Isaiah's Vision

Pastor Kang spoke today on Isaiah's Vision, that is, Isaiah 6:1-8

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to 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 shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

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.

It was our first meeting in the fellowship hall (the English ministry is moving into the fellowship hall from the sanctuary proper), and I hadn't driven in downtown Albany lately, so we ended up start almost fifteen minutes late. As a result, Pastor Kang had to give a somewhat condensed version of what he'd been planning to say. To avoid putting words into his mouth, then, I'll just summarize some of the points that he made.

Before looking at what effect this vision might have had on Isaiah, let's first take a look at the kind of prophet that Isaiah was. In Isaiah 20, we find the Lord speaking, As my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign .... Isaiah had been naked and barefoot for three years as a demonstration of what would happen to the Egyptians at the hand of the Assyrians. Three years! And that perseverance shows us that Isaiah's was confident in the what the Lord had told him. Isaiah knew that the word was true, and did what God told him to do.

Then, we'd be right to ask, where did Isaiah get all his confidence? He had seen God. When we see God, he becomes the source of our life, and the motivator of our actions. All too often, we see a little bit of God, and then put something else in between—we set up another god for us, and we keep ourselves from truly seeing God. But Isaiah did see God, and he had confidence.

And what did Isaiah see when he saw God? Firstly, when did Isaiah see God? Isaiah's vision is in the year of King Uzziah's death. Now using the reigns of kings as reference dates is not a practice unique to Isaiah, but look at the contrast. Earthly kings reign for a while, and then die. But Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on His throne, lofty and exalted. Isaiah saw a king whose reign is eternal! Some people are willing to move to another country for legal reasons, others for safety, others because they agree with the ideals of the country, but Isaiah was exposed to a kingdom eternal and perfect. God is present and his presence fills.

A few other things we can note about God from this vision:

• He is Holy, Holy, Holy—He is perfectly set apart, in a way that no man or other created thing can be set apart, yet He is the creator, and nothing exists without Him.
• He is the Lord of hosts—He is the ruler not just of mankind, not just of Heaven, but of everything that has ever been, is, and ever will be. He is the ruler not just of beings, but of History and Nature.
• The whole earth is full of His glory—Sometimes we dwell on the fact that God is holy, that is, set apart, and forget that His glory surrounds us, even here on earth. There is nothing that we could point to that doesn't show His glory.
• The temple was filled with smoke—while God reveals Himself to each of us individually, He remains a God in mystery. Isaiah responded to the presence of God, Woe is me! We cannot be exposed to the entirety of God.

Isaiah responded Woe is me! because when we see God, we also see ourselves, and we see ourselves as what we are: beings made in the image of God, but who are impure, sinful, and have fallen short of the glory of God. Yet God calls us to love, and we cannot love on our own accord. We must experience love in order to love; God loves us and so we can love others. Isaiah was told Your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is forgiven, and when he heard the call Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us? he responded Here I am. Send me!