly pleasant melting of hearts; tears gushing out of mine eyes, for joy that God should shed abroad his love abundantly through the hearts of men, and that for this very purpose my own should be so signally possessed of and by’ his blessed Spirit.” Dr. Bushnell says, “We have vast crowds of witnesses, rising up in every age, who testify, out of their own consciousness, to the work of the Spirit, and the new-creating power of Jesus, who, by his Spirit, is revealed in their hearts. In nothing do they consent with a more hymn-like harmony than in the testimony that their inward transformation is a Divine worka new revelation of God, by the Spirit, in their human consciousness. So do they all testify with one voicePaul, Clement, Origen, St. Bernard, Hass, Gerson, Luther, Fenelon, Baxter, Flavel, Doddridge, Wesley, Edwards, Brainerd, Taylor, all the innumerable host of believers that have entered into rest, whether it be the persecuted saint of the first age, driven home in his chariot of blood, or the saint who died but yesterday in the arms of his family.” We do well to guard against any fanatical and superstitious watching for sensible appearances, symbolical manifestations, or the guidance of our dreams. But this we should better understandthere are delectable mountains in our Christian pilgrimage nowadays, and we may climb the heights, and get visions of the far-away celestial city. We are Christians of the plains and the low country; we should oftener be breathing the fresh air of the mountain-side. If we would open our hearts; if we would have a well-trodden path to the place of prayer; if we would yearn for it,God would come nearer to us, and oftener show us his glory. He is a new man, and a new worker, who can say, “Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”R.T.

Isa 6:6, Isa 6:7

Divine endowment the proof of Divine forgiveness and acceptance.

What occurred must be explained in connection with the vision. One of those seraphim who stood, with poised wings, ready for an instant and unquestioning obedience, at the bidding of the King flew down, having taken a live coat from the sublime altar which formed part of the vision, and with it touched the mouth of the prophet, speaking also words of gracious assurance. This touch of the mouth of the prophet was the symbol of the endowment of speaking power; and with it may be compared the gift of tongues made to the early Christian Church. We note

I. THE ENDOWED ONES MUST BE THE FORGIVEN. It scarcely needed the seraph’s words to carry home this assurance. Illustrate by the gift of the Holy Ghostrecognized in the possession of some special talentto the early believers. It was the seal of their forgiveness. Compare the case of fretful and desponding Elijah. The assurance that his sin was forgiven came in the renewal of his prophetic commission.

II. THE ENDOWED ONES MUST BE THE ACCEPTED. God would not honor with a place of service for hint those who were not in gracious relations with him. We may recognize that God uses all men, “making even the wrath of man praise him, and restraining the remainder of wrath;” but so far as his redemption work is concerned, in all its many branches, the possession of special gifts may be recognized as proof of God’s acceptance and appointment. It shows that God has chosen and approves the workman. Isaiah was rightly cheered by such an endowment, or re-endowment, to prophetic work.

III. THE ENDOWED ONES RESPOND BY SELF–CONSECRATION. When the joy of for-Ripeness and acceptance comes, and the solemnity of a Divine trust rests on a man, if he be a good man, he can but watch for the Divine voice saying, “Whom shall I send?” and at once and heartily respond, “Here am I; send me.” Compare the hesitation of Moses to take up the trust God would commit to him, and his grieving God by a hesitation that was based on a false humility; and see the words Eli put on the lips of young Samuel: “Speak, Lord; for thy servant heareth.”R.T.

Isa 6:9

A mission of hardening.

Dean Plumptre says, “No harder task, it may be, was ever given to man. Ardent dreams of reformation and revival, the nation renewing its strength like the eagle, were scattered to the winds; and he had to face the prospect of a fruitless labor, of feeling that he did but increase the evil against which he strove. It was the very opposite mission of that to which St. Paul was sent, to open men’s eyes, and turn them from darkness to light'” (Act 26:18). Mr. Hutton, in one of his essays, says, “When civilization becomes corrupt, and men are living below their faith, I think it may often be in mercy that God strikes the nations with blindnessthat the only remedy lies in thus taking away an influence which they resist, and leaving them the stern lesson of self-dependence.” This gives the key to the view we propose to take of Isaiah’s mission. From one point of view a mission of hardening is a mission of judgment; but, from another point of view, it is a mission of mercy. From both points of view it is always a most trying mission for him to whom it is entrusted.

I. A MISSION OF HARDENING IS A MISSION OF JUDGMENT. Compare Moses’ mission to Pharaoh. It was a fact that Pharaoh’s heart was hardened. On natural mental laws we can explain the process of hardening. Yet we are hidden see deeper, and recognize that, in judgment on his willfulness, “God hardened his heart.” If a man resists a gracious influence once, he finds it easier to resist a second time, and gradually the influence has no persuasive effect on him; he is “hardened.” Illustrate by the Pharisees, who at first inquired concerning Christ. They resisted the witness of his words and works, until at last a blindness and hardness came upon them as a judgment. The Jews are under Divine judgment now; it is a blinding, veiling, hardening, which makes it impossible for them, as a whole nation, to see the Son of God and Savior of the world from sin in Jesus of Nazareth. The man who won‘t see shall come into this judgmenthe shall not be able to see. All missions, even Christ’s, have a side of hardening. Some missions are almost wholly the execution of this Divine judgment. Blindness is God’s punishment for refusing to see, and spiritual blindness comes through the very preaching of the truth that saves to unwilling hearts; and such preaching-work, that seems worse than fruitless, may be the mission given by God to some men. To us they may be ministers of judgment, even in their preaching of the gospel. J.A. Alexander says, “The thing predicted is judicial blindness, as the natural result and righteous retribution of the national depravity. This end would be promoted by the very preaching of the truth, and therefore a command to preach was in effect a command to blind and harden them.”

II. A MISSION OF HARDENING IS A MISSION OF MERCY. It may be

(1) considerateness for individuals, on whom it will prove the only effective agency. It may be

(2) the quickest way to secure the humbling of the soul. God may have to let men get hard in their pride that, through the fall that must surely follow, their pride may be broken; just as the mother lets the child, that is conceited with its first attempts to walk, stumble and fall, in order that henceforth the walking may be less venturesome. The thought is almost beyond us, but we are permitted even to believe that God works his work of grace by calamities that we call destructive, and by hardenings that seem to us hopeless. In Isaiah’s days, “events that were ‘signs of the times,’ calls to repentance or to action, were taken as things of course. For such a state, after a certain stage, there is but one treatment. It must run its course, and ‘dree its weird,’ partly as a righteous retribution, partly as the only remedial process possible.” The evident results of his mission made Isaiah’s ministry extremely trying and depressing; his preaching rocked some to a fatal sleep, and made others outrageous and exasperated. And the final results of his work, as at heart a work of mercy, could not be revealed for his cheering during his life. He could only hold that before him as a mysterious vision of the far away. But he was nobly faithful; a servant of God who reaped no results such as he would himself desire, but actually seemed only a mischief-maker, an increaser of existing evils, and a hardener of hearts. But to none are the words more fitting than to tried Isaiah, “Well done, good and faithful servant,” executor of Divine judgment, and ministrant of Divine mercy.R.T.

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary

Isa 6:1. In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw, &c. We have in this chapter the fourth sermon, containing an account of a wonderful and august vision wherewith the prophet was favoured by the Lord: The design of which is two-fold; to exhibit a figure of the kingdom of the Son of God, hereafter to be manifested in the world, and to foretel the future blindness and hardness of heart of the greatest part of the Jewish nation. There are three parts of this discourse. The first contains a symbolical manifestation of the glorious Majesty of the God of Israel, Isa 6:1-4.; the second, the sanctification of Isaiah to the performance of an important prophetic office, Isa 6:5-7.; the third, a peculiar command which the prophet received from God, concerning the future and unhappy state of the Jews, 8-13. There seems to be no doubt that this vision is to be immediately referred to the times of the gospel, though it is possible that it has some reference also to the men of Isaiah’s own time. See Vitringa.

I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up In this first part of the vision, we have the species of revelation which happened to the prophet, which he calls a vision, but in which the prophet seems to have been rather passive than active;and the object of the vision, which consists of various parts: first, the appearance of Jehovah, sitting on a lofty throne, clothed as it were with a royal robe, the skirts of which filled the temple: Secondly, of the seraphim next to the throne, celebrating the majesty and greatness of God; Isa 6:2-3. And, thirdly, the consequences of this glorious appearance; the commotion of the posts of the temple, and its repletion with smoke, Isa 6:4. The place of this vision is supposed to be in the temple. We are not to imagine that Isaiah saw the Godhead itself, but some symbolical representation of it, most likely the appearance of Christ in the human form in glory. See Joh 12:41. For there seems to be no doubt, from the description, that the appearance was human. See Vitringa, and Waterland’s sixth sermon on the Trinity.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

C.THE THIRD PORTAL

Isaiah 6.

We have already shown above, in the general introduction to the threefold entrance, that Isaiah would not place this account of his call at the head because he felt the need of preparing his readers for it. At the same time he brings it about that this, not merely elevated, but holy, and even holiest of all dramas, is put in the place that becomes a holiest of all, that is to say, not without, but within; not in aditu, but in adyto. As in the temple, the court of the priests and the holy place, with the altar of incense, constituted the approach to the holiest of all, so, too, here Isaiah puts two entrances in front of that history that really transposes us into the inmost sanctuary, that explains to us how it was possible that Isaiah, the son of Amoz, should be admitted to the vision of God, and had the boldness to offer himself as Gods messenger. If one were not governed by the illusion that only chap. 1. can be an introduction, it would never enter his mind that chap. 6. is the account of a second call to a merely special mission. Delitzsch remarks: What Umbreit says, that chap. 6. makes the impression on every unprejudiced mind of being the inaugural vision of the Prophet cannot in fact be denied. Only the position that chap. 6. has in the book wields a contrary influence against this impression as long as it does not admit of being understood in some other way. But the impression remains (as with Isa 1:7-9) and even reappears. Well, then, we bring the impression that chap. 6. makes (of being the account of the inauguration) into the most harmonious relation to the place it holds in the book, by explaining it as the third, the most elevated and holiest entrance to the prophecies of Isaiah. Concerning the time of its composition not much need be said. That Isaiah wrote chapter 6. no one denies. Whether, then, he wrote it immediately after he had the vision, or later, is indifferent. From the nature of things the former is more probable. At all events he assigned the chapter its present position when he made up his book.

______________
THE SOLEMN INAUGURATION OF THE PROPHET

Isa 6:1-13

1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, 2high and lifted up, and 1his train filled the the temple. Above 2 it stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain 3he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And 3one cried unto another, and said,

Holy! holy! holy! is the Lord of hosts:

4The whole earth is full of his glory.

4And the 5posts of the 6door moved at the voice of 7him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. 5Then said I, Woe is me! for I Amos 8 undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

6Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, 9having 10a live coal in his hand, which7 he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he 11laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin 12purged.

8Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, 13Here am I; send me. 9And he said, Go, and tell this people,

Hear ye 14indeed, but understand not;

And see ye 1516indeed, but perceive not.

10Make the heart of this people fat,

And make their ears heavy, and 17shut their eyes,

Lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

11Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered,

Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant,
And the houses without man,
And the land be 18utterly desolate;

12And the Lord 19have removed men far away,

20And there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

13But yet in it shall be a tenth,

2122 And it shall return, and shall be eaten:

As a 23teil tree, and as an oak, 24whose 25substance is in them, when they cast their leaves.

So the 26holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

TEXTUAL AND GRAMMATICAL

Isa 6:1. The prophet designates the Lord as (with the sign of the accusat., but without the article as a proper noun). Both Isa 1:24; Isa 3:1; Isa 10:16; Isa 10:33; Isa 19:4) and (Isa 3:17-18; Isa 4:4; Isa 6:1; Isa 6:8; Isa 6:11; Isaiah 7:14, 29; Isa 8:7; Isa 9:7; Isa 9:16; Isa 10:12; Isa 11:11; Isa 21:6; Isa 21:8; Isa 21:16; Isa 29:13; Isa 30:20; Isa 37:24; Isa 38:16) occur only in the first part of Isaiah. is used by Isa 2:13-14; Isa 57:15, where the Lord Himself is so named. the hem, the broad folded train of which the hems are the ends. The word (used mostly of the priestly garments, Exo 28:33-34; Exo 39:24-26; comp. Jer 13:22; Jer 13:26; Nah 3:5) does not again occur in Isaiah.

Isa 6:3. (is not infin., which is always , but) is substantive, written oftener . Comp. Isa 8:8; Isa 31:4; Isa 34:1; Isa 42:10.

Isa 6:7. Piel and Pual in Isa 22:14; Isa 27:9; Isa 28:18; Isa 47:11.

Isa 6:8. after , is grammatically considered Dat. commodi. Who will do us a service by going? is the sense.

Isa 6:10. The verb , pinguem esse, is found in the Kal. only Deu 32:15, and Jer 5:28; beside the present the Hiph. occurs only Neh 9:25, with the meaning to become fat. The ears shall become heavy, hard of hearing, deaf. (Kal) is used in this sense Isa 59:1. Also the word is used of the eyes (Gen 48:10) and of the tongue (Exo 9:10 [ adj.]). Comp. Zec 7:11 (Hiph.). The Hiph. occurs more frequently of making heavy, i.e., hardening the heart: Exo 8:11; Exo 8:28; Exo 9:34; Exo 10:10. is the Hiph. imperat. from oblinere, to besmear, plaster over (comp. Isa 29:9; Isa 32:3). is always used transitively. It must therefore be thought of as joined to the general, ideal subject, which the notion of the verb of itself suggests. As is well known, especially verbs that designate a trade or an occupation in some art are wont to be so used. Therefore may a verb that signifies the healing art be readily so construed. Isaiah resorts to this mode of speech not seldom; Isa 7:24; Isa 8:4; Isa 21:9; Isa 34:11. One might fall on the conjecture by comparison of Isa 53:5, that as there so here it ought to read .

Isa 6:11. As to particulars, it is to be noted that until (comp. beside Gen 28:15; Num 32:17) involves a conditional sentence; the end does not come, except that before, etc.In the root the meaning to be desert developes out of the meaning to make a noise, to rage; comp. Isa 17:12 sq.; Isa 37:26, and substantive Isa 5:14; Isaiah 13, 4; Isa 24:8; Isa 25:5; Isa 66:6. comp. on Isa 5:9. comp. Jer 32:43; Jer 33:10; Jer 33:12. The expression occurs beside here only in the second comforting discourse of Jeremiah.

Isa 6:12. The Piel is used by Isaiah again only Isa 26:15; Isa 29:13. On the contrary Kal. occurs in the second part: Isa 46:13; Isaiah 49, 19; Isa 54:14; Isa 59:9; Isa 59:11. The Hiph. does not occur in Isaiah at all.

properly the forsaken one, fem. But this feminine here must be taken as the collective genus, so that the word signifies the forsaken (the forsakenness, desolation). Comp. Isa 17:2; Isa 17:9.

Isa 6:13. comp. Isa 4:4. is terebinth (Isa 1:30) and oak (Isa 2:13; Isa 44:14). Both are extremely lasting trees, that become very old and grow steadily in size. Comp. Gesen. Thes. p. 51; Job 14:7-9 occurs again only 1Ch 26:16, where a is spoken of. Is this the gate of casting out (probably only an opening in the wall through which things were thrown out) then the word here is dejectio, prostratio (comp. Jer 9:18). Instead of we look for according to our mode of expression. But the Hebrew in his way of representation sees, as it were, the idea of the whole tree before him still, and in or on this ideal tree he distinguishes the stump still present and the (in reality severed) trunk. This is that use of that may be called partitive. Comp. at Isa 10:22. and belong together. (comp. Isa 1:4; Ezr 9:2) signifies the still-existing principle of holy life. The suffix in ( only here in Isaiah, Isa 19:19) refers to .

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

1. Isaiah describes in plain and simple language, by which the grandeur of the contents is only made the more conspicuous, how, in the year that King Uzziah died he saw the Lord sitting on a high, elevated throne. The train of His garments filled the temple (Isa 6:1). Seraphim surrounded Him, each having three pairs of wings: one covered the countenance, one the feet, and with the third they flew (Isa 6:2). One cried to the other the thrice-holy (Isa 6:3), a cry whose power shook the threshold. But the house was full of smoke (Isa 6:4). The majestic vision awakes in the Prophet the feeling of his sinfulness, and the fear that he shall be destroyed, because he, as a sinful man, has seen the Lord (Isa 6:5). But one of the Seraphs reconciles him with a glowing coal that he has taken from the altar (Isa 6:6-7). Thereupon the Prophet hears the voice of the Lord himself, who asks: whom shall I send? Isaiah offers himself as messenger (Isa 6:8). He is accepted and his commission is imparted to him. But this commission is of an extraordinary character. For it is not so much told him what he shall announce, but what shall be the immediate consequence of his announcement. That is to say, he shall speak to the people, but with the (express) consciousness that not only will it be of no use, but that the people will become only the more hardened (Isa 6:9-10). The Prophet, without regarding the difficulty for himself in the matter, only inquires, because the fate of his people distresses him, how long this anger of the Lord against His people is to last (Isa 6:11 a.). This answer is: until all is destroyed (Isa 6:11 b.), the land devoid of men (Isa 6:12), and not more than a tenth part of the inhabitants remain in it, that shall be dealt with as a tree that was felled for burning. For such becomes a prey to the flames to the very stump that remains in the ground. So there will remain of Israel but the remnant of a remnant (Isa 6:13). The structure of the chapter is extremely simple: Isa 6:1-4 describe the scene of the transaction; Isa 6:5-7 the terror of the Prophet and the allaying of it; Isa 6:8-13 his call to the prophetic functions and the commission imparted to him.

2. In the yearfilled with smoke.

Isa 6:1-4. The year that Uzziah died was the year 758 B. C. Jerome (in the Epist. 18 ad Damas.) remarks that this was the same year quo Romulus, Romani imperii conditor, natus est, that Romulus was born. The theocracy declines: the world-power springs up. It is asked whether the event took place before or after the death of Uzziah. Without doubt the event took place before the death, but the record of it was made after it. For if both occurred before Uzziahs death there would have been no mention made of it. If both occurred after the death of the king, then the event would belong to the period of Jothams rule, and one would justly look for the name of this king. Thus what has been just stated remains the only possible answer to the above question. Our passage then agrees very well with Isa 1:1, for then Isaiah had prophesied already under Uzziah. Moreover, Isa 14:28 (in the year King Uzziah died) supports this explanation, for there it is presumed in the whole context that Uzziah still lives. The opinion of those Rabbis, who, following the lead of the Chaldee, understand the passage to refer to the civil death of Uzziah, i.e., to his becoming a leper, is justly pronounced by Gesenius a rabbinical caprice.

How did Isaiah see the Lord? In reality? or only in the idea, i.e. in fancy, so that, then, the grand painting were only the poetic clothing of a purely subjective, inward transaction? The latter is the opinion of rationalistic expositors. For example, Knobel says: At all events there happened a moment in Isaiahs life, when the seer, in holy, divine enthusiasm, soared aloft to Jehovah and heard the Lords call to the prophetic office. This event of his God-inspired inward man he portrays in the passage before us, and amplifies it with free, poetic art, more, completely than he experienced it. But one must be, just a rationalist, to hold that such a transaction cannot possibly be an historical fact, and therefore that it must be declared to be unreal. At the same time one must resolve to pronounce what the Prophet professes to do a pious fraud. For that he would only give a poem is neither intimated in the narrative itself, nor does the character of the entire book suggest it. The Prophets are historians, even where they write poetry. The Prophet speaks here as an historian. Did he represent as an outward calling what was only inward, he would have arrogated an honor that did not become him, and this very arrogance would have deprived him of all claim to credibility. For countless ones have received an inward call. But precisely this outward call, just that which Isaiah here beheld, heard and spoke, is so extraordinary, that only privileged men can boast that they have experienced the like. Of Jeremiah (chap. 1) and Ezekiel (chaps. 1.3) similar things are told. These men, as Isaiah himself, would be guilty of wicked presumption did they invent a glorious, outward call. We must therefore hold the narrative of Isaiah to be historical.

But if real, was it a physical or spiritual reality? That is to say, did Isaiah behold all this with the eyes of the body or the eyes of the spirit ( )? With the eyes of the body these things are not to be seen. Spiritual corporality can only be taken notice of by the opened inward sense (2Ki 6:17). Therefore something, real of course, but only inward, can be meant here, a spiritual beholding of spiritual reality (1Ki 22:17 sqq.; Ezekiel 8 sqq.; Dan 7:13 sqq.; Rev 1:10 sqq., etc.).

To this is joined the inquiry: In which temple did Isaiah see the Lord? In the earthly, at Jerusalem, or in the heavenly, the pattern of the former? It is no reason against the former, that Isaiah was no priest, and therefore dared not go into the temple. Amos, also, was no priest, and yet saw the Lord in the temple (Isa 9:1). The Prophet did not need to be in the temple bodily in order to see what was present in the temple. Comp. Eze 8:3But in the earthly temple the throne of the Lord was the ark of the covenant. On this account it is expressly called dwelling between the cherubim (2Sa 6:2; 2Ki 19:15; Isa 37:16; Psa 80:2; Psa 99:1; 1 Chr. 13:16). Why should Isaiah, if he saw the Lord in the earthly temple, not have named the ark of the covenant? The expression throne high and elevated does not appear to point to the ark of the covenant. For it cannot be said that it is high and lifted up. We shall therefore have to place the vision in the upper, heavenly sanctuary (the original of the Tabernacle in the first place, Exo 25:9; Exo 25:40; Exo 26:30; Exo 27:8, and afterwards of the temple). Thither Isaiah was transferred in spirit.

The Seraphim are not mentioned anywhere else in the whole Old and New Testaments except here. The word is found Num 21:6, but as qualifying (God sent among the people burning, fiery serpents). The singular occurs, too, Num 21:8; Deu 8:15; Isa 14:29; Isa 30:6, but always in the sense of serpent. In Num 21:8, it is synonym of . For it is said there; make thee a , serpent, and set it on a pole. And then Isa 6:9, it proceeds: and Moses made a and set it on a pole. Again Deu 8:15 are found joined. In both places in Isaiah, we read . Therefore, evidently means the serpent, but only by an originally predicate description becoming the designation of the chief conception. For originally means the burner, from to burn, burn up. The burning smart of a wound occasioned this designation. It is, moreover, not impossible that the burning fire is designated by the word because it moves itself serpent fashion. And in so far the roots , serpere and may agree; and an original connection between and serpens might exist, only the meaning to crawl, would not be the medium of this connection. For only the burning fire is thought of as crawling; but the serpent is called , not because it creeps, but because it burns. On these grounds I do not believe that the angel name has anything to do with the serpent. According to our passage indeed, the Seraphim have human form, for they have a countenance, they have feet (Isa 6:2) and hands (Isa 6:6). But, Gesenius, before this has shown that the Seraph has nothing whatever to do with the Egyptian Serapis, by the proof that this name has sprung from the names Osiris and Apis (Osar-Api). Comp. Thesaur. p. 1342. Gesenius, with whom recently Herm. Schultz agrees, takes the word in the meaning of the Arabic scharaph (nobilitas), schariph (sheriff , princeps), comp. Dan 10:13; Dan 8:25; which, however, hardly agrees with the use of the Hebrew given above. That the Seraphim belong to the highest rank of the angel world, appears from their relation to God and His throne as it is described in our chapter. For they appear here in immediate nearness to the divine throne, and beside them no others are named. That the Seraphim are essentially identical with the Cherubim, has been maintained already by Maimonides (in the 3:6). Hendewerk, has tried to prove the identity in the dissertation De Seraphim a Cherubim in Bibliis non diversis,Knigsberg, 1836. So, too, Stickel in the Stud. u. Krit. 1840 Heft. II. Boehmer also takes this view (HerzogsR. Encycl. IV. p. 24). Of course the passage Rev 4:8 seems to favor this view strongly. For there we find ascribed to Cherubim on the one hand the animal forms of Ezekiel, (1 and 10), and on the other the six wings and the Trishagion (thrice holy) of the Seraphim. It appears to me that the forms of John combine in themselves the traits of the Cherubim and Seraphim, and if it is said that the Seraphim of Isaiah differ from the Cherubim of Ezekiel so, too, do the Johannic Cherubim differ from those of Ezekiel, and the Seraphim of Isaiah are the mediating member. After all the question is an open one. If it is asked; why are the Seraphim called the burning ones? Philo answers: because they devour the unformedness of matter, bring it into form and order, and thereby render it a Cosmos. Boehmer,among others, calls them fire beings, that burn up everything unholy. Lange (in the Art. Zorn Gottes, HerzogsR. Encycl. XVIII. p. 662 sq.), distinguishes the revelation of wrath against universal human sinfulness and sin and the revelation of wrath against the conscious revolt against the revelation of salvation in law and gospel. The first degree seems to him symbolized by Gods dominion over His Cherubim (Gen 3:24; Psa 18:11-15; Psa 104:4), the second by His appearance between the Seraphim (Isaiah 6). That the Seraphim represent a vision of the judgment of fire, in which, with the hardening of the people, the temple must burn up, is expressed also in the meaning of the word the consumers. When Isaiah received the call to preach the hardening of the people, he saw, also, in spirit the temple occupied by the fire angels of God, and filled with smoke. Apart from the distinction between Seraphim and Cherubim, which I do not think has sufficient motive, it only seems to me that their meaning is too narrowly construed in the above. They do not merely serve as a revelation of the wrath of God. They belong, since there was a world, to the immediate organs of the divine revelation in the world generally. They are ever with God, and rest neither day nor night, and when they ceaselessly offer praise, honor, and thanksgiving to Him that lives from everlasting to everlasting, and when they thereby give the tone, as it were, to the song of praise of the four and twenty elders (Rev 4:8 sqq.), so it is seen plainly, that they have not only a mission in relation to the wicked, but also in relation to the pious, even to God Himself. It does not decide the matter of their significance in general, that they appear just here in a moment when wrath is revealed, and that a Seraph burns away the sin of the Prophet. However, this is not the place to penetrate deeper into these mysteries ().

The Seraphim stood , above him. By a very frequent usage is joined with so that by this preposition the one standing is represented, so to speak, as covering up the one before whom he stands, from the eyes of the spectator standing opposite; Gen 18:8; Gen 24:30; Exo 18:13; Jdg 3:19; Jdg 6:31; 2Ki 23:3; Jer 36:21; 2Ch 23:13. Even standing before Jehovah is designated by this preposition Job 1:6; 1Ki 22:19; Zec 4:14; Zec 6:5.But in our passage it is not merely said , but . This expression is so strong that we can do nothing else than represent the Seraphim to ourselves as hovering about the Lord, and with two he flew, so that they stood, not indeed above his head, but relatively above him. Each Seraph had six wings. The imperfects manifestly serve to indicate a continuous circumstance that is an essential part of the scene, whereas the perfects and , and cried and said, express an incident that forms part of the transaction. For what the Seraphim did with their wings went on continuously and does not belong to the transaction. But the crying out belongs to the transaction, yet does not go on continuously, but is only an incident that serves to finish the picture. We cannot suppose that the crying out continued while the Prophet, and the Seraph and the Lord talked. Targ. Jonathan happily translates Isa 6:2 b., duabus velabat, etc. With two (wings) each one veiled his face that he might not see, and with two he veiled his body, that he might not be seen.

It must not be concluded from that there were only two Seraphim, but that there were two choirs, say one on either side. Alternative song is founded in the essence of communion. It is the musical expression of the that move the congregation. Therefore it is found in the heavenly congregation as well as in the earthly. But the Seraphim sing Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah Sabaoth; fullness of the whole earth is His glory. Thus they praise Him here as the Holy One, because in what follows (Isa 6:9 sq.), He makes known in what degree His holiness shall react against unholy Israel. Delitzsch calls attention to the fact that Isaiah cherished his whole life through, a deep, indelible impression of that holiness of the Lord that confronted him here so mightily in word and aspect. Fourteen times in the first part does he use the expression , Holy One of Israel, which is, as it were, the concentrated expression of that impression; fifteen times in the second (comp. at Isa 1:4), whereas the expression occurs beside only thrice in the Psalms, (Psa 71:22; Psa 78:41; Psa 89:19), twice in Jer. Psalms 50:29; Isa 51:5), and once in 2Ki 19:22 parallel with Isa 37:23.

But why this thrice repeated ?. There are, to be sure, examples of such repetition that only aim at rhetorical emphasis (Jer 7:4; Eze 21:32; Nah 1:2). In fact Calvin and Vitringa construe the thrice holy in this sense, while, yet, they expressly say that they would not exclude a deeper significance. Herm. Schultz, (Alttest. Theol. I. p. 345) says: the choir rests on a song and counter song, combined in the double choir, therefore the threeness of the Holy. But here we stand before the holiest of all of the Godhead, that is opened up for a moment, and receive a glimpse into the (1Co 2:10, the deep things of God). The Christian consciousness, from the remotest period, has not been able to resist the impression that this thrice-holy is a reflex of the triune being of the Godhead. And in the New Testament sphere this impression is the more justified because the evangelist John (Joh 12:41) says expressly Isaiah saw the glory of Jesus when he heard the words of Isa 6:10. In that John says nothing extraordinary. Rather he quite accords with Peter who says (1Pe 1:11) that the Spirit that swayed in the Prophets of the Old Testament was the Spirit of Christ; and with Paul, who says (1Co 10:4) it was Christ that as a spiritual rock led Israel through the wilderness. This is only the confirmation of what we have long known as the significance of the Son, viz.: that He is the medium, and therefore also the mediator of all and every revelation.

In regard to the second clause of Isa 6:3, the question arises, first of all, what is subject? Is subject, then earth is the principal notion, and it is said here what fills it. Is subject, then the glory of God is the principal notion and it is declared here how comprehensive it is. The latter alone corresponds with the context. But the further inquiry arises: whether , glory, is to be taken in an active or a passive sense, i. e., as praise, or as majesty, glory. The two cannot be essentially disconnected. For as Gods glory is everywhere, so in a certain sense also it is everywhere praised. For its very enemies even must involuntarily do it honor (Psa 8:2-3). And I do not see why in our passage one should separate the two. Does it not then become those who sing unceasingly the praise of God in His immediate presence to declare that, not only they, but the entire creation continually proclaims the praise of the Lord? But it says only all the earth. Of course: for this song of praise sounds here primarily for one man and for men. It is just in respect to these that the truth is declared, on the one hand comforting, on the other appalling, that the glory of the Lord is everywhere, and everywhere it makes itself known and felt. Comp. Isa 40:5; Hab 3:3; Num 14:21; Psa 72:19.

Isa 6:4. signifies in Hebrew primarily the elbow-socket (Armgelenk-Mutter), i. e., the depression resembling the box screw (Schraubenmutter), in which the arm turns itself, the elbow. The word has this meaning, too, in the noted passage 2Sa 8:1, where it is said that David took from the Philistines . The bridle of the elbow is the contrast of Isa 37:29, the bridle of the lips, a bridle attached to the elbows. The meaning of 2Sa 8:1 is that the Israelites had the bridle of the Philistines, no longer in their mouths indeed, yet still on their arms, so that they were hindered from the free use of them. Therefore is the elbow, from which the meaning ell is derived. Accordingly are the elbows of the sills. The sills are compared to the arms and the joints in the angle are the arm joints or elbows. Because the sills, and in fact both the upper and lower, and as well as the side beams, are joined together in these, therefore they are the centre of motion, and every shock felt in such a centre must be communicated to all the radii. occurs only here in this meaning. (only here in Isaiah) are the sills, and primarily the under sills. For the upper sill is called and the side posts (Exo 12:7; Exo 12:22-23). But in our passage as denominatio a potiori stands for all parts of the door-way. The verb occurs only in the first part of Isa 7:2; Isa 19:1; Isa 24:20; Isa 29:9; Isa 37:22. (comp. Isa 40:3) is primarily the voice of the caller. But in what precedes it speaks, not of one, but of many criers. Thus we know that is to be taken collectively and as concr. pro abst.

The house filled with smoke.It was then not full of smoke from the commencement, and still less did a cloud of smoke conceal the Lord as Exo 40:34; 1Ki 8:10. For (Isa 6:1) Isaiah saw the Lord. It has been said, the smoke came from the altar of incense (Isa 6:6) and symbolized the seraphic praise. There may appear some truth in that from a comparison of Rev 5:8; Rev 8:3 sq. But it seems to me that the smoke has still another meaning. In so far as it constitutes an antithesis to the light in which the Lord dwells, it seems to me, wherever it occurs in connection with the appearance of the divine glory, to signify the reverse side of the same, the severity, the wrath of God. Thus here, too, the smoke, with whose appearance is connected immediately in Isa 6:5 the Prophets confession of sin and mortal fear, introduces the words of condemnation which the Lord afterward speaks to the Prophet as the manifestation of His holy indignation. Comp. Isa 4:5; Isa 9:17; Isa 14:31; Isa 34:10; Isa 51:6; Isa 65:5.

3. Then said Iis purged.

Isa 6:5-7. After the Prophet had heard the Seraphim praise the holiness of the Lord, after he had beheld them themselves in the splendor of their holiness, and also had seen its consequence, the wrath, imaged in the smoke, he is seized with the feeling of his own sinfulness. Every creature that beholds or comes in contact with an immediate trace of the divine Being, has a sense of not being able to exist under the burden of the absolute majesty (Gen 16:13; Gen 32:31; Exo 33:20; Jdg 6:22 sq.; Isa 13:22; 1Sa 6:19 sq.; 2Sa 6:7). This sense must have made itself felt in the Prophet in the highest degree, seeing he beheld the divine Being in a greater proximity and clearness, than, since Moses at least, ever a man did. He cries, therefore: woe is me (comp. Isa 1:4), I am lost (Isa 15:1; Hos 4:6; Hos 10:7; Hos 10:15), for a man of unclean lips am I, and among a people of unclean lips do I dwell! That he emphasizes just the unclean lips comes from the fact that he had just heard the Seraphim bring an offer of praise with clean lips. In contrast with these circumcised lips he becomes conscious how his are uncircumcised (Exo 6:12); in contrast with these calves of the lips (Hos 14:3) and with this fruit of the lips (Pro 18:20; Isa 57:19; Heb 13:15) he feels that he is quite unfit for such an offering, both in respect to his own person, and in respect to that totality to which he belongs; in fact that this unfitness, when he has gone with it into the jurisdiction of the highest King (Isa 33:22; Isa 41:21; Isa 43:15; Isa 44:6) must bring upon him the sentence of death. Such is the confession which the contrite Prophet makes; on this confession follows the forgiveness of sins, which is confirmed by a heavenly sacrament, and is extended to him by a seraphic absolution.Delitzsch.

The altar, which is mentioned, we must think of as an altar of incense, since any other kind of offering than incense in the heavenly sanctuary is inconceivable, and the glowing coals also indicate an altar of incense. From this altar one of the Seraphim took with the tongs a hot coal. That he took it with the tongs, not only corresponds to the usage of the earthly sanctuary (Exo 25:38; Num 4:9; 1Ki 7:49), but has in any case also its internal reasons, as that even in the sphere of heavenly corporal existence such distinctions occur, or that the touching with the tongs has a symbolical meaning.

(comp. Hab 3:5; Son 8:6) is something aglow, whether coal or stone. The word occurs only here [in Isaiah.Tr.] In the earthly sanctuary the burning of incense was performed by taking coals from the altar of burnt-offering and pouring them on the altar of incense, and then upon these was scattered the incense (Lev 16:12; comp. Isa 10:1). In the heavenly sanctuary there was no altar of burnt-offering. At all events designates the glowing body on which the incense was cast in order to burn it. With such a glowing body, therefore, the Seraph touched the lips of the Prophet in order to reconcile him. The Prophets lips are touched with fire therefore, and that with the same holy fire out of which proceeds the cloud of smoke. Thus from the place that occasioned in him before the painful feeling of his uncleanness, must the holy fire penetrate and burn out the entire man. It must burn up all uncleanness. The Seraph shows himself here right properly as , as burner. As water has primarily generating and fructifying power, but secondarily also a judging and destroying power (comp. creation, the flood, and Baptism), so fire has primarily devouring, and thereby judging, purifying, and secondarily warming and illuminating power. Omnia purgat edax ignis, vitiumque metallis excoquit, says OvidFast. iv. 785. , Plut.qust. Romans 1). Comp. Num 31:23; HerzogsR. Encycl. IX. p. 717 sq.As here the touching takes place for the purpose of atonement, so Jer 1:9 it is for the purpose of inspiration; in Dan 8:17 sq.; Isa 10:8 sqq.; Rev 1:17, it is for the purpose of imparting strength.

4. Also I heardand be healed.

Isa 6:8-10. The Lord Himself now begins to speak. Having seen Him (Isa 6:1), Isaiah now hears Him. I heard corresponds to the and I saw (Isa 6:1). It is worthy of notice that the Lord asks: whom shall I send? that He, therefore, as it were, calls for volunteers. So we read, too, 1Ki 22:20, that the Lord in an assembly of heaven, portrayed very much as the one here, asks: Who shall persuade Ahab, that he may go up and fall at Ramoth-Gilead? There it appears, 1Ki 6:23 (from the circumstance that Micaiah would have been a deceiver, if a real transaction were reported in 1Ki 6:19-22) that this prophet only narrates a fictitious vision. But anyway the representation remains that the Lord not only gives His servants and messengers command and commission according to His own election, but also proposes the undertaking of a commission to the voluntary determination. Now when the Lord in our passage, as was said, calls for volunteers, as it were, this is not to be explained by the greater difficulty or danger of the mission. For Isaiahs mission was not as difficult and dangerous as that of Moses or Jeremiah. Now Moses resists the commission all he can (Exodus 3), though he was an , able man, as few were. Luther says of him (on the call of Moses, Exodus 3): Moses begins, as it were, a wrangling and disputing with God, and will not accept this office. Jeremiah refuses because he feels himself really too young and made of too tender stuff. Ezekiel, too, appears inwardly at least to have had no relish for undertaking the commission. For he is exhorted not to be disobedient (Eze 2:8), and, though he does not express them, his doubts and fears are disarmed (Eze 2:6 to Eze 3:9). Jonah, the most rebellious and self-willed of all Prophets, actually flees from the Lord. All these, who would not, are not even asked if they will, but they must. Isaiah, who will, is asked. It appears, therefore, that the manner of the calling is regulated according to the individuals. Where the Lord in His chosen and prepared instruments (Jer 1:5) observes also the subjective readiness of mind, He affords it the opportunity to manifest itself by the question: who will. That the Lord, by this question, would not draw out something concealed from Himself is manifest. For how can a thing be unknown to the Lord? There was, in fact, no one there but Isaiah that could have replied to His question. For, it could only be a man that could be in question for the undertaking of the prophetic office in Israel. No such person except Isaiah was present. The question is therefore a form by which the Lord honors the , free spirit (Psa 51:14 (12)), that He knew was present in the Prophet, in that He gave it opportunity to manifest itself.

Who are the many for whom the service is to be done? The plural is here as little as Gen 1:26; Gen 3:22; Gen 11:7 mere form (Plur.-majest). It is rather, as Delitzsch expresses it, communicatively intended. Jehovah includes the whole assembly. He honors thereby the assembled ones, by taking for granted that His interest is theirs and their interest His. Isaiah at once replies: Behold, here am I; send me. This prompt offer quite corresponds with the strong and bold spirit of Isaiah. There is no need of assuming that he had already been called, and had already been in office for a time. He, the mighty man, is at once conscious that this is his affair. He feels that he can do it, and he will do it, too. We find here not a trace of fear or other consideration. It was, however, no proud self-sufficiency that led the Prophet. He has just been reconciled in fact as a sinner. The flame that blazes in him and impels him must have been a pure flame. He feels himself strong in Him that makes him mighty (Php 4:13; Isa 40:29 sq.). This here am I; send me is, however, so grand, in fact, when one reflects on the examples of other prophets mentioned already, it is so unique in its way, that one understands wherefore Isaiah would not put this history of his calling quite in the beginning of his book, but rather makes it the third portal of his prophetic building. He feared this intrepid ready-mindedness would be found incomprehensible. He puts in advance of it therefore two other entrances, that the reader may learn thereby to know him and thus come prepared to this scene of his calling. And, in fact, he that has read chapters 14 must confess that here is a Prophet (Eze 2:5; Eze 33:33), a man that had the stuff in him, and the right to say, Here am I; send me.

In Isa 6:9-10 follows out of the mouth of the Lord Himself the commission that the Prophet must discharge. The manner of imparting this commission is directly the opposite of what is usual among men in like circumstances. One seeks, namely, in giving a servant or messenger a hard commission, to represent it, at least, at first, in the most advantageous light. This the Lord does not do. On the contrary, He plainly emphasizes just the hardest part. He acts as if the Prophet were to have nothing joyous to announce, but only judgment and hopeless hardening. Isaiah is called the evangelist of the Old Testament. But there is not a trace of it found here. It is not once said even that he shall warn, exhort, threaten. But, overleaping all intermediate members, only the sorrowful effect is emphasized, and that with such pointedness, that, what in truth can be only an unintended effect, appears as directly designed. It is as if the Lord would give the intrepid man that had said here am I, send me, to understand at once, that he would require all his boldness in order to carry through the commission he undertook. Grammatically the words offer almost no difficulty. The inff. absol. in Isa 6:9 cannot have an intensive meaning, as though the Lord had said: hear and see well, with effort, zeal and diligence. For then must they even attain to understanding. But the Lord would say: spite of the much, and ceaseless hearing they shall still understand nothing. This ceaseless but still fruitless hearing is only the correlative of that ceaseless but fruitless preaching, of which especially Jeremiah so often speaks (Jer 7:13; Jer 7:25; Jer 11:7, etc.). Let it be noticed, too, that Jeremiah every where points, as the cause of this fruitless hearing, to the , the hardness of heart, and the stiffening of the neck ( Jer 7:26). The Prophet never spoke to the people such words as we read in Isa 6:9. Therefore it cannot be the meaning of the Lord that He should so speak. But the Lord would say: Whatever thou mayest say to this people, say it not in the hope of being understood and regarded, but say it with the consciousness that thy words shall remain not understood and not regarded, although they might be understood and regarded, and that consequently they must serve to bring out the complete unfolding of that hardness of heart that exists in this people, and thereby be a testimony against this people and a basis of judgment. Thus Isa 6:10 it is not meant that the Prophet shall do what is the devils affair, that is, positively and directly lead men off to badness and godlessness. Rather the Lord can ever want only the reverse of this. If, then, it says: harden the heart, deafen the ear, plaster up the eyes, that they may not see, nor hear, nor take notice and be converted to their salvation, still this form of speech seems to me to be chosen for the sake of the Prophet. There is, namely, a great comfort for him in it. For what is sadder for a man of God than to see day after day and year after year pass away without any fruit of his labor, in fact with evidence that things grow rather worse than better? Is it not for such a case a mighty comfort to be able to say: that is precisely what the Lord predicted, yea, expressly indicated as His relative and previous intention. Thus one sees that He has not labored in vain, but that He has performed his task. And inasmuch as that judgment is still only a transition point, and by the wonderful wisdom of the Lord, shall become a forerunner of higher development of salvation, so the servant of God can say this for comfort, that even out of the judgment of hardening, that it is His part to provoke, salvation shall grow. Gods wrath, in fact, is never without love. The preliminary earthly judgments, as is well recognized, are to be regarded as chastenings, that have a becoming-better as their aim. And if a people like Israel suffers one judgment after another through thousands of years, and still never becomes better, until at last the Lord breaks in pieces the economy of the Old Testament, like one shivers an earthen vessel by throwing it on the ground, so just this destroying of the old covenant is the previous condition to the arising of a new one, that attains to what the old one could not. But the individuals themselves whose hardening and judgment is an example and beacon for the after-world? Here we touch on a difficult point. Will those whose fall was the riches of the world (Rom 11:12) be eternally damned, or will their fall here below also for them become some time a means to their conversion and raising them up again? The answer to this appears to me to lie in Romans 9-11 But here is not the place to go into it more particularly.Heart, ear, eye (comp. Isa 32:3-4) are named as the representatives of the inward sense; the heart represents the will, eye and ear the knowing. The heart shall become fat and covered with grease, and thereby be made incapable of emotion.

After it is said what shall be done in regard to the three organs, it is said what shall be guarded against by such doing; and here a reversed order is observed in respect to the positive phrases. What must be guarded against is something immediate and something mediate. Immediately must seeing, hearing and observing be hindered; mediately the penitent conversion and being saved.

In the N. T. our passage is cited five times. In Mat 13:14; Mar 4:12; Luk 8:10 it is applied to the fact that Jesus always spoke to the people in parables. Thereby was the prophecy of our passage fulfilled. Jesus would manifestly say: Were I not to speak in parables, then they would understand nothing at all; my discourse would outwardly rebound, and not penetrate at all, and consequently effect no condition of responsibility on their part. But as I speak by parables, my discourse at least penetrates so far that a certain relative understanding, and consequently, too, a responsibility, is possible. But in as much as they oppose themselves to the realization of this possibility of understanding, they let it be known that evil has the upper hand in them: thus they pronounce in a measure their own judgment. Our passage is cited in Joh 12:40 as explaining why the Jews could not believe in Jesus spite of the signs He did. To this end our passage is construed in the same sense in which the Synoptists take it: even the signs of Jesus, no matter how near they come, still do not bring about faith, because the susceptibility is wanting. Finally in Act 28:25 sqq. Paul makes use of our passage in order to prove generally the unsusceptibility of the Jewish nation to the preaching of the gospel.

5. Then said Isubstance thereof.

Isa 6:11-13. The announcement of the judgment of hardening in Isa 6:9-10 sounds quite absolute. Yet the Prophet hears underneath all that it is not so intended. It is impossible that the Lord should quite and forever reject His people, and abrogate the promises given to the fathers. He asks, therefore, How long, Lord? (comp. Psa 6:4; Psa 90:13; Hab 2:6). He would say: What are to be quantitively and qualitatively the limits of that judgment of hardening? The answer is: First there must be an entire desolation and depopulating of the land; and when at last still a tenth of the inhabitants is in the land, that tenth part also must be decimated till nothing is left but the stump of a root or stem. That shall then be the seed of a holy future. The meaning of the words is perfectly clear.

The construction is as follows: and still there is in it (the land) a tenth part, and this is again decimatedafter the manner of or in resemblance to the terebinth and oak, in which, when felled, a stump remains, its stump (of the tenth) is holy seed. Therefore a stump always remains, and that suffices to guarantee a new life and a new glorious future. This has been steadily verified in the people Israel, both in a corporeal and spiritual respect. After every overthrow, yea, after the most fearful visitations, that aimed at the very extinction of the people, a stump or stem was still always left in the ground. This people is even not to be destroyed. There is nothing tougher than the life of this everlasting Jew. And in spiritual respects it is just the same. Though every knee seems to bow to the old or the new Baal, yet the Lord has preserved always a fragment (7,000 it is called, 1Ki 19:18) in faithfulness.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

On Isa 6:1. The question: why this vision in the year of Uzziahs death? coincides evidently with the question: why an Isaiah any way, and why was he needed just at this time? If prophets were to be, then must prophecy at some time culminate; and that happened in Isaiah, the greatest of all the prophets that have written. Thence Isaiah can stand neither at the beginning, nor at the close. Not at the beginning, for he is far in advance of the elementary stadium; he represents the summit. Not at the close, for in the days of decline art cannot flourish. It needs quiet times for its development. Such a quiet time (relatively) was that of the four kings under whom Isaiah labored. Caspari (Beitr. p. 218) says of the Uzziah-Jotham period, that for the kingdom of Judah it was 1) a time of great power and prosperity, 2) beside the time of Jehoshaphat (2 Chr. 17:18, 20), it was the greatest period since its existence by the rending away of the Ten Tribes from the house of David, 3) the longest continued prosperity during its existence, 4) the last that it had till it fell, 5) the only period of prosperity during Isaiahs prophetic ministry. But this period of prosperity was, so to speak, only the spring-time, the youth and formative period of the Isaiah prophecy. It was under Ahaz especially that it had to make trial of itself. The league with Assyria fastened the gaze of the Prophet on the Assyrian dominion, the Babylonian embassy in Hezekiahs time (chap. 39) on that of Babylon. Although, even under Ahaz and Hezekiah, there were wars and great distress by means of the Syrians and the Ephraimites, as also by the Assyrians, still the destruction was graciously postponed.

In that time, therefore, when the theocracy began to show its relations to the worldly powers in a decisive way, there appeared a prophet, who, thoroughly cultivated under the prosperous period of Uzziah and Jotham, could recognize the portentous characteristics of the time of Ahaz and Hezekiah, and see deep into the signs pregnant with the future; and who could reveal their meaning with such wisdom, power and art as are seen in the book of Isaiah. When Uzziah died, Isaiah was just old enough and far enough advanced in training to begin the prophetic career; under Ahaz he had attained manly maturity; and under Hezekiah, with glorified vision, like one near his death, he beheld the glories of redemption.

2. On Isa 6:1. Jerome inquires: how could Isaiah have seen the Lord, seeing John says (Joh 1:20) No man hath seen God at any time, and God Himself said to Moses: Thou canst not see my face; for there shall no man see me and live, Exo 33:20? He replies to the question: that not only the Godhead of the Father, but also that of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, are invisible to bodily eyes, because one essence is in the Trinity. But the eyes of the spirit are able to behold the Godhead according to the saying: blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God, Mat 5:8. And Augustine cites this saying of Jerome approvingly, and comments on it (Epist. ad Fortunatianum) Addendo ergo, etc.: Therefore by saying in addition, but the eyes of the spirit, he makes vision of this sort totally different from every kind of bodily vision. But lest any might think he spoke of the present time, he subjoins the testimony of the Lord, wishing to show what he had called eyes of the spirit: by which testimony the promise is declared, not of a present, but of a future vision.

3. On Isa 6:2. Foerster explains the fact of the Seraphim covering their feet with their wings as proof that they would confess that their holiness was imperfect and impure in comparison with the absolute holiness of God. For this he cites Job 4:18, Behold, He put no trust in His servants; and His angels He charged with folly, and Joh 15:15, Behold, He putteth no trust in His saints; yea, the heavens are not clean in His sight.

4. It was even the opinion of many Rabbis that a trace of threeness of the divine essence was contained in the three times holy of the Seraphim. Peter Galatinus (Italian, baptized Jew, Franciscan monk) in his Arcanis catholicae veritatis II. 1, has proved this especially of Rabbi Simon Jochai and Jonatan ben Ufiel (the Targumist). Comp. Raymundus Martini in the pugio fidei, and especially Joh. Meyer in the Dissertatio theologica de mysterio sacrosanctae trinitatis ex solius V. Ti. libris demonstrato. Harderwich, 1712.

On the ground of this recognized reference to the Trinity, this song of the Seraphim has obtained great significance in Christian liturgies to the present time. Its introduction into them has been ascribed to Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch ( 116), and already in a letter of Clement, Bishop of Rome ( 100), there is found a hint of it. Pope Sixtus I. ( 130) is said to have adopted it into the Romish mass. Schoeberlein, Schatz des liturg. Chor. und Gemeindegesangs I. p. 333. [On the Trishagion comp. a Bib. Encycl. or Binghams Antiquity of the Christian Church, Book Isa 14:2 3, 4, and Book Isa 15:3 10].

5. On Isa 6:4. If a typical meaning of the shaking of the door-posts is insisted on, it must be sought in that power of the revelation of divine glory that affects and moves everything, impressing both personal and impersonal creatures; and an example must be found in the events attending the death of Christ (Mat 27:50 sq.).

6. On Isa 6:5. God does not put angels into the pulpit, but poor, weak men. The angels do not know how sinful men are affected; but ministers of the Church, chosen from men, know that well.Foerster.

7. On Isa 6:8. Vitringa remarks here that Christian expositors, Grotius excepted, explain the change from the singular to the plural number, in whom shall I send, and who will go for us as implying the Trinity. Calvin, too, he says, and Piscator, usually more cautious than others in observations of this sort, here plainly utter this sentiment. [This explanation is the only one that accounts for the difference of number in the verb and pronoun.J. A. Alexander.Tr.]. The opinion of the Jews, however, is that God is represented metaphorically here, as taking counsel with His family, i. e. the angels. Vitringa remarks also that Sanctius attributes to Thomas and Hugo the important emphasis laid on the plural for us, which involves the meaning who will go for us and not for himself.

8. On Isa 6:9-10. What God says to the Prophet here rests on a law that may be called the law of the polarity of the will. For every thing here concerns the will, i. e., that will-do that is conditioned by the will-be (comp. my book, Der Gottmensch, p. 46 sqq.). As in electricity similar poles repel one another, and dissimilar attract, which depends on the principle of deep inward relationship and mutual completion, so in like manner it happens in spiritual life. The Lord says, Joh 8:37 : My word hath no place in you, and again, Joh 8:43 : Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my words; which question he proceeds to answer himself Joh 8:44): ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do; and immediately after He says, Joh 8:47 : He that is of God heareth Gods words: ye therefore hear them not because ye are not of God.

Therefore where the word of God comes in contact with a heterogeneous pole, it is repelled. And not only that, but that negative pole becomes more intensely negative by the exercise of its negative power. And the stronger the power that provokes its energetic reaction, and the oftener this provocation occurs, so much the more is it strengthened in that negation till it becomes quite hardened. The magnet loses its power by disuse, whereas frequent use strengthens it. Thus we find that every where the most glorious, clearest, loveliest testimonies to divine truth are not received where the will is wanting to receive them, i. e., where, to speak biblically, the flesh is stronger than the spirit. Therefore must all prophets of the Lord be hated and persecuted in proportion as they announced the truth mightily and penetratingly; and that hate must attain its climax in opposing Him who was Himself the truth.

8. On Isa 6:13. Paul, also, when he represents the rejection of the Jews in Romans 11, calls the race, Rom 11:16, a holy root, and, Rom 11:23-25, severed branches that God will again graft in. Starke.

HOMILETICAL HINTS

1. On Isa 6:3. The thrice holy of the Seraphim a Revelation 1. Of the holiness of God. 2. Of His glory. 3. Of the Trinity.

2. On Isa 6:5-8. The way of reconciliation to God prefigured by the example of the Prophet Isaiah 1. The beginning of this way is the knowledge of sin: a. occasioned by the knowledge of the holiness of God, b. manifesting itself by the confession of sin, c. constraining one to cry for deliverance (woe is me). 2. The end of this way is the forgiveness of sins: a. made possible by the sacrifices to which the altar points, b. applied by the word and sacrament (the address of the angel and the live coal), c. appropriated by faith (the Prophet yields himself to the action of the angel).

3. On Isa 6:8. Installation address. Whom shall I send? etc. Herein lies: 1. The divine call to office. 2. The high importance of the office. 3. The joyful inspiration for the office. Hahn.

4. On Isa 6:9-13. The fruit of preaching. 1. It is gratifying only in a small portion of the hearers (Isa 6:13 b; Mat 22:14). 2. In most hearers it is rather mournful, because by preaching: a. they are only moved to the full unfolding of their enmity; b. they are made ripe for judgment (Isa 6:11-13 a).

Footnotes:

[1]Or, the skirts thereof.

[2]him.

[3]Heb. this cried to this.

[4]Heb. His glory is the fulness of the whole earth.

[5]elbow joints.

[6]Heb. threshold.

[7]the cry.

[8]Heb. cut off.

[9]Heb. and in his hand a live coal

[10]a glowing-stone.

[11]Heb. caused it to touch.

[12]is covered up.

[13]Heb. Behold me.

[14]Or, without ceasing, etc., Heb. in hearing, etc.

[15]Heb. in seeing.

[16]always.

[17]plaster up.

[18]Heb. desolate with desolation.

[19]will remove.

[20]And great will be the desolation.

[21]Or, when it is returned and hath been broused.

[22]that shall again bum up.

[23]terebinth.

[24]of which in falling a stump remains,

[25]Or, stock or stem.

[26]a holy, seed is their stump.

[27]make war on it.

II.THE FIRST GRAND DIVISION

Isaiah 7-39

FIRST SUBDIVISION

Chaps. 712

Israels Relation to Assyria as Representative of the World-Power generally in its Destructive Beginning and Prosperous Ending

Chapters 712 deal wholly with the relation of Israel to Assyria. They show how the way was opened for this relation by the unhappy league that Ahaz concluded with the king of Assyria for protection against Syria and Ephraim. The Prophet announces first that the fear of the Syrians and of Ephraim is groundless: but Assyria is to be feared. Taking with Assyria a comprehensive view of all later developments of the world-power, he announces to Israel a second exile, corresponding to that of Egypt as the first, but also a second return, corresponding to that glorious return in which Moses led them. This deliverance will be brought about by a Branch that is to be expected from the house of David, that shall spring as son of a virgin from the apparently dried up root of this house, and, in the might of the Spirit of God, will found a kingdom of peace that shall embrace and have dominion over all nature.
This prophetic cycle divides in three parts. In the first part (Isa 7:1 to Isa 9:6) the Prophet opposes to the false reliance on the aid of Assyria against the apparent danger that threatened from Syria and Ephraim, the ideal figure of a child, that finds its type in the half-frightful, half-comforting phenomenon of the virgins son Immanuel, partly in the form of a son born to the Prophet himself: types that at the same time are earnest of a preliminary deliverance.

In the second part (Isa 9:7 to Isa 10:4) the Prophet turns to the Israel of the Ten Tribes, with a short, as it were, passing word. Prompted by their proud words, as if it were a little thing for them to make good the loss so far sustained from Assyria, the Prophet announces to Ephraim that what they regarded as the end was only the first of many degrees of ruin that they were to suffer from Assyria.

In the third part (Isa 10:5 to Isa 12:6) the Prophet turns against Assyria itself. Because it would not be the instrument of the Lord in the Lords sense, to it is announced its own destruction, but to Israel deliverance and return by the Messiah the Prince of Peace.

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A.THE PROPHETIC PERSPECTIVE OF THE TIME OF AHAZ

Isa 7:1 to Isa 9:6

In the beginning of the reign of Ahaz Judah was seriously threatened by the league between Syria and Ephraim. Thereupon Isaiah received the commission from Jehovah to say to Ahaz that there was nothing to fear from Syria and Ephraim. Ahaz being summoned to ask for a sign as pledge of the truth of this announcement, refused to do so. In punishment a sign is given to him. He must hear that a virgin of the royal house, probably his daughter, is pregnant, and will bear a son. But this son of a virgin shall receive the exceeding comforting name, Immanuel. Before he will be able to distinguish between good and evil, the lands of Syria and Ephraim shall be forsaken and desert. But danger threatens from that side from which Ahaz hopes for help and deliverancethat is, from Assyria. For Assyria will turn the holy land into a desert. Shortly after, the Prophet announces that a son will be born to himself. He does not do this publicly, however, but to two reliable men. At the same time the Prophet must set up a public tablet with the inscription, Maher-shalal-hash-baz. When the boy was born, he received these words as his name. And it was revealed as the meaning of the words, that before the boy could say father and mother, the spoil of Damascus and Samaria would be carried away by the king of Assyria. By this second child, then, substantially the same thing was predicted as by the first, the son of the virgin. Both prophecies must in general have occurred in the same period, in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz (743 B. C). Only the announcement of Immanuel precedes somewhat that of Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Wherefore this double prediction of the same thing? It seems to me that the announcement of Immanuel was intended immediately for the royal family. For it was a sign involving punishment (comp. comment on Isa 7:14). But the people, too, were mightily concerned in this affair. Therefore there was given to them a special sign by Maher-shalal. Such is the extent of the two prophecies at the beginning of Ahazs time. It is seen that each has for its central point the future birth of a child. From Isa 8:5 on follows a series of short utterances, all of which relate to the same subjects. The words Isa 8:5-8 are a warning directed primarily to Ephraim, not to despise the kingdom of Judah, nor to over-estimate the power of Syria and Ephraim, for Assyria will overflow the latter like a stream, and then, of course, Judah too. Isa 8:9-15 contains a threatening proclamation to the nations of that time that conspired against Judah, and a warning to Judah not to fear these conspiracies, but rather to let the Lord be the only subject of fear. Finally a conclusion follows (Isa 8:16 to Isa 9:6) which sounds almost like the testament of the Prophet to his disciples. For, after a brief prayer to Jehovah to seal the law and testimony in the hearts of his disciples, he sets forth himself and his disciples as living signs and wonders that exhort men to have faith in Jehovah, warns against the temptation to superstitious divination, and exhorts to cleave to the law and testimony. For only therein, in the troublous days to come, may be found comfort and restoration.

And now that the prophets testament may be also a prophetic testament, prayer and exhortation merge into a prophetic vision. The gaze of the Prophet is directed to the remote future. Dark lies the future before him. But just in the quarter that the darkness is deepest, in the least regarded northern border of the holy land, he sees a bright light arise, which marvellously (one involuntarily calls to mind Correggios painting of the Nativity) has its origin in the person of a child, that proves to be the promised Branch of David, and restorer of Davids kingdom to everlasting power and glory. If our conjecture is correct, that we have here the Prophets testament to his disciples, then we may well conceive why it is introduced just here. First, it has the same obscure prophetic background that was given by the perspective of the abandonment of Israel to the power of Assyria; and then, like both the chief prophecies described above, it makes the dispersion of that obscurity by the clear light of salvation proceed from the person of a child that is to be looked for.

We may accordingly sketch out the division of our section as follows:

I. The two chief prophecies concerning the birth of the virgins son and the Prophets Son 7:1 to Son 8:4.

1. The prophecy of the virgins son Immanuel. Isa 7:1-25.

a) Isaiah and Ahaz at the conduit of the upper pool. Isa 7:1-9.

b) Isaiah in the bosom of the royal family announcing a sign: the Virgins Son Immanuel. Isa 7:10-25.

2. Isaiah giving the whole nation a sign by the birth of his son Maher-shalal-hash-baz. Isa 8:1-4.

II. Supplements.

1. Those that despise Shiloah shall be punished by the waters of the Euphrates, Isa 8:5-8.

2. Threatening against those that conspire against Judah, and against those that fear these conspiracies, Isa 8:9-15.

3. The testament of the Prophet to his disciples, Isa 8:16 to Isa 9:6.

a) Prayer and exhortation merging into prophetic vision, Isa 8:16-22 (Isa 9:1).

b) The light of the future proceeding from a child, that is to be born of the race of David, Isa 9:1-16 (27).

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange

CONTENTS

The prophet in this chapter is soaring very high in visions and revelations of the Lord. Here is much of Jehovah’s grace, in the glories of the Redeemer’s person and kingdom, in this Chapter. The prophet gives the date of it also.

Isa 6:1

Wherefore the prophet was so particular as to put down the precise time, when the Lord favoured him with this glorious vision, which he relates in this chapter, is not said; but from the strong impressions it made upon his mind, it was indeed impossible, that he himself should ever forget it. Jacob at Bethel, and Moses at Horeb, where the visions of God began with them, could neither of them ever lose the remembrance of the time or place to all eternity. Reader, you and I have our spots, our Bethels of remembrance also, I hope. They are sweet things in the believer’s recollection. The year that Uzziah died, was memorable, 2Ch 26:21-23 . But what we are most highly interested to observe, in the relation of this vision of the prophet, is the intention of it, and for what purpose the account of it is handed down in all ages to the church. This is the grand point for us to attend to, that what Isaiah hath here recorded, under the Spirit of the Lord, we may take home to ourselves, and by the lively exercises of faith, behold our interest in it. May God the Holy Ghost thus unfold its glories to our hearts. He tells us, that in this vision, he saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Now, Reader, I pray you to turn to that blessed chapter of John the Evangelist, where the Holy Ghost hath decidedly explained the relation of the prophet, and made application of it to the person and glories of the Lord Jesus Christ, as the Mediator and Head of his people; These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory and spake of him, Joh 12:41 . Hence the Lord, whom the prophet saw, was the Lord Jesus Christ, in his mediatorial glory. And this serves at once to unfold, and explain to us a thousand things of the highest moment to our joy and comfort, to have right apprehensions concerning, for it throws a light upon all those other scriptures, where the visible appearance of the Lord is spoken of, and which from other scriptures compared with them, we otherwise could not explain. As for example, it is said, Exo 33:11 , that the Lord spake unto Moses face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend. So again, Exo 24:9-10 , Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, went up into the mount: and they saw the God of Israel! Yet in all the parts of scripture, we find one uniform account given, of the impossibility of seeing Jehovah’s face, and live, Exo 33:20 ; 1Ti 6:16 . How are these scriptures to be reconciled? The Evangelist John hath done it in a single verse: No man hath seen God at any time: the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him, Joh 1:18 . Hence nothing can be more plain, than that all the manifestations God hath been graciously pleased to make of himself in all ages of the church, hath been in the person of his dear Son, as the God-man Mediator, both before his incarnation and after; as the Son of God was, (as he himself saith) set up from everlasting in this glorious character, as the Head of his Church, so his glory in that character, was frequently manifested to the Church, and to special servants in the church. What a blessed thought to the Church, and to the people. The Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, which Isaiah saw, was Jesus. Hence, Reader, what unanswerable testimonies are found in this one scripture, to the Godhead of your Lord. Surely it never can be questioned whether he be possessed of all divine attributes, that was thus seen upon a throne in heaven. Surely none, if they thought aright, would doubt the sovereignty and eternity of his nature and essence, who thus sat on a throne, as if to intimate both his power, and glory, and government, and dominion. And how blessedly are those sweet words of our Lord Jesus explained by this very scripture: what and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before? Joh 6:62 . So again: No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven, Joh 3:13 . Blessed Jesus, we thank and adore thee for these gracious manifestations of thyself. Oh let the train of thy graces fill our souls, as the train of thy glory filled the temple, Rev 3:21Rev 3:21 .

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Redeeming Vision

Isa 6:1

In all life’s necessary contact and inevitable contest with reality, nothing is more needed than the uplifted eye with its power of vision, which is the power of purity. To see ‘also the Lord’ is alike the secret of steadfastness and the guarantee of that knowledge in the midst of perplexity, which alone liberates from fretful anxiety and unbelief, and leads to right choice and wise action.

I. In connexion with duty, how indispensable is the sight of the ever-present Lord. The supremacy of duty is one of the insistent facts of life. Its calls are clamant and will not be denied, and its claims are often tyrannous. As the sunlight falling upon common objects gilds them with a beauty not their own, so the knowledge of God’s purpose transmutes the base metal of an ordinary life into the gold of His glory and transforms duty into delight. For to see Him thus as the Lord of all duty is to see Him also as the Lord of all power. He has appointed you. He is hence committed to the responsibility of equipping you with strength both to endure and to do.

II. Again, with regard to the discipline by which alone any one can be made holy, we need to see ‘also the Lord’. Otherwise the providences by which He-seeks to teach and bless us will be misinterpreted, and we shall lose their value. The cup of bitterness is only acceptable when we know that it is ‘the cup which my Father hath given me to drink’. To sea Him as the Lord of love and wisdom, and to know that ‘He doth not willingly afflict the children of men,’ will alone serve to interpret His doings to the stricken heart and give ‘songs in the night’.

III. In our joys, too, we need to see ‘also the Lord,’ or we are almost certain to be led astray by means of them into mere selfishness. All that is bright and beautiful in the world is one’s to use and to enjoy, and its withdrawal is only made necessary when absorption in the gift disturbs our relationship with the Giver.

IV. The same need of seeing ‘also the Lord’ is obvious also in the realm of our desires. What a gulf there often is between our intentions and our attainments. The desire for holy living may possess us while the power for its realization is lacking, and consequently action is paralysed. He Who works in you ‘to will’ also works in you ‘to do’ of His good pleasure, and your desires are hence not weights but wings.

J. Stuart Holden, Redeeming Vision, p. 1.

Isaiah’s Vision

Isa 6:1

There was a political crisis in Israel at this time After years of privacy and suffering King Uzziah died of leprosy, and a royal funeral had just taken place. Jotham, his son, was elevated at once from the regency to the throne, and swayed his sceptre over the temporal destinies of Israel. It was at this juncture that the magnificent vision described in this morning’s lesson was vouchsafed to the Prophet. The design of it was that the Prophet should reveal it to the people.

I. The Vision. There are three things about the vision which passed before the Prophet that we may well ponder.

1. It transpired in the temple. Isaiah knew that, according to His covenant pledge, God would be there to meet him at this critical period. Nor was he disappointed. As he stood by the altar, and poured out his full soul, he heard the Divine voice, and his cares were at once removed. ‘It is good to draw nigh unto God at all times,’ but especially when the shadow of a great trial clouds the soul; for then God not only scatters the darkness, but causes the sunshine to come in its stead. Yet anxious souls are sometimes exceedingly reluctant to go in their sorrow to the temple, to meet and talk with God concerning it.

2. It revealed the Lord. As the Prophet remained by the altar only a mortal and sinful man the veil of the Holy of holies was drawn aside, and he beheld a throne of burning splendour, the seat of authority, from which the laws of the universe issued and its interests were administered. It was ‘high and lifted up,’ indicating its pre-eminency over all other thrones. And on it ‘the Lord’ was seated in calm, sublime majesty, as a monarch to govern and a judge to condemn or approve. His retinue was great and glorious, consisting of all ranks of celestials seraphim, and other holy and happy spirits. And ‘His train’ corresponded with His throne and attendants. Whatever its textures, the robe was of unsullied purity and dazzling effulgence, such as became the perfection and dignity of the wearer. But who was He? Jesus the Second Person of the adorable Trinity (St. Joh 12:41 ).

3. It inspired the angels. As they flew and clustered round the throne, and saw, with the Prophet, the glory of the Lord of the throne, they rendered befitting homage to Him; they covered their faces with their wings in adoring reverence, and seraph responded antiphonally to seraph ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!’ Thus rapturously they sang, until the whole temple was one mighty wave of harmonious praise, and its pillars trembled with the sound of their voices. More ‘the house was filled with smoke’ the symbol and proof that Jehovah-Jesus was there. Such worship is in the temple above the stars (Rev 4 ); and in this we hope one long and blissful day to take our part (1Pe 1:3-5 ; Rev 7:9-17 ).

II. Its Effect on the Prophet. 1. He was overwhelmed with fear. No wonder: like as Moses did, he was looking on God. Such fear was natural. It was like that which Moses felt; but we ought never to feel it (Heb 12:18-24 ).

2. He was conscious of defilement. The splendour and excellency around the Prophet led him to introspect himself, and as he beheld the awful contrast between his inner self and that outer glory he exclaimed, ‘Woe is me! for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts’. The lip of the seraphic choristers were clean, because their hearts were clean; and Isaiah felt that he and Israel needed lips and hearts pure as theirs before he and they could praise God as He was then being praised. So he despaired; and yet his very despair, arising from an overwhelming sense of his own and his people’s defilement, showed that he had a God-enlightened mind (1Co 2:9-10 ).

3. He was restored to purity. For a little while he was ‘in heaviness,’ until, indeed, one of the seraphim took a live coal with his sacred tongs from off the altar, and laid it on the lips which had confessed their uncleanness, and, as God’s representative, said unto him, ‘Lo! this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged’. That moment salvation was his, and heaven too! So now: no sooner is the precious Blood of Jesus brought by the Holy Spirit into touch with the soul of the penitent believer than all its defilement is cleansed, and it becomes whiter than snow.

References. VI. 1. J. E. Macfadyen, The City with Foundations, p. 107; J. H. Jowett, Meditations for Quiet Moments, p. 125; see also Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxvii. 1890, p. 81. J. E. Roberts, Studies in the Lord’s Prayer, p. 47. C. H. Wright, The Unrecognized Christ, p. 167. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 24. VI. 1-3. Hugh Price Hughes, Essential Christianity, p. 217. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon-Sketches, p. 156. R. C. Trench, Sermons New and Old, p. 98. W. J. Hocking, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. 1893, p. 86. VI. 1-7. W. M. Punshon, Isaiah’s Vision, p. 527. W. Baxendale, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxviii. 1890, p. 187. V. S. S. Coles, Advent Meditations on Isaiah I.-XII. p. 43.

The Discipline of Awe

Isa 6:1-8

We cannot contemplate the spectacle which Isaiah describes if we deal truly with ourselves without feeling our eyes grow dazzled and our hearts tremble But the description is given to us for this very purpose. We all need the discipline, the inspiration of awe. Wonder this fear of the Lord is always the beginning of wisdom. And we specially need the discipline, the inspiration now.

I. There is, I think, great danger lest the realism, the externality, the earthliness which have spread over modern life and thought should dominate our religion. We are tempted to treat Divine things with a strange familiarity, to use human modes of conception and feeling and representation not only as provisional helps towards the formation of spiritual ideas, as we must, but as the measures of them. We draw sharp outlines which can have no existence in the brightness which is about the throne. So it comes to pass that symbols, outward acts, formulas, the Holy Sacraments themselves in many cases, tend to confine and narrow the devotion which they were designed to elevate and enlarge. But we cannot rest with impunity in that which is of this world. So to rest is to lose the highest. To pierce through the outward is to find a new world. Isaiah felt this when the eyes of his heart were opened. The whole aspect of the temple service, august as it was, was changed for him. When the veil was withdrawn, he saw not what he looked for the Ark and the carved cherubim, and the luminous cloud but the Lord in His kingly state, and angels standing with outstretched wings ready to serve, and the earth full of His glory as an illimitable background to the marvellous scene. Something like this it is which we must strain the eyes of our heart to see, and having seen to interpret to our people. For the Incarnation, which is our message, has made the prophetic vision permanent.

II. No one of us would question in words our Lord’s immutable Deity. No one would question that He came to us in the Father’s name, to reveal the Father to us. Yet is it not true that we are tempted to substitute Him for the Father to whose presence He leads us? Is it not true that our faith in consequence is in peril of becoming unmanly, sentimental, fantastic, unbraced by the generous discipline of reverence, un-purified by the spiritual fire of awe? Such questions cannot be answered hastily. But at least they may lead us to try ourselves. Let us cling, cling to the last, to the true humanity of our Saviour and our Advocate, but let us follow Him in reverence where He is, follow Him to the glory which He had before the world began, follow Him to the throne of the Father, His Father and our Father. So will a holy fear the most elevating of all emotions mingle with adoration as we bow ourselves before the One only God, seen, as Isaiah saw Him, in His glorious majesty.

B. F. Westcott, Peterborough Sermons, p. 267.

References. VI. 1-8. R. J. Campbell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxiii. 1903, p. 273. R. S. Candlish, Sermons, p. 86. A. B. Webb, Principles of Missions, S.P.C. Tracts, 1897-1904. VI. 1-13. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 18. VI. 2. Ibid. p. 29. VI. 3. S. R. Driver, Sermons on Subjects Connected with the Old Testament, p. 28; see also The Anglican Pulpit of Today, p. 456. A. G. Mortimer, The Church’s Lessons for the Christian Year, part iii. p. 38. J. Stalker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. 1893, p. 387. E. H. Eland, ibid. vol. lxv. 1904, p. 375. B. F. Westcott, The Anglican Pulpit of Today, p. 234. J. Baines, Twenty Sermons, p. 241. C. Hargrove, Our Reasonable Service, p. 3. J. Keble, Sermons for Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, p. 364. VI. 4. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. i… p. 33.

The Vision of God

Isa 6:3

I. The Vision of God is, the Call of the Prophet- No where is the thought presented to us in the Bible with more moving force than in the record of Isaiah’s mission.

II. Isaiah’s Vision, Isaiah’s Call, are for Us also, and Await from Us a Like Response. What Isaiah saw was, St. John (12:41) tells us, Christ’s glory.

III. The Prophet’s Teaching Must be the Translation of His Experience. He bears witness of that which he has seen. His words are not an echo but a living testimony. The heart alone can speak to the heart. But he who has beheld the least fragment of the Divine glory; he who has spelt out in letters of light on the face of the world one syllable of the Triune Name, will have a confidence and a power which nothing else can bring.

IV. The Vision of God is the Chastening of the Prophet.

B. F. Westcott, The Contemporary Pulpit, vol. v. p. 363.

Isaiah’s Vision (For Trinity Sunday)

Isa 6:5

Isaiah was worshipping in the temple court; and as he knelt he beheld in ecstatic vision the way lying open to the Holy of holies.

The temple on earth became the miniature of the temple in heaven. A wonderful access to God was granted to the Prophet.

Other worshippers saw the outward ritual, the Shekinah, the carved figures of the angels, the vapour of the incense; he saw what their eyes could not see, the King of Glory clothed in His Majesty, the row of adoring seraphim, the future intercession of the Redeemer, and the prayers of the saints in His Name.

I. The effect of the vision on the Prophet. Not what we might have expected not joy, or satisfaction; but, at first, consternation, a sense of his own sinfulness. (So St. Peter, ‘Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord’; and St. Paul at Damascus.) Isaiah sees his own sinfulness and that of others, as he had not seen it before; and the cry of anguish is wrung from his heart: ‘Woe is me! for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts’.

And then there came to the humble and contrite spirit the message from the altar of Divine Love, the live coal touching his lips, the assurance of mercy and pardon: ‘This hath touched thy lips, thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged’.

He is ready now to go forth in obedience to the will of God. To him there came the call to work: ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?’ It is the voice of the King. Isaiah asks no questions about the mission; he hesitates not; he is ready for instant service. ‘Here am I; send me; ready to speak Thy word; to do Thy work.’

II. What does this vision say to us Today?

It speaks to us of a new view of life, a new view of truth, presenting a new ideal.

( a ) Our lives are shaped by the ideal which presents itself to us; and there are many ideals.

With some, the ideal is the life of pleasure self-indulgence is the keynote of their lives.

With others, the ideal of life is ambition. To rise, that is the point: to rise in social position, in influence; to make a good marriage; to belong to a smart set.

With others, the ideal of life is gain. Everything is made subservient to this to the acquisition of something they can touch, and hoard; it involves one advantage, hard work; but the result is the same self is the centre.

Others have no ideal at all, but are simply drifting through life; acting only on the impulse of the moment; whose lives begin, continue, and look as though they might end, in nothing.

Others have indeed set before themselves an ideal, a high one, which they have struggled to attain, but fallen far short of their aspirations; their efforts futile, their lives anything but lofty; and they have been tempted to abandon the effort.

( b ) What shall arouse us from these false, degrading, and selfish ideals? One thing only a new view of life; a vision of some great truth hitherto hidden, now borne with overwhelming force upon the soul.

This was the turning-point in Isaiah’s career; one moving idea possessed and stirred the depth of his spirit: ‘Mine eyes have seen the King’. Henceforth all is changed. New aims, objects, desires, rise to beckon him on; he is transformed; the old self dies; he is a new man.

So it will always be with the man who sees the true vision. In his unrenewed state he owns no supreme ruler, he follows natural impulse, he obeys his lower nature. But when once truth, the light of God, dawns upon his heart, his eyes are opened; he learns that earthly hopes die down, earthly pleasures fail to satisfy; that man is small, that God is all in all; that ‘life is real and earnest’; that henceforth his life shall be ruled by a Personal Will a Will that has claims on his soul’s best affections.

III. ‘Mine eyes have seen the King.’ St. John tells us that it was the glory of Jesus Christ: ‘These things said Esaias when he saw His glory’ the glory of the enthroned Christ.

What he saw in shadow we have seen in historic presence. God has entered into fellowship with humanity lived, toiled, and suffered here; now He reigns in Human Form on high. When this truth permeates the heart, heaven is opened and religious truth becomes real. We see that God has a plan laid down for us; that Christ’s will should be our law; that He has a personal knowledge of, love for, and claim upon, each of us.

The effect of the ‘vision,’ of religious conviction, will be

1. A personal sense of sin moral failure: ‘I am a man of unclean lips’; the lips symbolizing the inward life, which needs purification. The conviction of failure and sin is sure to force itself upon the man who can say ‘Mine eyes have seen the King’.

2. Unhappiness about others. We are all members of one another; so we read and think and profess, though we do not always act up to the truth. It is impossible not to become more or less alive and sensitive to the moral tone of others; the personal is bound up with the social sense of sin: ‘I dwell among a people of unclean lips’. This lies at the root of all missionary and philanthropic effort. If a man has seen the ‘King,’ the sense of others’ wretchedness cannot but press upon his heart.

IV. The call to service, and the response.

After the vision of enlightenment, and the fire of love, came a voice: ‘Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? ‘The voice is sounding now; all about us, at home, abroad. Who will go? It appeals to all, but especially to the young and richly endowed, to stand out as witnesses for Christ and the Truth.

This is the great present-day need a new, higher, nobler, purer view of life, its meaning, destinies, ends. May God open our eyes to see things as they are; may He kindle in us love for Christ, that we may count it all honour to serve Him in serving the brotherhood.

References. VI. 5. Archbishop Thomson, Lent Sermons, 1868, p. 55. W. Howell Evans, Sermons for the Church’s Year, p. 151. A. Maclaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture Isaiah, p. 36. VI. 6, 7. G. Body, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. 1893, p. 161. R. J. Campbell, ibid. vol. lvi. 1899, p. 360. J. M. Neale, Sermons on the Prophets, vol. i. p. 17.

The Divine Call

Isa 6:8

I. If there be in faith, in work, in character, a living response to God’s love and truth, life becomes a lesson of His teaching, an interpretation of His will, a reflection of His love to the age in which we live, to those for whom we are called to work. The call, the appointed work, will not be the same for all. ‘There are… many kinds of voices in the world,’ each with its own signification, each with its own power to tell out the praises of God; if one be silent, God’s self-revealing is less than perfect.

II. Consider some of those through whom God’s purpose of the ages has had its fulfilment. We may learn helpful lessons of life from them.

Abraham, accepting his high vocation with a courageous faith that made him ‘the friend of God’.

Moses at the Bush, conquering his fear and hesitation, and proving worthy to stand alone as the one prophet ‘whom the Lord knew face to face’.

The child Samuel answering the Divine voice, ‘Speak, for Thy servant heareth,’ and through his innocent-hearted obedience becoming ‘established to be a prophet of the Lord’.

Isaiah, gazing upon his glorious vision, hearing a call that was in itself a revelation of highest truth, and answering in all humility, ‘Here am I; send me’.

The Blessed Virgin Mary, receiving with all womanly modesty, humility, and self-surrender, the annunciation of the honour and the mystery for which she is for ever called blessed.

St. John, living his loving life under the control and by the inspiration of the eternal truth that ‘God is Love’.

St. Paul, blinded by the glory which shone from the presence of the Risen and Ascended Christ, crying, ‘Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?’ and yielding himself to do and to suffer with a lion-hearted courage and a quenchless faith.

III. Consider the facts and truths which have been in the past the vehicle or the interpretation of God’s call to ourselves.

What directed us to our work? How were we called? Had we a strong unmistakable call such as those we have just now considered? Most of you have had no such call.

What we call the accidents and commonplace things of life are generally the vehicle, or the interpretation of a Divine call. Did your work lead to a discovery in yourself of power or capacity before unknown? Did it show you ways of glad usefulness, of wondrous self-realization, of sweet rewards? While it brings out your individuality, does it also make higher calls upon your being? Then God is calling you, through your work, to that ministry in which you may best glorify Him, and develop each your own peculiar baptismal gift.

G. Brett, Fellowship With God, p. 3.

References. VI. 8. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii. No. 687; vol. xxiii. No. 1351. F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxviii. 1890, p. 328. T. Allen, ibid. vol. lix. 1901, p. 315. H. H. Montgomery, ibid. vol. lxi. p. 281. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Holy-Tide Teaching, p. 218. A. Maclaren, Outlines of Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 169. VI. 8, 9. V. S. S. Coles, Advent Meditations on Isaiah I.-XII. p. 48.

How Long?

Isa 6:8-11

I. The Wall of Obstruction. There is the terrible discipline of God’s messenger! To be the bearer of a Divine mission is to find yourself, at once, faced by a blind wall of obstruction. It is so fixed and strong that there is nothing you can do against it. What appeal can you make to hearts that are too gross to be stirred, and have no faculties wherewith to understand?

The late Lord Salisbury came back from Constantinople, in the old days of black disaster in the East, to tell us why he had failed to achieve a single reform. ‘The Turkish officials,’ he said, ‘simply have not the capacities to understand what we mean.’ There is no getting over the preliminary difficulty. If the capacities to understand what we mean are not there, we had better go home at once.

And this was to be the bitter result, to Isaiah, of being sent by God. And worse. He was to find that it was his own message which deepened the damage. Man shuts up at the touch of the Divine message just as strange creatures that we find on the seashore withdraw their tentacles and feelers at our touch and disappear into the silence of their shells. Nothing now can get at them, or tempt them forth into the open again. If we had not touched they would be still open and visible. It was the touch that was fatal. So with the prophetic message.

If man is free, then of sheer necessity Divine manifestations cannot be made without giving him, without forcing upon him, a moral judgment. The tenderness of Jesus had to endure the sting of the dread confusion: ‘For judgment I am come into this world’. ‘If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin; but now they have no cloke for their sin.’ We shudder at the moral truth.

II. The Light Beyond the Blackness. I want you to recognize the effect on the Prophet of recognizing that at which we shudder. Just because it is so hard, so terrifying, so black, therefore he knows that it is not all. The misery of such a disaster as that which has been portrayed would of itself prompt God to further action. The Prophet is utterly sure of this; sure of it by premonitory instinct; and, therefore, the dreadful result that is to follow his mission does but draw from him the expression of an unconquerable hope. Lord, how long, how long? Night bears in itself, as it were, the verdict of its vanishing. Through the darkness of the night we know what it is that we miss; and what we miss God will bring us. That is what the Jew in his prophetic optimism never ceased to assert. The fact that we miss it is a proof that it will come. Therefore, we have hope under the night.

III. So he spoke; and he was right. He had read God’s mind. There was a secret behind, a secret hope. True, the immediate interval of judgment, he was told, was to be sharp and sweeping. Cities would be wasted, the land utterly desolate. There would be a great forsaking, but underneath all this fierce wrath the good residue would be saved; would be sifted out; would be disciplined; would be perfected. Underneath and behind the terror the Divine compassion would be at work securing the true seed.

‘Lord, how long?’ We are to utter these words in the face of all disasters, in the teeth of every storm.

H. Scott Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxiii. 1908, p. 40.

References. VI. 9-13. V. S. S. Coles, Advent Meditations on Isaiah I.-XII. p. 52. VI. 13. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. No. 121. VII. 1-9. V. S. S. Coles, Advent Meditations on Isaiah I.-XII. p. 57. VII. 1-16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2305. VII. 4. W. L. Watkinson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. 1894, p. 218. VII. 9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2305. J. E. Roberts, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxi. 1907, p. 321. VII. 9-14. V. S. S. Coles, Advent Meditations on Isaiah I.-XII. p. 61.

Fuente: Expositor’s Dictionary of Text by Robertson

Lessons of a Vision

Isa 6:1-8

We have seen how wrathful Isaiah was with the oppressions and iniquities of his day. The death of Uzziah probably coincided with the year of jubilee, and therefore brought out more vividly than was otherwise possible the state under which the people groaned and mourned, a state which elicited the maledictions which we have already studied. The prophet’s mind is still upon the year when King Uzziah died. A great gap was created in history. It was time that the prophet saw something to cheer him. He had been looking at the earth, and all was vile; iniquity had filled up her measure to the brim. The people were groaning under the heel of the oppressor; the small freeholders had been driven into slavery, as we have just seen. It was in that darkness that Isaiah began to feel that he had eyes within, the vision of the heart, the sight of the soul. God’s opportunity is often created out of our extremity. The prophet would have died of the grief of wounded patriotism if something had not occurred to lift him up into a new state of mind, and a keener realisation of the broadest facts of the universe. As a statesman and a patriot he had been wounded to the heart. The Lord will now come to him through a vision, through his higher imagination, through those wondrous sensibilities which set us at an infinite distance apart from the noblest beast of the earth or finest bird that seeks the gate of the sun. It is well to have amongst us some seeing men. We are tired of earth’s bleak monotony: the days are so much alike; the wheel goes round and round so regularly as to weary us by its very punctuality. Is there nothing but what we see with the eyes of the body? is this the sum-total of things? that sky, now so beautiful, now so thunder-laden; and this earth, so green, so wild, so beautiful, presenting a thousand phases, according to the process of the sun, is this all? Then there come to us prophets who live a hard life amongst us. The prophet cannot have an easy life: he does not belong to the country; he does not belong to the time in which he lives; he has little or nothing to do with the present, and the future is so far away, and the market-place spirit of the world is so material, that the prophet has laughter for his applause, and pity or contempt for his reward. Still he lives, and he must speak as long as he lives; and some men receive him with gratitude; occasionally they pay visits to him by night and say, Rabbi, what seest thou? anything new in the fields above? any new voice spoken to thee lately? Come, tell us the whole tale, for really and truly, though we dare not confess it in public speech, we are sick at heart, and we are dying under the burden of weariness. What seest thou? is there anything more to be seen than these blear-eyed lamps that skirt the sluggish river of time? what hast thou seen? The prophet in this instance answers: I will tell thee what I have seen: I have seen the Lord, sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Have you seen that? Yes. Do you affirm that vision? I do. Then that circumstance cannot be overlooked in any true psychology. There it is: you saw it, or you thought you saw it; so be it, in the meantime; but there it is: what is possible to the imagination may be possible to the realisation of human experience. What you have imagined may one day come to pass. I will not sneer at thee, O prophet, but listen to thee: come, tell me all thy tale, for I have a spirit of discernment, a spirit of criticism common to man, and in troth I will find thee out if thou art trying to impose upon me with some poor necromancy. What was the vision noble or mean, useful or merely sentimental? State the terms: come within the sphere of rational judgment.

Let us look at Isaiah’s vision, and in doing so let us mark first the intellectual sublimity of the text:

“I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne” ( Isa 6:1 ).

So far there is nothing to find fault with. The Lord is always upon a throne, even when he is nailed to the Cross; this Lord and his throne are inseparable. There are dignitaries that have to study how to keep their thrones, but the Lord and his throne are one. “His train filled the temple”: the glory-cloud filled all high places I saw the Lord in vivid representation, in perfect outline of figure; I saw him in his majesty. It a man can persuade himself that he has done so, then by so much he elevates the whole level of his character. To have had such a dream is to enter upon to-morrow with a new spirit, if the dreamer be a wise man, sound in judgment and resolute in will. I saw more than the Lord: the Lord is not solitary in his heavens: I saw the seraphim the celestial salamanders, standing in the midst of fire, without the smell of fire having passed upon them. We do not know what the seraphim are, but our point is that here is a man who has seen new beings. That is an exciting, and in the issue may become an ennobling, thought. We have seen nothing but men; yea, when we have sought to image the Eternal we have thought of a glorified man: our anthropology has been the base of our theology. Here is a man who says there are other beings than men, and brighter beings; wondrous creatures, but still creatures, waiting, listening, learning, obeying. To know this fills us with ardent desire to have a similar vision. Then comes the promise that one day we shall know even as also we are known; this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality, and in our resurrection state we shall have the companionship of beings wondrous in form, capacity, power to serve. There is something beyond. Tell us about these burning ones! Each had six wings; with twain he covered his face, for the glory would have blinded him but for his sheltering wings; with twain he covered his feet, he had a sense of imperfection, inferiority, littleness; with twain he did fly, he was delivered from the prison of our limitation, and the whole space of heaven seemed to be the field in which he could fly the burning seraph, the swift messenger of God. If Isaiah imagined this, we thank him for the imagination; it ennobles us whilst we think of it. That there are other beings, greater, more capable, more variously gifted, is a thought which lures us upward, and moves with holy excitement our best spiritual ambition. But we could not rest here. To imagination something must be added to give it solid value. What conception do the seraphim form of God? They have known him a long time for centuries, aeons, millenniums innumerable, what say they about him when they speak or sing or worship? “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.” Imagination ceases there, and we feel that we are on solid ground. There is character behind the glory. The glory itself is nothing except as it expresses moral attributes, sound character, reality of justice, righteousness, and love. This testimony is not to be overlooked in estimating what we understand to be the doctrine of providence, redemption, and retribution. Then see how the whole picture rounds itself into superbness, completeness of significance. We have to deal with glory an undefinable term; with a great cloud a revelation by concealment: quite a mystery in words, but a known and intelligible reality in consciousness. Then after glory and cloud we find worship; and the worship is associated with music; and all the glory, and all the concealing and revealing cloud, and all the worship, and all the music we find directed to one object of adoration “the Lord of hosts.” So far the vision reveals great intellectual sublimity; the conception is only possible to a strong mind. We might risk the intellectual reputation of Isaiah even upon this portion of the vision.

Let us look, in the second place, at the personal effect of what Isaiah saw:

“Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” ( Isa 6:5 ).

So the prophet does not come away triumphing in what he has seen; he does not hold the vision as a prize, and mock other men because they have not seen similar revelations; he says in effect: If ever you see God you will fall down in humility, self-abhorrence, and self-helplessness: “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone.” He was self-convicted. Not a word of accusation is reported as having been addressed to the prophet. Up to this point he has done nothing but behold, look upon, and stand in amazement before the great vision; there is no report of any one having whispered in his ear, Thou art a bad man, O Isaiah; thou art a sinner, and this vision is sent to judge thee, and fill thee with a sense of condemnation and shame. Nothing of the kind. To see God is to hate all sin; to see God is to be reminded of sin; to see the universe aright is to tremble. Who has ever had right clear vision of the whole sphere of things, its vastness, its order, its pomp, its solemnity, its obedience? If we could see all the worlds, and watch the way of their revolution and palpitation, we should be filled with shame, saying, Only man is vile: man does not show forth the glory of his Maker in this way; man’s worship at the best is marked by spasm, irregularity, incompleteness; but see these great worlds, “For ever singing as they shine, The hand that made us is divine.” If we could see our own little earth aright, in all its portions and sections, we should feel that we were unworthy of a place upon it, and that we should stain it by having our grave dug in it. How beauteous its flowers, how regular its swing around the sun, how obedient, how motherlike, how gentle, how willing to house us and screen us, and find roots for our hunger and fountains for our thirst! Oh could we but see thee, poor little sin-stained earth, in all thine industry and obedience, we should hate our own negligence and rebellion! To see God aright is to feel self-condemnation. We need no preaching, or exhortation, or recrimination, or words of charge and indictment The prophet gives a right reason when he says: “For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” If you would know whether this or that is pure, do not analyse it, but put side by side with it something about whose purity there is no doubt. If you are wondering as to the correct colour of this or that object, you will make nothing out by mere words; put by its side some thing about whose correctness of colour there is no debate, and the issue is already assured. Comparing ourselves with ourselves we become wise, and respectable even, and pride ourselves upon our reputableness: one man is honest as against another’s dishonesty; one man is honourable as against another man’s villainy. So we have classified society into respectable and non-respectable, into good and bad, into clean-handed and foul-handed, and in our little mutual criticisms and our small emulous moralities we have become filled with a spirit of conceit and complacency. What we have to do is to seek a vision of God, to cease all merely mutual comparison and criticism, and to ask to see the King, the Lord of hosts; and one sight of his ineffable purity fills us with burning shame, and causes the proud head to fall upon the sobbing breast, and the whole man to collapse in self-impeachment. Do not let us look at one another for the purpose of forming a character for ourselves for relative respectability; judge everything by the standard of the sanctuary and by the balances of the altar.

What effect had the vision upon Isaiah? Look at its moral inspiration:

“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” ( Isa 6:6 ).

Then the seraph did not come in his own personality alone; he did not say, I can remove all the impurity of which thou dost complain; it lies within my power to make thee a good man? No such speech did he make. It is not in mortal to purify mortality. This help that we need is supernatural aid. Even a seraph cannot redeem, purify, or forgive. But the seraph instantly answered the cry, which was implied rather than expressed, for purification. When was a prayer for holiness long neglected? When a man has really felt the burden of sin, how long has God kept him waiting, groaning, and suffering under the intolerable pressure? They are all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be the heirs of salvation. The twelve legions of angels are always near at hand to help those who need supernatural help. The angel was not far off when the devil left the Saviour; hardly had the tempter gone until “angels came and ministered unto him.” About this angel-life we know little; we can know but little whilst we are in the body; but what little we do know helps us to believe that we are assisted, directed, by messengers, sent from the living One and by the living One to do us good in this weary difficult pilgrimage of life. Who shall say when they come, when they go? who knows what relation the spirits of those who have left us sustain to us now in all this earthly toil and discipline? There we can but wonder, sometimes we dream, sometimes we hope, sometimes we think we see a hand others cannot see, and hear a voice they cannot hear. If what we do feel in this direction tends towards purification, enrichment, it is no phantasmagoria. Invite it to come again, and next time have the door of the heart wide open; for any vision that tends to purification is God’s vision, and it should be received with glowing thankfulness.

Was there any practical purpose to be served by this vision beyond what has already been seen? The answer is found in the text, notably in the eighth verse:

“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.” ( Isa 6:8 )

Then the vision was no phantasm; it was not an exercise of a diseased imagination; it led to the consecration of life, to the settlement of a divine purpose, to the warming of the heart into sympathetic obedience towards all things divine, and therefore largely human. It has ever been so along the Biblical line: when men have had an interview with God they have been prepared to risk anything and everything in his strength and grace. It is because we have not seen God that we do not serve him; it is because we have had no transporting, transforming vision that when we are asked to work in the Church we tell lies, we grieve the Spirit with mocking excuses. Oh, lying Christian nominalist! thou art a sevenfold liar; thou dost not lie unto men, but unto God. There is no excuse for idleness, for illiberality, for littleness, for mean criticism; if you had seen God you would have been purified, and if you had been purified you could not rest without saying to God, Send me anywhere, and send me now. When Moses had seen the Lord he said, Make use of me as thou wilt; when Peter had seen the Lord he said, O Lord, I am a sinful man: I hate myself, but I will do what I can to serve thy will; when Paul had seen the vision he was stunned by it, blinded by it, but he came out of it; and who could stop that fire or quench its sacred burning? Call these mental actions dreams that lead to no sacrifice; say you have had grievous nightmare, if your churchgoing ends but in censoriousness and worldliness, and in enlarged audacity to tell lies and do iniquity. Then I care not if you have dreamed with a Bunyan, and expressed yourself with a Shakespeare; it all goes for nothing if the issue be not purification and sacrifice. Bless God for any ecstasy that leads to self-immolation. If you come out of your trance saying, Here am I; send me, send me to the worst neighbourhood, the poorest locality, the most difficult situation: I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. I have seen the King, the Lord of hosts: do not deny me: let me go, what you have seen has been no trance; you have had, real communion, vital fellowship with the holy One.

Observe, by way of practical application, that God’s holiness is never represented as a terror to men, but is always in holy Scripture set forth as an example, so to say, to be copied in daily and precise imitation. The holiness of God is not meant to consume men, to drive them into despair, to fill them with a spirit of dejection. Jesus Christ interprets God’s holiness, and he brings it very near to us: he says, “Be ye holy as your Father in heaven is holy.” In another case he is reported in other words, “Be ye perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect.” So, then, we are not to understand by God’s holiness an image of brightness that takes all heart out of us, because it is impossible to be so holy as the vision we have seen. God’s holiness is meant to encourage us in the pursuit of holy character ourselves. His holiness is a proof that he will help us. What a sight to the living One to see some poor, sin-stained, sin-damned man trying to imitate the holiness divine! What oaths of consecration he utters! what resolutions every daybreak hears! what corrections are poured into the ear of listening eventide! Yet the man says, God helping me, I will be better to-morrow; I mean to be holy as God is holy, but I dare not utter the words aloud to myself, for their very utterance seems to spoil the pith of the vow, and to take the bloom oft the consecration; but I know in my heart’s heart that I have recorded a vow, that by the help of God I will never rest until I am clothed with the meekness of Christ, and filled with the holiness of God. Any book, any vision, any sermon, that points in that direction is sent of God, and is not to be turned aside as an idle dream or a vain appeal.

Prayer

Almighty God, all things are in thine hand, even the great and the small. Thou tellest the number of the stars, thou bindest up the broken in heart; thou takest up the nations into thine hand, and settest them down again as a little thing. Thy throne is on the circle of eternity, and thy sceptre is over all; thou rulest in blessedness: thy purpose is one of love; thou dost not desire the death of the wicked or the ruin of those who oppose thee; thy continual cry is, Turn ye, turn ye! why will ye die? Yet it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. As we read the history of the world, we say again and again with wonder and awe, Our God is a consuming fire. Clouds and darkness are round about thee, righteousness and judgment are the habitation of thy throne; no man can sin and live; no man can blaspheme against the heavens and live in peace and joy, for the Lord is against him, and all heaven is opposed to his progress. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked. This thou dost not say arbitrarily, as a threat of vengeance; thou dost make it known as a revelation, showing that wickedness always ends in turbulence, discontentment, pain, and hell. But if we confess our sins, then thou dost cast them behind thee; if we make full repentance for iniquity, we hear of it no more: the blood of Jesus Christ thy Son cleanseth from all sin: help us to bring our sins to the Cross, and to leave them there in an act of penitence and faith. Lord, save us, or we perish! God be merciful unto me a sinner! is the cry of every heart that knows itself. Thou wilt not listen to this cry without answering, and the answer of God to the cry of penitence is pardon, purity, and peace. Amen.

Fuente: The People’s Bible by Joseph Parker

XXVII

THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST IN ISAIAH

The relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy is that the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. To him give all the prophets witness. All the scriptures, the law, the prophets, and the psalms, testify of him. And we are fools, and slow of heart to credit adequate testimony when we distrust any part of the inspired evidence.

Of the ancient prophets Isaiah was perhaps the most notable witness of the coming Messiah. An orderly combination of his many messianic utterances amounts to more than a mere sketch, indeed, rather to a series of almost life-sized portraits. As a striking background for these successive portraits the prophet discloses the world’s need of a Saviour, and across this horrible background of gloom the prophet sketches in startling strokes of light the image of a coming Redeemer.

In Isa 2:2-4 we have the first picture of him in Isaiah, that of the effect of his work, rather than of the Messiah himself. This is the establishment of the mountain of the Lord’s house on the top of the mountains, the coming of the nations to it and the resultant millennial glory.

In Isa 4:2-6 is another gleam from the messianic age in which the person of the Messiah comes more into view in the figure of a branch of Jehovah, beautiful and glorious. In sketching the effects of his work here the prophet adds a few strokes of millennial glory as a consummation of his ministry.

In Isa 7:14 he delineates him as a little child born of a virgin, whose coming is the light of the world. He is outlined on the canvas in lowest humanity and highest divinity, “God with us.” In this incarnation he is the seed of the woman and not of the man.

The prophet sees him as a child upon whom the government shall rest and whose name is “Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace” (Isa 9:6 ). This passage shows the divinity of Christ and the universal peace he is to bring to the world. In these names we have the divine wisdom, the divine power, the divine fatherhood, and the divine peace.

In Isa 11:1-9 the prophet sees the Messiah as a shoot out of the stock of Jesse, i.e., of lowly origin, but possessing the Holy Spirit without measure who equips him for his work, and his administration wrought with skill and justice, the result of which is the introduction of universal and perfect peace. Here the child is presented as a teacher. And such a teacher! On him rests the seven spirits of God. The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge, and the fear of the Lord. He judges not according to appearances and reproves not according to rumors. With righteousness he judges the poor and reproves with equality in behalf of the meek. His words smite a guilty world like thunderbolts and his very breath slays iniquity. Righteousness and faithfulness are his girdle. He uplifts an infallible standard of morals.

In Isa 40:3-8 appears John the Baptist, whom Isaiah saw as a voice crying in the wilderness, preparing the way for the coming King.

In Isa 11:2 ; Isa 42:1 ; Isa 61:1-3 the prophet saw the Messiah as a worker in the power of the Spirit, in whom he was anointed at his baptism. This was the beginning of his ministry which was wrought through the power of the Holy Spirit. At no time in his ministry did our Lord claim that he wrought except in the power of the Holy Spirit who was given to him without measure.

In Isa 35:1-10 the Messiah is described as a miracle worker. In his presence the desert blossoms as a rose and springs burst out of dry ground. The banks of the Jordan rejoice. The lame man leaps like a hart, the dumb sing and the blind behold visions. The New Testament abounds in illustrations of fulfilment. These signs Christ presented to John the Baptist as his messianic credentials (Mat 11:1-4 ).

The passage (Isa 42:1-4 ) gives us a flashlight on the character of the Messiah. In the New Testament it is expressly applied to Christ whom the prophet sees as the meek and lowly Saviour, dealing gently with the blacksliding child of his grace. In Isa 22:22 we have him presented as bearing the key of the house of David, with full power to open and shut. This refers to his authority over all things in heaven and upon earth. By this authority he gave the keys of the kingdom to Peter one for the Jews and the other for the Gentiles who used one on the day of Pentecost and the other at the house of Cornelius, declaring in each case the terms of entrance into the kingdom of God. This authority of the Messiah is referred to again in Revelation:

And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as one dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying. Fear not: I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold I am alive for evermore and I have the keys of death and of Hades. Rev 7:17

And to the angel of the church in Philadelphis write: These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth. Rev 3:7

In Isa 32:1-8 we have a great messianic passage portraying the work of Christ as a king ruling in righteousness, in whom men find a hiding place from the wind and the tempest. He is a stream in a dry place and the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.

In Isa 28:14-18 the Messiah is presented to w as a foundation stone in a threefold idea:

1. A tried foundation stone. This is the work of the master mason and indicates the preparation of the atone for its particular function.

2. An elect or precious foundation stone. This indicates that the stone was selected and appointed. It was not self-appointed but divinely appointed and is therefore safe.

3. A cornerstone, or sure foundation stone. Here it is a foundation of salvation, as presented in Mat 16:18 . It is Christ the Rock, and not Peter. See Paul’s foundation in 1 Corinthians:

According to the grace of God which was given unto me; as a wise masterbuilder I laid a foundation; and another buildeth thereon. But let each man take heed how he buildeth thereon. For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 1Co 3:10-11 .

In Isa 49:1-6 he is presented as a polished shaft, kept close in the quiver. The idea is that he is a mighty sword. In Revelation, Christ is presented to John as having a sharp, twoedged sword proceeding out of his mouth.

In Isa 50:2 ; Isa 52:9 f.; Isa 59:16-21 ; Isa 62:11 we have the idea of the salvation of Jehovah. The idea is that salvation originated with God and that man in his impotency could neither devise the plan of salvation nor aid in securing it. These passages are expressions of the pity with which God looks down on a lost world. The redemption, or salvation, here means both temporal and spiritual salvation salvation from enemies and salvation from sin.

In Isa 9:1 f. we have him presented as a great light to the people of Zebulun and Naphtali. In Isa 49:6 we have him presented as a light to the Gentiles and salvation to the end of the earth: “Yea, he saith, It is too light a thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth.”

In Isa 8:14-15 Isaiah presents him as a stone of stumbling: “And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And many shall stumble thereon, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken.”

The prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection are found in Isa 50:4-9 ; Isa 52:13-53:12 . In this we have the vision of him giving his “back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.” We see a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. His visage is so marred it startled all nations. He is a vicarious sacrifice. The chastisement of the peace of others is on him. The iniquity of others is put on him. It pleases the Father to bruise him until he has poured out his soul unto death as an offering for sin.

The teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews is his teaching concerning the “holy remnant,” a favorite expression of the prophet. See Isa 1:9 ; Isa 10:20-22 ; Isa 11:11 ; Isa 11:16 ; Isa 37:4 ; Isa 37:31-32 ; Isa 46:3 . This coincides with Paul’s teaching in Romans 9-11.

In Isa 32:15 we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit: “Until the Spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be esteemed as a forest,” and in Isa 44:3 : “For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and streams upon the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.”

In Isa 11:10 he is said to be the ensign of the nations: “And it shall come to pass in that day, that the root of Jesse, that standeth for an ensign of the peoples unto him shall the nations seek; and his resting place shall be glorious.”

Isa 19:18-25 ; Isa 54:1-3 ; Isa 60:1-22 teach the enlargement of the church. The great invitation and promise are found in Isa 55 .

The Messiah in judgments is found in Isa 63:1-6 . Here we behold an avenger. He comes up out of Edom with dyed garments from Bozra. All his raiment is stained with the blood of his enemies whom he has trampled in his vengeance as grapes are crushed in the winevat and the restoration of the Jews is set forth in Isa 11:11-12 ; Isa 60:9-15 ; Isa 66:20 . Under the prophet’s graphic pencil or glowing brush we behold the establishment and growth of his kingdom unlike all other kingdoms, a kingdom within men, a kingdom whose principles are justice, righteousness, and equity and whose graces are faith, hope, love, and joy, an undying and ever-growing kingdom. Its prevalence is like the rising waters of Noah’s flood; “And the waters prevailed and increased mightily upon the earth. And the water prevailed mightily, mightily upon the earth; and all the high mountains, that are under the whole heavens, were covered.”

So this kingdom grows under the brush of the prophetic limner until its shores are illimitable. War ceases. Gannenta rolled in the blood of battle become fuel for fire. Conflagration is quenched. Famine outlawed. Pestilence banished. None are left to molest or make afraid. Peace flows like a river. The wolf dwells with the lamb. The leopard lies down with the kid. The calf and the young lion walk forth together and a little child is leading them. The cow and the bear feed in one pasture and their young ones are bedfellows. The sucking child safely plays over the hole of the asp, and weaned children put their hands in the adder’s den. In all the holy realms none hurt nor destroy, because the earth is as full of the knowledge of the Lord as the fathomless ocean is full of water. Rapturous vision! Sublime and ineffable consummation! Was it only a dream?

In many passages the prophet turns in the gleams from the millennial age, but one of the clearest and best on the millennium, which is in line with the preceding paragraph, Isa 11:6-9 : “And the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together: and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of Jehovah, as the waters cover the sea.”

The prophet’s vision of the destruction of death is given in Isa 25:8 : “He hath swallowed up death for ever; and the Lord Jehovah will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the reproach of his people will he take away from all the earth: for Jehovah hath spoken it,” and in Isa 26:19 : “Thy dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust; for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast forth the dead.”

The clearest outlines of the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained” are to be found in Isa 25:8 , and in two passages in chapter Isa 66 : Rejoice ye with Jerusalem, and be glad for her, all ye that love her: rejoice for joy with her, all ye that mourn over her; that ye may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her consolations; that ye may milk out, and be delighted with the abundance of her glory. For thus saith Jehovah, Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream: and ye shall suck thereof; ye shall be borne upon the side, and shall be dandled upon the knees, as one whom his mother comforteth, so will I comfort you; and ye shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And ye shall see it, and your heart shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like the tender grass: and the hands of Jehovah shall be known toward his servants ; and he will have indignation against his enemies. Isa 66:10-14

For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain. And it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to another, shall all flesh come to worship before me, saith Jehovah. Isa 66:22-23

QUESTIONS

1. What is the relation between the New Testament Christ and prophecy?

2. What can you say of Isaiah as a witness of the Messiah?

3. What can you say of Isaiah’s pictures of the Messiah and their background?

4. Following in the order of Christ’s manifestation, what is the first picture of him in Isaiah?

5. What is the second messianic glimpse in Isaiah?

6. What is Isaiah’s picture of the incarnation?

7. What is Isaiah’s picture of the divine child?

8. What is Isaiah’s vision of his descent, his relation to the Holy Spirit, his administration of justice, and the results of his reign?

9. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah’s herald?

10. What is the prophet’s vision of his anointing?

11. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a miracle worker?

12. What is the prophet’s vision of the character of the Messiah?

13. What is the prophet’s vision of him as the key bearer?

14. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a king and a hiding place?

15. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah as a foundation stone?

16. What is the prophet’s vision of him as a polished shaft?

17. In what passages do we find the idea of the salvation of Jehovah, and what the significance of the idea?

18. What is Isaiah’s vision of the Messiah as a light?

19. Where does Isaiah present him as a stone of stumbling?

20. What is the prophet’s vision of his maltreatment and rejection?

21. What is the teaching of Isaiah on the election of the Jews?

22. Where do we find Isaiah’s teaching on the pouring out of the Holy Spirit?

23. Where is he said to be the ensign of the nations?

24. What passages teach the enlargement of the church?

25. Where is the great invitation and promise?

26. Where is the Messiah in judgment?

27. What passages show the restoration of the Jews?

28. What is the prophet’s vision of the Messiah’s kingdom?

29. What is the prophet’s vision of the millennium?

30. What is the prophet’s vision of the destruction of death?

31. What is the prophet’s vision of “Paradise Regained?”

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible

Isa 6:1 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.

Ver. 1. In the year that Uzziah died. ] This was 1590 years from Noah’s flood, say chronologers, where one a well observeth how divers things were done in this year within the Church, and without. The Gentiles in Greece, at the town of Eleum, behold their Olympic games; the prophet Isaiah in Judea beholdeth the glory of God, and heareth the trisagion of the blessed angels. So in the year of grace 1617 the Pope proclaimed a jubilee for the peace of Italy and Austria, &c. The Reformed Churches in Germany kept a jubilee likewise at the same time, in way of thankfulness to God for the gospel restored just a hundred years before by Luther, Zuinglius, and other reformers. b

I saw also, ] sc., In spiritu et in ecstasi, In spirit and in a rapture. Some compare it with that vision which Ezekiel saw afterwards. Eze 1:4-28 This whole book is called ‘the vision of Isaiah’; Isa 1:1 and why? See Trapp on “ Isa 1:1 “ Est autem celeberrima haec prophetia, but this is a most famous prophecy of the utter excaecation and excision of the Jews; and is alleged against them by all the four evangelists, and by St Paul. Rom 11:8

The Lord. ] The Three in One, and One in Three: Isa 6:8 , “Who shall go for us?” Compare Gen 1:26 ; Gen 3:22 . See Joh 12:41 , where it is applied to God the Son; and Act 5:3-4 , where to God the Holy Ghost. This Lord of all was seen by the prophet, not in his essence, or in the infinite excellence of his majesty, Exo 33:20 1Ti 6:16 but in some visible model of his glory; like as we cannot see the sun in rota, but in radiis, in the body of it, but in the beams only.

Sitting upon a throne. ] Instar iudicis et vindicis, as a just judge and sharp revenger of this people’s rebellions; and this throne is in the temple too, the place wherein they most of all trusted, crying, “The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.” Jer 7:4 Lo, here they were to be sentenced, because they had cast away the law of the Lord of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. Isa 5:24

High and lifted up. ] Stately for sight, and lofty for site, as was Solomon’s. 1Ki 10:18 ; 1Ki 10:20

And his train filled the temple. ] His train, or his skirts c – viz., of his robes. The Sept. and Chaldee have it, “The house was full of his glory.” The sense is, saith Oecolampadius, that the least part of the divine majesty is greater than the greatest glory of men. as 1Co 1:25 “He hath upon his vesture and on his thigh this name written, King of kings, and Lord of lords.” Rev 19:16 Here we can see but his back parts, his train and line. We need see no more that we may live. Zeuxis, the famous painter, drew in a table a fair temple with the doors open, and Venus going in, so as the beholders could behold but her back and her train, as not able to depaint her fair face and fore parts.

a Ussher

b Jac. Rev. Hist. Pontif. Rom., p. 306.

c Sirmata.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)

Isaiah Chapter 6

This chapter opens a very different scene. It is not the law, but Jehovah revealed. Not that the people are one whit better; in fact it was only when Christ appeared seven centuries afterward, that man fully disclosed what he was and is. The law proved that man is not only sinful but loves sin; Christ’s presence proved that he hates good – hates God Himself manifested in all the purity and lowliness, in the grace and truth, of Jesus. It was not only, then, that man was himself failing and guilty; but when an object was there in every way worthy of love and homage and worship, the perfect display of man to God and of God to man, He was a light so odious and intolerable to man, that he could not rest till it was extinguished as far as he could effect it. Still we are on ground sensibly and strikingly distinct; and this because the manifestation of Jehovah is in question, not the responsibility of Israel merely. Both chapters show the people judged, but the principles of judgement are wholly different.

It was not in Uzziah’s palmy days that the prophet received this vision of glory and this solemn commission, but in the year when the once prosperous and now leprosy-smitten son of David breathed his last. Nevertheless “the year that king Uzziah died” looked very different from “the year that king Ahaz died” (Isa 14:28 ). Yet in the former came the vision which fully disclosed to the prophet the universal uncleanness of God’s people; as in the latter a burden came on that enemy which vexed their south-western flank. In the former year, too, came Pekah to the throne of Israel, who laid the deadliest scheme with the Gentiles to destroy the line and hope of Messiah. Then, however, Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up, and the mere skirts of His glory filled the temple.

“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, [is] Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth [is] full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds were moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke” (vv. 14). No vision more glorious had ever burst on human eyes: but if the attendant burning spirits embraced the fullness of the earth as the scene of His glory, His holiness was their first care and chiefest cry. Activity even in the winged seraphim is not all nor most. Not all six wings did each need for flight, but two only. “With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,” in awe toward God and shame as to himself, in both the reverence that befits them in His presence.

The effect was immediate on the prophet. It is no longer woe unto these or those, but “woe to me.” He is profoundly touched with a sense of sin and ruin – his own and the people’s. But it is uttered in His presence Whose grace is no less than His glory and His holiness, and the remedy is at once applied. “Then said I, Woe to me! for I am undone; for I [am] a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts. And there flew one of the seraphim to me, having a live coal in his hand, [which] he had taken with tongs from off the altar; and he laid [it] upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin is expiated” (vv. 5-7). Nor this only: for thus set free in His presence, he becomes the ready servant of His will. Before this there was no haste to act, but deep self-judgement, and true sense of the defiled state of His people, in the light of His glory. “Also I heard the voice of Jehovah, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here [am] I; send me. And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear indeed, but understand not; and see indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make its ears heavy, and smear its eyes: lest it see with its eyes, and hear with its ears, and its heart understand, and it be converted, and be healed” (vv. 8-10).

Grace thus gives confidence to do God’s bidding; and though the sentence on the guilty people of God is an awful one, not only is it most righteous, but a remnant of grace is assured in the face of consuming judgement on judgement. This is not the way of the gospel which reveals Christ bearing divine judgement, but the believer saved in sovereign grace, made meet for sharing the inheritance of the saints in light at any moment, and waiting for Christ’s coming as the chief joy. Judgement must be before the kingdom come for the remnant of Israel. Such is the charge, and we know how surely it was fulfilled in the judicial blindness which fell on the nation, when they confessed not their uncleanness and beheld no glory nor beauty in Christ present in their midst, and refused the testimony of the Holy Ghost to Him risen and exalted by the right hand of God.

But the Spirit of prophecy, if it pronounce the sentence of God on the people’s unbelief, is none the less a spirit of intercession. “Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted for want of an inhabitant, and the houses for want of man, and the land be utter desolation; and Jehovah have removed men far away, and have multiplied forsakings in the midst of the land. But yet in it [shall be] a tenth, and it shall return and be for consuming; as the terebinth and the oak, whose stock [remaineth] when cut down: the holy seed [shall be] the stock (or trunk) thereof” (vv 11-13). That is, a vital principle survives, the nucleus of what will sprout again.

Nor is there a more surprising moral fact than the accomplishment of this divine sentence on the Jews to this day. Thousands of years have elapsed. The Messiah came, and confirmed it (Joh 12:40 ); the Holy Spirit followed, sent of Him and the Father, and He has fully ratified it (Act 28:26 , Act 28:27 ). No recondite arguments are needed, no evidence from Nineveh or Babylon, from Egypt or Palestine. There the Jews are before all eyes, dead while they live, the standing witnesses of judicial blindness indicted, after incomparable patience with their unbelief, by their own aggrieved and thrice Holy God, Jehovah of hosts. And the mark is proved all the more indelible, because they were not permitted to abide in the land they defiled, which was to become utterly waste, and themselves removed far away.

Yet dispersed as they are everywhere, and really amalgamating nowhere, no changing circumstances change the Jews any more than lapse of ages: a fact which staggered the incredulous Hegel as inexplicable, but failed to convince; for unbelief is invincible to nature. And what adds to the wonder is that they outwardly honour the Old Testament, which we Christians believe as fully as our own scriptures. But like the philosopher, though staggered by Law and Psalms and Prophets that teach the sufferings of Messiah and the glories to follow, as well as their own scattering for unbelief, and the call of Gentiles during that sad interval, the Jews believe no more than the philosopher. But this prophecy, with others, makes it plain and accounts for all; and He Who smote with blindness has made it known here to them as to us; and, blessed be His name, He has set a limit to the sentence of woe. For the prophet that knew His grace said not in vain, “Lord, how long?” They are kept for His blessing and glory in the end. But oh, what tribulation and sifting and consuming yet! Burning judgement is to be their means of purifying in a way wholly distinct from what ushered the church into its place, a still more solemn and unique judgement having been borne by Him, Who died, rose, and ascended to be its Head. The Jews must pass through the tribulation which has no parallel (Mat 24:29 ; Mar 13:24 ) before their deliverance comes. “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it; it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble, but he shall be saved out of it” (Jer 30:7 ).

Thus, if the departure from God is to be punished with outward and inward visitation, a remnant is clearly indicated here, mercy rejoicing against judgement, and God making good His own glory in both respects. But that returned remnant must be thinned under the pruning hand of Jehovah. Still the holy seed shall be there, the stock or rooted stump* of the nation, when judgement has done its work over and over again. There is ever a remnant according to the election of grace.

* “Matstsebeth” is derived from a verbal root – to stand fast or establish – and thus in its primary sense means a pillar. Hence it can naturally express what sustains a tree when cut down. Some take it as the root, others as the trunk or stump; but the destruction seems to go farther than leaving the stump erect, so that the idea of the Targum that it means the gap, or that part of the substance which contains the spring of life, seems agreeable enough to the context.

We may also observe that, while Isa 5 begins the impeachment of Israel’s guilt as responsible under the law, Isa 6 first and briefly presents their sin in despising Christ’s glory or disbelieving it, as Joh 12:40 applies this prophecy. So far is the earlier half of the book from being heterogeneous with the later, that these are just the twofold Indictment which we had there, expanded and applied with mature and touching beauty.

Fuente: William Kelly Major Works (New Testament)

Isaiah

VISION AND SERVICE

THE EMPTY THRONE FILLED

Isa 6:1 .

Uzziah had reigned for fifty-two years, during the greater part of which he and his people had been brilliantly prosperous. Victorious in war, he was also successful in the arts of peaceful industry. The later years of his life were clouded, but on the whole the reign had been a time of great well-being. His son and successor was a young man of five-and-twenty; and when he came to the throne ominous war-clouds were gathering in the North, and threatening to drift to Judah. No wonder that the prophet, like other thoughtful patriots, was asking himself what was to come in these anxious days, when the helm was in new hands, which, perhaps, were not strong enough to hold it. Like a wise man, he took his thoughts into the sanctuary; and there he understood. As he brooded, this great vision was disclosed to his inward eye. ‘In the year that King Uzziah died’ is a great deal more than a date for chronological purposes. It tells us not only the when , but the why , of the vision. The earthly king was laid in the grave; but the prophet saw that the true King of Israel was neither the dead Uzziah nor the young Jotham, but the Lord of hosts. And, seeing that, fears and forebodings and anxieties and the sense of loss, all vanished; and new strength came to Isaiah. He went into the temple laden with anxious thoughts; he came out of it with a springy step and a lightened heart, and the resolve ‘Here am I; send me.’ There are some lessons that seem to me of great importance for the conduct of our daily life which may be gathered from this remarkable vision, with the remarkable note of time that is appended to it.

Now, before I pass on, let me remind you, in a word, of that apparently audacious commentary upon this great vision, which the Evangelist John gives us: ‘These things said Esaias, when he had beheld His glory and spake of Him .’ Then the Christ is the manifest Jehovah; is the King of Glory. Then the vision which was but a transitory revelation is the revelation of an eternal reality, and ‘the vision splendid’ does not ‘fade but brightens, into the light of common day’; when instead of being flashed only on the inward eye of a prophet, it is made flesh and walks amongst us, and lives our life, and dies our death. Our eyes have seen the King in as true a reality, and in better fashion, than ever Isaiah did amid the sanctities of the Temple. And the eyes that have seen only the near foreground, the cultivated valleys, and the homes of men, are raised, and lo! the long line of glittering peaks, calm, silent, pure. Who will look at the valleys when the Himalayas stand out, and the veil is drawn aside?

I. Let me say a word or two about the ministration of loss and sorrow in preparing for the vision.

It was when ‘King Uzziah died’ that the prophet ‘saw the Lord sitting upon the throne.’ If the Throne of Israel had not been empty, he would not have seen the throned God in the heavens. And so it is with all our losses, with all our sorrows, with all our disappointments, with all our pains; they have a mission to reveal to us the throned God. The possession of the things that are taken away from us, the joys which our sorrows smite into dust, have the same mission, and the highest purpose of every good, of every blessing, of every possession, of every gladness, of all love-the highest mission is to lead us to Him. But, just as men will frost a window, so that the light may come in but the sight cannot go out, so by our own fault and misuse of the good things which are meant to lead us up to, and to show us, God, we frost and darken the window so that we cannot see what it is meant to show us. And then a mighty and merciful hand shivers the painted glass into fragments, because it has been dimming ‘the white radiance of Eternity.’ And though the casement may look gaunt, and the edges of the broken glass may cut and wound, yet the view is unimpeded. When the gifts that we have misused are withdrawn, we can see the heaven that they too often hide from us. When the leaves drop there is a wider prospect. When the great tree is fallen there is opened a view of the blue above. When the night falls the stars sparkle. When other props are struck away we can lean our whole weight upon God. When Uzziah dies the King becomes visible.

Is that what our sorrows, our pains, losses, disappointments do for us? Well for those to whom loss is gain, because it puts them in possession of the enduring riches! Well for those to whom the passing of all that can pass is a means of revealing Him who ‘is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever’! The message to us of all these our pains and griefs is ‘Come up hither.’ In them all our Father is saying to us, ‘Seek ye My face.’ Well for those who answer, ‘Thy face, Lord, will I seek. Hide not Thy face far from me.’

Let us take care that we do not waste our griefs and sorrows. They absorb us sometimes with vain regrets. They jaundice and embitter us sometimes with rebellious thoughts. They often break the springs of activity and of interest in others, and of sympathy with others. But their true intention is to draw back the thin curtain, and to show us ‘the things that are,’ the realities of the throned God, the skirts that fill the Temple, the hovering seraphim, and the coal from the altar that purges.

II. Let me suggest how our text shows us the compensation that is given for all losses.

As I have pointed out already, the thought conveyed to the prophet by this vision was not only the general one, of God’s sovereign rule, but the special one of His rule over and for, and His protection of, the orphan kingdom which had lost its king. The vision took the special shape that the moment required. It was because the earthly king was dead that the living, heavenly King was revealed.

So there is just suggested by it this general thought, that the consciousness of God’s presence and work for us takes in each heart the precise shape that its momentary necessities and circumstances require. That infinite fulness is of such a nature as that it will assume any form for which the weakness and the need of the dependent creature call. Like the one force which scientists now are beginning to think underlies all the various manifestations of energy in nature, whether they be named light, heat, motion, electricity, chemical action, or gravitation, the one same vision of the throned God, manifest in Jesus Christ, is protean. Here it flames as light, there burns as heat, there flashes as electricity; here as gravitation holds the atoms together, there as chemical energy separated and decomposes them; here results in motion, there in rest; but is the one force. And so the one God will become everything and anything that every man, and each man, requires. He shapes himself according to our need. The water of life does not disdain to take the form imposed upon it by the vessel into which it is poured. The Jews used to say that the manna in the wilderness tasted to each man as each man desired. And the God, who comes to us all, comes to us each in the shape that we need; just as He came to Isaiah in the manifestation of His kingly power, because the throne of Judah was vacated.

So when our hearts are sore with loss, the New Testament Manifestation of the King, even Jesus Christ, comes to us and says, ‘The same is my mother and sister and brother,’ and His sweet love compensates for the love that can die, and that has died. When losses come to us He draws near, as durable riches and righteousness. In all our pains He is our anodyne, and in all our griefs He brings the comfort; He is all in all, and each withdrawn gift is compensated, or will be compensated, to each in Him.

So, dear friends, let us learn God’s purpose in emptying hearts and chairs and homes. He empties them that He may fill them with Himself. He takes us, if I might so say, into the darkness, as travellers to the south are to-day passing through Alpine tunnels, in order that He may bring us out into the land where ‘God Himself is sun and moon,’ and where there are ampler ether and brighter constellations than in these lands where we dwell. He means that, when Uzziah dies, our hearts shall see the King. And for all mourners, for all tortured hearts, for all from whom stays have been stricken and resources withdrawn, the old word is true: ‘Lord shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.’

Let me recall to you what I have already insisted on more than once, that the perfecting of this vision is in the historical fact of the Incarnate Son. Jesus Christ shows us God. Jesus Christ is the King of Glory. If we will go to Him, and fix our eyes and hearts on Him, then losses may come, and we shall be none the poorer; death may unclasp our hands from dear hands, but He will close a dearer one round the hand that is groping for a stay; and nothing can betaken away but He will more than fill the gap it leaves by His own sweet presence. If our eyes behold the King, if we are like John the Seer in his rocky Patmos, and see the Christ in His glory and royalty, then He will lay His hands on us and say, ‘Fear not! Weep not; I am the First and the Last,’ and forebodings, and fears, and sense of loss will all be changed into trustfulness and patient submission. ‘Seeing Him, who is invisible,’ we shall be able to endure and to toil, until the time when the vision of earth is perfected by the beholding of heaven. Blessed are they who with purged eyes see, and with yielding hearts obey, the heavenly vision, and turn to the King and offer themselves for any service He may require, saying, ‘Here am I; send me.’

Fuente: Expositions Of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Isa 6:1-5

1In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. 2Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3And one called out to another and said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory. 4And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.

5Then I said, Woe is me, for I am ruined!

Because I am a man of unclean lips,

And I live among a people of unclean lips;

For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

Isa 6:1 King Uzziah’s Uzziah (792-740 B.C.; There is no scholarly consensus on the dates of his co-reign or reign.) was one of the godly kings of Judah (cf. 2Ki 15:3; 2Ch 26:4-5). It is possible that Isaiah and Uzziah were related (iah may have been a royal ending to names). Uzziah offered incense (which only Levitical priests could do) and was struck by God with leprosy (cf. 2Ki 15:5; 2Ch 26:16-23).

Uzziah is called Azariah in 2 Kings 15 and Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26. Uzziah (my strength is YHWH) was a throne name or we learn from 2Ch 26:17 that the High Priest was also named Azariah, so to avoid confusion 2 Chr. uses Uzziah. It was a dark day for Isaiah and Judah when he died in 740 B.C. Judah had become stable under his reign.

I saw the Lord It was a common belief that to see God meant death (cf. Gen 16:13; Exo 33:20; 1Ki 19:13; Isa 6:5; Joh 1:18; Joh 6:46; 1Ti 6:16). This was a very traumatic moment! Apparently, Isaiah saw God’s throne and dress, but not His face (cf. Joh 12:41).

There are some OT texts that imply God can be seen.

1. Moses, Exo 33:11; Num 12:8; Deu 34:10

2. Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders, Exo 24:10-11

The question has to do with the results of a sinful person in the presence of a holy God. It is a question of intimate personal fellowship. Apparently sight is not the key, but a relationship initiated by God!

the Lord This is translated from the Hebrew word adonai (BDB 10, see Special Topic: Names for Deity ).

Some ancient Hebrew Manuscripts have YHWH.

throne YHWH depicted as sitting on a throne is first found in the vision of the heavenly court of 1Ki 22:19; Psa 103:19; and later in Isa 66:1. In Ezekiel 1, 10 YHWH’s throne is His portable throne chariot (i.e., away from the temple in Jerusalem).

This is ANE anthropomorphic language (cf. Isa 6:5; Rev 4:2-3; Rev 20:11, see N. T. Wright, The Language and Imagery of the Bible, pp. 172-182).

SPECIAL TOPIC: GOD DESCRIBED AS A HUMAN (ANTHROPOMORPHIC LANGUAGE)

train of His robe Kingly robes were of very long length. Isaiah saw God as the people of his day expected Him to be. He was in the heavenly Temple (cf. Heb 9:11; Heb 9:24; Revelation 5-6).

Many commentators have seen this long flowing robe as a way to hide the features of God’s face (as is the smoke of Isa 6:4). It functioned as a covering, something like the Shekinah Cloud of Glory during the Wilderness Wandering Period.

Isa 6:2 Seraphim See Special Topic following.

SPECIAL TOPIC: SERAPHIM

six wings It is interesting what their wings are used for.

1. to cover the eyes. God’s glory is overwhelming even to throne angels.

2. to cover the feet. Be careful of turning the details of a Theophany into literal objects or creatures. Often feet are euphemistic of the genitalia (cf. Isa 7:20; Exo 4:25; Jdg 3:24; Rth 3:4; Rth 3:7-8; Rth 3:14; 1Sa 24:3), but here, because of Mat 22:30, probably not. This may be a sign of humility in the presence of holiness (cf. Exo 3:5).

3. to fly to do God’s bidding quickly (cf. Isa 6:6)

Isa 6:3 Holy, Holy, Holy Holiness is a central theme in Isaiah.

1. , ADJECTIVE, BDB 872, holy, sacred

a. holiness of

(1) God, Isa 5:16; Isa 6:3 (thrice)

(2) His name, Isa 40:25; Isa 49:7; Isa 57:15

(3) His abode, Isa 57:15

(4) His Sabbath, Isa 58:13

2. , VERB, BDB 872, to be set apart, consecrated

a. God’s character, Isa 5:16; Isa 29:23

b. God, Isa 8:13; Isa 65:5

c. God’s angels, Isa 13:3

d. God’s name, Isa 29:23

e. festival, Isa 30:29

f. consecrated humans, Isa 66:17

3. , NOUN, BDB 871, apartness, sacredness

a. holy seed, Isa 6:13

b. holy mountain, Isa 11:9; Isa 27:13; Isa 56:7; Isa 57:13; Isa 65:11; Isa 65:25; Isa 66:20

c. set apart, Isa 23:18

d. way of holiness, Isa 35:8

e. sanctuary, Isa 43:28; Isa 62:9; Isa 64:11

f. holy city, Isa 48:2; Isa 52:1

g. holy One, Isa 49:7

h. holy arm, Isa 52:10

i. Holy day, Isa 58:13

j. holy people, Isa 62:12

k. Holy Spirit, Isa 63:10-11

l. God’s throne, Isa 63:15

m. holy place, Isa 63:18

n. holy cities, Isa 64:10

The threefold repetition denotes a Hebrew SUPERLATIVE (cf. Jer 7:4; Eze 21:27).

SPECIAL TOPIC: HOLY

LORD of hosts This literally is Captain of armies of heaven. See Special Topic: Lord of Hosts .

the whole earth This is the implication of monotheism. God has always been the God of all humans (cf. Gen 1:26-27; Gen 3:15; Gen 12:3; Exo 19:5-6; Num 14:21; Psa 2:8; Psa 22:27-28; Psa 59:13; Psa 72:8; Psa 72:19; Isa 45:21-22; Isa 49:6; Isa 52:10; Mic 5:4). Isaiah’s theology is universal (i.e., Isa 12:5; Isa 24:14-16; Isa 42:10-12). See Special Topic: Why Are End-time Events so Controversial? .

Isa 6:4 of him who called out This can refer to the voice of God (cf. Isa 6:8) or, in context, the Seraphim (i.e., Holy, Holy, Holy, of Isa 6:3).

was filling with smoke The VERB (BDB 569, KB 583, Niphal IMPERFECT) is also used in Eze 10:4. It may reflect Num 14:21; Psa 72:19; and Hab 2:14. This refers to either (1) a symbol of God’s judgment; (2) a reference to the Shekinah cloud, which symbolized but hid God’s presence (cf. Exo 40:34); or (3) smoke from an incense altar so that God could not be seen.

Isa 6:5 Woe is me, for I am ruined This VERB (BDB 198 II, KB 225, Niphal PERFECT) denotes the destruction (i.e., silencing) of someone or something.

1. of cities

a. of Moab, Isa 15:1

b. of Philistia, Jer 47:5

2. of people

a. Israel, Hos 4:6

b. Jerusalem, Zep 1:11

c. Edom, Oba 1:5

3. of kings

a. Israel, Hos 10:7; Hos 10:15

b. Egypt, Eze 32:2

4. of humans under the metaphor of animals, Psa 49:14; Psa 49:20

5. of Isaiah, because he saw YHWH, Isa 6:5

The holiness of God informed Isaiah of his lack of righteousness accompanied by the biblical demanded response of judgment! Grace is key, but holiness is the goal (cf. Lev 11:44-45; Lev 19:2; Lev 20:7; Lev 20:26; Deu 18:13; Mat 5:48)! One cannot remain the same person after contact with God, yet this is exactly what His people did.

unclean lips Human speech reflects the heart (cf. Mat 15:18; Mar 7:20; Mar 7:23). This is reflected in Isa 29:13 (Mat 15:8-9) and Eze 33:30-32.

Isaiah is acknowledging his own sin (i.e., individual covenant responsibility, cf. Ezekiel 18, 36) and the sin of his community (corporate responsibility). Both are true and have consequences and benefits! God’s people were to reflect YHWH’s character to the nations, but they had been corrupted by the nations. Perhaps the pure in heart can see God (cf. Mat 5:8), but Isaiah knew he was not one of them, nor were the covenant people. This is the tension of conditional covenants and the hope for an unconditional covenant that will issue in a godly people (cf. Eze 36:22-38).

my eyes have seen the King See note at Isa 6:1.

the King Judah’s kings represented YHWH who was the true king of the Covenant people (i.e., Exo 15:18; Num 23:21; Jdg 8:23; 1Sa 8:7; 1Sa 12:12; 1Ki 22:19; Jer 46:18; Jer 48:15; Jer 51:57).

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley

king Uzziah. Contrast this leprous king with the glorious king of Isa 6:5.

died. In a separate house. This completes the contrast.

I saw. Hebrew ra’ah = to see clearly. As in Isa 6:6.

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics

By Chuck Smith

Shall we turn now in our Bibles to Isaiah, chapter 6, as Isaiah records for us his commissioning by God for his ministry. Now you remember in chapter 1 that Isaiah tells us that his time of prophecy extended through the kingdom or through the kings of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. As we pointed out, it is thought that he was put to death by the evil son of Hezekiah, Manasseh. But his call to his ministry as a prophet is given to us in chapter 6, and it so happened that it came,

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 ( Isa 6:1 ).

Uzziah was a very popular king. He had reigned over Israel for fifty-two years. He began his reign when he was just sixteen years old. Under his reign the nation, and actually I say Israel, but it was the Southern Kingdom of Judah over which he was reigning. And during this period, Judah had great military advancement and great prosperity. They developed a great water system, enlarged their agricultural area. They enlarged their territory by moving into the territory of the Philistines-something that they weren’t able to do prior to this under the other kings. He tore down the walls of Gath and of Ashdod, the great Philistine stronghold. He planted settlements in the Philistine territory. He had a very strong and powerful standing army of 310,000 men. They set their scientists at work building new types of war weapons for those days, great slings to throw huge stones and to shoot arrows and so forth. And he overall strengthened the nation mightily, so that the people felt very secure and very comfortable during the reign of Uzziah. He was a popular man.

The name of Uzziah spread abroad throughout all the land, even to the going down to Egypt. Everybody heard of him. And not only that, everybody was talking about him. And the name Uzziah was on the lips of all the people. And very importantly we read, “And as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper” ( 2Ch 26:5 ). He was a prosperous king. He was a popular king, the kind of a man that you have great confidence in because of his accomplishments. And so the people had great confidence in Uzziah. They had come to trust in him and rely upon him, perhaps too much so, as is often the case with a good, popular leader.

People begin to rely upon them too much and you get your eyes on to man and off of the Lord. And you begin to put your trust in man rather than in the Lord. And so many times it is necessary when that becomes the case, that in order that we might get our eyes back on the Lord, God has to remove the man. And oftentimes God does take that man that you’ve been relying on and trusting in and removes him out of the scene, in order that you might get your eyes upon God. Such was the case with Uzziah. And so it’s very significant that Isaiah would say, “In the year the king Uzziah died I saw the Lord.” Prior to that his eyes were on Uzziah. Prior to that his trust was in Uzziah. He was a good, popular king. Things are going well. Things are prosperous. Yet you don’t, it seems, unfortunately, think about the Lord so much in prosperity. It’s when all of a sudden calamity strikes.

The throne is empty. What are we going to do? Uzziah’s son is not the same as his dad. He’s surely not capable as was his father. The Northern Kingdom is going down the tubes. Anarchy is reigning, actually. One king after another is being assassinated. There is confusion. And they are in danger of being wiped out. What are we going to go? Uzziah’s dead. The throne is empty.

But Isaiah received a vision. A vision of the Lord in which he realized that the throne is not empty. “In the year king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on the throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.” So God having removed his idol, Isaiah got his eyes now upon the Lord, and he sees that the throne is not vacated. That God is upon the throne.

Oh, how important it is for us to realize that God is on the throne. That God is ruling over the affairs of our lives and God is ruling over the affairs of the world. We are prone to tremble when we see the world conditions. As you just look at the things that are happening in the world today, it’s enough to scare any sane man and give him a heart attack. But if you look beyond and realize hey, God is ruling, God is in control, then I can rest. I can sleep at night, only because I know that God is in control. I know that God is sitting upon the throne. So important that we realize that God is upon the throne. In our lives God rules, God reigns. That’s the important thing. So because God does reign, whatever does come upon my path is there because God has allowed it to come upon my path. The Lord reigns. And it is so important that we have this as a mental concept constantly. God reigns.

Now he describes the throne of God. He sees the seraphim that are above the throne of God. And he describes the seraphim. Now we are told that there are also cherubim around the throne of God, and these are angelic beings. And evidently there is a great similarity between the cherubim and the seraphim. Now in Ezekiel, he also, and we’ll be getting to that soon, he also had a vision of the throne of God in chapter 1 and chapter 10. And he described the cherubim, other angelic beings that are around the throne of God.

In John, chapter 4, he had a vision of the throne of God. And he saw the glassy sea in front of the throne. He saw the emerald around the throne of God, and then he also saw these living creatures. Whether the seraphim or the cherubim that John describes, we do not know. But basically their ministry is that of just worshipping and leading the worship of God around His throne, as the cherubim or the creatures in Revelation cry, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty, which is, which was, which is to come” ( Rev 4:8 ), so here the seraphim. They are described as having six wings. With two of them they cover their face, with two of them they cover their feet and they use two of them to fly. Interesting looking creatures to be sure. They are not, though, to be mistaken as birds or some kind of an animal, because they are highly intelligent creatures.

And one cries to another, and says, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory ( Isa 6:3 ).

Declaring the glory of God and the holiness of God.

And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke ( Isa 6:4 ).

And so he describes the heavenly scene, even as John described the heavenly scene in Revelation, chapter 4 and 5, and even as Ezekiel describes in chapter 1 and 10. Now I would recommend these chapters as important reading for any serious child of God. Because he is describing something that you’re going to be seeing before very long. Events that you’re going to be watching. And if you don’t read about them and know what’s going on, then you’re going to look like some hick when you get to heaven, mouth open, and everybody will know you didn’t do your homework. So these are interesting portions to study, so that when you get there and the whole thing is coming down and the cherubim are saying, “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God almighty which is, which was, which is to come,” then you can say, “All right, now watch those twenty-four guys. Watch them, they’re going to take their crowns and throw them on that glassy sea. Watch this now, you know.” And you’ll be able to really play it cool because you know the sequence of the worship there about the throne of God. So I highly recommend the reading of these portions where the throne of God is described. Always with each description there is that awesomeness of God, the Creator of the universe, as He sits upon His throne, as He rules and reigns over the universe, and that worship and acknowledgment of Him about the throne. Isaiah had the vision of the throne of God.

Then said I, Woe is me! ( Isa 6:5 )

Because now he sees himself in a whole new light. Up till now he had been looking at himself in the dim light of the world in which he lived. And in the dim light of the world around us we don’t look too bad. In fact, we look pretty good. But I’ll tell you, be careful of looking at yourself in a mirror in the sunshine. Nothing is hid. I mean, looking at yourself in that light is a whole different story. And so looking at ourselves in the light of God is a whole different story. I don’t know, I don’t know of a single man who has had a true vision of God who didn’t more or less with Isaiah say, “Woe is me!”

When Peter realized it was the Lord, he said, “Depart from me, Lord. I’m a sinful man.” When Daniel describes his vision of God and all, he said, “My beauty turned into ugliness.” Seeing God, we see ourselves in the true light. And no man can be proud. You see a man who is proud, you see a man who has not yet seen God.

Jesus in the beatitudes, in His great manifesto in Mat 5:1-48; Mat 6:1-34; Mat 7:1-29 began the beatitudes. In fact, He began the whole sermon by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” ( Mat 5:3 ). Now He begins the sevenfold description of the Christian in these beatitudes, the characteristics that mark the Christian. But the first characteristic is poor in spirit. From whence comes this poverty of spirit? It comes when I see God. That’s the beginning of my walk with God. My vision of God begins my walk with Him, and in the vision of God, seeing God, I see myself. And as I see myself I say, “Hey, woe is me. I’m nothing.” Poverty of spirit.

“Blessed are they which mourn,” the next characteristic, “for they shall be comforted” ( Mat 5:4 ). My poverty of spirit leads me to weeping over my condition. How could I do those things? How could I have done that? And I see myself now in God’s light and oh, what a revelation that is. “Then said I, ‘Woe is me!'”

for I am undone ( Isa 6:5 );

I’m crooked and I dwell amongst.

and I have unclean lips, and I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips ( Isa 6:5 ):

So he saw one of the seraphim then that flew, and with his tongs he took a glowing coal from off the altar. Now the study of the tabernacle is extremely interesting, because the tabernacle is a model of heaven and the throne of God. And so if you want to really know what heaven is going to look like, that is the throne of God area of heaven, you can study the tabernacle and there you have a little model. And God said to Moses, “Make sure that you make it according to the specifications.” Why? Because it’s a model of heavenly things. So even in the earthly tabernacle they had the altar with the coals, so there in heaven is an altar with coals. And one of the seraphim went to the altar with tongs, took these coals and he brought it to Isaiah and he touched his lips with that glowing coal. And he said, “Your iniquity is taken away, or your crookedness is taken away.” His cry, “Woe is me for I am crooked.” Your crookedness is taken away. And your sin is cleansed. I’m a man of unclean lips. “Your sin is purged,” he said, “or cleansed.” So the cleansing by the work of God.

Notice it wasn’t Isaiah’s work. It was God’s work. Isaiah’s was the recognition of his condition. God’s work was that of the cleansing then once he recognized his condition. All God wants you to do is acknowledge your condition. He doesn’t ask you even to reform. That comes. But He asks you to just acknowledge, to confess. “If thou shall confess thy sins, He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins, and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness” ( 1Jn 1:9 ). But you got to confess your sin. “Woe is me! I’m undone. I’m dwelling amongst the people of unclean lips. I have unclean lips.” Your crookedness is taken way. Your uncleanness, your sin is cleansed. What a glorious thing, the work of God. And it comes immediately upon my acknowledgment and confession.

David in the thirty-second Psalm begins the psalm, “O how happy is the man whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered” ( Psa 32:1 ). And before I confess my sin, hey, I was just dried up inside. It was like the drought of summer. I was so dry and parched. My bones were aching. For the hand of God was heavy on me. Then I said, “I will confess my sin unto the Lord and Thou forgavest my sin” ( Psa 32:5 ). Just before he got the words out of his mouth, the minute in his heart he said, “Oh, I’m so horrible, I’m just going to confess. I’m going to just turn it over to God,” in that moment the cleansing and the forgiveness came. And that’s just how anxious God is to cleanse and forgive you. The moment in your heart you say, “God, I have sinned. I’m sorry. Woe is me; I’m crooked. My lips are unclean.” Just that quick the seraphim came and said, “Hey, your crookedness is taken away. Your sin is cleansed.” Oh, the beautiful work of God’s grace and the forgiveness in His love for us. All He asks is you just confess. He is willing and wanting to wash and cleanse you from all your sins.

But that isn’t the end of it. God does want to work in your life. God will work in your life if you give Him the opportunity. But God never stops there. God wants to work through your life. There is a needy world out there. It’s in darkness. You are dwelling in the midst of people of unclean lips. And they need to know that God will wash and cleanse them also. So the work of God in your life always ends up objectively. First of all subjective, what God can do for you. But then what God can do through you to touch others. And that’s what it’s all about.

So I saw God. When I saw God, I said, “Woe is me!” When he heard them declare, “Holy, holy, holy,” declaring the holiness of God, then you see yourself and, “Woe is me, I’m crooked.”

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall we send, who will go for us? Then said I ( Isa 6:8 ),

Now he’s speaking again. But now this is a different, this is a man who is now being cleansed. This is a man whose life has been touched by the fire of God. And He said, “‘Who shall we send?’ ‘Then said I,'”

Here am I [Lord]; send me ( Isa 6:8 ).

Once God has touched your life, then God wants to use your life to touch others. God has a work that He wants to do. And the problem is always, who will go for us? Whom will we send? Jesus said, “Behold the fields are white unto harvest but the laborers are few” ( Mat 9:37 ). Who will go for us? Whom shall we send? The man whose life has been touched by God becomes an available instrument for God. “Here am I, Lord. Send me.” And his commission:

And so God said to him, Go, and tell this people ( Isa 6:9 ),

Now at this time Judah was on the road down. They have forsaken the living God. Idol worship had been introduced. There were times of spiritual reform, but they were usually surface. They never got into the real heart of the nation itself. And yet, God wasn’t going to just let them be destroyed without still a witness. But they weren’t going to really listen to the witness, but still God was going to be faithful and witness to them anyhow. And that is, to me, an interesting thing about God. Even though a person isn’t going to respond, even though a person won’t listen, yet God will still give them the chance. God will still speak to them. He doesn’t cease talking. And so He said, “Go tell this people.”

You may hear indeed, but you don’t understand; you may see indeed, [but you’re really not seeing,] you don’t perceive ( Isa 6:9 ).

And so God said,

Make the heart of the people fat ( Isa 6:10 ),

That is, give them the word. Give them the message of God. That they’ll have no excuse.

their ears heavy ( Isa 6:10 ),

Just hang the message on them.

shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and be converted, and be healed. Isaiah responded to the Lord, How long? And he answered, Until the cities are wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate ( Isa 6:10-11 ),

Now God was going to continue to preach to these people and continue to warn these people and continue to give them opportunity until the whole land was desolate, till the last one was left. God will continue His witness. Even as God will continue His witness to the world today and is bearing witness to the world today, but the world today isn’t listening. They’re making fun of the witness of God. But still we are to witness. God will not leave Himself without a witness. Oh, the political cartoonists on the editorial pages are having a field day with the moral majority, and with creation and evolution.

I saw on Daily Pilot today in the editorial page a cartoon of some big, fat slob saying to his little son who’s coming home from school with his books, “God made me in His own image, you know, and after His likeness. I didn’t evolve.” It’s just dispersion that is cast against God, really. And still we’re to preach. Still we’re to bear witness. Still we’re to warn. Though they don’t listen, though they don’t see, though their hearts are heavy, though their eyes are blinded, still God wants a witness left with them. Until the place is desolate there’s nothing left, God will bear witness.

Now the church is the instrument by which God is bearing His witness to the world today. But the church will soon be taken out. The witness of the church is just about over. Once the church is taken out, it doesn’t mean God’s witness is over. Just the witness of the church is over. God’s going to send two witnesses, powerful witnesses with all kinds of power, and He’s sending them to Jerusalem. God will also seal 144,000 of the Jews that will be witnesses for Him during these dark, dark, dark hours that are coming upon the earth. And then God is even going to send angels flying through the midst of heaven orbiting the earth bearing witness and preaching the everlasting gospel and warning men not to take the mark of the beast. Even down to the end, even by angelic beings God is going to keep His witness going until the whole place is desolate, left without inhabitants. For God is faithful in bearing His witness to the people.

So how long, Lord? Till the whole thing is over. So the witnesses, God had His witnesses, His prophets, who were warning the people right up until and through the time that Nebuchadnezzar carried off the first captives. Jeremiah was still there bearing witness to the people. Telling them to repent and turn to God and get right with God.

And the LORD has removed people far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet it shall be that a tenth will return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof ( Isa 6:12-13 ).

In other words, an oak tree cast its leaves. It looks like it’s dead, but yet it comes back. The teil tree looks like it’s so dead, but yet it comes back. So it will look like the nation Israel is dead. It will appear that way, but yet God said, “I’ll bring them back. A tenth part, only one in ten will return. But I will bring them back.” And so God’s promise of bringing the people back from the captivity. “

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary

Isa 6:1-4. 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 stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and 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.

Isaiah was awe-stricken by this vision of the glory of the Lord. It was a sight such as few eyes have ever seen. Isaiah was never actually in the holy place, for he was no priest, and therefore he could not stand there; but it was in vision that he saw all this glory, and it was a vision that must have remained upon his memory through the rest of his life. The holiness and the glory of God struck him at once.

Isa 6:5. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.

There was, indeed, enough to make him say, Woe is me! A sinful preacher, an imperfect preacher, among a sinful and imperfect people, he felt as if the society in which he moved was the reverse of the society in which God dwells. Pure seraphim cry, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts; but as for us, our very talk is unholy: a people of unclean lips.

Isa 6:6-7. 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 touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

The live coal from off the altar does not represent the holy flame which burns in the prophets heart; but it represents purgation, cleansing, participation in the sacrifice, and the putting away of sin. With a blister on his lip, Isaiah stood silent before God.

Isa 6:8. Also I heard the voice of the LORD, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

Here we have the Divine Trinity in Unity. Whom shall I send? There is Unity. Who will go for us? There is the Trinity. God is seeking a messenger to deliver his message to men.

Isa 6:8. Then said I,

Stammering it out with the blistered lip,

Isa 6:8. Here am I; send me.

Isaiah did not know the errand; perhaps, if he had known it, he would not have been quite so ready to go; who can tell? But Gods servants are ready for anything, ready for everything, when once the living coal hath touched their lip. I thank God that I was never called to such a work as Isaiah had to undertake.

Isa 6:9-10. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

That was no gospel ministry; it was a ministry of condemnation. The house of Israel had rejected the prophets, and had rejected God; and in the fullness of time would reject Gods own dear Son. When Isaiah in vision looked forward to all this, he was sent not to soften, but to harden; his word was to be a savour of death unto death, and not of life unto life.

Isa 6:11-12. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the Cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.

This was a heavy task. for the prophet; he had no tidings of Gods relenting, no tokens of divine mercy.

Isa 6:13. But yet

You never get this deep bass note of divine justice without having a but yet to accompany it.

Isa 6:13. In it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

When the oak sheds all its leaves, it is not dead; there is living sap that will again cause the tree to be verdant. Though the nation was to be brought very low, there was still to be left a remnant according to the election of grace. Sin never reaches such a point in Gods people but what grace triumphs. Still, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. This is a terrible chapter; it shows the sovereignty of God in a lurid light, and reveals how, when sin comes to a certain point, the Lord gives men up, and leaves them to the blindness of their heart, so that even the means of grace, the prophetic message, becomes a means of condemnation to them.Now we are going to read in one of the many places in the New Testament in which this passage is quoted.

This exposition consisted of readings from Isaiah 6.; Mat 13:10-17; and Luk 18:35-43.

Fuente: Spurgeon’s Verse Expositions of the Bible

Isa 6:1-5

Verse 1

This is one of the most famous chapters in the whole prophecy, but there is this mystery about it, namely, that nobody knows for sure just where it belongs chronologically. Practically all of the liberal and radically critical writers make it the beginning of all of Isaiah’s prophetic writings, identifying it with his original call to the prophetic office. More conservative scholars find many objections to that understanding of it. If it was Isaiah’s call to the prophetic office, why should it have been placed this deep into the prophecy? Furthermore, at the very beginning of Isaiah, his prophecies were identified with the reign of King Uzziah and other kings; and, since this vision is placed in the year of Uzziah’s death, with the evident presumption that King Uzziah was already dead, making this vision the first one Isaiah ever had would leave no room for those prophecies clearly stated to have occurred in Uzziah’s reign. It appears to this writer, therefore, that there is a better explanation of this chapter than the current fad of making it Isaiah’s call to the prophetic office. Note that the scriptures do not even hint that this was the beginning of Isaiah’s prophetic ministry.

Therefore, we understand this great chapter as a second appearance of the Lord to Isaiah, much in the same manner that God appeared to Abraham a second time in Haran, to Jonah a second time, and to Daniel a number of times. The true reason for God’s appearance to Isaiah in this marvelous vision lies in the importance of the tremendously significant prophecy that Isaiah was here commissioned to deliver to Israel, namely, Israel’s final and fatal apostasy that resulted in their official judicial hardening by God himself. This is one of the greatest prophecies in the Bible; it is quoted no less than four times in the New Testament; and it is fully applicable to the secular Israel even to the present time. This judicial hardening of Israel so dramatically prophesied here was the end of racial Israel as the “chosen people of God.” Such a message, Isaiah would have understood perfectly; and the prophet’s need of a special revelation and commission from God Himself in order to enable and encourage Isaiah’s announcement of it is evident enough.

We fully agree with Lowth that this vision (of Isaiah 6) could be, “A new designation to introduce more solemnly a general declaration of the whole course of God’s dispensations in regard to his people and the fate of the nation (Israel).

The cosmic sweep of this prophecy concerning the rejection of the once “chosen people” including, of course, the salvation of”a remnant,” was also noted by Lowth, as follows:

“Although it relates primarily to the prophet’s own times, and the obduracy of the Jews of that age, and to their punishment by the Babylonian captivity; it extends in its full latitude to the age of Messiah, and the blindness of the Jews to the gospel; (See Mat 13:14-15; Joh 12:40; Act 28:26-27; and Rom 11:7-8) to the desolation of their country by the Romans, and to their being rejected by God.

Thus the extremely significant implications of the prophecy in this chapter constitute the only reason needed to explain why a special revelation from God to Isaiah accompanied the giving of it. The chapter falls into three short divisions: (1) The Vision of God (Isa 6:1-5); (2) Isaiah’s cleansing (Isa 6:6-8); and (3) Prophecy of Israel’s hardening and rejection (Isa 6:9-13).

Isa 6:1-5

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook 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 midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.”

“In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord …” The king Uzziah is thought to have been the cousin of Isaiah; and he was no doubt held in highest honor and appreciation by the prophet. At any rate, his death was a public tragedy and occasion of great sorrow. It is no accident, therefore, that upon such a tragic occasion a special vision of the Great King should have appeared to his prophet. Israel’s salvation could never have come from the activity of any earthly king, no matter how good, or how great. Too many might have been looking to the wrong throne for the blessings Israel needed. It was high time that their vision should have been lifted upward to God Himself, to the true throne of authority and blessing. Many a human being has found an occasion of great personal tragedy to have been also an occasion when a new vision of God upon his throne enabled him to find new cleansing and deliverance from the Lord, as did Isaiah here.

We appreciate McGuiggan’s discerning comment on this: For someone it might be: in the year that my wife, or my son, or my little girl died, or in the year that my business failed, or in the year my child became a drug-addict, or in the year when my son was born crippled, or in the year of any great personal tragedy … I SAW THE LORD SITTING ON A THRONE, high and lifted up.

This is always the correct answer. No matter what tragic sorrow overwhelms and destroys mankind, whether individually or collectively, let all men behold the Lord upon the eternal throne. There and there only is the source of our hope and salvation.

Note our assumption here that Uzziah was already dead when this vision came to Isaiah. As Lowth said, “The phrase, In the year that king Uzziah died, probably means `after the death of Uzziah’; as the same phrase, Isa 14:28, means `after the death of Ahaz.’

“His train filled all the temple …” The marginal note gives “skirts” instead of “train” here. “Robes” might be a better word.

The three pairs of wings on each of the seraphim are believed to stand for reverence, humility, and speedy obedience to God’s will.

“The seraphim …” These may not be identified with the Cherubim which had four wings (in the temple, two wings), not six. “This word is nowhere else in the Bible applied to God’s attendant angels; but the word is applied to the fiery, flying (not winged) serpents that bit the Israelites in the wilderness (Num 21:6). It might be that the suggestion of these strange beings is connected in some way with the satanic wickedness which was destined, finally, to overwhelm and destroy Israel, which eventuality this revelation from God to Isaiah so sternly prophesied.

The word “house” in Isa 6:4 is more properly translated as “temple.” Jamieson also identified the “smoke” in this passage with the holy Shekinah of 1Ki 8:10 and Eze 10:4, indicating the presence of God.

Notice that Isaiah’s consciousness of God’s presence resulted at once in his awareness of his own sins and uncleanness. Throughout the Bible, this reaction on the part of any person becoming aware of God’s presence is normal, indeed without exception. Examples of this are Gideon (Jdg 6:22), Manoah (Jdg 13:22), Job (Job 42:5-6), Peter (Luk 5:8), John (Rev 1:17), and the thief on the cross (Luk 23:40-41).

The notion that Isaiah was just as wicked as the Israelites generally were should be rejected. True, all men, in the presence of God, must inevitably be overcome with a sense of wickedness and unworthiness; but that is a different thing altogether from being as wicked as are those in full rebellion against God. Both Noah (Gen 7:1) and Lot (2Pe 2:8) were called “righteous” in scripture; but no man is truly righteous in the ultimate sense. Thus, we should understand Isaiah’s confession of sin here as a conscious realization of the wickedness of all flesh in the sight of God, and not as an admission that he was just as wicked as the Jews generally were in that rebellious era. If he had been, God most certainly would not have entrusted him with the commission given in this chapter.

Isa 6:1-4 THE GLORY: The throne of David is the throne of God on earth. Exo 19:4-6; 1Sa 8:7; 2Sa 7:12-16 it should be established forever. 1 Chronicles 29-23. Now the King is dead, the throne is vacant till a new King is crowned. Knowing the helpless, weak, vacillating condition of the people, a sense of impending national trouble comes to Isaiah. At this time is granted to him a vision of the glory of God. God is on the throne! Supremacy! Permanence and Power! The earthly throne may be vacant, the scepter fallen from dead hands; but here is One whose throne is never vacant, from whose hand the scepter never falls. Here is assurance, positive and beyond doubt that however weak man had corrupted the earthly counterpart of Gods throne, God still reigns and controls all things. His train, skirts, robes, fill the Temple, His house, palace. Flowing robes of priestly royalty flll the temple. No room for human glory and authority in Gods house. Seraphim – Fiery ones. Cf. Rev 4:8. Four living creatures. Six wings – rapidity in carrying out Gods orders, Gods will. In the Holy Presence, however, the Seraphim covered his face with his wings from the intolerable effulgence of Divine Glory; another pair of wings covered the feet, soiled in their various ministrations, unmeet for all pure presence; while the third pair of wings sustained him in his place near the throne. Ceaseless activity in Gods service. One cried – kept crying (Cf. Rev 4:8). This cry of worship and adoration was a result of their vision. Its first note is the affirmation of the holiness of God. Its second is the declaration that the earth is full of His glory.

A Sermon from Seraphim

1. The lowliest Reverence becomes the Highest Created Beings Isa 6:2

2. The Heavenly Life is largely spent in active service Isa 6:2

3. The Celestial Intelligences have a keen appreciation of the Divine Holiness Isa 6:3

4. The highest Intelligences see all things in their relation to God Isa 6:3

The earthquake symbolizes that material, earthly things are temporary and shaken. Though the very temple itself be shaken and Old Testament religion itself undergo a change and old established customs of worship and institutions of administration pass away, Gods throne and authority are eternal. In this vision of Isaiah we have a prelude or a preparation for what Isaiah is going to teach about the Messiah and His Kingdom. Isaiah will soon begin to proclaim that when the Messiah comes and establishes His Kingdom (the church), it will seem to the Jews as if the throne of God had been abandoned. All the Old Testament institutions were to be replaced. But what the Jews would need to understand was that God was still on His throne and that all the Messianic activity would really be God ruling. Paul deals with this Jewish problem in Hebrews (esp. Heb 12:18-29). The word holy attributed to God emphasizes His absolute separation from man. He is Lord and not a man. Although the creation depends upon Him, He himself is entirely independent thereof. This is the heart and core of Isaiahs theology. Gods holiness is a necessity if we are to be able to entrust our eternal destiny to Him.

Fuente: Old and New Testaments Restoration Commentary

We now begin the second part of the first circle of prophecy, which contains the prophecies during the reigns of Jotham and Ahaz. When Uzziah died, Isaiah was called to the exercise of a larger ministry, and was prepared for it by the special vision granted to him.

This vision of the Lord was full of grace and of glory. The majesty of the Most High was manifest in the uplifted and occupied throne, in the solemn chanting of the seraphim, and by the earthquake which made the very foundations of the thresholds tremble. The revelation of grace is as remarkable as that of glory. In answer to the prophet’s cry of need, one of the singing seraphim bears to him a live coal from the altar, and his sin is expiated. It is a wonderful unveiling of truth concerning God. The center of all adoring worship, He nevertheless hears the sigh of the sinner in his need, and the song of a seraph’s worship ceases in order that the sigh of the sinner may be answered.

Following this vision, the voice of the Lord calls for a messenger, and the prophet, cleansed from his sin, answers. He is then commissioned to the ministry of judgment. In answer to an inquiry on his part, a word is spoken which limits judgment and reveals that the purpose of God in His people is not to be utterly frustrated.

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible

a Call to Heroic Service

Isa 6:1-13

Kings die; Jesus lives. See Joh 12:41. We are here reminded of Act 22:17-18. How great the contrast between the worship of these seraphim in the Unseen-Holy and mans perfunctory rites! Six wings-two for meditation, two for humility, and two for service. Service should take only a third of our energy. One cried unto another-one inspired spirit will awaken others. The threefold repetition of the word holy, implies the Trinity. If door-posts tremble, much more should the hearts of sinful men! Isaiah, in the previous chapter, had uttered six woes against others, but his seventh and sorest woe is against himself. The sinner, like the leper, cries, Unclean! Lev 13:45. The seraph did not wait to be told; he knew that there was only one cure for such need as the prophets, Isa 6:9-13. When men refuse Gods offered grace, every refusal hardens. It is either the savour of death unto death or of life unto life, 2Co 2:16. The life of the oak and the terebinth only seems to become extinct in winter; there is revival in the spring. Is it winter with you? Pray for the springtime!

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary

EXPOSITORY NOTES ON

THE PROPHET ISAIAH

Harry A. Ironside, Litt.D.

edited for 3BSB by Baptist Bible Believer in the spirit of the Colportage ministry of a century ago

ISAIAH CHAPTER SIX

THE PROPHET’S CLEANSING AND COMMISSION

“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 stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and 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 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 touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged” (verses 1-7).

ISAIAH here goes back over the years and tells us how he was brought into the knowledge of cleansing from sin, and how he heard and responded to the call of GOD to be His messenger to a rebellious and gainsaying people.

It is always of interest when one is privileged to get a personal and intimate account of the revelation of GOD to a human soul. In this chapter Isaiah lets us into the secret of his wonderful power and equipment for service. He takes us into the sanctuary, shows us how the Lord was revealed to him, and lets us know the circumstances of his call to the prophetic office. This was the real starting point of his effective ministry. We know from chapter 1:1, that he began to witness for GOD in the days of King Uzziah.

As the experience recorded here took place in the year King Uzziah died, it may be that it was subsequent to the prophetic testimony which we have been considering already but, as suggested before, there seems to be no proof of this, for it may have been during the last year of Uzziah that Isaiah began his ministry, and that he is here telling us of his original call to the prophetic office.

It is true that many servants of GOD have preached to others before having a clear, definite experience with the Lord for themselves. John Wesley is a case in point. He tells us in his

Journal, that while in Georgia he learned that he who came to America to convert the Indians, had never been converted himself.

It is true that in later years he doubted whether he had diagnosed his own case aright, but he certainly preached to others for several years before he had that heart-warming experience in London when he knew definitely that he was born of GOD. And one could tell of many others, even D. L. Moody among them, who began to preach before having the clear understanding or salvation by grace and the enduement of the Holy Spirit. So, while it seems unlikely, there is still the possibility that the stirring message of chapters one to five was proclaimed before the revelation of the divine holiness and of Isaiah’s own corrupt heart had come to him as narrated here. But it seems more probable that after he had recorded his burden of the preceding chapters, he then undertook to tell the story of his own meeting with GOD and his divine commission as GOD’s messenger to the people of his day.

This was not, as some would have it, Isaiah’s “second blessing.” It was rather a part of GOD’s dealings with him in order that he might be prepared to give out the Word to others because of knowing for himself the reality of having to do with GOD.

He tells us, “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.” That word “also” is significant. Was it a sight of GOD that brought the leprosy out on Uzziah’s forehead? The same GOD revealed Himself to Isaiah while he was attending a service in the Temple at Jerusalem; however, it was not in judgment but in grace that He showed Himself as the infinitely Holy One. Others may have thronged the temple courts at this time, but none but Isaiah saw the glorious vision. In an ecstatic state he became blind to all about him, but his awakened intelligence was fully occupied with the glory that had been revealed to him.

Above the throne he beheld the seraphim, an order of angels apparently, each with six wings. We may drop the “s” from the word “seraphims” as the im is the Hebrew plural. These glorious beings seem to be messengers of grace, as distinguished from the cherubim, who speak rather of righteousness and judgment.

They cried one to another, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” It is an ascription of praise and adoration to the Triune GOD, whose glory is manifested in all creation.

As the song of worship sounded forth, the very posts of the doors were moved and the house was filled with the fragrant smoke of the burning incense. Strange that inanimate pillars should thus be moved while the hearts of men remained obdurate and motionless! But one man there was who did respond and that in a very definite way.

Isaiah cried, “Woe is me! for I am undone: because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” The effect of beholding GOD is to make one realize his own unworthiness and the corruption of his own heart. Isaiah saw himself in the light of the Lord’s infinite holiness. It is ever thus when man is brought consciously into the presence of GOD.

– When Job saw the Lord, he cried, “I repent in dust and ashes.”

– When Simon recognized in JESUS the Creator of the fish of the sea, he fell at His feet and cried, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.”

And so with our prophet. When he saw himself in the light of the holiness of GOD, he at once acknowledged his own sinfulness; and moreover, he recognized the fact that he was surrounded by men, who, like himself, were of unclean lips: for “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.”

In response to Isaiah’s confession, we read, “Then new one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand.” He had taken the live coal with the tongs from off the altar. It was the altar of sacrifice, which prefigured the Cross. That live coal told of the fire of judgment having burned itself out upon the offering. The representative of the grace of GOD to needy men flew swiftly to tell of His saving favor, based upon the atoning sacrifice. With two of their wings the seraphim hid their faces as they worshiped the infinitely Holy One. With two they covered their beautiful feet, and with two they hastened forth in loving service. The Cherubim are said to have four wings (Eze 1:6). The “living creatures” of Ezekiel 1 are identified as the “cherubim” in chapter ten. May not the six wings of the seraphim tell us how mercy rejoiceth against judgment (Jam 2:13)?

As the coal touched his lips, Isaiah heard the comforting words, “Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” The divinely-sent messenger proclaimed the good news of redemption and purification from sin through Him whose one offering was pictured in the sacrifice of the altar.

We would re-emphasize the fact that it was from the altar of burnt offering the coal was taken, not from the golden altar, where only incense was burned. That live coal was witness of the fire, ever burning, which was never to go out (Lev 6:13). It constantly foreshadowed the work of the Cross. Through that sacrifice alone could iniquity be purged and sin be put away (Heb 9:13, 14).

“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. And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof” (verses 8-13).

Following the assurance of forgiveness and cleansing came the call for service. The voice of the Lord was heard crying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” In response to this Isaiah exclaimed, “Here am I; send me.”

“Who Will Go for us? It has pleased GOD to commit the declaration of His truth to men rather than to angels. He is still calling for consecrated men and women to carry the offer of salvation and the warning of judgment to a lost world. Such must know for themselves the cleansing power of the blood of CHRIST if they would give effective testimony to those still in their sins.

The prophet was commissioned to “Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.”

Even though the Word seemed to have no other effect than to harden them in their sins and rebellion, Isaiah was to proclaim the message faithfully.

The servant of GOD is responsible to the Lord Himself. Having received his commission, he is to go forth in the name of the One who sends him, declaring the message committed to him. The results must be left with GOD. Whether men hear or whether they forbear (Eze 2:3-5), he who proclaims the Word faithfully has delivered his soul.

The Apostle Paul entered into this when he spoke of being a sweet savor of CHRIST unto GOD both in them that are saved and in them that perish (2Co 2:15). GOD is honored when His truth is preached, no matter what attitude the hearers take toward it, and that Word will not return void, but will accomplish the divine purpose (Isa 55:11).

Faced with the solemn responsibility of proclaiming so unpopular a message, Isaiah cried, “Lord, how long?” It takes special faith and obedience to continue to preach to an unheeding people who are only hardened by the Word instead of being softened by it. The Lord’s answer was that the message must be proclaimed until there were none left to hear.

~ end of chapter 6 ~

Fuente: Commentaries on the New Testament and Prophets

Isa 6:1

I. “I saw the Lord,” etc. Some of you may have been watching a near and beautiful landscape in the land of mountains and eternal snows, till you have been exhausted by its very richness, and till the distant hills which bounded it have seemed, you knew not why, to limit and contract the view; and then a veil has been withdrawn, and new hills, not looking as if they belonged to this earth, yet giving another character to all that does belong to it, have unfolded themselves before you. This is a very imperfect likeness of that revelation which must have been made to the inner eye of the prophet, when he saw another throne than the throne of the house of David, another King than Uzziah or Jotham, another train than that of priests or minstrels in the temple, other winged forms than those golden ones which overshadowed the mercy-seat.

II. “Above the throne stood the seraphim,” etc. The sense of awe increasing with the clearness and purity of a spirit, and with the nearness of its approach to God; the face being veiled which receives its light from Him, and most covets to behold Him; the absence of all wish to display their own perfections in spirits that are perfect; the freedom and willingness to go anywhere, to do any errands of mercy,-these are some of the more obvious thoughts which the study of this vision suggests.

III. The vision reaches its highest point in the cry, Holy, holy, holy. It is the holiness of God which the seraphim proclaim, that which cannot be represented to the eye, that of which descriptions and symbols offer no image. It was this which led the prophet to say, “Woe is me! for I am undone.”

IV. The live coal on the altar is a substance dead and cold in itself, which has been kindled from above, and therefore is capable of imparting life and warmth. That warmth and life, communicated to the prophet, take away his iniquity and purge his sin.

V. “Here am I; send me.” The mighty change which has been wrought in him is soon apparent. He is sure that God cares for Israelites, and has a message to them; he is sure that a man is to be the bearer of that message. The new fire which has entered into him makes him ready to offer himself as that man.

VI. The most awful lesson which Isaiah had to teach his people was that God’s own ordinances, the regular sequence of sovereigns, the duties and symbols of the temple, were contributing to make their eyes dim, and their ears deaf, and their hearts fat. They were seeing all the outward tokens of an invisible King, but they perceived not Him.

VII. “Yet in it shall be a tenth.” The nation will be preserved; the remnant, the tenth, would be a pledge and witness of its preservation. Their preservation would prove that the nation was a sacred and immortal thing, because the holy seed was in the midst of it, because it did not derive its life or its unity from this or that believing man, or from a multitude of believing men; but from Him in whom they believed; from that Divine King who lived, though king Uzziah and all other kings died,-nay, though the whole land should seem to die.

F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament, p. 218.

Reference: Isa 6:1.-J. W. Lance, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xx., p. 244.

Isa 6:1-2

I. The spiritual or angelic life on earth consists not only of devotion. The seraph himself, though indeed the spirit of adoration is upon him always, is not always engaged in direct acts of praise. “With twain he did fly,” speed forth, like lightning, upon the errands on which God sends him. There is a deep-seated necessity for work in the constitution of our nature. One of the greatest thinkers of antiquity defined happiness to be “an energy of the soul.” The reason why activity fails in numberless instances to secure happiness is that it is separated from God, that it is not in His service and interests.

II. There is a contemplative element in the service of the seraphim-their activity is fed from the springs of their devotion. And so it must be with God’s human servants. The activity which flows from ambition, the diligence which is purely mechanical and the result of habit, is not angelic diligence and activity. To attempt to lead the spiritual life without devotion is even a greater mistake than to go apart from our duties in order to lead it. Our flying on God’s errands will be an unhallowed flight, if we do not first secretly adore Him in our hearts.

E. M. Goulburn, Thoughts on Personal Religion, p. 30.

Isa 6:1-3

We have here in this wondrous vision the proper inauguration of the great evangelical prophet to his future work.

I. First, he gives the date of the vision. “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord.” What would he say but this: “In the year when the crowned monarch of the earth went down into the dust and darkness of the tomb, and all the pomp and pageantry which had surrounded him for a little while dissolved and disappeared, I saw another king, even the King Immortal, sitting upon His throne, which is forever and ever”? How simply and yet how grandly are earth and heaven here brought together, and the fleeting phantoms of one set over against the abiding realities of the other!

II. What is the first impression which this glorious vision makes upon the prophet? His first cry is not that of exultation and delight, but rather of consternation and dismay. “Woe is me! for I am undone.” He who had uttered this cry was one who had kept himself from his iniquity, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience; and yet in that terrible light he saw and avowed himself as a man undone, saw stains in himself which he had not imagined before, discovered impurities which he had not dreamt of before, saw his own sin and his people’s sin, till that mighty cry of anguish was wrung from him. Yet that moment, with all its dreadfulness, was a passage into a true life.

III. Observe the manner in which the guilt of sin is here, as evermore in Holy Scripture, spoken of as taken away by a free act of God,-an act of His in which man is passive; in which he has, so to speak, to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord,-an act to which he can contribute nothing, save indeed only that divinely awakened hunger of the soul after the benefit which we call faith. It is quite another thing with the power of sin. In the subduing of the power of sin we must be fellow-workers with God; all the faculties of our renewed nature will need to be strained to the uttermost.

IV. Behold the joyful readiness with which the prophet now offers himself for the service of His God. “Here am I; send me.” He stops not to inquire whereunto the Lord would send him, to undertake what painful labour, to drink what cup of suffering, to be baptized with what baptism of blood. Be the task what it may, he is ready for it.

R. C. Trench, Sermons New and Old, p. 98 (see also Sermons Preached in Ireland, p. 166).

References: Isa 6:1-3.-M. Nicholson, Communion with Heaven, p. 57; R. W. Forrest, Christian World Pulpit, vol. i., p. 492. Isa 6:1-4.-Homilist, Excelsior series, vol. ii., p. 347.

Isa 6:1-8

I. Consider what the prophet saw. He sees Jehovah as Ruler, Governor, King; He is upon a throne, high and lifted up. It is the throne of absolute sovereignty: of resistless, questionless supremacy over all. He is in the temple where the throne is the mercy-seat, between the cherubim; over the ark of the covenant, which is the symbol and seal of friendly communion. His train, the skirts of His wondrous garment of light and love, filled the temple. Above, or upon, that train stood the seraphim. These are not, as I take it, angelic or super-angelic spirits, but the Divine Spirit Himself, the Holy Ghost, appearing thus in the aspect and attitude of gracious ministry. With this great sight voice and movement are joined. A voice of adoring awe fills the august temple with the echoing sound. The voice occasions commotion, excitement, shaken door-posts, the smoke of the glorious cloudy fire filling all the house.

II. How the prophet felt. It is a thorough prostration. He falls on his face as one dead. He cannot stand that Divine presence-that living, personal, Divine presence-abruptly confronting him in the inmost shrine of the Lord’s sanctuary, and the sanctuary of his own heart. What the Lord really is, thus flashing on his conscience, shows him what he is himself. Undone! unclean! Unclean in the very sphere and line of living in which I ought to be most scrupulously clean!

III. How the prophet’s case was met. There, full in his view, is an altar with its sacrifice; present to him then, though future; with a living coal from that living altar, the blessed Spirit touches him at the very point of his deepest self-despair. And the effect is as immediate as the touch. Nothing comes in between. Enough that there are, on the one side, the unclean lips, and on the other the live coal from off the altar. To the one let the other be applied, graciously, effectually, by the sevenfold, myriadfold, agency of the Spirit who is ever before the throne on high. The prophet asks nothing more. He hears the voice, as of Him who said, “Thy sins be forgiven thee.” “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.”

IV. The subsequent offer and command. Two things are noticeable here: the grace of God in allowing the prophet, thus exercised, to be a volunteer for service; and the unreservedness of the prophet’s volunteering. It is no half-hearted purpose, conditional on circumstances; but the full, single-eyed heartiness of one loving much, because forgiven much, that breaks out in the frank, unqualified, unconditional self-enlistment and self-enrolment in the Lord’s host,-“Here am I; send me.”

R. S. Candlish, Sermons, p. 86.

References: Isa 6:1-8.-H. F. Burder, Sermons, p. 115; S. Cox, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. ii., pp. 18, 21. Isa 6:1-10.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. xii., p. 283. Isa 6:1-11.-Ibid., vol. iv;, p. 274.

Isa 6:2

Is it not strange, that of those parts of an angel’s figure, which seem as if they were made only for action, four out of six are used for an entirely different purpose? It is to teach us, that it is not every power which we have-and which we might think given us for public service, and for the outer life-which is really intended by God for that use. Never think that large faculties are fitted only for large enterprises, and that all your endowments are to be spent on that which is to meet the general eye. Remember that of six wings an angel uses only two to fly with.

I. “With twain he covered his face.” Similarly did Abraham, when he talked with God; and Moses in the bush, and Elijah and John. For the face is the expression of a man. His intellect, his heart, are there, and therefore the “covering of the face” is the confession of the weakness and unworthiness of the mind. It is the acknowledgment of the infinite distance of God. It is the sense of His exceeding glory.

II. “And with twain he covered his feet.” In order, I suppose, that his very form and motion might not be seen; and therefore it is mentioned before the flight. He did not set out until, as far as possible, himself was concealed. There shall be simply the fact of a mission, and the message; so that if an angel were to bring God’s embassy to you, you would not see the angel.

III. “And with twain he did fly.” We are taught that angels are always interchanging some nearer worship, or some further ministry. An angel’s being gives four parts to humility, and two to service. Be it with us the same. All life, humility and service; but still to humility the largest share.

IV. Why is an angel so very humble? (1) An angel is very great, and therefore he grows humble. (2) An angel is always conversant with the great things of God. (3) An angel knows and is sure that he is loved.

V. Why could an angel fly so well? (1) Because he rests. (2) Because he is disencumbered of self.

J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 4th series, p. 34.

References: Isa 6:2.-W. G. Forbes, Expositor, 3rd series, vol. iii., p. 239. Isa 6:2, Isa 6:3.-B. Lambert, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxiv., p. 168.

Isa 6:2-4

I. The seraphim, or burning ones-these strange mystic creatures whom Isaiah beheld hovering above Jehovah’s throne, and whose resounding cries pierced his soul. The first thing that strikes us is their redundance of wings. They each had six, only two of which were used for flying; the others, with which they shrouded their faces and their feet, were, apparently, quite superfluous. Was it not sheer waste to be possessing wings that were merely employed as covering, and never spread for flight? And yet, perhaps, without this shrouding of their faces and their feet, they might not have answered so well high Heaven’s purposes, might not have swept abroad with such undivided intentness, and such entire abandonment on their Divine errands.

We meet sometimes with these seemingly wasted wings in men, in the form of powers or capabilities, knowledges or skills, for the exercise of which there is no scope or opportunity in their lot, which they are not called on or able to apply. And yet a gift or capacity for which our position affords no adequate application may, nevertheless, be a secret serviceable force in us, rendering us all the wiser or mightier in the position that is below our abilities. We may be moving there more beautifully and more sufficiently on account of the wings that hang motionless.

II. Look at the apparent contradiction here between the covered faces of the seraphim and their loud temple-shaking shouts. Fancy the posts of the Lord’s house quivering, and the prophet’s heart stirred to its depths beneath the cries of those whose heads were bowed and hid behind their wings! Here to me, however, is an image or adumbration of much truth. Great, penetrating, and inspiring utterances, like the utterances of the seraphim of Isaiah’s vision, are they not always connected with some deep, still inwardness, with some profound withdrawal and retirement of soul? Is it not always from such as have held their breath that they come? from such as have brooded oft in solitude and sighed, being burdened?

III. Notice the unintentional, unpurposed effect produced by the seraphim; the much commotion they created without in the least aiming at or meaning it. Earnestness and enthusiasm in a cause will generally effect more than it seeks or thinks of.

IV. In the composition of the seraphim we may see imaged three things, which are always involved in real greatness of character, without which no real nobility is attained. (1) “They covered their faces”-it was the expression of humility. (2) “They covered their feet”-it was theirs to fly, and they would not be tempted to walk. Devotion to some chosen life-purpose involves always some resolute self-limiting in relation to things lawful enough, but not expedient, and always impels to it. (3) “With twain they did fly”-swift, so swift to execute the errands of Jehovah; and faithful velocity, instantaneous and vivid movement in obedience to the voice of the Lord within you,-this is the third of the three essentials to real greatness of character and nobility of life which Isaiah’s seraphim suggest.

S. A. Tipple, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 24.

Isa 6:3

I. The vision of God is the call of the prophet. Nowhere is the thought presented to us in the Bible with more moving force than in the record of Isaiah’s mission. The very mark of time by which the history is introduced has a pathetic significance. It places together in sharp contrast the hasty presumption of man and the unchanging love of God. Isaiah, a layman, was, it appears, in the temple court, and he saw in a trance the way into the holiest place laid open. He beheld not the glory resting upon the symbolic ark, but the Lord sitting upon the throne, high and lifted up; not the carved figures of angels, but the seraphim standing with outstretched wings, ready for swift service; not the vapour of earthly incense, but the cloud of smoke which witnessed to the majesty which it hid. This opening of “the eyes of his heart” was God’s gift, God’s call to him. For an eternal moment Isaiah’s senses were unsealed. He saw that which is, and not that which appears when we recall what Judaism was at the time,-local, rigid, exclusive. We can at once understand that such a vision, such a revelation taken into the soul, was for Isaiah an illumination of the world. He could at last see all creation in its true nature through the light of God. Humbled and purified in his humiliation, he could have but one answer when the voice of the Lord required a messenger: “Here am I; send me.”

II. As the vision of God is the call of the prophet, so it is this vision which the prophet has to proclaim and to interpret to his fellow-men, not as an intellectual theory, but as an inspiration of life. The prophet’s teaching must be the translation of his experience. He bears witness of that which he has seen. His words, are not an echo, but a living testimony. The heart alone can speak to the heart. But he who has beheld the least fragment of the Divine glory, he who has spelt out in letters of light on the face of the world one syllable of the Triune Name, will have a confidence and a power which nothing else can bring. Only let him trust what he has seen, and it will become to him a guiding star till he rests in the unveiled presence of Christ.

III. The vision of God is also the chastening of the prophet. And in the fulfilment of our prophetic work we need more than we know the abasing and elevating influences which the vision of Isaiah and the thoughts of today are fitted to create or deepen. For our strengthening and for our purifying, we must seek for ourselves, and strive to spread about us the sense of the awfulness of being, as those who have seen God at Bethlehem, Calvary, Olivet, and on the throne encircled by a rainbow as an emerald; the sense, vague and imperfect at the best, of the illimitable range of the courses and issues of action; the sense of the untold vastness of that life which we are content to measure by our feeble powers; the sense of the majesty of Him before whom the angels veil their faces.

B. F. Westcott, Christus Consummator, p. 163.

I. Two of the Divine attributes form the theme of the seraphs’ hymn: God’s holiness as inherent in Himself; His glory as manifested in the earth. Holiness, the first of these, denotes, fundamentally, a state of freedom from all imperfection, specially from all moral imperfection; a state, moreover, realised with such intensity as to imply not only the absence of evil, but antagonism to it. It is more than goodness, more than purity, more than righteousness; it embraces all these in their ideal completeness, but it expresses besides the recoil from everything which is their opposite.

II. But not only does the seraphic hymn celebrate the Divine nature in its own transcendent purity and perfection, it celebrates it as it is manifested in the material world: “the fulness of the whole earth is His glory.” By “glory” we mean the outward show or state attendant upon dignity or rank. The glory, then, of which Isaiah speaks, is the outward expression of the Divine nature. Pictured as visible splendour, it may impress the eye of flesh; but any other worthy manifestation of the being of God may be not less truly termed His glory. It is more than the particular attribute of power or wisdom; it is the entire fulness of the Godhead, visible to the eye of faith, if not to the eye of sense, in the concrete works of nature, arresting the spectator and claiming from him the tribute of praise and homage.

III. Wherein does the world so reflect the being of God as to be the expression of His glory? It is visible (1) in the fact, as such, of creation; (2) in the means by which an abode has been prepared for the reception of life and intelligence, and the majestic scale upon which the process has been conceived and carried out; (3) in the rare and subtle mechanism which sustains the world in every part, and the intrinsic adequacy and beauty of the results.

IV. Can we trace any evidence of the moral character of God, or is the earth full merely of the tokens of His power? It is difficult to think that we are mistaken in tracing it in the constitution of human nature, in the affections and aspirations which it displays, in the conditions upon which social life is observed to depend. He who has inspired human nature with true impulses of justice and generosity, of sympathy and love, with admiration for the heroic and noble, with scorn for the ignoble and the mean, cannot but be possessed of a kindred character Himself. Though the rays are broken and the image is obscured, the moral glory of the Creator shines in the world; it is reflected in the verdict of the individual conscience; it is latent in the ethical sanctions upon which the permanence and welfare of society depends.

S. R. Driver, The Anglican Pulpit of To-Day, p. 456.

References: Isa 6:3.-B. F. Westcott, Contemporary Pulpit, vol. v., p. 363; Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. viii., p. 336, and vol. xviii., p. 280; F. Godet, Homiletic Quarterly, vol. iv., p. 110; J. Keble, Sermons from Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, p. 364; J. H. Newman, Parochial and Plain Sermons, vol. vi., p. 362. Isa 6:4.-S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii., p. 33.

Isa 6:5

The vision of Isaiah is a true symbol of the soul’s progress.

I. The first stage of the vision is the revelation of God in His glory and in His holiness. The spiritual being of man truly begins when he has seen God. This vision of God must be a moral vision, that is, the apprehension of God as a King and Lawgiver, and therefore, as in relation to ourselves, our duty, and our affection. There is no true vision of God which embraces the entire vision of man until the eye of the spirit has been opened, and we gaze at God, not an idea or a fancy, but a Being great, majestic, holy, sitting upon a throne with law and claim even upon ourselves.

II. The second stage of the vision is the effect of this revelation upon the heart of the prophet. The sight of God is followed by the consciousness of personal sin. The claim of God is seen in the kingship which the throne symbolises. To know God is also to know duty, and to know duty is to know failure and disobedience, and the miserable deflections from duty which mock our human lives.

III. The next change of the vision is the purifying act of the seraph, who flies with a coal from the altar, and touches the lips of the penitent prophet. And here we recognise the sanctifying of the aroused soul by a relation to sacrifice; the confession of previous guilt is followed by the removal of the sin through a Divine act. (1) To the consciously guilty, there is a means of forgiveness. (2) The coal is from the altar. The purification is associated with sacrifice, and the means of that purifying follows and depends upon the burnt offering. Does not this point us to the grand Christian doctrine that sin is taken from the confessing soul by the sacrifice of the Lamb of God?

IV. The last change in the vision is the reply of the sanctified spirit to the requirement of God; and this points to the further stage of spiritual growth, that which follows upon the reception of saving power-acceptance and obedience to the Divine will.

L. D. Bevan, Penny Pulpit, No. 364.

Reference: Isa 6:5.-Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. iii., p. 280.

Isa 6:5-8

These verses teach us the essentials of true worship and of acceptable approach to God. And they seem to indicate these essentials as threefold, involving:-

I. A sense of personal wretchedness. To worship truly, there must be a sense of our own nothingness and need. The sense of wretchedness is first induced by the contemplation of the holiness and majesty of God. It is relieved by the condescension and mercy of the King. He is not only holy. “Mercy and truth meet together; righteousness and peace embrace each other;” and in that embrace the man who is undone is folded, and invited to bring forth his offering.

II. A sense of pardon. “Our God is a consuming fire,” and our first contemplation of Him thus is one which appals and overcomes us. But a little further prostration before the Holy One shows that the fire is a purging fire, not to consume the man, but only to erase the confessed uncleanness from his lips. With the anointing of the holy fire on the lip, there comes the new life into the heart, and now the mortal may mingle his praises with the seraphim themselves.

III. But worship is not complete without service. To the ascription of the heart and lip there must be added the alacrity and obedience of the life. There was service for the seraphim: to fly with the live coal. And there is service for the seer: to fly with the living message. “Here am I; send me.” Here is the alacrity of obedience. There is no curious inquiry about the nature of the service. The man becomes as winged as the seraph.

A. Mursell, Lights and Landmarks, p. 72.

References: Isa 6:5-8.-H. T. Edwards, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxi., p. 353. Isa 6:6-7.-J. M. Neale, Sermons on Passages from the Prophets, vol. i., p. 17.

Isa 6:6-8

There must be a relation between prayer and action: between prayer, which is the soul of the inward life; and action, which is the substance of the outward.

I. Prayer is the preparation for action. What prayer is to preaching, that is action to prayer, its end and goal. That sermon is successful which makes men pray; that prayer is successful which makes men act. (1) It is necessary to remember that action has a spiritual field as well as an outward. There is an action of the soul, which is the highest of all practical workings. That living energy of conscious and fervent love-love to God, and love to man-which goes forth in holy aspirations, charitable feelings, and benevolent designs, is action, and the noblest action. (2) Prayer, which is the arming of the soul, must have respect to the items of the conflict even more than to the sum. The prayer which would affect action must be minute and detailed, as well as earnest.

II. Action is the working out of prayer. Even as the prophet, when the live coal had touched his lips, purging iniquity, heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” and answered, “Here am I; send me,” so will the man of prayer, and the man to whom Christ is all, go forth in the spirit of prayer and in the strength of faith, to do the work of God, inward and outward, in his vocation. (1) In prayer he has received power; (2) he has anticipated trial; (3) he acts in the spirit of prayer; (4) he looks forward to the prayer of evening. The prospect of prayer is powerful with him, like its retrospect. He would fain be able to close the day, not in depression, but in thankfulness; not as a vanquished man, but as one who has done all and stands.

C. J. Vaughan, Voices of the Prophets, p. 194.

Isa 6:8

I. God often chooses marked seasons for His greatest self-manifestations; makes individual souls associate eventful days with their own more personal history. It was so with Isaiah. In that memorable year, naturally speaking, he himself was to see God.

II. It is the sight of the King which works conviction. One half-hour of Divine communion, one resolute determined entering of the Holy of Holies, that we may see the Lord seated upon His throne, and the holy angels veiling face and feet as they sing His praise, will do more for us in the wholesome work of self-abasement and self-abhorrence, because it will bring us into the light which alone makes manifest, and show us, in the very act of condemning, the beauty of the holiness which condemns.

III. Yet even the sense of sin might paralyse being alone. The man who is to do God’s work must not only see himself in God’s light, but see also how the light which exposes is a light also to purify and to transform. There is an altar of Divine sacrifice kindled from heaven-it stands not within, but in front of the Divine dwelling-and each coal of it is for the purging of the conscience. God sends His messenger to fetch from that altar-which is, being interpreted, the Cross of Jesus-a live coal to touch the unclean lips, and take away the iniquity which would else preclude the service.

IV. God asks, Whom shall I send? God wants a person. He cannot send a thing, nor a machine, nor a sound,-no, nor even a book. God wants us not to aid Him in guiding the stars in their courses, or in giving growth to the vegetable or life to the animal. For us, God’s business is with human lives, human souls. That which God has in view, that which God is perpetually taking counsel upon, is the welfare, the happiness, and, if either have been disturbed, then the restoration, the rectification, the redemption, the salvation, of the lives which He created, of the souls which He has made. When He says, Whom shall I send? He inquires, in other words, Who among the living will lend a hand to this work? Be jealous to be the one sent.

C. J. Vaughan, Half-Hours in the Temple Church, p. 177.

References: Isa 6:8.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii., No. 687, and vol. xxiii., No. 1351; A. Maclaren, Old Testament Outlines, p. 169.

Isa 6:8-10

I. This, in all seeming, was the thankless office to which Isaiah was called, to be heard, to be listened to, by some with contempt, by others with seeming respect, and to leave things in the main worse than he found them. His office was towards those, in part at least, who were ever hearing, never doing, and so never understanding. The more they heard and saw, the farther they were from understanding, from being converted, from the reach of healing. And what said the prophet? Contrary as the sentence must have been to all the yearnings of his soul, crushing to his hopes, he knew that it must be just, because “the Judge of the whole world” must do right. He intercedes, but only by these three words: “Lord, how long?” This question implied a hope that there would be an end; the answer “until” implied that there would be an end.

II. Where there is desolation for the sake of God, there is also consolation. Isaiah had not seen the Beatific Vision. Not with his bodily eyes did he behold God, nor with his bodily ears did he hear His words; but to his inward sight did God disclose some likeness, whereby he should understand the nature of the Divine Essence, how God, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, in-exists in Himself; although the Beatific Vision, as He is, was reserved for the life to come. So God prepared him to be-above all others, even of the goodly company of the prophets-the evangelic prophet, in that he had seen the glory of the Lord. This, then, is ever his consolation, this his joy in trouble, this his life in death. The surges of this world, higher and higher as they rose, only bore his soul upward toward his God. He, too, was a man of longing. In the darkness of the world God ever brings this light before him,-his darkest visions are the dawn-streaks of the brightest light.

E. B. Pusey, Lenten Sermons, p. 466.

References: Isa 6:8-13.-S. Cox, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 217. Isa 6:9.-J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii., p. 48. Isa 6:9, Isa 6:10.-M. Nicholson, Redeeming the Time, p. 125; E. W. Shalders, Expositor, 1st series, vol. vii., p. 471. Isa 6:13.-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii.,. No. 121. 6-P. Thomson, Expositor, 1st series, vol. xl., p. 119. Isa 7:6.-E. H. Plumptre, Ibid., 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 236. Isa 7:9.-I. Williams, Sermons on the Epistles and Gospels, vol. ii., p. 353.

Fuente: The Sermon Bible

CHAPTER 6

The Prophets Vision and New Commission

1. The time of the vision (Isa 6:1) 2. Jehovah of hosts (Isa 6:2-4) 3. The prophets woe (Isa 6:5) 4. The cleansing (Isa 6:6-7) 5. Here am I. Send me. (Isa 6:8) 6. The new commission (Isa 6:9-10) 7. The limitation of the judgment (Isa 6:11-13)Note the eight steps: vision, conversion, self-judgment, cleansing, self-surrender, communion, commission, intercession. This vision is the glory of Christ Joh 12:41. The fulfillment of the hardening judgment of the nation, the blinding of their eyes did not set in completely in Isaiahs day. Study carefully Mat 13:14-15;Joh 12:39-50;Act 28:25-31. However, Israels blindness is not permanent.

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)

The Making of a Missionary

In the year that king Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and 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 foundations of the thresholds were 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 midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he touched my mouth with it, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I send me.Isa 6:1-8.

This chapter is one of the most important in the history of revelation. Like a picture of wonderful beauty and subtle suggestion, it will repay repeated and careful study. The great words of the chapter are heard and spoken in vision, but they cannot be called visionary in any shallow sense; they are intensely practical, they contain the prophets call, they give the keynote of his life, and sum up in a few striking sentences the spirit and purpose of his ministry. The vision shows us how Isaiah became a prophet, and gives the secret of his strong, consistent career in the words, Mine eyes have seen the King.

The passage is particularly rich in material for the expositor and the preacher. Although it will be taken Here as a single great text, there is enough for a sermon in every verse of it, enough sometimes in a part of a verse. It has received many titles. The most popular title is, The Making of a Prophet. Perhaps that title should be enlarged now into The Making of a Missionary, letting it be understood, however, that the word missionary means anyone who is sent to do any work for God.

The passage is easily and almost inevitably divided into three parts

1. A Vision of God, Isa 6:1-4.

2. A Vision of Self, Isa 6:5-7.

3. A Vision of Duty, Isa 6:8.

A Vision of God

There is an essential difference between the prophets of early times and the writing prophets. That difference is that the latter are conscious of an express call, at a definite moment, by Jehovah to their office. We have not an actual account of this in the case of all of them, but its preciseness in the case of five justifies our assuming that from the time of Amos onwards a similar call was experienced by all true prophets of Jehovah. The call to be a prophet surprised Amos in the midst of occupations of a wholly different kindJehovah took him from the herd. According to Hos 1:2 the commencement of Hoseas prophetic ministry was contemporaneous with his recognition that Jehovah intended even the prophets unhappy experiences in his married life to be a reflection of Israels relation to Himself. Isaiah records a vision that he had in the year King Uzziah died, when the Divine commission was given him to drive the people by his message into ever-increasing obduracy. Attempts have been made to explain this visionthe only one in Isaiahas simply the literary garb invented for inward reflections and conflicts, so that the prophets own determination would take the place of an express Divine call. But all such attempts are shattered by the earnest terms of the narrative, which will not permit us to think but of a real occurrence. The very same is the impression we receive from Jeremiahs record of his call in the thirteenth year of Josiah. Quite remarkable there is the emphasis laid (Isa 1:5) on the choice and consecration of Jeremiah to the prophetic office even before his birth. How could anyone invent a thing of this kind and proclaim it as a word addressed to him by God? But as little could he have added the supplementary invention that he tried to evade the Divine commission (v. 7) by pleading want of skill in speaking, and youth. On the contrary, we must see here an experience the prophet once had which left an ineffaceable impression upon his memory. In the case of Ezekiel, his exact dating of his first vision (Isa 1:1-2) by year, month, and day is the pledge that he, too, is conscious that his call to be a prophet (Isa 2:3 ff.) was a definite occurrence.1 [Note: E. Kautzsch, in Hastings Dictionary of the Bible, v. p. 672b.]

The normal mode, says Whitehouse, by which Christian ministers and statesmen have been led to realise their vocation constitutes the most interesting point in their life-story, because it is the turning-point. Among Christian statesmen we would instance the Englishman John Bright and the American Senator Sumner. The case of John Bright is not without its partial parallel to that of Hosea. That of Senator Sumner has been portrayed in Whittiers immortal verses, beginning

No trumpet sounded in his ear,

He saw not Sinais cloud and flame;

But never yet to Hebrew seer

A clearer voice of duty came.

i. The Occasion of the Vision

In the year that King Uzziah died.

There is more than a date given here; there is a great contrast suggested. Prophecy does not chronicle by time, but by experiences, and we have here, as it seems, the cardinal experience of a prophets life.

1. Uzziah.Of all the kings of Israel none had done so much for the nation as King Uzziah, save only David. Solomons greatness was largely inherited. He certainly stands a figure more splendid than Uzziah, but not of as great service. Coming to the throne when a lad of sixteen, for more than fifty years Uzziah reigned in Jerusalem wisely and well. Under the guidance of one Zechariah, of whom all we know is this, that he had understanding in the vision of God, the youth Uzziah sought the Lord, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper. He drove back the Philistines and many another tribe that had encroached upon Israels domain, so that his name was spread abroad even to Egypt. At home he was always busy seeing after the welfare of his people. He strengthened Jerusalem with fortified towers, and set up towers for the protection of those in the pastures and plains. Careful about the water supply, he digged many wells. He had husbandmen busied with cattle; and planted vines on the mountain slopes. He loved husbandry, we read,an honest and healthy love that it were well if we could all encourage and exercise. He turned to account the inventions of cunning men. Altogether a man whose name spread far abroad, associated with all that was beneficent and prosperous: he was marvellously helped, we are told, till he was strong.

Butah, there comes this black and dreadful butBut when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction. There came a dayprobably some day of high festival, when he made a feast to the lords and chief captains; and the power of the wine, and the power of a yet more intoxicating flattery, prompted him to a deed that was his ruin. Arrayed in all his splendour the king comes to the Temple and demands in his haughty pride to usurp the authority of the priest, and to burn incense on the altar. The priests, those of them that were valiant men, rose up, and stayed the intruder, king though he was. For a moment Uzziah stood face to face with the priests, the golden censer in his hand, furious at their opposition. Would they lift their hand against the king, and such a king as he? Then suddenly the rage resulted, as it is believed to have done in other cases, in the manifestation of leprosy. Suddenly on that face, flushed in its anger, under the royal crown, spread the ghastly whiteness. He felt that God had smitten him. A king no more; one from whom all men shrankhe went forth from the palace and throne and court. And all the nation spake of him with bated breath, suppressing the very name, He is a leper.

2. Isaiah.Isaiah seems to have spent the whole, or the greater part, of his life in the city of Jerusalem; for many years he was the most remarkable figure, and sometimes the most influential man, in that city. The tribes of Israel had again been broken into discordant division, and Jerusalem was at that time the centre of only a small kingdom; but this man and his band of disciples set at work spiritual influences of greater significance for the higher life of the world. Though the Jerusalem of his day was full of feebleness, folly, and wickedness, we can trace in his teaching the beginnings of a new Jerusalem, Zion, the city of the Great King, which shall not pass away. He was a young man when he saw the vision; as he stood at the opening of his great career he was led to look into the heart of things, and to see the real meaning of his life. Probably it was later in his life when he wrote down this statement for the use of his disciples and the service of the Church. Before he committed it to the care of men who loved him and who would cherish his memory, he had often pondered its meaning and proved its power. He remembered that the decisive moment of his life came in the year of King Uzziahs death. When the proud, successful king had been brought low by disease, and had passed under the shadow of death, the young patriot was called to see the spiritual temple and the Eternal King. Life is full of change; high rank and worldly success cannot resist the attack of decay and death; how important, then, for the young man to learn that there is an unchanging kingdom, and a King supreme in majesty and righteousness.

Read the memoirs of Isaiah, and you will see how intense and intimate was the part he played in the life and movement of his age. One day you will find him at the Temple, scathing with scornful reprobation the hypocrisy and hollowness of the established ritual of religion. Another time he has taken his stand over against the fashionable promenade of Jerusalem, and as he watches the passing procession of pomp and opulence, built up on the misery and degradation of defenceless poverty, his heart grows hot with honest indignation, and he breaks into impassioned invective against the stream of selfish luxury, as it rolls by with a smiling face and a cruel heart. Again, he forces his way into a meeting of the Privy Council, fearlessly confronts the king and his advisers, denounces the iniquity of a faithless foreign policy, and sternly demands its abandonment. In every department of national life, in every section of social and religious existence, his voice was heard and his personality felt. Yet nobody ever mistook him for a mere politician, philanthropist, or reformer. He was ever, and was ever felt to be, a prophet.

3. It was in the year that King Uzziah died that this strange sight was seen by this inhabitant of Jerusalem. Most probably it was soon after the king died, perhaps immediately after. For though, in the general heading of the prophecies, Isaiah is said to have prophesied in the days of Uzziah, that heading is not to be pressed so far as to make it assert that he had actually prophesied in the lifetime of Uzziah; what is meant is that his prophetic ministry extended all through the reign of Jotham, even from the very year that King Uzziah died. This inaugural vision and prophecy was given so near the death of Uzziah that it might be said to be in the days of that renowned king. Perhaps it was given immediately after his death; it might be when, though dead, he had not yet been laid in the grave. It was a vision that might well have been suggested by such a momentous death, the death of one once a king, and one so powerful, holding such a place among the forces of society, bridling them with so firm a hand, a hand now relaxed, leaving the unquiet humours of the land to assert themselves, and draw the State on to its destruction.

We might even fancy, without unduly stretching fancy, that Isaiah, who, though not yet a prophet, appears to have been a citizen of high rank, and perhaps familiar at the court, had this vision presented to him a little after he had come out of the royal chamber where the deceased monarch lay in state. Perhaps he had been permitted to enter along with the common crowd of subjects, who pressed in to render their last act of homage; and though he had seemed to walk round the bier, and linger a moment to look upon the still face, as mechanically as any of them, it was with very different thoughts in his heart. It was a dead king that lay before him. And though the presence of death in any form might have suggested the first half of the visionthe unseen world within this worldonly the sight of a dead king could have led Isaiahs mind to draw that comprehensive sketch of the history and the destiny of his nation with which the chapter ends. Those eternal, changeless sights are reflected in the face, rapt but unmoved; the grandeur, the unchanging flow of eternity, the awful face of God, holding the mind in an absorbed stillness, so that emotion ebbs and flows no more in the heart, and no more plays upon the countenance, but all is still.

Now when the prophet came out from the presence of the dead, musing on all things as he must have mused, and probably entering the Temple where the service of God was going onfor the vision is just the reflection of the service of God in His house upon earth, it is only this service translated into its real meaningit is not unnatural that such a vision as this should have presented itself before him. Such a sight is well fitted to bring before our minds the same great scene. For there is such an eternal scene behind the changing forms of the present life; a scene not future but present, though the perfect realising of it be, to most of us, future; a world within this world, or behind it, of which we only catch glimpses sometimes through the occurrences of this lifea world such as the prophet saw, God the King on His throne, surrounded by beings all alive to His glory, serving Him continually in the greatness of their might. There is such a world within this world, of which this world is but the veil and covering; and we begin to understand this world, and see any order and meaning in it, only when this other, which is the inner side of it, is revealed to our sight.

A king must die! There seems to be something almost incongruous in the very phrase. The very word king means power. The king is the man who can, the man who is possessed of ability, dominion, sovereignty; and the shock is almost violent when we are told that the range of the kingship is shaped and determined by death. We could all understand how death might limit the years and conquests of Lazarus, shivering outside the palace gates, weary, hungry, and full of sores, but it is more difficult to understand how death can enter the palace, and set a barrier to the life of Dives, clothed in purple and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day; but it came to pass that the beggar died, and the rich man also died, and was buried. A little while ago I took up the death-roll at a workhouse, and glanced through the chronological lists of paupers: Elizabeth So-and-so, died so-and-so. Then I took up a volume of English history, looked at the death-roll of monarchs, the chronological list of kings and queens: Queen Elizabeth, died so-and-so. I found that the one word described the end of both pauper and kingthe beggar died, William the Conqueror died, King Uzziah died. How the one word suffices for all sorts and conditions of men!1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]

4. God never empties places in our homes and hearts, or in the nation or the Church, without being ready to fill them. He sometimes empties them that He may fill them. Sorrow and loss are meant to prepare us for the vision of God, and their effect should be to purge the inward eye, that it may see Him. When the leaves drop from the forest trees we can see the blue sky which their dense abundance hid. Well for us if the passing of all that can pass drives us to Him who cannot pass, if the unchanging God stands out more clear, more near, more dear, because of change.

This accounts for a great many of the dark experiences in life. God puts out our little light that we may see Him the better. When you are looking out of the window at night, gazing towards the sky, you will see the stars more clearly if you put out your gaslight. That is what God has to do for us. He has to put out the secondary lights in order that we may see the eternal light. Uzziah has to die, in order that we may see it is God who lives. God has continually to take away our little kings, the weak repositories of our trust, in order to show that we have given a false emphasis to life. He takes away that which we regarded as the keystone, in order to reveal to us the real binding-force in life. I have known Him come to a nation and take away the King of Commercial Prosperity, because when commercial prosperity reigns men are too prone to forget the Lord. It is not in the seven fat years that we pray. It is in the seven years of famine, when the wheat is blasted with the east wind. It is then that men see the Lord and pray.

I know a little cottage which is surrounded by great and stately trees, clothed with dense and massy foliage. In the summer days and through all the sunny season, it just nestles in this circle of green, and has no vision of the world beyond. But the winter comes, so cold and keen. It brings its sharp knife of frost, cuts off the leaves, until they fall trembling to the ground. There is nothing left but the bare framework on which summer hung her beauteous growths. Poor little cottage, with the foliage all gone! But is there no compensation? Yes, yes. Standing in the cottage in the winter time and looking out of the window, you can see a mansion, which has come into view through the openings left by the fallen leaves. The winter brought the vision of the mansion!1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]

5. Human purpose never has so definite and intelligible an aspect as when it flashes first in sudden intuition on the mind. The main end fills the vision; the essential significance absorbs the attention; all the thousand contingencies which will obscure that end and compromise that significance are as yet unsuspected. Everything is clear, clear-cut, and coercive. But with the years comes also a cleansing of the spiritual vision; and the intuitions of youth, seen in the retrospect, are seen more justly. The correspondence of the earlier and the later visions brings the verification of their quality. If the man, wise with the bitter wisdom of failure and conflict, hears still the Voice which thrilled the unshadowed heart of the boy, that Voice needs no better authentication of origin. For inspiration or for the great refusal then, for acquittal or for condemnation now, it was, and is, the Voice of God. All the years are bound by it into a single experience.

I hear a voice, perchance I heard

Long ago, but all too low,

So that scarce a care it stirred

If the voice were real or no;

I heard it in my youth when first

The waters of my life outburst;

But, now their stream ebbs faint, I hear

That voice, still low, but fatal clear.

The definiteness of the prophets memory is startling,in the death-year of King Uzziah. Happy the man who keeps a journal and records the date of this and that event. I know one who is able to say, It was on the 19th of March, 1886, I began to be led by the Spirit. But others there are who must say, I do not know just when I entered the new life. I think it was some time between sixteen and twenty years of age. The change came so gradually that I glided into the consciousness of a definite relationship to God as a ship glides out of a region of ice into a warmer zone.1 [Note: C. C. Albertson.]

6. It is in hours like this that men get real glimpses of God. It is always when some Uzziah has piled up his successes until in their very definiteness men wake up to their shortcoming in the presence of the needs of the hour, that we feel the Infinite near, and at last see His skirts filling all the vacancies of life. Never until we know how much, do we know how little, man can do. Never until we see the best that humanity achieves do we know how grave are the problems which are born beneath our very success, which demand an infinite factor for their solution. In the death-hour of Uzziah, when under the mighty hands of the Medici, Florence had been growing luxurious and beautiful, when gems flashed from her proud neck and marble palaces were her play-things, when copious rivers of revenue poured in upon the Duke and the throne, and literature and art were in sight of their long-delayed laurels, yeain the death-hour of their Uzziah when Lorenzo had fallen, Girolamo Savonarola, the Isaiah of that Jerusalem, saw amidst and above the terrible problems which his reign had made, and which surrounded him, the vision of the Almighty God. In the death-hour of Uzziah, when the arms of freedom had begun to shine with glorious victory, when the hand of rebellion had been pushed away from the white throat of liberty, when the whole race was ready to drown the dreadful clanking of eighty years of chains in one glad song of freedom, when a restored Union lifted up her head above the heat and dust of war, in the death-year of Uzziah, when Lincoln fell, yonder at New York another whose sword was like the tongue of Isaiah, seeing the problem which survived the assassins bullet, saw midst and above them the vision of God; Fellow-citizens, said Garfield on that occasion, God reigns, and the Government at Washington still lives.1 [Note: F. W. Gunsaulus.]

ii. The Vision

I saw the Lord.

1. The prophet had lost a hero and found his Lord. In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord. He had anticipated that when the good King Uzziah died the linch-pin would be removed, and the car of the nations life would topple over into confusion and disaster. All Isaiahs hopes were centred in this radical and aggressively righteous monarch, and he feared for the State when its monarch should be taken. He anticipated chaos, and lo! in place of chaos there emerged the Lord of Order! He found that in the days of his hero-worship he had been living in comparative twilight, the real Luminary had been partially obscured, there had been an eclipse of the Sun: and now, with the passing of Uzziah the eclipse had ended, and the Presence of the Lord blazed out in unexpected glory! In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord. It had seemed to the foreboding fears of the depressed youth as though the very existence of the kingdom were involved in the continued reign of the king. If he goeswhat then? A crisis was assured! And yet in place of the crisis came God, and the effulgent glory was bewildering. Succeeding generations of men have shared these pessimistic fears. We have riveted our gaze upon the incidental until the incidental has become the essential, and we have feared the withering blast of death. What will Israel do when Uzziah is taken? What will Methodism do when John Wesley is removed? What will the Salvation Army do when anything happens to its General? What will this or that church do when bereft of its minister? And the long-feared crisis has come, but instead of being left to the hopeless, clammy darkness of the grave, we have gazed upon the dazzling glories of a forgotten heaven! The transient pomp and splendour died, and their passing removed the veil from the face of the eternal, and we saw the Lord. In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord. He anticipated an end, he found a new beginning.

Last autumn I spent a little time in the old castle at Stirling, and in one of the rooms of the tower were two curiosities which riveted my attention. In one corner of the room was an old time-worn pulpit. It was John Knoxs pulpit, the pulpit from which he used to proclaim so faithfully the message of the King. In the opposite corner were a few long spears, much corrupted by rust, found on the field of Bannockburn, which lies just beyond the castle walls. John Knoxs pulpit on the one hand, the spears of Bannockburn on the other! One the type of material forces, forces of earth and time; the other the type of spiritual forces, forces of eternity and heaven. The spears, representative of King Uzziah; the pulpit, representative of the Lord. Which symbolises the eternal? The force and influence which radiated from that pulpit will enrich and fashion Scottish character when Bannockburn has become an uninfluential memory, standing vague and indefinite, on the horizon of a far-distant time. When King Uzziah is dead, the Lord will still live, high and lifted up.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett.]

2. The great characteristic of Isaiahs age was religious indifference. That which the prophet was enabled to seethat great Divine world within this outer worldwas the very thing which the nation could not be made to perceive. Men could not be impressed with the idea of a living God, a Sovereign high and lifted up, ruling over the world and life and mens consciences. They were insensible to this, and would have none of it. The heart of the people was fat, and their ears heavy, and their eyes closed. They were incapable of being touched with the feeling of the reality of God. And this insensibility led to disobedience, to formalism, to distrust of Jehovah, and to schemes of worldly policy; and, when danger threatened, to the calling in of foreign help: they stayed themselves on Egypt, they trusted in Assyria; and when these great world-powers once planted their foot on the little country the end of it was not far distantas described in the closing verses of the chapter.

Perhaps the death of Uzziah suggested some of this to the prophet, and made him think of it, and follow it out in his mind to its conclusion. But it was the sight of Jehovah that made him understand it on its deeper side. It was the revelation to him of a great Ruler behind all things, and a hidden glorythe real power within all things,a fire in contact with the sin and impurity of mankind, that must consume them or cleanse it. It was this that made him feel the real meaning of the circumstances of his time in their relation to this Ruler and made him, when he himself had been brought into right relation to Him, take a stand in regard to the world, and assume his right place in it.

It is singular how little place we take in the world, how little we feel it needful to take any place; how we are like mere grains of sand, the sport of the wind, each one of us without inherent force, not taking a place, but rolled into a place by the forces about us, or by the mere dead weight of gravitypushed into a profession by the example of our companions, or the advice of friends, or, it may be, because we think we should like something in it, but without taking a broad view of it, especially without taking a moral estimate of it as a force which we might wield for higher ends, and setting it clearly before us as one of other great forces that should all combine, and realising it in its relation to the world and the state of society as a whole,how slow we are to feel that we have any responsibilities in regard to the condition of things.1 [Note: A. B. Davidson.]

3. I saw.In a very deep and true sense it is what a man sees that either makes or unmakes him. The effect of vision upon character and service is transforming. It elevates or debases, according to its quality. Whether a man grovels or soars, whether he slimes his way with the worm or walks upon the hill-tops, whether he remains in the realm of animalism or rises into the spiritual, and lives in the high places of the sons of God, is determined by his seeing. The men who shape history and direct the destinies of nations are the men who have eyes.

Moses saw the invisible, and endured, struggled, conquered, lifted himself and his people into prominence for evermore. Saul of Tarsus, on the Damascus road, saw Jesus Christ, and out of that vision came a power of manhood that has thrown itself beneficently across twenty centuries. Luther, in his monks cell, had a vision of the spiritual, and out of it came the Protestant Reformation, with all its forces of liberty and progress and enterprise. General Booths tremendous success with the Salvation Army, an organisation which in less than a generation has belted the globe, is simply the realisation of what he saw. Because David Livingstone had eyes to see, Africa to-day is zoned with light, and that matchless career of his stands out before the world, and will ever stand, as an inspiration to the noblest efforts for human uplifting. Because Jesus saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven, He was thrilled by a sublime optimism, because He saw, as no one else has ever seen, His kingdom is coming, and will yet cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.2 [Note: R. F. Coyle.]

Isaiah says, I saw. Is it, then, given to a man to be so sure of spiritual phenomena? So it seems from this Book. The basis of this confidence is in the spiritual consciousness out of which Moses spoke when he said, I saw the passing pageant of the goodness of the Lord; out of which Paul spoke when he said, I saw a light above the brightness of the sun, and heard a voice out of the radiance calling me by name; out of which John spoke when he said, In the midst of the golden candlesticks I saw One like unto the Son of Man, girt with a golden girdle, and holding the seven stars in his hand. Not more real was the mountain whereon Moses stood, or the splendid highway over which Paul was travelling, or the rocks of Patmos whereon the waves broke into spray,not more real were these than the visions unfolded to human spirits there.

All men who do really great work for the world have some touch of this Divine faculty and vision. Even the man of science, is, at his best, a seer and a poet; for it is not only observation and reflection, but imagination also, which enable him to see the real behind the phenomenal, to look quite through the shows of things, and to gaze on an universe utterly unlike this visible universe, a world in which a few great forces, in obedience to a few great laws, robe themselves in an infinite variety of forms. Under the drifting and confused play of events the historian, again, if he be worthy of his name, discerns an increasing purpose, a secret law, a Divine order, a growing harmony. Even the statesman is great only as he too can look through the welter of passing events, and see what are the ruling forces and principles at work beneath the surface of national life, and how he may avail himself of these for the general good.1 [Note: S. Cox, in The Expositor, 2nd Ser., ii. p. 25.]

4. The Lord.Let me remind you of that apparently audacious commentary upon this great vision which the Evangelist John gives us: These things said Esaias, when he had beheld his glory and spake of him. Then the Christ is the manifest Jehovah; is the King of Glory. Then the vision which was but a transitory revelation is the revelation of an eternal reality, and the vision splendid does not fade but brightens, into the light of common day; when instead of being flashed only on the inward eye of a prophet, it is made flesh and walks amongst us, and lives our lives, and dies our death. Our eyes have seen the King in as true a reality, and in better fashion, than ever Isaiah did amid the sanctities of the Temple. And the eyes that have seen only the near foreground, the cultivated valleys, and the homes of men, are raised, and lo! the long line of glittering peaks, calm, silent, pure. Who will look at the valleys when the Himalayas stand out, and the veil is drawn aside?

To see also the Lord is alike the secret of steadfastness, and the guarantee of that knowledge in the midst of perplexity which alone liberates from fretful anxiety and unbelief, and leads to right choice and wise action. And to those who seek Him, He is always so revealing Himself, in character varying according to their present need, and always as their entire sufficiency. Some men can see only the things which are temporal, and are hence distracted; but others have learned to look at the things which are eternal, and are in consequence being continually attracted to Him in whom they find the perfection of wisdom and strength and love.

Two men looked through prison bars,

The one saw mudthe other stars.

iii. The Throne

Sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up.

1. The scene which Isaiah beholds is the heavenly palace of Jehovahs sovereignty, modelled upon, but not a copy of, His earthly Temple at Jerusalem: I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. The comparatively small adyton of the Temple on Zion is indefinitely expanded, the lofty throne takes the place of the mercy-seat, the skirts of the royal mantle, falling in ample folds, fill the space about and below the throne, and conceal from the beholder, standing beneath, the unapproachable Form seated upon it. The two colossal cherubim, whose extended wings overshadowed the ark in the Holy of holies, are absent, and there appears instead a choir of living creatures, encircling the throne: Seraphim stood above Him: each had six wings; with twain He covered His face, and with twain He covered His feet, and with twain He did fly.

Some of you may have been watching a near and beautiful landscape in the land of mountains and eternal snows, till you have been exhausted by its very richness, and till the distant hills which bounded it have seemed, you knew not why, to limit and contract the view, and then a veil has been withdrawn, and new hills not looking as if they belonged to this earth, yet giving another character to all that does belong to it, have unfolded themselves before you. This is an imperfect, very imperfect, likeness (yet it is one) of that revelation which must have been made to the inner eye of the prophet, when he saw another throne than the throne of the house of David, another king than Uzziah or Jotham, another train than that of priests or minstrels in the Temple, other winged forms than those golden ones which over-shadowed the mercy-seat. Each object was the counterpart of one that was then or had been at some time before his bodily eyes; yet it did not borrow its shape or colour from those visible things. They evidently derived their substance and radiance from those which were invisible. Separated from them they could impart no lustre; for they had none. The kings of the house of David reigned because that king was reigning whom God had set upon His holy hill of Zion; because He lived on, when they dropped one and another into their graves; because in Him dwelt the light and the power by which each might illumine his own darkness, sustain his own weakness. The symbols and services of the Temple were not, as priests and people often thought, an earthly machinery for scaring a distant Heaven; they were witnesses of a Heaven nigh at hand, of a God dwelling in the midst of His people, of His being surrounded by spirits which do His pleasure hearkening to the voice of His words.1 [Note: F. D. Maurice, Prophets and Kings, p. 221.]

What was Uzziah in all his greatness now as the Lord sat upon His throne high and lifted up? Here were the shifting scenes of human lifethe shadows that come and go, the pageants that move to the silence and rest of the grave. There high and lifted upabove all time, above all changewas the Eternal. Uzziah the king, Uzziah the leper, Uzziah the corpseto set the heart upon him was to be disappointed, deserted, desolate. The Lord is kingthat is the centre of all things, the true home and refuge of the soul. Here is some ground for our trust; here all the adoration of the soul finds fitting room and sphere, and worthy rank for its service and worship.

The Lord is always upon a throne, even when He is nailed to the Cross; this Lord and His throne are inseparable. There are dignitaries that have to study how to keep their thrones, but the Lord and His throne are one.2 [Note: J. Parker, The Peoples Bible, xiv. p. 283.]

2. But what shall we say when we recall Him of whom the evangelist asserts Isaiah saw his glory, and spoke of him? High and lifted up, verily! But how all unlike that which Isaiah saw. Bound and beaten and buffeted, scourged and mocked, amidst a band of ribald soldiers and ruffians who smite Him and pluck the hairs off His cheek. Condemned alike by Jewish priest and Roman judge He goes forth to be crucified. There in all shame and agony He hangs stricken and smitten. Surely, He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.

iv. The Train

And his train filled the temple.

1. It was not only that Isaiah had an unexpected vision of God, it was the unique character of the vision which impressed and empowered him. Where does the wonder of the prophet culminate? I saw the Lord, sitting upon a throne! That was not the unfamiliar sight, and not there did the prophets wonder gather. High and lifted up! A terrible sublimity, like some towering and awe-inspiring Alpine height! Yet not there was concentrated the supreme surprise. And his train filled the temple! That was the marvel which made the prophets heart stand still. He was not a stranger to the conception of the throne, or of the lonely and snow-white exaltation, but this vision of the train that filled the temple was altogether foreign to his thought. You will remember that in all these Temple arrangements of the olden days there were different grades and varying degrees of sanctity. Even in the time of our Lord there were divisions, separating the holy and the profane, beginning at the outer courts, where the foot of the Gentile might tread, but beyond which he was not permitted to pass, on penalty of death, on to the veiled and silent chamber where the awful Presence dwelt between the cherubim. And there was the same gradient in the thought of the young Isaiah. There were divisions in his temple, separating the different degrees of sanctity, ranging from the much-diluted holiness of the remote circumference to the clear and quenchless flame of the sacred Presence. And now comes this strange and all-convulsing vision: His train filled the temple, filled it, every section of it, every corner of it, to the furthest and outermost wall. The posts of the thresholds, not merely the curtains of the inner shrine, the posts of the thresholds moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. That is the word which expresses the supreme wonder of this great inaugural vision. His train filled the temple! The house was filled with smoke. The garments of the Almighty swept an unsuspected area, His robe impartially carpeted the entire pile, there was not a single inch that was exempt from the touch of His enveloping Presence. His train filled the temple. What, then, had the crisis brought to the young hero-worshipper who had been so fearful of the passing of his noble king? It had brought to him a larger conception of God, a filling-out conception of God, a full-tide conception, filling every nook and creek and bay in the manifold and far-stretching shore of human life.1 [Note: J. H. Jowett, in The Examiner, March 15, 1906.]

No face: only the sight

Of a sweepy garment, vast and white,

With a hem that I could recognise.2 [Note: Browning, Christmas Eve.]

2. The most important crises in a mans life are related to the growth or impoverishment of his conception of God. It is momentous when some area in the wide circle of his life is unexpectedly discovered to be the dwelling-place of God. Robinson Crusoe begins to track his desolate and presumably uninhabited island, and one day, on the sandy shore, comes upon the print of a human foot. That footprint revolutionises his entire conception of the island, and all his plans and expedients are transfigured. And so the soul, moving over some area of its activities which has never been related to God, and over which God has never been assumed to exercise a living and immediate authority, one day unexpectedly discovers His footprints upon this particular tract of the sands of time, and the whole of the spiritual outlook is transformed. Surely the Lord is in this place, and I knew it not.

If thus His train fills the temple, the great temple in which He ever dwells, then how easy for us to touch the hem of His garment and be made whole of whatever plague of soreness we may suffer from.

Gods children cannot wander beyond reach

Of the sweep of His white raiment. Touch and hold!

And if you weep, still weep where John was laid

While Jesus loved him.

3. There is a division which is made, not merely by the thoughtless and flippant, but even by many grave and serious minds. On one side the barrier they move softly and reverently, as though feeling the very breathings of the Almighty Presence: on the other side they step loudly and thoughtlessly, as though the Almighty were absent. And then one day there comes one of the great crises of life, and on the secular side of the barrier they see the trailing garments of the Lord, and they are filled with a surprise which ends in resurrection. For it is a birthday for the soul when we discover that the Lord occupies the whole of this divided house, and that His train fills the temple.

(1) I have frequently heard reference to my own vocation as a sacred calling, says Mr. Jowett, but I have rarely, if ever, heard the same sober phrase applied to the work of the baker or tent-maker, or even to the work of the city councillor or the members of the House of Commons. But the seamless robe of the Lord is on both sides the artificial barrier, and all things on either side can be equally sacred and sanctified.

(2) Another temple which our modern thought frequently divides into sections of different degrees of sanctity is the temple of the entire personality. One side of the barrier is called body, and the other is called spirit. It is a great day for a man when the wonderful revelation breaks upon his eyes, that these two entities possess a common sanctity, that our division is unwise and impoverishing, and that His train fills the whole temple. In the olden days there was a school of thinkers who regarded matter as essentially evil, the very sphere and dwelling-place of evil, and, therefore, the body itself was esteemed as the very province of the devil. It was therefore further reasoned that to despise the body was to heap shame and contumely upon the devil, and that one of the holiest exercises was thus to treat the flesh with disdain and contempt. The body was a thing of the gutter,gutter-born, and destined to a gutter death! Therefore they neglected it, they bruised it, they refused to cleanse it, and they utterly deprived it of any attention and adornment. So far as the body part of the temple was concerned, the Lord was not in it! Now we can see the force and relevancy of the Apostles firm and vigorous teaching: Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost? That word would come as a bewildering surprise! The Lords temple does not end where the spirit ends; it includes the body too: and His train fills the temple! I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. That veil in the temple has been rent in twain!

(3) There is still another temple which we divide into discriminating sections much as the Temple of old was divided. One side of the barrier is described as home, the other side as foreign, the one side as Jew, the other side as Gentile. And so the temple itself, rather than the partitioning veil, is too frequently rent in twain. It is a season of wonderful regeneration when first the train of the Almighty is seen to fill the entire temple, and the whole of the unworthily divided area is seen to be the familiar walking-ground of the Eternal God. To go out, I say, into the section regarded as foreign, and to behold the footprints of the Lord, to see that, even where home ends, the trailing garment of the Lord sweeps on, is a great birthday for the soul, a day of fertilising knowledge and of energising grace! To gaze upon other sects, foreign to our own, and to see common footprints in the varying roads; to gaze upon other nations, foreign to our own, and to see the mystic garment in their unfamiliar ways, to discover that the train fills the entire temple, is to enter an experience only less momentous than our conversion, for it is a second conversion into the larger thought and love of God. In Christ Jesus there is neither circumcision nor uncircumcision, neither Jew nor Gentile, neither bond nor free. His train filled the temple.

You need imagination for the missionary impulse, especially for foreign missions. You need the sense of the glory of the Lord, of the fulness of the whole earth, and of the voice that, crying, shakes the pillars of the house. It is not easy to conceive of a man of no imagination becoming a great missionary. It is the imagination of boyhood that leads many a man to the mission field, as it leads many a man to the sea. It is the romance of missions, the call of the deep and the wild. It is the same thing, with a consecration of faith added, that seals the resolve, and finally sends him abroad. To his vision of foreign lands he adds visions of redeemed peoples. His eye has seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. He dreams a dream of good. He has visions of an earth full of the knowledge and glory of God. He has the imagination of the adventurer with the consecration of the prophet. Every missionary must be an idealist. The man who has no sympathy with missions is devoid of imagination, and sometimes he seems even a little proud of his defect.1 [Note: P. T. Forsyth, Missions in State and Church, p. 224.]

After telling the story of the martyrdom of Perpetua the Roman matron, and the slaves Revocatus and Felicitas, in the beginning of the third century, Professor Gwatkin says:2 [Note: Early Church History to A. D. 313, ii. p. 127.] There is something here even more significant than the lofty courage of Perpetua, which forms the front of the story. From first to last she never dreams that Revocatus and Felicitas are less than her equals and companions in Christ. Enthusiasm might have nerved the matron and the slave apart; but no mere enthusiasm could have joined their hands in death. The mischievous eccentricities of Montanism are as dust in the balance while we watch the mighty working of the power of another world in which not only the vulgar fear of death is overcome, but the deepest social division of the ancient world is entirely forgotten.

v. The Seraphim

Above him stood the seraphim.

1. The seraphim are not mentioned elsewhere, and the origin and meaning of the name can only be supplied by conjecture. It must suffice to say that they appear here as the most exalted ministers of the Divine Being, in immediate proximity to Himself, and give expression to the adoration and reverence unceasingly due from the highest of created intelligences to the Creator. Possessed apparently of human form, and in an erect posture, they form a circleor perhaps rather a double choir, about the throne, each with two of his wings seeming to support himself upon the air, with two covering his face, in reverence, that he might not gaze directly upon the Divine glory, and with two his own person, in humility, not deigning to meet directly the Divine glance. Can the scene be more aptly or more worthily reproduced than in our own poets noble lines?

Fountain of light, thyself invisible

Amidst the glorious brightness where thou sittst,

Throned inaccessible, but when thou shadest

The full blaze of thy beams, and through a cloud

Drawn round about thee like a radiant shrine

Dark with excessive bright thy skirts appear,

Yet dazzle Heaven, that brightest Seraphim

Approach not, but with both wings veil their eyes.1 [Note: Paradise Lost, iii. 375.]

2. The seraphim, says Kautzsch (Dictionary of the Bible, v. 643), belong undoubtedly to the realm of angels. Although mentioned only in the vision of Isaiah (Isa 6:2), they appear there as well-known beings, so that the belief in them may certainly be assumed for the pre-Prophetic period. Furnished with six wings, they offer around Gods throne antiphonal praise in the Trisagion; one of them purges the lips of the prophet, and announces to him the forgiveness of his sins. They are thus, in fact, intelligent beings, angels. Of the numerous explanations of the name, the only one that can be taken in earnest is that which traces it back to the singular srph. This word means properly serpent (Num 21:8, Deu 8:15), and the seraphim must accordingly have been originally serpent-formed creaturesembodiments, indeed, of the serpent-like lightning flashes that play around Jehovah. But, in the case of the seraphim of Isaiah, the six wings may be regarded as all that has survived of this somewhat mythological form. Moreover (probably long before the time of Isaiah), they have assumed human form, as is evident not only from the song of praise (Isa 6:3), which would be inconceivable in a serpents mouth, but from the hand (Isa 6:6) and the speech of the srph (Isa 6:7).

3. The first thing that strikes us about the seraphim is their redundance of wings. They had each six, only two of which were used for flying; the others, with which they shrouded their faces and their feet, were, apparently, quite superfluous. Why should they have had them when there was no fit employment for them? Was it not sheer waste to be possessing wings that were merely employed as covering, and never spread for flight? And yet, perhaps, without this shrouding of their faces and feetan office which, at least, the wings performedthey might not have answered so well high heavens purposes, might not have swept abroad with such undivided intentness and such entire abandonment on their Divine errands. Perhaps their upper and lower parts needed to be swathed thus to make them the singly bent, the wholly absorbed ministers that they were. With unveiled faces and naked feet they might have been less prompt and alert, less concentrated and surrendered for the Lord.

We meet sometimes with these seemingly wasted wings in men, in the form of powers or capabilities, knowledges or skills, for the exercise of which there is no scope or opportunity in their lot, which they are not called on or able to apply. There they lie, unutilised; nothing is done with them, no demand for them exists. To what end, we ask, have they been acquired? or what a pity, we say, that the men could not be placed in circumstances in which a field would be offered them, in which they would be wanted and drawn out! And yet, a knowledge or skill gained, may not be really wasted, though it be left without due scope and opportunity. The best, the finest use of it does not lie always in what it accomplishes, in the open product of its activity, but often in what has been secretly added to us or wrought into us, through gaining it, in the contribution which the gaining of it has been to our charactor or moral growth, in some nobler shaping of ourselves by means of it.1 [Note: S. A. Tipple.]

(1) With twain he covered his face. The first pair of wings suggest the need of the lowliest reverence in the worship of God. What does that lofty chorus of Holy! holy! holy! that burst from those immortal lips mean but the declaration that God is high above, and separate from, all limitations and imperfections of creatures? And we Christians, who hear it re-echoed in the very last Book of Scripture by the four and twenty elders who represent redeemed humanity, have need to take heed that we do not lose our reverence in our confidence, and that we do not part with godly fear in our filial love.

The eldest daughter of Faith is Reverence. We remember how Moses acted at the Burning Bush: he went up to it at first merely from curiosity, but as soon as he heard the voice of God calling to him out of the fire, Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Without reverence of heart there can be no true worship; and the soul-reverence ought to be accompanied by reverence of posture and demeanour. It is not reverential to stand during praise with ones hand buried in ones trousers pocket, or to sit straight during prayer, and stare all over the church, or to go to or from public worship with a cigarette in ones mouth. These things ought not so to be.

A friend of mine, a clergyman, told me that he was once showing some one over his church. This person omitted to take his hat off on entering the church. I hope you dont mind my keeping my hat on? he said to my friend. I mind? not at all! was my friends reply. It isnt my house!1 [Note: W. J. Foxell.]

(2) The next pair of wings suggest the need of self-forget-fulness. With twain he covered his feet. The wings made no screen that hid the seraphs feet from the eye of God, but it was the instinctive lowly sense of unworthiness that folded them across the feet, even though they, too, burned as a furnace. The nearer we get to God, the more we shall be aware of our limitations and unworthiness, and it is because that vision of the Lord sitting on His throne, high and lifted up, with the thrilling sense of His glory filling the holy temple of the universe, does not burn before us that we can conceit ourselves to have anything worth pluming ourselves upon.

Once lift the curtain, once let my eye be flooded with the sight of God, and away goes all my self-conceit, and all my fancied superiority over others. One little molehill is pretty nearly the same height as another, if you measure them both against the top of the Himalayas, that lie in the background, with their glittering peaks of snow. Star differeth from star in glory in a winters night, but when the great sun swims into the sky they all vanish together. If you and I saw God burning before us, as Isaiah saw Him, we should veil ourselves, and lose all that which so often veils Him from usthe fancy that we are anything when we are nothing. And the nearer we get to God, and the purer we are, the more keenly conscious shall we be of our imperfections and our sins. If I say I am perfect, said Job in his wise way, this also should prove me perverse. Consciousness of sin is the continual accompaniment of growth in holiness. The heavens are not pure in His sight, and He chargeth His angels with folly. Everything looks black beside that sovereign whiteness. Get God into your lives, and you will see that the feet need to be washed, and you will cry, Lord! not my feet only, but my hands and my head!

He covered his feet in order, I suppose, that his very form and motion might not be seen; and therefore it is mentioned before the flight. He did not set out until, as far as possible, himself was concealed. There shall be simply the fact of a mission, and the method: so that, if an angel were to bring Gods embassy to you, you would not see the angel. That is true embassy! In like manner, it was commanded of the high priest, that his garments should go down to his feet, that the minister should not be seen.1 [Note: J. Vaughan, Sermons, iv. p. 5.]

(3) And with twain he did fly. The third pair of wings suggest Service. Whosoever, beholding God, has found need to hide his face from the Light, even whilst he comes into the Light, and to veil his feet from the all-seeing Eye, will also feel impulses to go forth in His service. For the perfection of worship is neither the consciousness of my own insufficiency, nor the humble recognition of His glory, nor the great voice of praise that thrilled from those immortal lips, but it is the doing of His will in daily life.

Some people say the service of man is the service of God. Yes, when it is service of man, done for Gods sake, it is so, and only then. The old motto, Work is worship, may preach a great truth or a most dangerous error. But there is no possibility of error or danger in maintaining this: that the climax and crown of all worship, whether for us footsore servants upon earth, or for those winged attendants on the throne of the King in the heavens, is activity in obedience.

The souls of modern men need all their wings to enable them to fly as quickly as their fellows, and they have none left wherewith to cover their faces and their feet.2 [Note: Ellen Thorneycroft Fowler, in Concerning Isabel Carnaby.]

We can have little difficulty in discovering the motive from which the seraphim act. We see at once that it is lovethe love of God which ever moves them. They fly away on swift wing to do Gods will, but they ever return to the throne. That is the place of their rest; there they desire to dwell; and they dwell there adoring God, forgetting themselves and hiding all their own, that God may be all in all. Now nothing but love, the most intense love, can account for this. Only love can draw the creature to God, and make him desire to abide in His presence and to behold His glory. And thus we see that the great motive power in heaven is just that which ought to be the great motive power on earththe love of God. And that indeed must move every intelligent being who will serve God, in whatever world he may dwell or to whatever race he may belong. When you go into some of the worlds great workshops you see a vast variety of machinery, all, it may be, in motion, and engaged in a variety of operations; yet throughout that great manufactory there is just one motive power, so that what keeps going the gigantic hammer crushing in its descent the cold iron, also keeps in motion machinery which for delicacy of touch and operation the very spider might not excel. Even so, throughout His wide Kingdom God has many servants, and, we cannot doubt, many races of intelligent beings doing His will, and these engaged in an endless variety of labours, but the power which moves them all is the samethe sovereign power of love.

These then are the threereverence and self-forgetfulness and active obedience,With twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. It is because of irreverence and self-conceit and idleness that our lives are weak. Go stand in the sight of God, and these wings of salvation shall come and clothe your life. They perfectly clothed the life of Jesus. Reverence and self-sacrifice and obedience were perfect in Him. In the most overwhelmed moments of His life,crushed in the garden, agonised upon the cross,he was really standing, like the strong seraphim, at the right hand of God.

The seraphim were winged for service even while they stood above the throne and pealed forth their thunderous praise which shook the Temple. May we not discern in that a hint of the blessed blending of two modes of worship which will be perfectly united in heaven, and which we should aim at harmonising even on earth? His servants serve Him and see His face. There is possible, even on earth, some foretaste of the perfection of that heavenly state in which no worship in service shall interfere with the worship in contemplation. Mary, sitting at Christs feet, and Martha, busy in providing for His comfort, may be, to a large extent, united in us even here, and will be perfectly so hereafter, when the practical and the contemplative, the worship of noble aspiration, of heart-filling gazing, and that of active service shall be indissolubly blended.1 [Note: A. Maclaren.]

vi. The Song of the Seraphim

And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. It was an antiphonal song, proceeding without interruption. Some of them commenced and others responded.

I like to think of that. It was as if one of them cried, Your strains are not lifted high enough; higher, brothers, higher! And he cried across the intervening space to the seraphim opposite, and bade them rise to a higher note, till the chorus swelled and rose and broke. I have heard a bird in the spring morning cry to all the songsters of the glade till the whole woodland has rung again. Sometimes in our prayer-meeting an earnest man has shaken the very gates of heaven and has stirred the whole meeting. That is what we want. And as I tell you of a richer, fuller life, a life more abundant than many of you know, may you be convicted of the need of a new anointing, of a fresh application to the Son of God for the touch of fire. May ours be the seraphs reverence, with the veiled face; ours his modesty, with the veiled form; ours his balance of one-third obedience to two-thirds of contemplation. Then perhaps our cry may awaken similar results to his, and others shall cry, Undone.1 [Note: F. B. Meyer.]

Two of the Divine attributes form the theme of the seraphs hymnGods holiness as inherent in Himself, His glory as manifested in the earth.

1. Holiness, the first of these, denoted fundamentally a state of freedom from all imperfection, specially from all moral imperfection; a state, moreover, realised with such intensity as to imply not only the absence of evil, but antagonism to it. It is more than goodness, more than purity, more than righteousness: it embraces all these in their ideal completeness, but it expresses besides the recoil from everything which is their opposite. This is the sense which the word bears throughout Scripture. Israel is to be a holy nation; it is separated from the other nations of the earth, in order that it may reflect in idea the same ethical exclusiveness which is inherent in its God. The Holy One of Israel, that fine designation, which is first used by Isaiah, and was indeed probably framed by him as the permanent embodiment of the truth so vividly impressed upon him in this vision, is a title which would remind the Israelite as he heard it of this distinctive attribute of his God, and arouse him to the duty of aiming after holiness himself. Holiness, again, is the attribute which in virtue of the tie uniting Jehovah and His people, prophets saw vindicated in their deliverance from tyranny or oppression: The Lord hath made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; or, And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall show myself holy in you before their eyes. And so it is to Gods holiness that the Psalmist, persecuted but conscious of innocence, who has cried day and night without respite, appeals: And thou art holy, who inhabitest the praises of Israel. The seraphs celebrate God not as the All-righteous, not as the All-powerful, or the All-wise; they celebrate Him under a title which expresses His essence more profoundly than any of these, and which marks more significantly the gulf which severs Him from all finite beings: they celebrate Him as the All-holy.1 [Note: S. R. Driver.]

The Hebrew word for holiness springs from a root which means to set apart, make distinct, put at a distance from. When God is described in the Old Testament as the Holy One of Israel it is generally with the purpose of withdrawing Him from some presumption of men upon His majesty or of negativing their unworthy thoughts of Him. The Holy One is the Incomparable; To whom then will ye liken me, that I should be equal to him? saith the Holy One (Isa 40:25). He is the Unapproachable: Who is able to stand before Jehovah, this holy God? (1Sa 6:20). He is the Utter Contrast of man: I am God, and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee (Hos 11:9). He is the Exalted and Sublime: Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place (Isa 57:15). Generally speaking, then, holiness is equivalent to separateness, sublimityin fact, just to that loftiness or exaltation which Isaiah has already so often reiterated as the principal attribute of God. In their thrice-repeated Holy the seraphs are only telling more emphatically to the prophets ears what his eyes have already seen, the Lord high and lifted up.

Mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts (Isa 6:5). The Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth (Jer 1:9). I saw the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord and I went in bitterness but the hand of the Lord was strong upon me (Eze 1:27-28; Eze 3:14). These three utterances spoken severally by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, show a remarkable agreement in one respect between the three prophets who were otherwise most unlike. They all record how a vision of God was the essence of their call. Because they had seen God, and had heard His voice, they could, and therefore must, speak to their fellow-men. So far there is a close similarity between them. But their circumstances were different, their gifts were different, their works were different; and so God also was pleased to make Himself known to them in different forms. In each case the vision which was granted to the prophet corresponded with his message. What the prophet had seen was the seal of that which he had to say. (1) In a season of outward prosperity Isaiah saw the Lord seated upon a throne, high and lifted up, in all His glorious majesty; and he was filled with the sense of holiness. (2) In the prospect of inevitable overthrow Jeremiah received the direct assurance of the Lords sovereign Providence; and he was filled with a sense of trust. (3) In the desolateness of a strange land, a captive among captives, Ezekiel looked upon the emblems of Gods allquickening presence; and he was filled with the sense of stern courage.

The great missionary motive of the Church is the enthusiasm for holiness. The prophet received his mission in an atmosphere charged with unutterable holiness. It was not the poetic splendour of the vision which awed and stirred him. It was not the imaginative glory of the scene. That might have made him an artist, an orator, but not a prophet, not a missionary. What at once crushed and moved him, abased him and lifted him out of himself, was the glory of holiness. Every splendour seems to carry with it some trace of earth but this. It is the most unworldly of all unearthly things. It takes a man out of himself, shames him out of himself, gives him to his highest self and truest destiny. It puts the new song into his trembling lips. It endows the stammering man with mighty speech, and sends him forth from his abasement with all the power of the Spirit of God. It cleanses the very lips that it moves to confess themselves unclean, unclean. It emboldens the very conscience that it had just made to quail. It inspires with a grand fear which forgets fear. It gives a message to the man who feels in its presence that he is nothing and has nothing. When the enthusiasm of humanity comes it turns the spirit of adventure into the spirit of help; but the enthusiasm of holiness makes the spirit of help the spirit of redemption. It not only consecrates the old, it creates a new spirit within us.

It has been the song of the Church in hovel and palace, in the leafy groves and in the magnificent cathedral through mighty anthems, oratorios, and masses, and in childrens melodies for thousands of years. Our old planet has forgotten it often in politics and in the hollow mockery of reform, but statesmanship and philanthropy, every congeries of powers set to make the world advance, or improve, has had at its core the truth not only that this is Gods universe, but that the God of the universe is holy; and above every lasting triumph have fluttered the banners which bore the words: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of Hosts. Every army which has forgotten to count on the fact that the supremacy of this system of things lay in the hands of holiness has failed of permanent triumph. The power not ourselves that makes for righteousnessobject to the theological way of saying it, and accept this, if you will; but to neglect that factora power making for righteousnessis to have the universe against you. Your financial authority of the majority, and your dreadful vox populi, are as straw beneath the feet of a dawning righteousness. Build in the night your icy wrong high as heaven, right will be here with sunrise and with a single ray tumble it down.1 [Note: F. W. Gunsaulus.]

2. But not only does the seraphic hymn celebrate the Divine nature in its own transcendent purity and perfection; it celebrates it as it is manifested in the material worldThe fulness of the whole earth is His glory. By glory we mean the outward show or state attendant upon dignity or rank: the glory, then, of which Isaiah speaks, is the outward expression of the Divine nature: pictured as visible splendour it may impress the eye of flesh; but any other worthy manifestation of the Being of God may be not less truly termed His glory. It is more than the particular attribute of power or wisdom; it is the entire fulness of the Godhead, visible to the eye of faith, if not to the eye of sense, in the concrete works of nature, arresting the spectator and claiming from him the tribute of praise and homage. It is that which in giant strokes is imprinted upon the mechanism of the heavens, and which, in the bold conception of the poet, One day telleth another, and one night declareth to another, so far as the empire of heaven extends. It is that which, as another poet writes, in the thunderstorm, when the clouds seem to part and disclose the dazzling brightness within, wrings from the denizens of Gods heavenly palace the cry of adoring wonder. Conceived, again, as an ideal form of splendour, it is set by Isaiah before the Israelites as that which should be the object of their reverence, but which has been too often the object of their shamelessness and scorn: For their tongue and their doings are against the Lord, to defy the eyes of His glory. It is the attribute which is disclosed when those who are the enemies of truth and right are overcome, and the Kingdom of God is extended upon earth. Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens: be thy glory over all the earth, prays the Psalmist: let Thy majesty be acknowledged more widely, more worthily, than it now is, amongst the nations of the world. The movements of history, in so far as they affect the welfare of Israel and promote Gods purposes of salvation, are a progressive revelation of His glory: Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, before the nation returning from its exile, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.

It is said the whole earth is full of Gods glory. You and I would be prepared to admit that, where the glory of God shines in the spray above Niagara, or where the morning tint is seen upon the Matterhorn and the evening glow upon the Jungfrau, or where the sun rises and sets upon the broad bosom of the Atlantic, or where the wake of the ships stirs the phosphorescence of the Mediterranean at night. But to be told that the whole earth is full of the glory of God, that startles us.

I know a place in London where a woman in a drunken frenzy put her child upon a hot iron bar; where a man beat to death his little crippled boy whose agonising cries were heard at night. I should not have thought that the glory of God was there. But the seraphim say the whole earth is full of the glory of God. We are reminded of what Elizabeth Barrett Browning says

Earths crammed with Heaven,

And every common bush afire with God,

But only he that sees takes off his shoes.

One day in London I was sitting in a dark omnibus. A man came in to examine our tickets, and I thought to myself, you will never be able to see whether they have been punctured aright. As I watched, curious to notice, he touched a little spring on his breast, and in a tiny globe of glass a beautiful glow of electric light shone out. Manifestly the man could see anywhere, because he carried the light with which he saw. So we must understand that when the heart is full of God, you will find God anywhere and everywhere, as the miner carries the candle in his cap through the dark cavity of the earth, and lights his steps.1 [Note: F. B. Meyer.]

We are like children in a machine shop, who see this wheel revolving one way, and that wheel revolving another way, this wheel revolving rapidly, and that wheel revolving slowly, and who conclude that therefore there is no plan, no unifying force about it all. Or, to use another figure, we stand by a great loom, and see one side of the fabric, and it seems to be a crazy patchwork of shapes and colours. Isaiah caught a glimpse of the Engineer and saw that He was Master of all the wheels and belts and pulleys. Isaiah caught a glimpse of the Weaver at the loom and saw that the pattern was before Him all the while. So, ever afterward, whoever was on the throne of Judah, whoever ruled Israel, there was one man absolutely calm and contented, knowing that the King of kings was on the Great Throne, and that all earthly monarchs are but His puppets, with paper crowns and sceptres of straw. He was like Robert Brownings man, who never dreamed though right were worsted, wrong would triumph. What is your carpenter doing now? said a Roman scoffer to an early Christian. He is making a coffin for your emperor, was the reply. And He was. Nero is but a noxious memory. We name our dogs Nero. The Carpenter of Nazareth is on the throne of power, Ancient of days yet ever new.2 [Note: C. C. Albertson.]

Tis not the temples shrine

Which holy makes the place,

Whereer God is, is power Divine;

Whereer God helps is grace.

The bush on Horebs peak,

Burning and unconsumed,

The prophet bent to reverence meek,

For God the spot illumed.

The sword at night beheld,

By Jordans swelling bed,

The captain of the host compelled

To own the Lord who led.

Think of thy God as near;

And, once His presence found,

Be sure, whateer around appear,

Thou treadst on holy ground.

Put off, O Man, thy shoes,

With which thou earth hast trod;

Thee from earths dust and toil unloose,

And worship pay thy God.

So shalt thou find a light,

To burn and still endure;

A leader of all-conquering might

To make thy Canaan sure.1 [Note: Lord Kinloch.]

vii. The Effect of the Song

And the foundations of the thresholds were moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

1. The foundations of the thresholds were moved at the voice of him that criedand yet his face was covered with his wings. Dim, feeble, muffled sounds are the most we should have expected to proceed from them. With a covered face we associate the idea of silence. They are not the face-veiled whose voices ring out, whose words go forth abroad to agitate and thrill. Fancy the posts of the Lords house quivering, and the prophets heart stirred to its depths, beneath the cries of those whose heads are bowed and hid behind their wings! Here, however, is an image of much truth. Great, penetrating, inspiring utterances like the utterances of the seraphim of Isaiahs visionare they not always connected with some deep, still inwardness, with some profound withdrawal and retirement of soul? Is it not always from such as have held their breath that they come? from such as have brooded oft in solitude, and sighed, being burdened? No one speaks with quickening energy, to the melting or rousing of his fellows, who has not dwelt apart, who has not had his moments, his hours, of dumb absorption, with bent brows and folded hands, when thought and feeling have weighed upon him heavily, and held him bound. There is no life, again, of noble activity and influence which does not rest on, and issue from, some inner, hidden life of careful self-discipline and quiet self-communion, which is not fed and sustained from behind with cherishings of faith and contemplation of ideas. The more I ascend before men, said one, the more I descend before Thee, O God! and we may say, also, that to descend before God is to ascend before men.

2. And the house was filled with smoke. The posts of the door moved at the voice which declared that the Holy One was there. The house was filled with smoke because the fire of His love was kindling the sacrifices. The sights and sounds of Sinai would not have made the Israelites tremble as they did if they had been merely sights and sounds of overwhelming and destructive power; they spoke first of Truth, of Holiness. And that Truth and Holiness did not dwell aloof and at a distance from the man, as in the burning mountain, but in the very house which every Israelite might claim as his own.

Smoke is usually associated with Gods wrath. But here the smoke that filled the house is hardly to be regarded as a symbol of the dark side of the self-manifesting God coming into view and His anger against sin. Analogies for such an interpretation of smoke in the house seem wanting. The cloud of smoke is rather the manifestation of Himself (Isa 4:5). The King, high and lifted up, is not immovable. He responds and gives a fuller token of Himself. On the spirits adoring what they knew there breaks a fuller knowledge and a more sensible nearness. If in the busy day the pillar seems cloud and smoke, in stiller hours it brightens into fire. And to the eastern seer God was a light more distinct and clearer far than to the dimmer vision of the western eye, when

On the glimmering light far withdrawn

God made Himself an awful rose of dawn.1 [Note: A. B. Davidson, in The Expositor, 4th Ser., vii. p. 246.]

A Vision of Self

Next in importance to a vision of God is a vision of ourselves. So far as we know, Isaiah was a young man of excellent character. No doubt he had the confidence and respect of all who knew him. The probabilities are that his life was above reproach. But when he got a glimpse of the Infinite Holiness he cried out, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. No man can see God aright without feeling just as Isaiah did. When that vision rises up before him, all his pride, all his self-sufficiency, all the small moralities on which he is building will seem to him like blight and mildew on the leaves and flowers. Over against the Divine perfection his own righteousness will appear as filthy rags.

The keen sanctity,

Which with this effluence, like a glory, clothes

And circles round the Deity, did seize

And scorch and shrivel him; and now he lay

Passive and still before the awful Throne!

Then said I, woe is me! for I am undone.

1. The sight of God has always a reacting influence on ones self. We always carry with us a sense of relation to God; and when we think of Him, we always think of ourselves. We cannot think of Him out of relation to ourselves. It is part of our thought of Him, that it always includes ourselves; for He is Sovereign, high and lifted up. This thought of Him is often fleeting and has little influence upon our mind, oftentimes no effect to influence our life permanently. Our sight of Him is often partial and reacts but feebly back upon ourselves. But a real sight of Him, such as the prophet had, will not be without a powerful effect upon our feeling regarding ourselves.

(1) The first thought it will occasion will perhaps be the one it occasioned to this prophetfear. There will be such a sense of contrast between Him and usHim the King and usthat it will beget terror. This was the common feeling in the Hebrew mind. The distance between Jehovah and the creature was so vast, the unworthiness of the creature was so great, that when suddenly brought into the presence of Jehovah the creature felt he must be consumed and die. No man can see God and live.

(2) But this feeling of fear was succeeded by another. Though the first, it was not the last condition of the prophets mind. In a brief space his mind ran through a history; and thought succeeded thought of his relation to God. In the vision a seraph flew to him with a live coal from the altar, and touched his lips, saying, Thy sin is purged. Now these two things, his fear and this that succeeded, must be taken together. They are both required, in order to bring out the proper view of the effect on man of a full sight of God. First, fear; and then, following it, the sense of sin purged away. Though thou wast angry with me, thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedst me. If the sight of God stop with producing the first feeling merely, it will not have been a true, full sight of God. It will have been partial, imperfect. When God is revealed to the mind, it may be all perturbed, it may rock to and fro, and feeling after feeling pass over it. The prevailing tone may for a time be terror; but if the sight of God be fullas He is in Christ, as He is in Himselfthe conclusion at the last will be peace.

We have seen in Christ a holiness the prophet did not know. It is not less solemn, it is not less sublime, but it is more sweet, it is more deep, it is more abiding. It is not a vision, but a presence and a power. We have seen through the smoke which filled the house. We have seen the face of Him that sat upon the throne. We have seen the Cross upon the altar. We have seen that the holiness of God is the holiness of love. There is no such awful gulf fixed between the King and the creature. We too are kings in Him. The word we hear is judgment indeed, and fear, but it is more. It is our judgment laid on the Holy. It is such mercy, pity, peace, and love. It is, indeed, infinite tenderness; but it is soul tenderness, it is moral tenderness, it is atoning, redeeming tenderness. It is the tenderness of the Holy, which does not soothe but save. It is love which does not simply comfort, and it is holiness which does not simply doom. It is holy love, which judges, saves, forgives, cleanses the conscience, destroys the guilt, reorganises the race, and makes a new world from the ruins of the old.1 [Note: P. T. Forsyth.]

2. I am undone.What gave Isaiah this feeling?

(1) There was the conviction of unworthiness. This man, who of all Israel seemed to be the purest and sweetest, is the man that bows the lowest and is most convinced of sin. Gods children need to learn that lesson too. He had done good work, but God saw that he could do better, and so convicted him of the comparative unworthiness of his past ministry. Thus it befell that the man by whom God had spoken through five chapters (if we take the prophecies in their order as they stand) was a man who confessed to having unclean lips.

(2) There was the conviction that God was near. The great God had come down from the heavens. The whole earth is full of God, all time, all space; but now Isaiah felt the presence of the skirts of the Eternal falling upon him.

(3) There was the conviction of sin. Christmas Evans tells us in his diary that one Sunday afternoon he was travelling a very lonely road to attend an appointment in a village the other side of the slope, and he was convicted of a cold heart. He says, I tethered my horse and went to a sequestered spot, where I walked to and fro in an agony as I reviewed my life. I waited three hours before God, broken with sorrow, until there broke over me a sweet sense of His forgiving love. I received from God a new baptism of the Holy Ghost. As the sun was westering, I went back to the road, found my horse, mounted it and went to my appointment. On the following day I preached with such new power to a vast concourse of people gathered on the hillside, that a revival broke out that day and spread through the whole Principality.

Because I am a man of unclean lips.

The ethical process by which, in the imagery of the vision, Isaiahs sense of sinfulness came home to him, is finely natural and simple. It was at his lips that the consciousness of his impurity caught him. That, judged by our formulas and standards, might seem a somewhat superficial conviction of sin. We should have expected him to speak of his unclean heart, or the total corruption of his whole nature. But conviction of sin, actual conviction of sin, is very regardless of our theories, and is as diverse in its manifestations as are the characters and records of men. Sin finds out one man in one place, and another in a quite different spot, and perhaps the experience is most real when it is least theological. Isaiah felt his defilement in his lips, for suddenly he found himself at heavens gate, gazing on the glory of God, and listening to the seraphs ceaseless song of adoring praise. Isaiah loved God, and instinctively he prepared to join his voice to the seraphs chant, hut ere the harmony could pass his lips he caught his breath and was dumb. A horrible sense of uncleanliness had seized him. His breath was tainted by his sin. He dare not mingle his polluted praise with the worship of that pure, sinless host of heaven. Oh, the shame and agony of that disability! for it meant that he has no part or place in that great scene. He is an alien and an intruder. Its beauty and its sweetness are not for him. He belongs to a very different scene and a very different company. He is no inhabitant of heaven, no servant of God; but a denizen of earth, and a companion of sinners. Down there, amid its squalor, and shame, and uncleanliness, is his dwelling-place, remote from heaven, and holiness, and God. Woe is me! because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. With that, the horror of his situation reached its climax. He stands there, on the threshold of heaven in full sight of God and of His holiness, dumb and praiseless, while all heaven rings and reverberates with the worship of its adoring hosts. The awful tremor of that celestial praise passed into Isaiahs frame, and it seemed like the pangs of instant dissolution. He, a creature of Gods, stands there in his Makers presence, alone mute, alone refusing to chant his Creators glory, a blot and blank in the holy harmony of heaven, a horrible and foul blemish amid the unsullied purity of that celestial scene. It seemed to Isaiah as if all the light, and glory, and holiness of heaven were gathering itself into one fierce lightning fire of vengeance, to overwhelm and crush him out of existence.

It appears to me that up to this time profanity of language had been Isaiahs besetting sin. I should think that few will doubt that, when he says I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, he means to refer to a prevalence of profanity amongst his companions. Well, is it not the most natural explanation to believe that he had in his previous life given way to that sin, and now that is the sin that burns on his conscience? I have more than once known this particular form of sin to be killed outright in one day; and whereas there are other besetting sins which, even when a man has been pardoned, cling to him for a lifetime, very often this one is got quit of in one hour, and never comes back again.1 [Note: J. Stalker, in Christian World Pulpit, xliii. p. 389.]

I am a man of unclean lips. In vision the prophet sees the throne, beholds the seraphim, listens to their song, the Trisagion, Holy, Holy, Holy! Prompted to join in the august anthem that leaps from their lips, he at once realises that it ill becomes him to speak that thrice-uttered word, for he is unholy, he stands in his own way, he is too wicked to worship, and all about him are wicked too. I knew a collegian who was educated, but profane. His vocabulary of oaths was copious, but he, as every swearer has, shunned the prefix holy. It is a terrible word. It means whole. It expresses integrity, completeness, and is a vocable that bad men shun. It is rarely used by any of us in speaking of the dead. We may say of the departed, He was good, amiable, or honest, but none, unless it be a clergyman in the pulpit discourse, says, he was holy. Swearers shun the word. It is a gun that kicks more than it shoots. Yet we are told to follow holiness as a vocation, a business, if we would hope to see God. Holiness is everything or nothing.2 [Note: C. S. Robinson, in The Homiletic Review, xvi. p. 248.]

iii

And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.

Every soul has an environment, which it affects, and by which it is affected; and no question of guilt or innocence, forgiveness or condemnation, is limited to the individual by himself. This truth, which goes far back into the history of mans ideas about himself, is emphatically presented in the Bible. Thus Psalms 51, which gives expression most poignantly to the sense of personal guilt, also represents the sinner as born in a sinful environment: so here, Isaiah is conscious not only that he is a man of unclean lips, but that he dwells among a people of unclean lips. Not only is sin a personal act of rebellion, but it produces a sinful atmosphere, a condition of alienation from God. In like manner, the absolution or declaration of freedom from sin cannot concern the individual alone: it must have an eye also to the society in which he lives and to his relations towards it.1 [Note: T. B. Strong, in Encyclopdia of Religion and Ethics, i. p. 49.]

There is a sense of the sin in society which makes a man not a Pharisee, but a prophet. It is easy to be cynical at the expense of our fellows, and to pour out stinging satires on the shams and weaknesses of society; but that is not the dominant spirit of the highest ministry. In the all-searching light of this vision, Isaiah sees that the world in which he lives is full of such shams; speech is a symbol and expression of life, and speech which should be clean and sweet, as well as truthful and strong, is vile and unclean. But the life of sinful people is the life the prophet shares, the atmosphere he breathes, the sphere in which he lives and moves. He cannot flee to the wilderness and leave it all behind. He must be in this world, but not of it; this he can do because he has learned that sin is an alien power in himself and in society. It is treason to the Divine King; in the name and by the power of the King it can be conquered. Through the influence of this deep revelation he can be a statesman as well as a religious teacher, a social reformer as well as a sacred singer, and through it all a saint. The vision means, then, the possibility of service. If there were no King a man might be content to be a time-server, but to the man who has seen the King the way of highest service is open, and he is not disobedient to the heavenly vision. Life, then, finds its real meaning in service to God and man. Behind this mans call to service there are certain great convictions which are a prophecy of, and a preparation for, the rich personal experience which is fully revealed in our Lord Jesus, and quickened in us by the power of His great sacrifice.2 [Note: W. G. Jordan, Prophetic Ideas and Ideals, p. 62.]

For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

1. The sleeping snake that is coiled in every soul stirs and begins to heave in its bulk, and wake, when the thought of a holy God comes into the heart. Now, I do not suppose that consciousness of sin is the whole explanation of that universal human feeling, but I am very sure it is an element in it, and I suspect that if there were no sin, there would be no shrinking.

2. The immediate effect of the vision on Isaiah was an overpowering consciousness of his sinfulness, and a fear of instant death at the hand of God. It was apparently a universal belief among the ancient Hebrews that the sight of God would be instant death to a man. We see this clearly in the fear of Gideon when he discovered that his unknown visitor was the angel of the Lord (Jdg 6:22); so with Manoah (Jdg 13:22), and Jacob (Gen 32:30; see also Exo 24:11, and Gen 16:13). The Greek myth of Jupiter and Semele, and the Greek ideas about show that similar views were not unknown even outside of Israel. And among the Hebrews this doctrine is not due to revelation; it appears in the history always as a tradition inherited from remote antiquitya natural outgrowth of the natural consciousness of sin. It forms a strange illustration of the knowledge man has always had of his own guilt in Gods sight, and the danger of Divine punishment he constantly lies under. Man cannot conceive God appearing to him for any other purpose than to execute judgment; so pure is God, so impure is man! This belief may have degenerated with many into a mere superstition, a blind belief whose meaning and reason were forgotten; it seems little better with Manoah. But it is not so with Isaiah. He knows well the reason of his danger: I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell among a people of unclean lips. He feels his own sin, and feels his solidarity with a nation that is sinful too. Gods mind towards the whole nation must be one of wrath and threatening, unmitigated by the presence of righteous persons to leaven the mass. (See Gen 18:23-33.)

The central fact is the vision of God as KingMine eyes have seen the King. You say, no man can see God and live. That is quite true; as we here see, this man did not live; in a very deep sense he died. The vision of God kills that it may make alive; the fire of the Divine revelation burns up the dross of pride and passion. The great need of that time is also our own great need, a true vision of the Divine, a lofty thought of God. This alone can meet the hunger of Isaiahs soul and save the nation from utter failure. The popular religion was crude and impure; many worshipped idols, many ran after a spurious spiritualism, or reduced religion to a sensuous ritualism (Isa 1:11, Isa 2:8, Isa 8:18). That which made a hero of this young man, and gave power to the purest religion of his day, was the force which also nerved our fathers to cast out superstition and fight for liberty; the vision of a God who is supreme, who through His righteousness is really kind, who is revealed in Nature, who rules the nations and who does not disdain the cry of the penitent soul. No argument can do justice to this; it is a vision and a life. The saints and martyrs point to it as the object of their love and the source of their strength. Men of mighty intellect, of childlike heart, of pure spiritual aspiration, have through its inspiration saved the nation from despair and the Church from failure. The men who have borne the burdens and fought the battles which helped forward the worlds highest life, knew the meaning of the words, Mine eyes have seen the King.1 [Note: W. G. Jordan.]

3. The Incarnation has made the prophetic vision permanent. And in this respect the Incarnation, which has brought God very near to us, has not lessened His awfulness. It has indeed made known undreamt-of powers, destinies, significances in things visible and temporal. It has, to the sight of faith, transfigured the earth, but it has not lowered heaven. He whom Isaiah beheld was, as St. John tells us, Christ Himself: he saw His glory and spake of Him; and His glory is unchanged and unchangeable. He became very man, not to bind us with new ties to earth as we see it, but to disclose its unseen potencies. He became man, that He might give us boldness to approach the footstool of His Father; that He might lift us to a sublimer region while we are ever striving to bring things to the standards of sense; that He might enable us to ascend in Him to that which is spaceless and timeless, which is apprehended by the soul alone, and which alone is able to fill the soul.

It is in this sense that St. Paul tells us that when he realised the scope of the work of Christ, though he had once known Him after the flesh, yet he knew Him so no more. We must strive towards the same purity of knowledge. Christ after the flesh corresponds in some way to the fabric of the visible sanctuary. That which belongs to the senses is our starting-point and not our goal. We in our turn are bound to use the limited revelation, that we may rise beyond it in hope, in prayer, in effort.

No one of us indeed would question in words our Lords immutable Deity. No one would question that He came to us in the Fathers name, to reveal the Father to us. Yet is it not true that, practically, we are all tempted to think of Him as He moved about among men under the limitations of earthly existence? Is it not true that we are tempted to substitute Him for the Father to whose presence He leads us? Is it not true that our faith in consequence is in peril of becoming unmanly, sentimental, fantastic, unbraced by the generous discipline of reverence, unpurified by the spiritual fire of awe?

For eight years Dannecker, the German sculptor, laboured upon a marble statue of the Christ. When he had worked upon it for two years it seemed to him that the statue was finished. What more could he do to add to its perfection? To test the matter, however, he one day called a little girl into his studio, and, directing her attention to the statue, said, Who is that? She replied promptly, A great man. He turned away disheartened. He felt that he had failed, and that his two years of labour had been lost. But he began anew. He toiled on for six years more, and then, inviting another little child into his studio, repeated the inquiry, Who is that? This time he was not disappointed. After looking in silence awhile, the childs curiosity deepened into awe and reverence, and bursting into tears, she said softly, Suffer little children to come unto Me. It was enough. The untutored instinct of the child had led her to the right conclusion, and he knew that his work was a success. Dannecker declared afterwards that in his solitary vigils he had seen a vision of Christ, and had but transferred to the marble the image which the Lord had shown him. Some time later Napoleon Bonaparte requested him to make a statue of Venus for the gallery of the Louvre. But he refused, saying, A man who has seen Christ would commit sacrilege if he should employ his art in the carving of a pagan goddess. My art henceforth is a consecrated thing.1 [Note: R. F. Coyle.]

4. The title Lord of Hosts has a history.

(1) It is possible that at one time the title suggested the idea of Jahweh as the leader of the Israelite forces. In favour of this view is the fact that the word sabaoth outside this phrase always refers to bodies of men, and usually to Israelite forces. There is no doubt that in the early stages of the history of the nation the popular view of the functions of Jahweh was concentrated to a large extent on this point, that He was the guider and commander of the armies in warfare; and the same idea lingered late, and lies at the bottom of the objection to the institution of the monarchy which is put in Samuels mouth (cf. 1Sa 8:20 with 1Sa 12:12). In the same way, David, as he taunts Goliath, says to him, I come in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel (1Sa 17:45). (2) So we are brought to another view, which may merely mark a later stage: the hosts are the spiritual forces which stand at Gods disposal. So in Jos 5:13-14, when Joshua asks the unknown warrior whether he is on their side or on that of their enemies, the implied answer of the Divine stranger is that he belongs to neither side, but is come as captain of the Lords host to succour His people. (3) The third stage is reached in the prophets, especially Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, and Malachi, where the title assumes a far wider meaning and embraces all the forces of the universe.1 [Note: H. C. O. Lanchester, in Hastings Single-Volume Dictionary of the Bible, p. 551b.]

Every mans vision of the true God of history or of hope repeats this of Isaiah. Behind every great statesman, or reformer, whether he speaks our theologic dialect or not, is a vision of the power which leads the universe and every atom of it to lofty ends, whose forces run everywhere, whose flowing robes fill the whole palace of life and being, and whose energies are more than we see and hear and know, and above us,the Lord of hosts. A man need not believe intelligently all the truth about a seraph and cherub, but if he is to organise society and guide men well, if he is to reform abuses and reconstitute broken-down humanity, he must, with the inner eye of thought and faith, see that the powers above life are supreme over those beneath it, that there are more and finer energies in the unseen than in the seen, that they that are for us are more than they that be against us, and that around every Elisha are chariots and horses in the clouds which are the invisible reserve of God and man. This faith in unseen truths and powers has made men brave enough to be statesmen rather than politicians. They have counted upon the reality of what they did not see. The merely shrewd politicians have looked and listened and put all their visible forces into their own measures and methods. The statesmen have looked and listened also, but with the unseen power of truth and right and God; they have counted on the hosts of the Lord. They have known that ideas and principles are Gods messengers to command men and lead them; they have believed that progress is made by the rule of the powers above mans vision, rather than that of those below it; and not politicians, but statesmen have ruled the world. So all reform depends on a Lord of hosts.

The Greeks, looking at the heavens above them and at the earth around them, beholding everywhere order, called what they saw cosmosbeauty of harmony. The Romans, discovering the same harmonious relations and movements, named the entirety of creation a universecombined as one. To the poetic imagination of the Hebrews, with their knowledge of the omnipotent, reigning God, the regularity and order everywhere apparent suggested an army in vast, numerous, and varied divisions acting under the command of one will, and that will Jehovahs. The Lord of hosts, He is the King, the King who sitteth upon the throne of the universe.1 [Note: J. D. Davis.]

Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.

1. I am a man of unclean lips. lam undone! It was because that conviction and confession sprang in the prophets consciousness that the seraph winged his way with the purifying fire in his hands. Which being translated is just this: faith alone will not bring cleansing. There must go with it what we call, in our Christian phraseology, repentance, which is but the recognition of my own antagonism to the holiness of God, and the resolve to turn my back on my own past self. Now, it seems to me2 [Note: A. Maclaren.] that a great deal of what is called, and in a sense is, evangelical teaching, fails to represent the full counsel of God in the matter of mans redemption, because it puts a one-sided emphasis on faith, and slurs over the accompanying idea of repentance. And I am here to say that a trust in Jesus Christ, which is unaccompanied by a profound penitent consciousness and abhorrence of ones sins, and a resolve to turn away from them for the time to come, is not a faith which will bring either pardon or cleansing. We do not need to have less said about trust; we need to have a great deal more said about repentance.

But the seraph did not come in his own personality alone; he did not say, I can remove all the impurity of which thou dost complain; it lies within my power to make thee a good man. No such speech did he make. It is not in mortal to purify mortality. This help that we need is supernatural aid. Even a seraph cannot redeem, purify, or forgive.

Now, mark this: the angel was not told to go, but he knew just what to do. The fact is, the angels have gone so often for the live coal, that whenever they hear a sinner crying that he is undone, they go for it; they do not need to be told. It is as if a druggists boy were so in the habit of getting the same medicine for the same symptoms, that when the patient comes to the door he knows just what medicine to seek, without going to the doctor to get advice.1 [Note: F. B. Meyer.]

2. As soon as the consciousness of sin and the aversion from it spring in a mans heart, the seraphs wings are set in motion. The two are as closely synchronous as the flash and the peal. Remember that beautiful old story in the historical books, of how the erring king, brought to sanity and repentance by Nathans apologue, put all his acknowledgments in these words, I have sinned against the Lord; and how the confession was not out of his lips, nor had died in its vibration in the atmosphere, before the prophet, with Divine authority, replied with equal brevity and completeness, and as if the two sayings were parts of one sentence, And the Lord hath made to pass the iniquity of thy sin. That is all. Simultaneous are the two things. To confess is to be forgiven, and the moment that the consciousness of sin rises in the heart, that moment does the heavenly messenger come to still and soothe.

3. A live coal. The thing called in the A.V. a live coal, and in the R.V. margin a hot stone, is peculiarly Oriental, belonging to a state of society that has now passed away in the West; and hence we have in English no word that properly translates it. The rendering a live coal, i.e. a burning log (for of course in those days the fuel was wood), is totally wrong, and, indeed, the conception is too grotesque to be for a moment entertained. The rizpah is a stone kept in all ancient Oriental households as a means of applying heat to household purposes. In order to bake cakes (cf. 1Ki 19:6, a cake baked on the hot stones), or to roast flesh, the stone was first heated in the fire, and the wet dough or the flesh spread out upon it, the stones as they grew cold being exchanged for hot ones fresh from the fire. To boil milk, the hot stone was plunged into it when contained in the leathern skin that served alike as cauldron and as pitcher. The prophet, carrying the similitude of an earthly household into the heavenly palace, assumes the presence of such an utensil on the hearth, which here, of course, must be conceived as an altar, on the model of Gods earthly dwelling-place. A seraph takes the hot stone from the altar and lays it on the prophets lips, which he had himself mentioned as the special seat of sin, and announces to him also in words the forgiveness of his guilt: Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

It is this swift and simple domestic process which Isaiah now sees substituted for the slow and intricate ceremonial of the templea seraph with a glowing stone in his hand, with tongs had he taken it off the altar. And yet the prophet feels this only as a more direct expression of the very same idea with which the elaborate ritual was inspiredfor which the victim was slain, and the flesh consumed in fire, and the blood sprinkled. Isaiah desires nothing else, and receives no more, than the ceremonial law was intended to assure to the sinnerpardon of his sin and reconciliation to God. But our prophet will have conviction of these immediately, and with a force which the ordinary ritual is incapable of expressing.

The Syriac Fathers are said to have regarded the burning coal as the symbol of the Incarnate Son of God; and we may well see a profound fitness in the symbolism. The burning coal in Isaiahs vision purged away his disabling uncleanness, and inspired him with the will and the power to obey the Call of God. This two-fold grace of purification and inspiration is the gift of the Incarnate Son to His brethren. The Gospel indeed includes a narrative which might seem the Christian counterpart of Isaiahs record of vocation. The revelation of God to an Apostle is realised through the same cycle of spiritual experiences. First, conviction of sin; then, consciousness of pardon; finally, a clear commission. Simon Peter, when he saw the sign which discovered the Presence of the Incarnate, fell down at Jesus knees, saying, Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord and Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men.1 [Note: H. H. Henson, The Liberty of Prophesying, p. 253.]

And he touched my mouth with it, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

1. The action of the seraph was of course symbolic, but the thing symbolised is a great spiritual fact. In it we have mirrored the very heart of the process of redemption. The cleansing efficacy of the burning ember resided not in the ember, but in the Divine fire contained in it. In the imagery of sacrifice the fire is always conceived as Gods method of accepting and taking to Himself the offering. The sacred flame that comes down from God licks up the sacrifice, and in vapour carries it up to heaven; a sweet-smelling savour represents, therefore, the pitying holiness of God, that stoops forgivingly to sinful men, and graciously accepts and sanctifies them and their sacrifices. Contact with that has sin-cleansing power, and nothing has besides.

2. If anything is clear exegetically, it is the coinciding of the prophets forgiveness with the application of the sacramental sign. The moment he rises from that act of sacramental communion, he exclaims in the full consciousness of a Divine absolution, Here am I, send me. This allusion to a sacrament may furnish the best solution of the seraphs reassuring message. A sacrament is something more than a momentary act. It is an act that symbolises the passing into a forgiven and lifelong statea state that is best described by Gods eternal now; not shall be, but is. Hence, to paraphrase his language, it might read, Lo, this glowing stone touches thy mouth, and, as you kneel in silent receptivity under the mystic sign, I, as heavens delegate, pronounce the words Absolvo TeThine iniquity passeth away, and thy sin is expiated! So that the forgiveness in Isaiahs vision may be treated as follows:

(1) Its Divine origina glowing stone from the altar.

(2) Its completed characterThine iniquity is taken away.

(3) Its adaptability to the individual manLo, this hath touched thy lips!1 [Note: J. Adams, Sermons in Syntax, p. 204.]

3. This symbolic act of the angel would perhaps be quite intelligible to the contemporaries of the prophet; but it is undoubtedly very obscure to us. The act is intended to shadow forth in some way the cleansing of the prophet from sin; but what is the connection between such cleansing and the touching of Isaiahs lips with the stone heated on the altar fire? What is the tertium comparationis of the symbol? The stone is a means of applying fire, as we have seen; when, therefore, it is brought to the lips of the prophet, it is the same as if the whole altar-fire had been brought there; and that again is the same as if the prophets unclean lips had been laid on the altar. The everyday use of the stone would at once suggest this to the mind of Isaiahs hearers. The angels act, therefore, is as much as to say: Lo, I lay thy sinfulness on the altar-fire; and thou art cleansed from sin thereby. But how should laying on the altar cleanse from sin? Gesenius, in his Commentary, compares Mal 3:2-3 (a refiners fire), and refers us to the belief, so widespread in antiquity, in the purifying power of fire. But, even if this were not too mechanical, and almost too magical, to satisfy us, laying on Gods altar fire irresistibly suggests sacrifice; and we can hardly suppose that the prophet did not, in some way, have sacrifice in his mind. It is to be presumed, at the very least, that the meaning of the prophet is not different from what he believed to be the meaning of sacrifice. Now, whatever differences of opinion there may be regarding other parts of the sacrificial ritual, all schools agree that the laying of the sacrifice on the altar and burning it, in whole or in part, signifies its presentation to God. The sacrifice is given to God by being burnt; no one supposes that the burning is to purify or refine it. The idea of purifying is totally irrelevant to the laying of sacrifices on the altar-fire. To lay on the altar is to give up to Godto make wholly His. Here, then, the angel says to Isaiah in substance this: Thy sin-defiled nature (lips) I lay on Gods altar. I will make it all His again. The uncleanness of thy nature consisted in its opposition to God, for all sin is selfish action, as opposed to action for God, and now all the opposition of thy nature to God is taken away. Thy nature is, by this act, devoted wholly to God. By Divine power thou hast been suddenly, miraculously, turned into one from whom all selfish thoughts and words and deeds are taken away, into one whose every thought and desire is toward God; into one wholly consecrated and devoted to God; and therefore into one wholly pure.

Observe the manner in which sin, that is the guilt of sin, is here, as evermore in Holy Scripture, spoken of as taken away by a free act of God, an act of His in which man is passive; in which he has, so to speak, to stand still and see the salvation of the Lord; an act to which he can contribute nothing, save indeed only that divinely awakened hunger of the soul after the benefit which we call faith. It is quite another thing with the power of sin. In the subduing of the power of sin we must be fellow-workers with God; all the faculties of our renewed nature will need to be strained to the uttermost. So, too, it is quite another thing with the stain of sin: this, to be effaced, will demand the fullers soap and the refiners fire; the patient toil, it may be the many tears, of him who would indeed have this stain effaced from his soul. But, in the matter of getting rid of the guilt of sin, we have nothing to do but to stand still and see the work of our God. This is the universal language of Scripture, and with nothing less than this will the heart of man be content. When Joshua, the. high-priest (the passage, let me say, constitutes a most instructive real parallel to the present), stands before the Lord clothed with filthy garments, the word of grace which goes forth concerning him, Take away the filthy garments from him, is in its essence identical with this; the interpretation of that symbolic act following close upon the act itselfBehold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee. It is this which in Scripture the saints of God, who feel themselves sinners too, crave after; such an act of taking away as shall be wholly Gods, and which, as being such, shall be perfectPurge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. It is this which the soul, rejoicing in its deliverance from the condemnation of sin, avouches that it has received: As far as the east is distant from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us; or again, Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.1 [Note: R. C. Trench, Sermons New and Old, p. 106.]

4. It was at Isaiahs lips that the sense of sin had stung him, and it was there that he received the cleansing. The seraph laid the hot ember on his lips, and it left about his mouth the fragrance of the celestial incense. He felt that he breathed the atmosphere and purity of heaven. He, too, might now join in heavens praise and service; no more an alien, but a member of the celestial choir and a servant of the King. That act of Divine mercy had transformed him. He was a new creature, and instantly the change appeared. The voice of God sounds through the Temple, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And the first of all heavens hosts to answer is Isaiah.

5. That Isaiahs vision does mean and imply all this, we who accept the New Testament as the Word of God can have no doubt; for it was after quoting from this very vision that St. John wrote: These things spake Isaiah when he saw his glory (the glory of the Christ), and spake of him. But if we accept this inspired interpretation of Isaiahs vision, think how much it implies,a truth how far-reaching, a hope how large and sublime. It assures us (1) that the sin of man was no unforeseen accident which the eternal purposes of God did not include, but was part of that Divine education and discipline by which God is training His many sons for honour, glory, and immortality. It assures us (2) that, though our Father in heaven cannot but be pained to the very heart by our sins, yet His love is not alienated from us by them, but has been working from all eternity for our redemption and renewal. It assures us (3) that though, because of our iniquity, we cannot be redeemed without pain, though we must die to live, God will spare us no pain by which we may be purged from our iniquity and formed anew, fitted for His service and made meet to partake His glory.

There is a hymn of Newton, eight stanzas, In Evil long I took Delight, which I call Two Looks. The stanza, I saw One hanging on a tree, introduces the first. The other is introduced by the words, A second look He gave, and the lyric concludes in these words

Thus, while His death my sin displays

In all its blackest hue,

Such is the mystery of grace

It seals my pardon, too.1 [Note: C. S. Robinson.]

III

A Vision of Duty

Great events in history are datedthe battle of Waterloo, the passing of the Reform Bill. Most men have also in their own life one or more events to which there is an exact date attached. Isaiah had such an event. It was his call to the work of his life. In the year that King Uzziah died, he says, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne. And I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send?

He describes the event vividly. We see it clearly with him. We seem to stand with the young prophet at the very mouth of Heaven; all mean and low ambitions die away; there are lightnings and thunderings and voices; the tremendous forces which we always knew must be at the centre of the universe seem about to be revealed.

But the most touching part is yet to come: so far it has been only what we expect; if we had thought about the matter at all, we should have known that the power which can daily keep twenty million flaming suns circling round itself must be terrific; we should have guessed that when we could get clear goodness disentangled from the evil of the world, its Author must be Holy, holy, holy, and make the seraphim bow down in awe, but what we should never have dreamt is what comes next; a voice comes from the centre of the burning light; the Godhead has a need; Whom shall Ithe true Godsend, and who will go for usthe Three in One?The Godhead asks for men.

In his controversy with John Stuart Mill, the French philosopher Comte said: My Deity (Humanity) has at least one advantage over yourshe needs help and can be helped. Mill met the charge by the saying, that the theists God is not omnipotent, He can be helped, Great Worker though He be. But we are not compelled to doubt or deny the omnipotence of Deity before we can believe that our part in the Divine movement of the world is not a passive one; that we are not simple recipients and blind instruments, but allies and helpers of the Eternal Power.

The subject contains (1) the Divine call, and (2) the human response to it.

i. The Divine Call

Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?

1. How do we hear it? It is probable that we hear it first as a call from below, the cry of human need. There is a cry which comes swelling up from sickbeds, from hospitals, from men in doubt, from men in trouble, from men struggling with deadly temptations, from lads adrift, from children left upon the world, from girls driven by poverty to the streets, from heathen lands, from Africa, from India, from ChinaWhom wilt thou send? and who will come to us?

One time at a meeting of the General Assembly, an effort was made to raise funds enough to send a young Princeton graduate to India as a missionary. A teacher in a home mission school was seen by her hostess to slip a gold ring from her finger and put it on the collection plate. Asked afterwards by the lady whose guest she was why she did it, she replied, Because I had no money, and because I knew what it would mean if the effort to send this missionary failed. Not long before, she had been told that she would have to give up her own school because there were no funds to support it. But she would not give it up. She held on with magnificent heroism, and she contributed the ring with all its sacred associations to help another to do what was so near her own heart.

Next morning a commissioner brought the ring into the General Assembly and told the story of it. It was worth about five dollars. I will give five dollars to send the ring back to the young woman, said a minister. I will give five dollars, said the stated clerk. A newspaper reporter handed up five dollars to the platform. Pastors, missionaries, visitors came forward readily with the cash, each one eager to have some share in restoring the ring. In less than ten minutes more than three hundred dollars had been passed up to the desk. It was all caused by the vision they got of the self-sacrificing love that flamed in the heart of that little woman, making her glad to do something for her dear Master.1 [Note: R. F. Coyle.]

This human cry is often a challenge to God. There is no God, or if there is He does not care. It is really Gods challenge to us. God has been preparing His answer; just as in the hidden laboratory of nature the coal has been slowly prepared for the worlds need of warmth; just as, nursed in secret stores, electricity has been prepared for the worlds need of light and speed; just as, in the slow working of history, the fundamental answer to all problems was prepared in the Incarnation, so year after year, by quiet influences, by teaching, by a mothers prayers, by school sermons, by an education given only to a few, God has been slowly preparing His answer to this cry, and you, my brother, are the answer.

So when the cry from below is heard, the ear opens to the call from above. And then the human cry becomes more articulate and insistent. Moses heard the cry of his countrymen, and struck a blow for them. But on the first intimation of danger he fled. Then God came and sent him down into Egypt to deliver them, and he was no longer afraid of the wrath of the king.

Let me tell you of a man I knew in IndiaGeorge Bowen by name. He was a classical scholar of distinction, and was at home in four of the principal languages of Europe. For years he revelled in poetry and philosophy, in romance and controversy, in all those languages. He was, besides, a fine musician; could compose as well as perform. In his early manhood Bowen was a philosophic sceptic and a rank pessimist. At last, however, there came to him a great experience, which made him feel the need, and ultimately see the truth, of immortality. From that point he was led on, until one night he sat down and wrote these words: If there is One above all who notices the desires of men, I wish He would take note of the fact, that if it please Him to make known His will concerning me I should think it the highest privilege to do that will wherever it might be and whatever it might involve. It was a cry out of darkness, and not long after that Jesus Christ came to George Bowen. There soon grew up in him a new sense of obligation to humanity. He was led to leave wealth for poverty, to turn from the society of the cultured and friendly that he might care for the needs of the ignorant and prejudiced, to renounce a luxurious home for a mud-walled hut. He went to India, and for forty years, without one single change, he dwelt among the people of that land. Persecution, epidemic, the fierce enervating heat could not drive him away from the crowded streets of Bombay. He was consumed with a passion for bettering the people amongst whom he lived, and he laid down his life on their behalf.1 [Note: Henry Haigh.]

2. Is the Divine Call irresistible, then? No, it is not irresistible, even when it is heard from above. Gods state is kingly: thousands at His bidding speed, and post oer land and ocean without restbut they are all volunteers. He has no pressgang in His employ, and He accepts no pressed service.

1. A man may hear it as if it were irresistible. Such an one was Paul, who could say: Woe is unto me if I preach not the gospel. Such an one was Richard Baxter, of whom Dr. Jowett said: As the people of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, so did the people of Kidderminster repent at the preaching of Baxter; and of whose bookThe Saints Resta recent writer remarks: The book glows through and through with the red heat of sacred flame, at which the soul catches fire. Such an one again was Brainerd, who prayed that he might become a flaming fire for God. Such an one was Alexander Duff, who, both in India and in Scotland, kindled to a sacred passion the congregations who listened to his burning words. And such an one in our own time was James Gilmour, who, when urged by his friends to desist from labours which were consuming him, cried: I cannot be silent; the fire of God is on me.

2. A man may resist it, but it is never the same with him afterwards. If the call has come and been rejected, there is a steady loss of life. For no one can lay hold on life by shirking its opportunities. And the loss is none the less tragic that it is unrecognised. For

When we in our viciousness grow hard

O misery ont!the wise gods seel our eyes;

In our own filth drop our clear judgements; make us

Adore our errors; laugh ats, while we strut

To our confusion.

In a stirring article entitled Is Life worth Living? Professor James remarks: If this life be not a real fight, in which something is eternally gained for the universe by success, it is no better than a game of private theatricals, from which one may withdraw at will. But it feels like a real fight. And he concludes by urging that our attitude on this matter is necessarily one of faith. Believe, he says, that life is worth living, and your belief will half create the fact. The scientific proof that you are right may not be clear before the day of judgment (or some stage of Being which that expression may serve to symbolise) is reached. But the faithful fighters of this hour, or the beings that then and there will represent them, may then turn to the faint-hearted, who here decline to go on, with words like those with which Henry iv. greeted the tardy Crillon after a great victory had been gained: Hang yourself, Crillon! we fought at Arques, and you were not there.1 [Note: See J. S. Mackenzie, Manual of Ethics, p. 450.]

3. The acceptance of the call is necessary to salvation. For no mistake can be made that is more mischievous than to suppose that salvation is the rescue of ones own soul from the wrath to come. There is no such thing. All rescue is from sin to holiness. This is the wrath to comethat we should be left in our selfishness. There is a Talmudic legend to this effect

Side by side

In the low sunshine by the turban stone

They knelt; each made his brothers woe his own,

Forgetting, in the agony and stress

Of pitying love, his claim of selfishness;

Peace, for his friend besought, his own became;

His prayers were answered in anothers name;

And, when at last they rose up to embrace,

Each saw Gods pardon in his brothers face!

Long after, when his headstone gathered moss,

Traced on the targum-marge of Onkelos

In Rabbi Nathans hand these words were read:

Hope not the cure of sin till self is dead;

Forget it in loves service, and the debt

Thou canst not pay the angels shall forget;

Heavens gate is shut to him who comes alone;

Save thou a soul, and it shall save thy own!2 [Note: Whittier, The Two Rabbis.]

ii. Our Response

Then I said, Here am I; send me.

Why is it not always made so heartily?

1. We doubt if we have received the call.

1. Are we in the place where we are likely to receive it? Preaching in Oxford, the Bishop of London said that the atmosphere of a university is unfavourable to the hearing of the call of need, whether from below or from above. It even makes men unfit to be trustworthy judges of moral and religious truth. It is scarcely too much of a paradox to say, We most of us were in doubt, when we were undergraduates at Oxford. I being in the way, said Abrahams servant, according to the Authorized translation, I being in the way, the Lord led me.

At the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny, Lord Clyde, better known as Sir Colin Campbell, when asked how long it would take him to get ready to start for India, is said to have replied: I am ready now. Such is the spirit which breathes in the language of the text. The French motto, Toujours prt, and the Scotch, Ready, aye ready, are excellent ones for the Christian soldier.1 [Note: C. Neil, in The Clergymans Magazine, i. p. 96.]

2. Have we made it the subject of prayer?

Lord Wolseley says in his Soldiers Pocket Book that if a young officer wishes to get on, he must volunteer for the most hazardous duties and take every possible chance of risking his life. It was a spirit and courage like that which was shown in the service of God by a good soldier of Jesus Christ named John Mackenzie, who died a few years ago. One evening, when he was a lad and eager for work in the Foreign Mission field, he knelt down at the foot of a tree in the Ladies Walk, on the banks of the Lossie at Elgin, and offered up this prayer: O Lord, send me to the darkest spot on earth. And God heard him, and sent him to South Africa, where he laboured for many years, first under the London Missionary Society, and then under the British Government, as the first Resident Commissioner among the natives of Bechuanaland.2 [Note: J. O. Struthers, in The Morning Watch.]

2. But we are unfit. What makes us unfit?

1. Is it sin? Isaiah was unfit until he was pardoned. That objection would be a real objection, and final, if there were no possibility of repentance and no probability of pardon. There is no doubt that it is sin, sin in some of its innumerable forms of selfishnessindolence, pride, worldliness, lustthat keeps most of us from accepting Gods call. But the moment we repentLo! this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

2. Is it poverty of gift? So Moses: Oh Lord, I am not eloquent, neither heretofore, nor since thou hast spoken unto thy servant; for I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue. So Jeremiah: Ah, Lord God! behold: I cannot speak for I am a child. The excuse is often insincere. In these instances it was sincere enough, but more than a mistake. As the man who had but the one talent hid it and lost it, so it cost both Moses and Jeremiah something that they did not in fulness of faith rise at once to their opportunity.

There is a famous physician in London to-day who tells that when he had finished his medical course in Edinburgh he was offered an appointment for which he felt himself unfit. He called on one of the professors. You feel yourself unfit for it? said the professor; then you are the man for it. Paul was unfit: but unto me was this grace given, he says, that I should preach.

Observe, however, that there is a connection between call and qualification. It is not enough to have the volunteer spirit. A man might volunteer to be one of a lifeboat crew, and, from incapacity, might do more harm than good, might simply be in the way of others, and would be filling a position that might otherwise have been occupied by a more capable substitute. When a prime minister is forming his Cabinet, he does not throw open the positions to the whole Houses of Parliament, and say, Who will undertake the office of Chancellor of the Exchequer? who that of Foreign Secretary? and so on. No, he has in his minds eye certain members whom he thinks best qualified, and he goes to them and invites them to join him. The call comes to the best qualified. When that call came to Isaiah, it seemed to be couched in general terms, and to mean, Who among mankind will go? But remember, it was only Isaiah, and not all mankind, that heard it; and though the question is put by God in a general sort of way, yet all that it meant was simply this, Shall I send you? Will you go?

3. Perhaps the duty seems too hard. Duty is always hard.

1. It would not be worth doing if it were not difficult to do. The mission upon which Isaiah was sent was hard enough for any man. The late Lord Salisbury came back from Constantinople, in the old days of black disaster in the East, to tell us why he had failed to achieve a single reform. The Turkish officials, he said, simply have not the capacity to understand what we mean. It was just so with Isaiahs countrymen. They had lost the capacity to understand what he meant.

But however hard it is to go, it is harder not to go.

Idlers all day about the market-place

They name us, and our dumb lips answer not,

Bearing the bitter while our sloths disgrace,

And our dark tasking whereof none may wot.

Oh, the fair slopes where the grape-gatherers go!

Not they the days fierce heat and burden bear,

But we who on the market-stones drop slow

Our barren tears, while all the bright hours wear.

Lord of the Vineyard, whose dear word declares

Our one hours labour as the days shall be,

What coin divine can make our wage as theirs,

Who had the morning joy of work for Thee?

2. And there is a Promise with every Call. It is (1) a promise of Pardon, so that we may go unhindered by the guilt of sin. It is (2) a promise of Purification, so that we may go unhampered by the presence of sin. Tied to habits of evil we are as a ship fretting her sides against the wharf. She finds her true life when she has cut the cords that bind her to the wharf and is out upon the ocean with the winds over her and the waters under her. And the purification comes as we go. Ten lepers were cured by Christ. He simply spoke the word: Go and shew yourselves unto the priests. They took Him at His word. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed. It is (3) a promise of Power. Few men were ever more unfit for the task laid on them than the Apostles, as they gathered in the Upper Room on the morning of Pentecost. But they were endued with power. If we are willing and obedient, the power will not fail us. The going develops new powers within ourselves, possibly gifts and graces we were unconscious of possessing. In any case, as our days so shall our strength be.

For seven years Dr. Thomas Chalmers occupied a pulpit and preached with splendid eloquence before he had an experience in his own soul of the renewing power of God. He has left on record the sad and humiliating testimony that his preaching during those years did not have the weight of a feather on the morals of his parishioners. But there came a day when he was laid aside by illness. In this illness he saw the King, the Lord of hosts. In that vision he saw himself, and his heart was broken with contrition. The formal gave place to the vital, the professional to the real, and the whole man was transformed. He was as new a man as Isaiah was that day when he came out of the Temple. His health returned. He went back into his pulpit, and all Scotland was shaken.

During the Indian Mutiny a small British host was encamped on the ridge outside Delhi. When the news of the Cawnpore massacres reached them, the general ordered his men to attack Delhi. The doctor inspected the invalided soldiers to ascertain how many of them were strong enough to carry arms. He passed by a sickly youth as being too frail, when the lad cried: For Gods sake, sir, dont say I am not fit for duty; its only a touch of fever, and the sound of the bugle will make me well.

The Making of a Missionary

Literature

Jordan (W. G.), Prophetic Ideas and Ideals, 57.

Smith (G. A.), The Book of Isaiah, i. 58.

Davidson (A. B.), The Called of God, 187.

Maclaren (A.), Expositions (Isaiah i.xlviii.).

Henson (H. H.), The Liberly of Prophesying, 244.

Albertson (C. C.), College Sermons, 75.

Gunsaulus (F. W.), Paths to the City of God, 248.

Coyle (R. F.), The Church and the Times, 149.

Holden (J. Stuart), Redeeming Vision, 1.

Driver (S. R.), Sermons on the Old Testament, 28.

Maurice (F. D.), Prophets and Kings, 219.

Forsyth (P. T.), Missions in State and Church, 221.

Jerdan (C.), Messages to the Children, 61.

Nicholson (M.), Communion with Heaven, 57.

Meyer (F. B.), The Souls Ascent, 49.

Westcott (B. F.), Peterborough Sermons, 267.

Adams (J.), Sermons in Syntax, 203.

Trench (R. C.), Sermons New and Old, 98.

Ingram (A. F. W.), in Oxford University Sermons, 287.

Elmslie (W. G.), Memoirs and Sermons, 220.

Hunter (J.), De Profundis Clamavi, 232.

Ewing (J. W.), The Undying Christ, 45.

Maver (J. S.), The Childrens Pace, 138.

Davis (J. D.), in Princeton Sermons, 338.

Parker (J.), Peoples Bible, xiv. 281.

Christian World Pulpit, xx. 244 (Lance); xxix. 24 (Tipple); xxxvii. 81 (Jowett); xliii. 387 (Stalker).

Clergymans Magazine, i. 96 (Neil).

Dictionary of the Bible, v. 672 (Kautzsch).

Encyclopdia of Religion and Ethics, i. 49 (Strong).

The Examiner, March 15, 1906 (Jowett).

The Expositor, 1st Ser., xi. 123 (Thomson); 2nd Ser., ii. 18 (Cox); 4th Ser., vii. 246 (Davidson).

Homiletic Review, xvi. 248 (Robinson).

Preachers Magazine [1896], 165 (Pearse); 506 (Brooks).

Single-Volume Dictionary of the Bible, 551 (Lanchester).

Fuente: The Great Texts of the Bible

am 3245, bc 759

the year: 2Ki 15:7, Azariah, 2Ch 26:22, 2Ch 26:23

I saw also: Exo 24:10, Exo 24:11, Num 12:8, Eze 1:1, Eze 1:25-28, Joh 1:18, Joh 12:41, 1Ti 6:16

sitting: Isa 66:1, 1Ki 22:19, Eze 10:1, Dan 7:9, Mat 25:31, Rev 3:21, Rev 4:2, Rev 4:10, Rev 5:1, Rev 5:7, Rev 6:16, Rev 7:15-17

high: Isa 12:4, Isa 57:15, Psa 46:10, Psa 108:5, Psa 113:5, Eph 1:20, Eph 1:21

his train: or, the skirts thereof

filled: 1Ki 8:10, 1Ki 8:11, Rev 15:8

Reciprocal: Exo 3:6 – hid Exo 25:20 – toward Exo 29:43 – sanctified 2Ch 5:14 – the glory 2Ch 7:1 – the glory 2Ch 18:18 – I saw 2Ch 26:3 – Uzziah Job 2:1 – Again Job 42:5 – mine Psa 138:5 – for great Isa 1:1 – the days Isa 14:28 – General Jer 3:17 – the throne Jer 17:12 – General Eze 1:26 – the likeness of a Eze 43:7 – the place of my throne Eze 44:2 – because Dan 10:17 – talk Amo 9:1 – I saw Hab 2:20 – the Lord Act 7:32 – Then Act 7:55 – and saw 2Co 4:6 – the light Rev 11:19 – the temple

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

The Lord High and Lifted Up

Isa 6:1-13

INTRODUCTORY WORDS

There is a twofold vision suggested in the first verse of our study. “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne.” That which concerns us is the little word, “also.” It definitely suggests that Isaiah had two visions: the one was the death of Uzziah; the other was the life of the Living Lord. The one was a dark picture; the other was a picture radiant with glory.

Let us consider this twofold viewpoint lest we become despondent over the dark hues which lie around us. This is a very necessary thing, particularly in the study of prophecy. If we look only at the dark side we would become, more or less, gloomy, therefore we need to see the brighter visions of the Lord’s Return.

1. The dark side of our picture. This related to the death of Uzziah. King Uzziah had been one of Israel’s greatest kings surpassed perhaps only by David, Solomon, and Hezekiah. Uzziah reigned sixty-two years in Jerusalem. He erected great towers, built up strong defenses, and accomplished notable things. However, he became proud and sought to be more than king for he went into the house of the Lord to offer up incense. The priest rushed in and rebuked him. He answered roughly. Then it was that God smote him with leprosy. The effect of the death of Uzziah was very depressing upon the young Prophet Isaiah. No doubt, when he saw Uzziah in death, he saw the breaking down of the kingdom.

To us King Uzziah stands as a type of the antichrist. In him was pride, as well as prowess. He sought to be a king-priest even as the antichrist who will seek to have religious honors, and to lift himself up above God, and to sit in the temple of God. The dark side of the present hour picture seems much the same as it was in that day. Sin was overwhelming, and kingdoms were tottering.

2. The bright side of the picture. Isaiah saw also the Lord high and lifted up. No matter how dark the horizon of the present hour may be, the Morning Star is about to burst forth, and the sun will soon be rising in its glory.

(1) The upgoing is a part of the bright side of our picture. At any moment we are expecting the sound of the trumpet at which time the dead in Christ will rise, and the living in Christ will be caught up.

(2) The Marriage Supper is the bright side for it will be a wonderful hour. The Lord said, “Blessed are they which are called unto the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.”

(3) The downcoming. The descent from Heaven with Christ and with the angels will be a time never to be forgotten.

(4) The reign with Christ. Here is a picture of such hues that our heart rejoices as we consider the glory of His reign and the joy of our being with Him.

If Christians are tempted to become gloomy and grouchy as they see the dark side of this present hour landscape, let them turn their eyes beyond the present moment to the next great event. There the sun is shining and beyond the shadows is that other day of gladness and joy forever.

I. THE THRONE (Isa 6:1)

Our verse describes King Uzziah’s death. Then the Prophet says, “I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the Temple.” There are many marvelous pictures of thrones in the Word of God.

1. There is the present throne-sitting of Christ. When our Lord left the earth He ascended on high and sat down at the right hand of God on the Father’s throne. There He sits at this moment against that time when His enemies will be made His footstool. He sits a victor over death and hell. He sits the conqueror of Satan for He ascended through principalities and powers, and sat down above them. He sits at the right hand of the Father as the Head of the Church, thus we see just a little of the present glory of the Throne of our Lord.

2. There is the throne which will be placed in the Heavens. It is described in Dan 7:1-28, and also in Rev 4:1-11 and Rev 5:1-14. Daniel speaks of it as “cast down” because, it is brought down to be set up. On this throne the Father sits with the sealed book in His hands. The Son stands by and takes the Book, Around the throne are the four living ones, the four and twenty elders, and an innumerable company of angelic beings. This throne presents glory and dazzling brightness. It is past all human description.

3. There is the Millennial Throne. This is the throne of David, and of David’s greater Son, On this throne Jesus Christ will sit and reign as King of kings, and Lord of lords.

4. There is a fourth throne, and that is the Eternal Throne, the Throne of God and of the Lamb. As we think of these Thrones we feel like joining with the seraphim as they give their praise.

II. THE SERAPHIM (Isa 6:2-3)

“Each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.” It seems that these angelic beings stand before the Lord in all humility. They hide themselves in order that they may magnify their Lord, They are ready always to do His bidding. They cried one to another and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.”

The seraphim were speaking of that wonderful hour when Christ will come and the earth will indeed be filled with the knowledge and the glory of the Lord. The same words, “Holy, holy, holy,” are used in Rev 4:1-11 as the tribulation throne is prepared for judgment. The repetition of the words (three times) seems to suggest to us that the Father is holy, the Son is holy, and the Spirit is holy. The triune God is thus adored. The ministry of angels stands before us in one striking way, and that is their worship of God.

Angels are also ministering spirits sent forth from God to wait upon His saints. They delight to do all the will of God, and to worship Him. They announced the birth of Christ. They succored Him in the Garden of Gethsemane. They stood at His empty tomb. In His ascension they accompanied Him to the glory, and in His return they will come back with Him to the Mount of Olives.

III. THE CRY OF UNCLEANNESS (Isa 6:5)

When Isaiah saw this wonderful vision, it had a very striking effect upon him. Our Scripture says that Isaiah cried, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”

1. A sense of sin always overwhelms us as we stand in the presence of the Holy One. How can we profess any holiness or righteousness of our own? The flesh is corrupt and it never appears more corrupt than it does by comparison with His holiness.

2. The basis of the Prophet’s vision. He said, “Woe is me!” He said, “I am undone.” Then he added, “Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” Isaiah was confessing his sin inasmuch as he felt that the sin of his people was upon him. The sin of Israel, and particularly of the two tribes, has ever been the sin of their lips. Following the days of Christ Paul wrote, Their “mouth is full of cursing.” He also said that the name of the Lord was blasphemed continually because of them. Enoch anticipated (Jdg 1:14-15) the last days as they are at this moment when he prophesied about ungodly speeches which are against Christ. He called them “hard speeches.”

Let us beware lest any of us should have a tongue speaking evil, but above all, lest we have tongues speaking evil against the Lord of Glory.

IV. THE CLEANSING (Isa 6:6-7)

“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 touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.”

1. The live coal. This stands before us as the symbol of God’s judgment against unclean lips. Sin had been acknowledged by Isaiah. He had confessed humbly, therefore it was that God was going to judge the sin and take it away. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes, He will sit as the Refiner and the Purifier of silver.

2. The live coal from off the altar. There seems to be here a passing of judgment from the people to the Saviour, He suffered. He took the punishment of our sins in order that we might go free. There is no other way by which we can be cleansed, than with the live coal from off the altar. It is the sacrifice of the Son of God that gives us cleansing.

3. A cleansed people. When the Prophet uttered the words, “Thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged,” he spoke prophetically. There is a time coming when the Children of Israel will see the Lord “high and lifted up.” In that day Israel will mourn and weep as one who weeps for an only son. They will confess their sins, and God will purge them. A nation will be born in a day.

V. A CALL TO SERVICE (Isa 6:8-9)

After the cleansing had taken place Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then Isaiah quickly answered and said, “Here am I; send me.”

1. The inquiry: “Whom shall I send?” Following the day of Israel’s rejection God sent for His church. Christ said, “As My Father hath sent Me, even so send I you.” The Lord called His twelve disciples “Apostles” because they were “sent ones.” We are sent of God “into all the world” to preach the Gospel to every creature.

The Church, however, will soon be caught up to be with the Lord. Then Israel will once more be called into service. Remember, that before Israel serves she must be made clean. The sin of her lips must be taken away. This is also true with us. God never calls anyone to service until he has been cleansed.

2. The answer, “Here am I; send me.” Isaiah certainly spoke for himself, but he did more. In speaking for himself he set forth Israel’s response to the Lord’s call when He shall have returned.

Saul of Tarsus was another example of Israel’s redemption and mission. Saul was saved by the forth shining of a Light, a light similar to the one set forth in our chapter. He immediately confessed His sins, and was purged. Then it was that he heard the voice saying that he was chosen to bear the Name of the Lord before the Gentiles.

Thus, both Isaiah and Saul set before us the story of Israel’s future salvation and cleansing. They also proclaim the hour when Israel will be God’s ambassadors to the four quarters of the earth when the Gentiles shall hear the message from the lips of the Jews and shall be saved.

VI. THE PRESENT BLINDNESS (Isa 6:10)

The Holy Spirit in speaking to Isaiah utters a tremendous prophecy relative to the Children of Israel. It covers the period of time which elapses between the days of the Prophet, and the days of Israel’s ultimate regeneration. The Scripture reads: “Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.”

1. Israel’s blindness is temporary. The Holy Spirit through the Apostle Paul in Rom 11:1-36 speaks these words, “For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” Thus it is that Israel’s blindness is a judicial blindness, but it is also a temporary blindness.

2. A wonderful redemption. The time is coming when Israel’s eyes will be opened. The Bible tells us they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced. That is in the Old Testament, In the last Book of the New Testament in speaking of Christ we read, “Behold, He cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see Him.” This is not only a physical sight; it is also a spiritual vision. They saw Christ physically when He came the first time. They did not see Him spiritually. They knew Him not. They fulfilled everything that had been spoken concerning Him, although they knew it not.

When Christ comes again His chosen people will have eyes that see and hearts that believe.

VII. THE TIME SETTING (Isa 6:11-13)

1. The curse pronounced. As the Holy Spirit concluded His testimony Isaiah cried, “Lord, how long?” The answer was, “Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.”

Everything spoken in these words has been fulfilled. Israel’s cities were wasted. Many of them were left without an inhabitant. Their land also was left unfilled; it was utterly desolate. God’s people, the Jews, were removed far away. There was a great forsaking in the midst of the land. There are those who assert that Israel will never be brought back again, but that they will be obliterated, or, perhaps, amalgamated by the nations. This is impossible. God’s Word never fails.

2. The promise made. God answered the “How long?” with an “until.” That is a wonderful word. It has already scoped the years since Christ “until” this hour. “Until” is a wonderful word because it carries with it the promise that Israel cannot be forsaken forever.

Do we remember how the Lord Jesus said, “Your house is left unto you desolate? * * Ye shall not see Me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is He that cometh in the Name of the Lord”? No man can read such words without knowing that Christ is returning, and that Israel will receive Him and see Him, saying, “Blessed be the Name of the Lord.”

Do we not remember how Christ said concerning His people, “They shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled”?

When that “until” shall have run its course, then they shall see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with power and great glory.

AN ILLUSTRATION

“There is in a little churchyard in Switzerland a simple inscription on the tomb of one who perished in an Alpine accident which has always appealed to me with singular force: ‘He died climbing.’ He had heard the call of the mountains and had lost his life in endeavoring to respond. We have heard the call of the Risen Christ, but unlike the climber, we gain our lives in our sustained attempt to respond worthily. ‘Seek those things which are above,’ is a call to enjoy the highest possible life for the very struggle develops latent possibilities and capacities, and each step upward is into fuller liberty and more perfect manhood.”-J. Stuart Holden.

Fuente: Neighbour’s Wells of Living Water

PROPHETS CALL

This makes a short lesson but a distinctive one. The prophet is giving an account of himself, relating the circumstances under which he entered the prophetic office, and the authority by which he speaks.

The story divides itself thus: the vision (Isa 6:1-4); the effect of the vision in producing conviction and confession of sin (Isa 6:5); his cleansing from sin (Isa 6:6-7); his call to service (Isa 6:8); the dedication of himself to that service (Isa 6:8); the divine commission given him (Isa 6:9-10). This commission is of a discouraging character. The people will hear his messages but fail to be influenced by them. They will become more and more blind and deaf to the divine warnings, and neither will be converted nor spiritually healed.

This discouraging outlook brings the inquiry from the prophet (Isa 6:11), to which the Lord replies down to the end of the chapter. In other words, the peoples blindness and sin will continue for a long while, but not forever. The oak tree retains its substance even after it is felled to the ground, and though Judah will be cast away, a remnant will be saved in the last day. This is the significance of the last clause of Isa 6:13, which speaks of the holy seed as the substance, or the stock of the kingdom. By the last day is meant the end of the present age, which will be a period of great tribulation of the Jewish people, but, out of which a remnant will be delivered to become the nucleus of the millennial kingdom.

You have had attention called to the law of recurrence in earlier lessons, and will have noted its operation here. In each of the discourses in this book, and now in the story of the prophets call, the same ground is being covered over and over again, only with added detail here and there. It is always, sin, penalty, repentance, restoration, deliverance, future blessing. What was said under Introduction to the Prophetic Scripture is thus verified.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the prophet doing in this chapter?

2. Can you give its outline from memory?

3. Have you been impressed with its value as a Bible reading or theme for exposition?

4. What is the significance of the last day?

5. Can you recall the definition of the law of recurrence?

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary

Isa 6:1. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord As this vision, says Bishop Lowth, seems to contain a solemn designation of Isaiah to the prophetical office, it is by most interpreters thought to be the first in order of his prophecies. But this perhaps may not be so: for Isaiah is said, in the general title of his prophecies, to have prophesied in the time of Uzziah, whose acts, first and last, he wrote, (2Ch 26:22,) and the phrase, in the year when Uzziah died, probably means, after the death of Uzziah; as the same phrase, (Isa 14:28,) means, after the death of Ahaz. Not that Isaiahs prophecies are placed in exact order of time: chapters 2., 3., 4., 5. seem, by internal marks, to be antecedent to chapter 1.; they suit the time of Uzziah, or the former part of Jothams reign: whereas, chapter 1. can hardly be earlier than the last years of Jotham: see note on Isa 1:1; Isa 1:7; Isa 2:1. This might be a new designation of the whole course of Gods dispensations in regard to his people, and the fates of the nation; which are even now still depending, and will not be fully accomplished till the final restoration of Israel.

I saw the Lord In a vision or ecstasy. The place of this vision is supposed to be the temple, from which the particular scenery of it is taken. The Divine Majesty is represented as seated upon a throne, high and lifted up Probably above the ark in the most holy place, where the glory appeared above the cherubim, surrounded by his attendant ministers. The veil, separating the most holy place from the holy, or the outermost part of the temple, is supposed to be taken away, for the prophet, to whom the whole is exhibited, is manifestly placed by the altar of burnt-offering, at the entrance of the temple, (compare Eze 43:5-6,) which was filled with the train of the robe, the spreading and overflowing of the divine glory. The Lord upon the throne, according to St. John, (Joh 12:41,) was Christ, and the vision related to his future kingdom; when the veil of separation was to be removed, and the whole earth was to be filled with the glory of God, revealed to all mankind. It respects, indeed, primarily the prophets own time, and the obduration of the Jews of that age, and their punishment by the Babylonish captivity; but extends, in its full latitude, to the age of the Messiah, and the blindness of the Jews to the gospel; the desolation of their country by the Romans, and their being rejected by God; that, nevertheless, a holy seed, a remnant, should be preserved, and that the nation should sprout out and flourish again from the old stock. Bishop Lowth.

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

The excellence of the prophets labours during the war with Pekah and Rezin, seems to be the cause why this vision occupies but a secondary place. God gave it to console the church on the death of so great and good a king as Uzziah. It shows his divine commission to be a prophet, and with the brightest seals of his mission. Moses produced his credentials in Egypt, and Paul in addressing his epistles to the gentiles.

Isa 6:1. I saw also, or I then saw the LORD. The Hebrew is Adonai, as in Psa 110:1. But bishop Lowth has collected from the critics, that in the first verse fifty one manuscripts and one printed edition, in the eighth verse forty four manuscripts and one printed edition, and in the eleventh verse fifty three manuscripts and one printed edition, for Adonai read JEHOVAH. Hence he infers that JEHOVAH is probably the true reading, as the superstitions of later Jews have apparently changed the term. Which soever of the terms be the true reading, the Godhead of Christ is hereby incontestably proved. See Joh 12:41.Sitting upon a throne, after the manner of kings. Rev 4:2; Rev 20:11. His throne in the temple, a figure of heaven, is called his rest: Isa 11:10. It is also called a glorious high throne, and the place of the soles of his feet. Jer 17:12. Eze 43:7.

Isa 6:2. The seraphim, the burning ones, more fully noticed in Ezekiel 1. He makes his angels spirits, his messengers as flames of fire. Heb 1:7. To write seraphims is injudicious. These, it would seem, were only two in the temple, but four in Ezekiel, and in the Revelation. Here they seem to make only two choirs.

Isa 6:10. Make the heart of this people fat. [gross] When God foretels an event, he is said to do it, as when he said to Abraham, I have made thee a father of many nations. And Jacob said, with corn and wine have I blessed him. Isaiahs new mission was to call the Jews to repentance, on the death of so good a king, when every family wept, as having lost a father. But the ultimate bearing of the mission regarded the final obduracy of the Jews in the rejection of their humble Messiah, as all the prophets had witnessed. The mission of Isaiah was therefore a mission of defiance, like that of Jehu to the elders of Samaria, for God knows how to talk to rebels. Pride blinded the mind of the Jews, while every evil propensity entered their hearts. Nothing would do with them but a Messiah reigning on the throne of David in Jerusalem, and a world of gentile worshippers crowding their courts with gifts and offerings to the Lord. Thus the god of this world hath blinded the minds of those who believe not. To this day the veil is on their hearts; they do not distinguish the two grand traits of prophecy, first the sufferings, and then the glory of Christ.

Isa 6:13. As an oak. Dr. William Stukeley, our learned antiquary, and a principal founder of the Royal Society, says here, As an oak whose misletoe plant is alive upon it, when its leaves fall off, so the holy seed shall be like this plant. In this obscure passage, which commentators avoid, Isaiah seems to make the misletoe symbolical of the Messiah, and of christianity grafted on the Jewish stock.

REFLECTIONS.

Truly the Lord lives, though princes die. He sitteth above the waterfloods, and reigneth king for ever. Fear not then, oh Zion, the vicissitudes of nations, for Jehovah dwells within thy palaces. The vision is one of the most glorious and important which the sacred writings exhibit. The scene opens in the temple: the veil is dropped, and heaven for a few moments stands disclosed to mortal eyes. The seraphim surround the throne, each having six wings. The upper pair, probably small, served him for a veil; for though his face shone with the image of God, and never blushed with sin, yet he dared not to look on the uncreated Messiah. The lower wings were the covering of modesty, for so the phrase to cover the feet imports; but though his walk was perfect, yet he hides his conduct as unworthy of his Lords regard. The other wings, large and extended, served for flight, swift as thought, at the divine behest. Now from this most glorious vision we learn the constant care of God over his church. The good old king Uzziah, after reigning fifty-two years, like our beloved sovereign, George 3., was dead. And who in wavering times could fully tell the mind of the new monarch?

We learn that a discovery of God in creation, providence and grace, should be followed by worship. In the book of Revelation every new vision is followed by new devotion: and who can see the blessed God, and not adore? Who can behold his works, or study his ways, and withhold the glory due unto his name. The discovery of the infinite Majesty on this occasion led the seraphim thrice to cry, Holy, holy, holy! This seems to import, as Ambrose observes, a discovery of the Holy Trinity. And I am the more inclined to embrace this opinion, because the praises of God are usually only doubled in Hebrew poetry. The cry therefore of holy three times is a singular deviation from their usual mode of praise.

That which attracted the attention of the seraphim was, the purity and equity of the divine judgments. All Gods perfections are worthy of praise; but as holiness characterizes his government of the nations, and forms the ground of all moral happiness, both of angels and men, it worthily attracts their praise.

While the seraphim responsive cry, it was with a voice so fervent, that the doorposts moved as they spake. Let therefore our worship be distinguished with modesty, with fear, and with fervour.

A discovery of the divine purity, and of angelic devotion, is the most likely way to convince mortals of their sin, and to shame the supineness of their worship. Woe is me, said Isaiah! If that be heaven, I have now no hope. If that be the devotion of angels, mine, and the whole congregations, are but hypocrisy and lies. Our lips are all unclean, as the gentile nations. Our devotion is languid. We do not say with David, Bless the Lord, oh my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name.

God justifies those who condemn themselves. One of the seraphs touched the prophets lips with a coal from the altar of atonement, and with assurance that this holy fire had purged his sin. So while Christs divine words sounded on the ears of the two disciples going to Emmaus, their hearts burned with holy fire. No sinner should rest without a sense of Gods love shed abroad in his heart; which sense of pardon is often accompanied with some promise softly whispered to the penitent.

This love of God shed abroad in the heart is the enkindling flame and soul of evangelical preaching. When God was graciously pleased to propose a new mission to the nation on the death of the king, Isaiah, burning like the holy apostles and apostolic men on the day of pentecost, said, here am I, send me. Ministers should never run before their call, nor delay when duty opens. And oh how pleasant is the work when done, not for filthy lucre, but from love to Christ, constraining them to cry aloud and spare not.

The ministry of heaven we see is clothed with the power and majesty of God. Ministers are the plenipotentiaries of Christ. They address the nations in the language of grace and justice, and all the perfections of God stand engaged to confirm their words. Thus when Israel rejected conversion by their prophets, God confirmed all the words of his judgments on the guilty country; and by a succession of devastations he left only a tenth part to germinate as the oak. They hardened their own hearts by wickedness, and God then hardened their hearts in justice, by withdrawing the grace which they had abused. St. Paul, citing the Septuagint, has illustrated this passage in the twenty eighth of the Acts; which clearly proves that Israels obduracy first proceeded from themselves, and not from the Lord. May the christian church be instructed by Israels errors.

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Isaiah 6. The Call of Isaiah.This chapter contains Isaiahs own account of his call to the prophetic office. Presumably it was written down some time after the event, but the interval need not have been long, nor have we any real reason for assuming that the account has been coloured by his later experience of failure. The view that he had already for some time been a prophet, and that this vision opens a new stage in his ministry, would deserve consideration only if the order of the prophecies was chronological. But this is demonstrably not the case. The chapter is of the highest importance, since it gives the true point of view for understanding the prophet. The revelation recorded in it governed his teaching throughout his career.

Isaiah, standing at the threshold of the Temple, falls into an ecstasy. He sees Yahweh seated on a lofty throne, while the skirts of His robe flow out from the innermost shrine and fill the Temple. The reticence of the description is very striking; we may compare it with the laboured elaboration of Ezekiel. He sees the seraphim in attendance. They cover their face that they may not see the face of God, and the lower part of their body they reverently conceal from His gaze. With the two remaining wings they are poised in the air, ready to fulfil His will with the utmost speed. They celebrate in antiphonal chant the holiness and glory of Yahweh. The description gains its effect, not by details as to Yahwehs appearance, but by showing how it affected the seraphim and Isaiah. Such is Gods majesty that the former may not look upon Him, and incessantly magnify His holiness; while the latter is penetrated with a sense of his own uncleanness which makes the vision of God like a sentence of death. The threshold of the Temple rocks beneath Isaiahs feet in response to the song of the seraphim, while the house is filled with smoke, perhaps the resentment of Yahweh reacting at the intrusion of an unclean man into His presence. Such anger Isaiah knows to be only what he deserves. He realises his uncleanness and that of his people, which by his solidarity with them he feels to be his own. For one so unclean to see the Holy God was to incur danger of death. He bewails in particular the uncleanness of his lips, because he is in the Temple where men should worship and in contrast to the seraphim he feels that his lips are not pure enough to praise God. There is no reference to his prophetic vocation, for he has not yet received his call. The seraphim if they were guardians of the Temple threshold, had it as part of their charge to deny or permit approach to God. Isaiah had intruded into the Divine presence while yet unclean. But he had shown himself humble and contrite, so the seraph does not drive him out, but purifies and fits him to draw nigh. He takes a hot stone from the altar and touches his lips, setting him free to praise God. That it is from the altar indicates alike the atonement for sin and consecration to Divine service. Now that the man is purified, Yahweh, who has hitherto been silent, may speak; yet He does not speak to him, but to the heavenly assembly (1Ki 22:19 f.), still so that Isaiah may overhear. Conscious now of moral fitness, Isaiah gladly offers himself in response to the appeal he detects in Yahwehs words. He offers himself, not knowing what his mission is to be. Yahweh bids him go, but warns him of the result. Since the prophets message hardens those whom it does not persuade, he is here said to do what his preaching will in most cases bring about. The word tests men, and forces them to take up a position on one side or the other. The earlier prophets had seen judgment in the withholding of the word, Isaiah and his successors saw it in the abundance of revelation, and this thought is emphasized in the NT. In reply to his question, how long this process is to continue, he is told that it will be till the land is stripped of its inhabitants and becomes utterly desolate. Even if a tenth be left in it, that shall be consumed, as when the tree is cut down and the stump remains, that also is dug up and burnt. It is most striking that Isaiah began his work with the certainty of failure.

Isa 6:1. The date is c. 740 B.C. Isaiah looks back on it as lying in the past.

Isa 6:2. the seraphim: the fiery flying serpents in the wilderness narrative and in Isa 30:6 (cf. Isa 14:29) bear the same name. The brazen serpent (2Ki 18:4) was presumably in the Temple at this time. Serpents were frequently regarded as the protectors of temples, especially of the threshold, and in this respect they correspond to the cherubim, who, like the griffins, are guardians of treasures (Gen 3:24*, Psa 18:10*). But other indications connect the cherubim with natural phenomena, and if they are the thunder clouds, the seraphim will be the forked serpent-like lightning. Here they are winged and have hands and feet (though feet may simply mean the lower part of the body). Presumably, therefore, they have lost their serpent form, and appear in human shape or perhaps part human and part animal. Their duty is to sing Gods praise, and probably to guard the entrance to His presence.

Isa 6:4. smoke: probably a symbol of anger. If incense was on the altar, it might as a symbol of praise be kindled by the praises of the fiery seraphim.

Isa 6:7. purged: lit. covered, so that God does not see, and therefore does not punish it.

Isa 6:13. so the holy seed is the stock thereof: absent in the LXX, and holy seed seems to some a late phrase. If the clause is omitted, the prophecy is one of complete destruction; if retained, the tree is cut down but the stump is still left, i.e. the righteous remnant which contains the promise of the future, for from it a new Israel will shoot. The authenticity of the words is very dubious, but the doctrine of the remnant was held by Isaiah so early that he probably felt it to be implied, if not expressed, in his vision.

Fuente: Peake’s Commentary on the Bible

6:1 In the year that king Uzziah died {a} I saw also the Lord sitting upon a {b} throne, high and lifted up, and his {c} train filled the temple.

(a) God does not show himself to man in his majesty but according as man’s capacity to comprehend him, that is, by visible signs as John the Baptist saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove.

(b) As a judge ready to give sentence.

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes

A. The prophet’s cleansing 6:1-8

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

Why did Isaiah date this passage, since he did not date most of his others?Probably he did so because King Uzziah had been the best king of Judah since Solomon. Nevertheless, during the last part of his reign he suffered from leprosy, a judgment from the Lord for his pride (2Ki 15:5; 2Ch 26:16-23). In this respect, his life foreshadowed the history of the nation he ruled. King Uzziah died about 740 B.C., after reigning for 52 years (2Ki 15:2; 2Ch 26:3). When Uzziah died, most people in the nation would have felt a great loss. Who would lead them next, and would he provide for them all that Uzziah had? Assyria was growing in power and ambition to the east, so the threat of foreign invasion was real. Israel needed a strong king. As things turned out, Judah receded to a lower level from which she did not rise. At such a time Isaiah received a vision of Israel’s true king, Yahweh, who was more than adequate to provide for His people. This unusual vision prepared the prophet to act and speak for God (cf. Gen 32:30; Exo 19:21; Exo 20:19; Exo 33:20; Deu 18:16; Jdg 13:22). Even though God is invisible because He is spirit (Isa 31:3; Joh 1:18; Joh 4:24), He has manifested Himself at various times so people can appreciate certain aspects of His personality.

"How significant a fact, as Jerome observes in connection with this passage, that the year of Uzziah’s death should be the year in which Romulus [one of the founders of Rome] was born; and that it was only a short time after the death of Uzziah (viz. 754 B.C. according to Varro’s chronology) that Rome itself was founded! The national glory of Israel died out with king Uzziah, and has never revived to this day." [Note: Delitzsch, 1:189.]

Israel suffered God’s judgment under five great powers that followed one another in succession: Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome.

Isaiah described Yahweh as sovereign ("Lord"), the overlord of all the earth. He was exalted by means of His throne on which He was sitting in royal attire. The glory of His person filled His awesome, celestial palace-temple (cf. 1Ki 22:17-23; Job 1:6-12; Job 2:1-6; Eze 1:3-28; Eze 8:1-4; Dan 7:2; Dan 7:9-10; Zec 3:1-5; Revelation 4-5). [Note: See Allan J. McNicol, "The Heavenly Sanctuary in Judaism: A Model for Tracing the Origin of an Apocalypse," Journal of Religious Studies 13:2 (1987):66-94, for further discussion of the heavenly sanctuary motif in relation to apocalyptic.]

The apostle John wrote that it was Jesus’ glory that Isaiah saw (Joh 12:41).

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)

CHAPTER IV

ISAIAHS CALL AND CONSECRATION

740 B.C.

written 735? or 727?

Isa 6:1-13

IT has been already remarked that in chapter 6 we should find no other truths than those which have been unfolded in chapters 2-5: the Lord exalted in righteousness, the coming of a terrible judgment from Him upon Judah and the survival of a bare remnant of the people. But chapter 6 treats the same subjects with a difference. In chapters 2-4 they gradually appear and grow to clearness in connection with the circumstances of Judahs history; in chapter 5 they are formally and rhetorically vindicated; in chapter 6 we are led back to the secret and solemn moments of their first inspiration in the prophets own soul. It may be asked why chapter 6 comes last and not first in this series, and why in an exposition attempting to deal, as far as possible, chronologically with Isaiahs prophecies, his call should not form the subject of the first chapter. The answer is simple, and throws a flood of light upon the chapter. In all probability chapter 6 was written after its predecessors, and what Isaiah has put into it is not only what happened in the earliest moments of his prophetic life, but that spelt out and emphasised by his experience since. The ideal character of the narrative, and its date some years after the events which it relates, are now generally admitted. Of course the narrative is all fact. No one will believe that he, whose glance penetrated with such keenness the character of men and movements, looked with dimmer eye into his own heart. It is the spiritual process which the prophet actually passed through before the opening of his ministry. But it is that, developed by subsequent experience, and presented to us in the language of outward vision. Isaiah had been some years a prophet, long enough to make clear that prophecy was not to be for him what it had been for his predecessors in Israel, a series of detached inspirations and occasional missions, with short responsibilities, but a work for life, a profession and a career, with all that this means of postponement, failure, and fluctuation of popular feeling. Success had not come so rapidly as the prophet in his original enthusiasm had looked for, and his preaching had effected little upon the people. Therefore he would go back to the beginning, remind himself of that to which God had really called him, and vindicate the results of his ministry, at which people scoffed and his own heart grew sometimes sick. In chapter 6 Isaiah acts as his own remembrancer. If we keep in mind that this chapter, describing Isaiahs call and consecration to the prophetic office, was written by a man who felt that office to be the burden of a lifetime, and who had to explain its nature and vindicate its results to his own soul-grown somewhat uncertain, it may be, of her original inspiration-we shall find light upon features of the chapter that are otherwise most obscure.

I. THE VISION

(Isa 6:1-4)

Several years, then, Isaiah looks back and says, “In the year King Uzziah died.” There is more than a date given here; there is a great contrast suggested. Prophecy does not chronicle by time, but by experiences, and we have here, as it seems, the cardinal experience of a prophets life.

All men knew of that glorious reign with the ghastly end-fifty years of royalty, and then a lazar-house. There had been no king like this one since Solomon; never, since the son of David brought the Queen of Sheba to his feet, had the national pride stood so high or the nations dream of sovereignty touched such remote borders. The peoples admiration invested Uzziah with all the graces of the ideal monarch. The chronicler of Judah tells us “that God helped him and made him to prosper, and his name spread far abroad, and he was marvellously helped till he was strong”; he with the double name-Azariah, Jehovah-his-Helper; Uzziah, Jehovah-his-Strength. How this glory fell upon the fancy of the future prophet, and dyed it deep, we may imagine from those marvellous colours, with which in later years he painted the king in his beauty. Think of the boy, the boy that was to be an Isaiah, the boy with the germs of this great prophecy in his heart-think of him and such a hero as this to shine upon him, and we may conceive how his whole nature opened out beneath that sun of royalty and absorbed its light.

Suddenly the glory was eclipsed, and Jerusalem learned that she had seen her king for the last time: “The Lord smote the king so that he was a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a several house, and he was cut off from the house of the Lord.” Uzziah had gone into the temple, and attempted with his own hands to burn incense. Under a later dispensation of liberty he would have been applauded as a brave Protestant, vindicating the right of every worshipper of God to approach Him without the intervention of a special priesthood. Under the earlier dispensation of law his act could be regarded only as one of presumption, the expression of a worldly and irreverent temper, which ignored the infinite distance between God and man. It was followed, as sins of wilfulness in religion were always followed under the old covenant, by swift disaster. Uzziah suffered as Saul, Uzzah, Nadab, and Abihu did. The wrath, with which he burst out on the opposing priests brought on, or made evident as it is believed to have done in other cases, an attack of leprosy. The white spot stood out unmistakably from the flushed forehead, and he was thrust from the temple-“yea, himself also hasted to go out.”

We can imagine how such a judgment, the moral of which must have been plain to all, affected the most sensitive heart in Jerusalem. Isaiahs imagination was darkened, but he tells us that the crisis was the enfranchisement of his faith. “In the year King Uzziah died”-it is as if a veil had dropped, and the prophet saw beyond what it had hidden, “the Lord sitting on a throne high and lifted up.” That it is no mere date Isaiah means, but a spiritual contrast which he is anxious to impress upon us, is made clear by his emphasis of the rank and not the name of God. It is “the Lord sitting upon a throne-the Lord” absolutely, set over against the human prince. The simple antithesis seems to speak of the passing away of the young mans hero-worship and the dawn of his faith; and so interpreted, this first verse of chapter 6 is only a concise summary of that development of religious experience which we have traced through chapters 2-4. Had Isaiah ever been subject to the religious temper of his time, the careless optimism of a prosperous and proud people, who entered upon their religious services without awe, “trampling the courts of the Lord,” and used them like Uzziah, for their own honour, who felt religion to be an easy thing, and dismissed from it all thoughts of judgment and feelings of penitence-if ever Isaiah had been subject to that temper, then once for all he was redeemed by this stroke upon Uzziah. And, as we have seen, there is every reason to believe that Isaiah did at first share the too easy public religion of his youth. That early vision of his, {Isa 2:2-5} the establishment of Israel at the head of the nations, to be immediately attained at his own word {Isa 5:5} and without preliminary purification, was it not simply a less gross form of the kings own religious presumption? Uzziahs fatal act was the expression of the besetting sin of his people, and in that sin Isaiah himself had been a partaker. “I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.” In the person of their monarch the temper of the whole Jewish nation had come to judgment. Seeking the ends of religion by his own way, and ignoring the way God had appointed, Uzziah at the very moment of his insistence was hurled back and stamped unclean. The prophets eyes were opened. The king sank into a lepers grave, but before Isaiahs vision the Divine majesty arose in all its loftiness. “I saw the Lord high and lifted up.” We already know what Isaiah means by these terms. He has used them of Gods supremacy in righteousness above the low moral standards of men, of Gods occupation of a far higher throne than that of the national deity of Judah, of Gods infinite superiority to Israels vulgar identification of His purposes with her material prosperity or His honour with the compromises of her politics, and especially of Gods seat as their Judge over a people, who sought in their religion only satisfaction for their pride and love of ease.

From this contrast the whole vision expands as follows.

Under the mistaken idea that what Isaiah describes is the temple in Jerusalem, it has been remarked that the place of his vision is wonderful in the case of one who set so little store by ceremonial worship. This, however, to which our prophet looks is no house built with hands, but Jehovahs own heavenly palace (Isa 6:1 -not temple); only Isaiah describes it in terms of the Jerusalem temple which was its symbol. It was natural that the temple should furnish Isaiah not only with the framework of his vision, but also with the platform from which he saw it. For it was in the temple that Uzziahs sin was sinned and Gods holiness vindicated upon him. It was in the temple that, when Isaiah beheld the scrupulous religiousness of the people, the contrast of that with their evil lives struck him, and he summed it up in the epigram “wickedness and worship.” {Isa 1:13} It was in the temple, in short, that the prophets conscience had been most roused, and just where the conscience is most roused there is the vision of God to be expected. Very probably it was while brooding over Uzziahs judgment on the scene of its occurrence that Isaiah beheld his vision. Yet for all the vision contained the temple itself was too narrow. The truth which was to be revealed to Isaiah, the holiness of God, demanded a wider stage and the breaking down of those partitions, which, while they had been designed to impress Gods presence on the worshipper, had only succeeded in veiling Him. So while the seer keeps his station on the threshold of the earthly building, soon to feel it rock beneath his feet, as heavens praise bursts like thunder on the earth, and while his immediate neighbourhood remains the same familiar house, all beyond is glorified. The veil of the temple falls away, and everything behind it. No ark nor mercy-seat is visible, but a throne and a court-the palace of God in heaven, as we have it also pictured in the eleventh and twenty-ninth Psalms. The Royal presence is everywhere. Isaiah describes no face, only a Presence and a Session: “the Lord sitting on a throne, and His skirts filled the palace.”

“No face; only the sight

Of a sweepy garment vast and white

With a hem that I could recognise.”

Around (not above, as in the English version) were ranged the hovering courtiers, of what shape and appearance we know not, except that they veiled their faces and their feet before the awful Holiness, -all wings and voice, perfect readinesses of praise and service. The prophet heard them chant in antiphon, like the temple choirs of priests. And the one choir cried out, “Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts”; and the other responded, “The whole earth is full of His glory.”

It is by the familiar name Jehovah of hosts-the proper name of Israels national God-that the prophet hears the choirs of heaven address the Divine Presence. But what they ascribe to the Deity is exactly what Israel will not ascribe, and the revelation they make of His nature is the contradiction of Israels thoughts concerning Him.

What, in the first place, is holiness? We attach this term to a definite standard of morality or an unusually impressive fulness of character. To our minds it is associated with very positive forces, as of comfort and conviction-perhaps because we take our ideas of it from the active operations of the Holy Ghost. The original force of the term holiness, however, was not positive, but negative, and throughout the Old Testament, whatever modifications its meaning undergoes, it retains a negative flavour. The Hebrew word for holiness springs from a root which means to set apart, make distinct, put at a distance from. When God is described as the Holy One in the Old Testament it is generally with the purpose of withdrawing Him from some presumption of men upon His majesty or of negativing their unworthy thoughts of Him. The Holy One is the Incomparable: “To whom, then, will ye liken Me, that I should be equal to him? saith the Holy One.” {Isa 40:25} He is the Unapproachable: “Who is able to stand before Jehovah, this holy God?”. {1Sa 6:20} He is the Utter Contrast of man: “I am God, and not man, the Holy One in the midst of thee”. {Hos 11:9} He is the Exalted and Sublime: “Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place”. {Isa 57:15} Generally speaking, then, holiness is equivalent to separateness, sublimity-in fact, just to that loftiness or exaltation which Isaiah has already so often reiterated as the principal attribute of God. In their thrice-repeated Holy the seraphs are only telling more emphatically to the prophets ears what his eyes have already seen, “the Lord high and lifted up.” Better expression could not be found for the full idea of Godhead. This little word Holy radiates heavens own breadth of meaning. Within its fundamental idea-distance or difference from man-what spaces are there not for every attribute of Godhead to flash? If the Holy One be originally He who is distinct from man and mans thoughts, and who impresses man from the beginning with the awful sublimity of the contrast in which He stands to him, how naturally may holiness come to cover not only that moral purity and intolerance of sin to which we now more strictly apply the term, but those metaphysical conceptions as well, which we gather up under the name “supernatural,” and so finally, by lifting the Divine nature away from the change and vanity of this world, and emphasising Gods independence of all beside Himself, become the fittest expression we have for Him as the Infinite and Self-existent. Thus the word holy appeals in turn to each of the three great faculties of mans nature, by which he can be religiously exercised-his conscience, his affections, his reason; it covers the impressions which God makes on man as a sinner, on man as a worshipper, on man as a thinker. The Holy One is not only the Sinless and Sin-abhorring, but the Sublime and the Absolute too.

But while we recognise the exhaustiveness of the series of ideas about the Divine Nature, which develop from the root meaning of holiness, and to express which the word holy is variously used throughout the Scriptures, we must not, if we are to appreciate the use of the word on this occasion, miss the motive of recoil which starts them all. If we would hear what Isaiah heard in the seraphs song, we must distinguish in the three-fold ascription of holiness the intensity of recoil from the confused religious views and low moral temper of the prophets generation. It is no scholastic definition of Deity which the seraphim are giving. Not for a moment is it to be supposed, that to that age, whose representative is listening to them, they are attempting to convey an idea of the Trinity. Their thrice-uttered Holy is not theological accuracy, but religious emphasis. This angelic revelation of the holiness of God was intended for a generation some of whom were idol-worshippers, confounding the Godhead with the work of their own hands or with natural objects, and none of whom were free from a confusion in principle of the Divine with the human and worldly, for which now sheer mental slovenliness, now a dull moral sense, and now positive pride was to blame. To worshippers who trampled the courts of the Lord with the careless feet and looked up the temple with the unabashed faces, of routine, the cry of the seraphs, as they veiled their faces and their feet, travailed to restore that shuddering sense of the sublimity of the Divine Presence, which in the impressible youth of the race first impelled man, bowing low beneath the awful heavens, to name God by the name of the Holy. To men, again, careful of the legal-forms of worship, but lawless and careless in their lives, the song of the seraphs revealed not the hard truth, against which they had already rubbed conscience trite, that Gods law was inexorable, but the fiery fact that His whole nature burned with wrath towards sin. To men, once more, proud of their prestige and material prosperity, and presuming in their pride to take their own way with God, and to employ like Uzziah the exercises of religion for their own honour, this vision presented the real sovereignty of God: the Lord Himself seated on a throne there- just where they felt only a theatre for the display of their pride, or machinery for the attainment of their private ends. Thus did the three-fold cry of the angels meet the threefold sinfulness of that generation of men.

But the first line of the seraphs song serves more than a temporary end. The Trisagion rings, and has need to ring, forever down the Church. Everywhere and at all times these are the three besetting sins of religious people-callousness in worship, carelessness in life, and the temper which employs the forms of religion simply for self-indulgence or self-aggrandisement. These sins are induced by the same habit of contentment with mere form; they can be corrected only by the vision of the Personal Presence who is behind all form. Our organisation, ritual, law, and sacrament-we must be able to see them fall away, as Isaiah saw the sanctuary itself disappear, before God Himself, if we are to remain heartily moral and fervently religious. The Church of God has to learn that no mere multiplication of forms, nor a more aesthetic arrangement of them, will redeem her worshippers from callousness. Callousness is but the shell which the feelings develop in self-defence when left by the sluggish and impenetrative soul to beat upon the hard outsides of form.. And nothing will fuse this shell of callousness but that ardent flame, which is kindled at touching of the Divine and human spirits, when forms have fallen away and the soul beholds with open face the Eternal Himself. As with worship, so with morality. Holiness is secured not by ceremonial, but by a reverence for a holy Being. We shall rub our consciences trite against moral maxims or religious rites. It is the effluence of a Presence, which alone can create in us, and keep in us, a clean heart. And if any object that we thus make light of ritual and religious law, of Church and sacrament, the reply is obvious. Ritual and sacrament are to the living God but as the wick of a candle to the light thereof. They are given to reveal Him, and the process is not perfect unless they themselves perish from the thoughts to which they convey Him. If God is not felt to be present, as Isaiah felt Him to be, to the exclusion of all forms, then these will be certain to be employed, as Uzziah employed them, for the sake of the only other spiritual being of whom the worshipper is conscious-himself. Unless we are able to forget our ritual in spiritual communion with the very God, and to become unconscious of our organisation in devout consciousness of our personal relation to Him, then ritual will be only a means of sensuous indulgence, organisation only a machinery for selfish or sectarian ends. The vision of God-this is the one thing needful for worship and for conduct.

But while the one verse of the antiphon reiterates what Jehovah of hosts is in Himself, the other describes what He is in revelation. “The whole earth is full of His glory.” Glory is the correlative of holiness. Glory is that in which holiness comes to expression. Glory is the expression of holiness, as beauty is the expression of health. If holiness be as deep as we have seen, so varied then will glory be. There is nothing in the earth but it is the glory of God. “The fulness of the whole earth is His glory,” is the proper grammatical rendering of the song. For Jehovah of hosts is not the God only of Israel, but the Maker of heaven and earth, and not the victory of Israel alone, but the wealth and the beauty of all the world is His glory. So universal an ascription of glory is the proper parallel to that of absolute Godhead, which is implied in holiness.

II. THE CALL

(Isa 6:4-8)

Thus, then, Isaiah, standing on earth, on the place of a great sin, with the conscience of his peoples evil in his heart, and himself not without the feeling of guilt, looked into heaven, and beholding the glory of God, heard also with what pure praise and readiness of service the heavenly hosts surrounded His throne. No wonder the prophet felt the polluted threshold rock beneath him, or that as where fire and water mingle there should be the rising of a great smoke. For the smoke described is not, as some have imagined, that of acceptable incense, thick billows swelling through the temple to express the completion and satisfaction of the seraphs worship; but it is the mist which ever arises where holiness and sin touch each other. It has been described both as the obscurity that envelops a weak mind in presence of a truth too great for it, and the darkness that falls upon a diseased eye when exposed to the mid-day sun. These are only analogies, and may mislead us. What Isaiah actually felt was the dim-eyed shame, the distraction, the embarrassment, the blinding shock of a personal encounter with One whom he was utterly unfit to meet. For this was a personal encounter. We have spelt out the revelation sentence by sentence in gradual argument; but Isaiah did not reach it through argument or brooding. It was not to the prophet what it is to his expositors, a pregnant thought, that his intellect might gradually unfold, but a Personal Presence, which apprehended and overwhelmed him. God and he were there face to face. “Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because a man unclean of lips am I, and in the midst of a people unclean of lips do I dwell; for the King, Jehovah of hosts, mine eyes have beheld.”

The form of the prophets confession, “uncleanness of lips,” will not surprise us as far as he makes it for himself. As with the disease of the body, so with the sin of the soul; each often gathers to one point of pain. Every man, though wholly sinful by nature, has his own particular consciousness of guilt. Isaiah being a prophet felt his mortal weakness most upon his lips. The inclusion of the people, however, along with himself under this form of guilt, suggests a wider interpretation of it. The lips are, as it were, the blossom of a man. “Grace is poured upon thy lips, therefore God hath blessed thee forever. If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.” It is in the blossom of a plant that the plants defects become conspicuous; it is-when all a mans faculties combine for the complex and delicate office of expression that any fault which is in him will come to the surface. Isaiah had been listening to the perfect praise of sinless beings, and it brought into startling relief the defects of his own peoples worship. Unclean of lips these were indeed when brought against that heavenly choir. Their social and political sin-sin of heart and home and market-came to a head in their worship, and what should have been the blossom of their life fell to the ground like a rotten leaf beneath the stainless beauty of the seraphs praise.

While the prophet thus passionately gathered his guilt upon his lips, a sacrament was preparing on which God concentrated His mercies to meet it. Sacrament and lips, applied mercy and presented sin, now come together. “Then flew unto me one of the seraphim, and in his hand a glowing stone-with tongs had he taken it off the altar-and he touched my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and so thy iniquity passeth away and thy sin is atoned for.”

The idea. of this function is very evident, and a scholar who has said that it “would perhaps be quite intelligible to the contemporaries of the prophet, but is undoubtedly obscure to us,” appears to have said just the reverse of what is right; for so simple a process of atonement leaves out the most characteristic details of the Jewish ritual of sacrifice, while it anticipates in an unmistakable manner the essence of the Christian sacrament. In a scene of expiation laid under the old covenant, we are struck by the absence of oblation or sacrificial act on the part of the sinner himself. There is here no victim slain, no blood sprinkled; an altar is only parenthetically suggested, and even then in its simplest form, of a hearth on which the Divine fire is continually burning. The “glowing stone,” not “live coal” as in the English version, was no part of the temple furniture, but the ordinary means of conveying heat or applying fire in the various purposes of household life. There was, it is true, a carrying of fire in some of the temple services, as, for example, on the great Day of Atonement, but then it was effected by a small grate filled with living embers. In the household, on the other hand, when cakes had to be baked, or milk boiled, or water warmed, or in fifty similar applications of fire, a glowing stone taken from off the hearth was the invariable instrument. It is this swift and simple domestic process which Isaiah now sees substituted for the slow and intricate ceremonial of the temple-a seraph with a glowing stone in his hand, “with tongs had he taken it off the altar.” And yet the prophet feels this only as a more direct expression of the very same idea with which the elaborate ritual was inspired-for which the victim was slain, and the flesh consumed in fire, and the blood sprinkled. Isaiah desires nothing else, and receives no more, than the ceremonial law was intended to assure to the sinner-pardon of his sin and reconciliation to God. But our prophet will have conviction of these immediately, and with a force which the ordinary ritual is incapable of expressing. The feelings of this Jew are too intense and spiritual to be satisfied with the slow pageant of the earthly temple, whose performances to a man in his horror could only have appeared so indifferent and far away from himself as not to be really his own nor to effect what he passionately desired. Instead, therefore, of laying his guilt in the shape of some victim on the altar, Isaiah, with a keener sense of its inseparableness from himself, presents it to God upon his own lips. Instead of being satisfied with beholding the fire of God consume it on another body than his own, at a distance from himself, he feels that fire visit the very threshold of his nature, where he has gathered the guilt, and consume it there. The whole secret of this startling nonconformity to the law, on the very floor of the temple, is that for a man who has penetrated to the presence of God the legal forms are left far behind, and he stands face to face with the truth by which they are inspired. In that Divine Presence Isaiah is his own altar; he acts his guilt in his own person, and so he feels the expiatory fire come to his very self directly from the heavenly hearth. It is a replica of the fifty-first Psalm: “For Thou delightest not in sacrifice, else would I give it; Thou hast no pleasure in burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit.” This is my sacrifice, my sense of guilt gathered here upon my lips: my “broken and contrite heart,” who feel myself undone before Thee, “Lord, Thou wilt not despise.”

It has always been remarked as one of the most powerful proofs of the originality and Divine force of Christianity, that from mans worship of God, and especially from those parts in which the forgiveness of sin is sought and assured, it did away with the necessity of a physical rite of sacrifice; that it broke the universal and immemorial habit by which man presented to God a material offering for the guilt of his soul. By remembering this fact we may measure the religious significance of the scene we now contemplate. Nearly eight centuries before there was accomplished upon Calvary that Divine Sacrifice for sin, which abrogated a rite of expiation, hitherto universally adopted by the conscience of humanity, we find a Jew, in the dispensation where such a rite was most religiously enforced, trembling under the conviction of sin, and upon a floor crowded with suggestions of physical sacrifice; yet the only sacrifice he offers is the purely spiritual one of confession. It is most notable. Look at it from a human point of view, and we can estimate Isaiahs immense spiritual originality; look at it from a Divine and we cannot help perceiving a distinct foreshadow of what was to take place by the blood of Jesus under the new covenant. To this man, as to some others of his dispensation, whose experience our Christian sympathy recognises so readily in the Psalms, there was granted afore-time boldness to enter into the holiest. For this is the explanation of Isaiahs marvellous disregard of the temple ritual. It is all behind him. This man has passed within the veil. Forms are all behind him, and he is face to face with God. But between two beings in that position, intercourse by the far off and uncertain signals of sacrifice is inconceivable. It can only take place by the simple unfolding of the heart. It must be rational, intelligent, and by speech. When man is at such close quarters with God what sacrifice is possible but the sacrifice of the lips? Form for the Divine reply there must be some, for even Christianity has its sacraments, but like them this sacrament is of the very simplest form, and like them it is accompanied by the explanatory word. As Christ under the new covenant took bread and wine, and made the homely action of feeding upon them the sign and seal to His disciples of the forgiveness of their sins, so His angel under the old and sterner covenant took the more severe, but as simple and domestic form of fire to express the same to His prophet. And we do well to emphasise that the experimental value of this sacrament of fire is bestowed by the word attached to it. It is not a dumb sacrament, with a magical efficacy. But the prophets mind is persuaded and his conscience set at peace by the intelligible words of the minister of the sacrament.

Isaiahs sin being taken away, he is able to discern the voice of God Himself. It is in the most beautiful accordance with what has already happened that he hears this not as command, but request, and answers not of compulsion, but of freedom. “And 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.” What spiritual understanding alike of the will of God and the responsibility of man, what evangelical liberty and boldness, are here! Here we touch the spring of that high flight Isaiah takes both in prophecy and in active service for the State. Here we have the secret of the filial freedom, the life-long sense of responsibility, the regal power of initiative, the sustained and unfaltering career, which distinguish Isaiah among the ministers of the old covenant, and stamp him prophet by the heart and for the life, as many of them are only by the office and for the occasion. Other prophets are the servants of the God of heaven; Isaiah stands next the Son Himself. On others the hand of the Lord is laid in irresistible compulsion; the greatest of them are often ignorant, by turns headstrong and craven, deserving correction, and generally in need of supplementary calls and inspirations. But of such scourges and such doles Isaiahs royal career is absolutely without a trace. His course, begun in freedom, is pursued without hesitation or anxiety; begun in utter self-sacrifice, it knows henceforth no moment of grudging or disobedience. “Esaias is very bold,” because he is so free and so fully devoted. In the presence of mind with which he meets each sudden change of politics during that bewildering half-century of Judahs history, we seem to hear his calm voice repeating its first, “Here am I.” Presence of mind he always had. The kaleidoscope shifts: it is now Egyptian intrigue, now Assyrian force; now a false king requiring threat of displacement by Gods own hero, now a true king, but helpless and in need of consolation; now a rebellious people to be condemned, and now an oppressed and penitent one to be encouraged:-different dangers, with different sorts of salvation possible, obliging the prophet to promise different futures, and to say things inconsistent with what he had already said. Yet Isaiah never hesitates; he can always say, “Here am I.” We hear that voice again in the spontaneousness and versatility of his style. Isaiah is one of the great kings of literature, with every variety of style under his sway, passing with perfect readiness, as subject or occasion calls, from one to another of the tones of a superbly endowed nature. Everywhere this man impresses us with his personality, with the wealth of his nature and the perfection of his control of it. But the personality is consecrated. The “Here am I” is followed by the “send me.” And its health, harmony, and boldness are derived, Isaiah being his own witness, from this early sense of pardon and purification at the Divine hands. Isaiah is indeed a king and a priest unto God-a king with all his powers at his own command, a priest with them all consecrated to the service of Heaven.

One cannot pass away from these verses without observing the plain answer which they give to the question, What is a call to the ministry of God? In these days of dust and distraction, full of party cries, with so many side issues of doctrine and duty presenting themselves, and the solid attractions of so many other services insensibly leading men to look for the same sort of attractiveness in the ministry, it may prove a relief to some to ponder the simple elements of Isaiahs call to be a professional and lifelong prophet. Isaiah got no “call” in our conventional sense of the word, no compulsion that he must go, no articulate voice describing him as the sort of man needed for the work, nor any of those similar “calls” which sluggish and craven spirits so often desire to relieve them of the responsibility or the strenuous effort needed in deciding for a profession which their conscience will not permit them to refuse. Isaiah got no such call. After passing through the fundamental religious experiences of forgiveness and cleansing, which are in every case the indispensable premises of life with God, Isaiah was left to himself. No direct summons was addressed to him, no compulsion was laid on him; but he heard the voice of God asking generally for messengers, and he on his own responsibility answered it for himself in particular. He heard from the Divine lips of the Divine need for messengers, and he was immediately full of the mind that he was the man for the mission, and of the heart to give himself to it. So great an example cannot be too closely studied by candidates for the ministry in our own day. Sacrifice is not the half-sleepy, half-reluctant submission to the force of circumstance or opinion, in which shape it is so often travestied among us, but the resolute self-surrender and willing resignation of a free and reasonable soul. There are many in our day who look for an irresistible compulsion into the ministry of the Church; sensitive as they are to the material bias by which men roll off into other professions, they pray for something of a similar kind to prevail with them in this direction also. There are men who pass into the ministry by social pressure or the opinion of the circles they belong to, and there are men who adopt the profession simply because it is on the line of least resistance.

From which false beginnings rise the spent force, the premature stoppages, the stagnancy, the aimlessness and heartlessness, which are the scandals of the professional ministry and the weakness of the Christian Church in our day. Men who drift into the ministry, as it is certain so many do, become mere ecclesiastical flotsam and jetsam, incapable of giving carriage to any soul across the waters of this life, uncertain of their own arrival anywhere, and of all the waste of their generation, the most patent and disgraceful. God will have no drift-wood for His sacrifices, no drift-men for His ministers. Self-consecration is the beginning of His service, and a sense of our own freedom and our own responsibility is an indispensable element in the act of self-consecration. We-not God-have to make the decision. We are not to be dead, but living, sacrifices, and everything which renders us less than fully alive both mars at the time the sincerity of our surrender and reacts for evil upon the whole of our subsequent ministry.

III. THE COMMISSION

(Isa 6:9-13)

A heart so resolutely devoted as we have seen Isaiahs to be was surely prepared against any degree of discouragement, but probably never did man receive so awful a commission as he describes himself to have done. Not that we are to suppose that this fell upon Isaiah all at once, in the suddenness and distinctness with which he here records it. Our sense of its awfulness will only be increased when we realise that Isaiah became aware of it, not in the shock of a single discovery, sufficiently great to have carried its own anaesthetic along with it, but through a prolonged process of disillusion, and at the pain of those repeated disappointments, which are all the more painful that none singly is great enough to stupefy. It is just at this point of our chapter that we feel most the need of supposing it to have been written some years after the consecration of Isaiah, when his experience had grown long enough to articulate the dim forebodings of that solemn moment. “Go and say to this people, Hearing, hear ye, but understand not; seeing, see ye, but know not. Make fat the heart of this people, and its ears make heavy, and its eyes smear, lest it see with its eyes, and hear with its ears, and its heart understand, and it turn again and be healed.” No prophet, we may be sure, would be asked by God to go and tell his audiences that in so many words, at the beginning of his career. It is only by experience that a man understands that kind of a commission, and for the required experience Isaiah had not long to wait after entering on his ministry. Ahaz himself, in whose death-year it is supposed by many that Isaiah wrote this account of his consecration-the conduct of Ahaz himself was sufficient to have brought out the convictions of the prophets heart in this startling form, in which he has stated his commission. By the word of the Lord and an offer of a sign from Him, Isaiah did make fat that monarchs heart and smear his eyes. And perverse as the rulers of Judah were in the examples and policies they set, the people were as blindly bent on following them to destruction. “Every one,” said Isaiah, when he must have been for some time a prophet, “every one is a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly.”

But if that clear, bitter way of putting the matter can have come to Isaiah only with the experience of some years, why does he place it upon the lips of God, as they give him his commission? Because Isaiah is stating not merely his own singular experience, but a truth always true of the preaching of the word of God, and of which no prophet at the time of his consecration to that ministry can be without at least a foreboding. We have not exhausted the meaning of this awful commission when we say that it is only a forcible anticipation of the prophets actual experience. There is more here than one mans experience. Over and over again are these words quoted in the New Testament, till we learn to find them true and always everywhere that the Word of God is preached to men, -the description of what would seem to be its necessary effect upon many souls. Both Jesus and Paul use Isaiahs commission of themselves. They do so like Isaiah at an advanced stage in their ministry, when the shock of misunderstanding and ejection has been repeatedly felt, but then not solely as an apt description of their own experience. They quote Gods words to Isaiah as a prophecy fulfilled in their own case-that is to say, as the statement of a great principle or truth of which their own ministry is only another instance. Their own disappointments have roused them to the fact, that this is always an effect of the word of God upon numbers of men-to deaden their spiritual faculties. While Matthew and the book of Acts adopt the milder Greek version of Isaiahs commission, John gives a rendering that is even stronger than the original. “He hath blinded,” he says of God Himself, “their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see with their eyes and perceive with their hearts.” In Marks narrative Christ says that He speaks to them that are outside in parables, “for the purpose that seeing they may see, and not perceive, and hearing they may hear, and not understand, lest haply they should turn again and it should be forgiven them.” We may suspect, in an utterance so strange to the lips of the Lord of salvation, merely the irony of His baffled love. But it is rather the statement of what He believed to be the necessary effect of a ministry like His own. It marks the direction, not of His desire, but of natural sequence.

With these instances we can go back to Isaiah and understand why he should have described the bitter fruits of experience as an imperative laid upon him by God. “Make fat the heart of this people, and its ears make heavy, and its eyes do thou smear.” It is the fashion of the prophets grammar, when it would state a principle or necessary effect, to put it in the form of a command. What God expresses to Isaiah so imperatively as almost to take our breath away; what Christ uttered with such abruptness that we ask, Does He speak in irony? what Paul laid down as the conviction of a long and patient ministry, is the great truth that the Word of God has not only a saving power, but that even in its gentlest pleadings and its purest Gospel, even by the mouth of Him who came, not to condemn, but to save the world, it has a power that is judicial and condemnatory.

It is frequently remarked by us as perhaps the most deplorable fact of our experience, that there exists in human nature an accursed facility for turning Gods gifts to precisely the opposite ends from those for which He gave them. So common is mans misunderstanding of the plainest signs, and so frequent his abuse of the most evident favours of Heaven, that a spectator of the drama of human history might imagine its Author to have been a Cynic or Comedian, portraying for His own amusement the loss of the erring at the very moment of what might have been their recovery, the frustration of love at the point of its greatest warmth and expectancy. Let him look closer, however, and he will perceive, not a comedy, but a tragedy, for neither chance nor cruel sport is here at work, but free will and the laws of habit, with retribution and penalty. These actors are not puppets in the hand of a Power that moves them at will; each of them plays his own part, and the abuse and contradiction of which he is guilty are but the perogative of his freedom. They are free beings who thus reject the gift of Divine assistance and so piteously misunderstand Divine truth. Look closer still, and you will see that the way they talk, the impression they accept of Gods goodness, the effects of His judgments upon them, are determined not at the moment of their choice, and not by a single act of their will, but by the whole tenor of their previous life. In the sudden flash of some gift or opportunity, men reveal the stuff of which they are made, the disposition they have bred in themselves. Opportunity in human life is as often judgment as it is salvation. When we perceive these things, we understand that life is not a comedy, where chance governs or incongruous situations are invented by an Almighty Satirist for His own sport, but a tragedy, with all tragedys pathetic elements of royal wills contending in freedom with each other, of mens wills clashing with Gods: men the makers of their own destinies, and Nemesis not directing, but following their actions. We go back to the very fundamentals of our nature on this dread question. To understand what has been called “a great law in human degeneracy,” that “the evil heart can assimilate good to itself and convert it to its nature,” we must understand what free will means, and take into account the terrible influence of habit.

Now there is no more conspicuous instance of this law, than that which is afforded by the preaching of the Gospel of God. Gods Word, as Christ reminds us, does not fall on virgin soil; it falls on soil already holding other seed. When a preacher stands up with the Word of God in a great congregation, vast as Scripture warrants us for believing his power to be, his is not the only power that is operative. Each man present has a life behind that hour and place, lying away in the darkness, silent and dead as far as the congregation are concerned, but in his own heart as vivid and loud as the voice of the preacher, though he be preaching never so forcibly. The prophet is not the only power in the delivery of Gods Word, nor is the Holy Spirit the only power. That would make all preaching of the Word a mere display. But the Bible represents it as a strife. And now it is said of men themselves that they harden their hearts against the Word, and now-because such hardening is the result of previous sinning, and has therefore a judicial character-that God hardens their hearts. “Simon, Simon,” said Christ to a face that spread out to His own all the ardour of worship, “Satan is desiring to have you, but I have prayed that your faith fail not.” God sends His Word into our hearts; the Mediator stands by, and prays that it make us His own. But there are other factors in the operation, and the result depends on our own will; it depends on our own will, and it is dreadfully determined by our habits.

Now this is one of the first facts to which a young reformer or prophet awakes. Such an awakening is a necessary element in his education and apprenticeship. He has seen the Lord high and lifted up. His lips have been touched by the coal from off the altar. His first feeling is that. nothing can withstand that power, nothing gainsay this inspiration. Is he a Nehemiah, and the hand of the Lord has been mighty upon him? Then he feels that he has but to tell his fellows of it to make them as enthusiastic in the Lords work as himself. Is he a Mazzini, aflame from his boyhood with aspiration for his country, consecrated from his birth to the cause of duty? Then he leaps with joy upon his mission; he has but to show himself, to speak, to lead the way, and his country is free. Is he-to descend to a lower degree of prophecy-a Fourier, sensitive more than most to how anarchic society is, and righteously eager to settle it upon stable foundations? Then he draws his plans for reconstruction, he projects his phalanges and phalansteres, and believes that he has solved the social problem. Is he-to come back to the heights-an Isaiah, with the Word of God in him like fire? Then he sees his vision of the perfect state; he thinks to lift his people to it by a word. “O house of Jacob,” he says, “come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord!”

For all of whom the next necessary stage of experience is one of disappointment, with the hard commission, “Make the heart of this people fat.” They must learn that, if God has caught themselves young, and when it was possible to make them entirely His own, the human race to whom He sends them is old, too old for them to effect much upon the mass of it beyond the hardening and perpetuation of evil. Fourier finds that to produce his perfect State he would need to re-create mankind, to cut down the tree to the very roots, and begin again. After the first rush of patriotic fervour, which carried so many of his countrymen with him, Mazzini discovers himself in “a moral desert,” confesses that the struggle to liberate his fatherland, which has only quickened him to further devotion in so great a cause, has been productive of scepticism in his followers, and has left them withered and hardened of heart, whom it had found so capable of heroic impulses. He tells us how they upbraided and scorned him, left him in exile, and returned to their homes, from which they had set out with vows to die for their country, doubting now whether there was anything at all worth living or dying for outside themselves. Mazzinis description of the first passage of his career is invaluable for the light which it throws upon this commission of Isaiah. History does not contain a more dramatic representation of the entirely opposite effects of the same Divine movement upon different natures. While the first efforts for the liberty of Italy materialised the greater number of his countrymen, whom Mazzini had persuaded to embark upon them, the failure and their consequent defection only served to strip this heroic soul of the last rags of selfishness, and consecrate it more utterly to the will of God and the duty that lay before it.

A few sentences from the confessions of the Italian patriot may be quoted, with benefit to our appreciation of what the Hebrew prophet must have passed through.

“It was the tempest of doubt, which I believe all who devote their lives to a great enterprise, yet have not dried and withered up their soul-like Robespierre-beneath some barren intellectual formula, but bare retained a loving heart, are doomed, once at least, to battle through. My heart was overflowing with and greedy of affection, as fresh and eager to unfold to joy as in the days when sustained by my mothers smile, as full of fervid hope for others, at least, if not for myself. But during these fatal months there darkened round me such a hurricane of sorrow, disillusion, and deception as to bring before my eyes, in all its ghastly nakedness, a foreshadowing of the old age of my soul, solitary in a desert world, wherein no comfort in the struggle was vouchsafed to me. It was not only the overthrow for an indefinite period of every Italian hope; it was the falling to pieces of that moral edifice of faith and love from which alone I had derived strength for the combat; the scepticism I saw arising round me on every side; the failure of faith in those who had solemnly bound themselves to pursue unshaken the path we had known at the outset to be choked with sorrows; the distrust I detected in those most dear to me, as to the motives and intentions which sustained and urged me onward in the evidently unequal struggle When I felt that 1 was indeed alone in the world, I drew back in terror at the void before me. There. in that moral desert, doubt came upon me. Perhaps I was wrong, and the world right? Perhaps my idea was indeed a dream? One morning I awoke to find my mind tranquil and my spirit calmed, as one who has passed through a great danger. The first thought that passed across my spirit was, Your sufferings are the temptations of egotism, and arise from a misconception of life I perceived that although every instinct of my heart rebelled against that fatal and ignoble definition of life which makes it to be a search after happiness, yet I had not completely freed myself from the dominating influence exercised by it upon the age. I had been unable to realise the true ideal of love-love without earthly hope. Life is a mission, duty therefore its highest law. From the idea of God I descended to faith in a mission and its logical consequence-duty the supreme rule of life: and having reached that faith, I swore to myself that nothing in this world should again make me doubt or forsake it. It was, as Dante says, passing through martyrdom to peace-a forced and desperate peace I do not deny, for I fraternised with sorrow, and wrapped myself in it as in a mantle; but yet it was peace, for I learned to suffer without rebellion, and to live calmly and in harmony with my own spirit. I reverently bless God the Father for what consolations of affection-I can conceive of no other-He has vouchsafed to me in my later years; and in them I gather strength to struggle with the occasional return of weariness of existence. But even were these consolations denied me, I believe I should still be what I am. Whether the sun shine with the serene splendour of an Italian noon, or the leaden, corpse-like hue of the northern mist be above us, I cannot see that it changes our duty. God dwells above the earthly heaven and the holy stars of faith and the future still shine with n our souls, even though their light consume itself unreflected as the sepulchral lamp.”

Such sentences are the best commentary we can offer on our text. The cases of the Hebrew and Italian prophets are wonderfully alike. We who have read Isaiahs fifth chapter know how his heart also was “overflowing with and greedy of affection,” and in the second and third chapters we have seen “the hurricane, of sorrow, disillusion, and deception darken round him.” “The falling to pieces of the moral edifice of faith and love,” “scepticism rising on every side,” “failure of faith in those who had solemnly bound themselves,” “distrust detected in those most dear to me” – and all felt by the prophet as the effect of the sacred movement God had inspired him to begin:-how exact a counterpart it is to the cumulative process of brutalising which Isaiah heard God lay upon him, with the imperative “Make the heart of this people fat!” In such a morally blind, deaf, and dead-hearted world Isaiahs faith was indeed “to consume itself unreflected like the sepulchral lamp.” The glimpse into his heart given us by Mazzini enables us to realise with what terror Isaiah faced such a void. “O Lord, how long?” This, too, breathes the air of “a forced and desperate peace,” the spirit of one who, having realised life as a mission, has made the much more rare recognition that the logical consequence is neither the promise of success nor the assurance of sympathy, but simply the acceptance of duty, with whatever results and under whatever skies it pleases God to bring over him.

“Until cities fall into ruin without an inhabitant

And houses without a man,

And the land be left desolately waste.

And Jehovah have removed man far away,

And great be the desert in the midst of the land;

And still if there be a tenth in it,

Even it shall be again for consuming.

Like the terebinth, and like the oak.

Whose stock when they are felled remaineth in them,

The holy seed shall be its stock,”

The meaning of these words is too plain to require exposition, but we can hardly over-emphasise them. This is to be Isaiahs one text throughout his career. “Judgment shall pass through; a remnant shall remain.” All the policies of his day, the movement of the worlds forces, the devastation of the holy land, the first captivities of the holy people, the reiterated defeats and disappointments of the next fifty years-all shall be clear and tolerable to Isaiah as the fulfilling of the sentence to which he listened in such “forced and desperate peace” on the day of his consecration. He has had the worst branded into him; henceforth no man nor thing may trouble him. He has seen the worst, and knows there is a beginning beyond. So when the wickedness of Judah and the violence of Assyria alike seem most unrestrained-Assyria most bent on destroying Judah, and Judah least worthy to live-Isaiah will yet cling to this, that a remnant must remain. All his prophecies will be variations of this text; it is the key to his apparent paradoxes. He will proclaim the Assyrians to be Gods instrument, yet devote them to destruction. He will hail their advance on Judah, and yet as exultingly mark its limit, because of the determination in which he asked the question, “O Lord, how long?” and the clearness with which he understood the until, that came in answer to it. Every prediction he makes, every turn he seeks to give to the practical politics of Judah, are simply due to his grasp of these two facts-a withering and repeated devastation, in the end a bare survival. He has, indeed, prophecies which travel farther; occasionally he is permitted to indulge in visions of a new dispensation. Like Moses, he climbs his Pisgah, but he is like Moses also in this, that his lifetime is exhausted with the attainment of the margin of a long period of judgment and struggle, and then he passes from our sight, and no man knoweth his sepulchre unto this day. As abruptly as this vision closes with the announcement of the remnant, so abruptly does Isaiah disappear on the fulfilment of the announcement-some forty years subsequent to this vision-in the sudden rescue of the holy seed from the grasp of Sennacherib.

We have now finished the first period of Isaiahs career. Let us catalogue what are his leading doctrines up to this point. High above a very sinful people, and beyond all their conceptions of Him, Jehovah, the national God, rises holy, exalted in righteousness. From such a God to such a people it can only be judgment and affliction that pass; and these shall not be averted by the fact that He is the national God, and they His worshippers. Of this affliction the Assyrians gathering far off upon the horizon are evidently to be the instruments. The affliction shall be very sweeping; again and again shall it come; but the Lord will finally save a remnant of His people. Three elements compose this preaching-a very keen and practical conscience of sin; an overpowering vision of God, in whose immediate intimacy the prophet believes himself to be; and a very sharp perception of the politics of the day.

One question rises. In this part of Isaiahs ministry there is no trace of that Figure whom we chiefly identify with his preaching; the Messiah. Let us have patience; it is not time for Him; but the following is His connection with the prophets present doctrines.

Isaiahs great result at present is the certainty of a remnant. That remnant will require two things-they will require a rallying-point, and they will require a leader. Henceforth Isaiahs prophesying will be bent to one or other of these. The two grand purposes of his word and work will be, for the sake of the remnant, the inviolateness of Zion, and the coming of the Messiah. The former he has, indeed, already intimated (chapter 4); the latter is now to share with it his hope and eloquence.

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary

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