Isaiah 6 verse 1 - this marks for us a date of 740 BC in which

King Uzziah died but there is more

When you think of it, King Uzziah had been one the great kings
in the Southern Kingdom
In the northern kingdom which was known as Israel all the kings
were evil
But in the southern kingdom which was known as Judah of the
20 kings, 8 of them were good kings

King Uzziah was given great success by God during his reign
though it ended badly
For it seems that the worldly success of this king went to his
head and he went into the temple where only the priest should
be.
As the priests tried to get the king out of the temple he refused to
leave and so we see that God struck him with leprosy and he
died in that condition
Now Isaiah recognizes that here is Uzziah one of the great kings
who supported the prophetic ministry and he wanted the law of
God preached throughout the land

What is going to happen now that Uzziah is gone?

Who is coming next?

Will the next king be supportive like Uzziah or will the next king
turn away from the Lord?
So as a paraphrase let us read this in the following way: "In a time
of great uncertainty" when Isaiah is asking will it go well or will it
not go well
Isaiah sees the LORD
Isaiah's rock solid confidence is that when even a good king dies,
that it will be God who will see us through anything
Isaiah writes that he saw the LORD, this great and majestic eternal
King
Verse 1 - The word for Lord

Notice the two different uses of the word Lord in Isaiah 6:1 and the
word LORD in Isaiah 6:3

This is common in English translations

And the translators are trying to show us the difference in these two
words.
1. LORD is the Hebrew term for Yahweh. This is the name that
God reveals to Moses in the Midianite wilderness, when He said
I AM who I AM. This is the holy name of God and the sacred
name of God.
2. Lord is translated Adonai. And that is the most exalted title that
the OT uses for God. This is the supreme title for God used in
the OT.
The meaning of the term Adonai is the Sovereign One
Verse 1 - The word for Lord

Example: Psalm 8 says O LORD, our Lord,

How majestic is Your name in all the earth,
This means oh Yahweh our Adonai

Psalm 110 The LORD says to my Lord:

“Sit at My right hand
David describes Yahweh talking to another person who he describes
as Adonai

We see the distinction between Yahweh and Adonai

The most alluded to verse in the NT is the OT verse Psalm 110

Verse 1 - Description
• Sitting on a throne
• Lofty and exalted
• Train of His robe filling the temple

Now let's ask some questions

What kind of chair?
And this tells us He is what kind of Person?

What room?
God is in the temple where the priests were designated and yet we
have a description of Him as King

We learn from John 12:41 that the person Isaiah saw was Christ
These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke
of Him.
So here we have One that is both King and Priest
The irony is that when Uzziah tries to take on the duties of the
priest God strikes him with leprosy

Next we see that He sits on the throne that is lofty and exalted
Try to picture this in your mind - either the throne is on a pedestal
or it is being elevated in the air

What is the reason for it being lofty and exalted

What is being communicated to us as we read this?
This God is sovereign, this God is great and this God is a King
God is above all other things and He is transcendent

Finally what is it about the train of His robe that is filling the temple
The train of His robe wraps around and around and around the
temple - so what picture is being communicated here?
What message does a long robe indicate to the reader?
The train of His robe filled the temple (Culture and Custom)
In the ancient days the clothing of a monarch was a measure of their
international status
• If a king wore ermin that was incredible
• If he wore sable that was even better
• If he wore mink...hmmm...2 or 3 grade level
• If someone wore a canvas robe then they had to sit in the back of
the summit meeting of the kings

The coronation of Queen Elizabeth and her robe

several pages had to lift the train of her robe because it was so long.

Do you see in the text what it says that Isaiah saw?

The train went on and on and continued until it filled the entire
temple
This is a visual experience of majesty to describe for us the
importance of God
Now back to Isaiah 6, the train of His robe fills the temple because
we know that this King is:
• Great
• Supreme
• Royal
• Majestic

Verse 2
Seraphim are created angelic beings that are beautiful in
themselves and are stationed around the throne of God
They have 6 wings:
Two wings they cover their face
Two wings they bow with their feet
Two wings they fly and cry out holy, holy, holy
These created beings minister daily in the unveiled presence of
almighty God whose glory is so piercing that the seraphim have to
shield themselves from looking directly at the face of God.

Remember the story in the book of Exodus. When Moses received

the 10 commandments. The people wondered what happened to
Moses and they became anxious. And they waited Moses was on
the mountain speaking with God.

Moses asked God to see His glory.

God said no man can see me and live.
But I will put you in the cleft of a rock and you can see my hind
quarters.

Moses saw God in the burning bush, parting the of the Red Sea, the
miracle of feeding the people in the wilderness and now Moses asks
to see the glory of God.
Moses was able to get a backward glance at the refracted glory of
God.

What happened after that?

When the people came to greet him they fell before him and they
asked him to cover his face.

His face was shining with such brilliance and intensity that it was
blinding the people. And all they were seeing was the reflection on
a human beings face regarding the glory of God.
Verse 3

There is something very Jewish about this text that we as Americans

could read 1000 times and still miss it.

In the English language if we want to call emphasis to the text we

can do it in any number of ways.
We can underline it
We can bold it
We can put quotation around it

The Jews did all that, but they had another technique to call emphasis
called verbal repetition.
The apostle Paul used this technique:
Galatians 1:8–9 NAS95
even if we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel
contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed! As
we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to
you a gospel contrary to what you received, he is to be accursed!

Jesus was fond of using this particular technique in His teaching.

Jesus was a Rabbi and He was a theologian who had disciples. And
he walked around and the disciples followed him. He would lecture
and they would commit to memory what the Rabbi taught. Every
word from the Lord Jesus is important but even the Lord took time to
place special emphasis for those things that were super important.
And when He wanted to make sure the disciples understood these
super important points He would preface with two words.
John 5:24–25
Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him
who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but
has passed out of death into life.
Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the
dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will
live.
"Truly, Truly" only appears in the gospel of John and occurs 25
times

Actually it would come in as Amen, Amen which means it is true or

we believe it. Normally this comes at the end of the preaching a
particular point.
But Jesus didn't wait for them to affirm the truth He begins by
affirming the truth Himself. He began his sermon with Amen
Amen.
Illustration:
That is like the captain of a ship getting on board saying "this is the
captain speaking"
When Jesus said "truly, truly" He was underscoring that which He
was getting ready to say.

The point of this is;

Ladies and Gentlemen there is only one attribute of God that is
ever raised to the 3rd degree of repetition in the Bible.

There is only one characteristic of God that is mentioned in the

superlative degree and from the mouth of angels where the Bible
does not simply say that God is holy.

It doesn't even say that God is holy, holy.

But that God is HOLY HOLY HOLY

The English language again is not capable of holding this infinite
truth about this glorious God.

God is so far beyond what our minds can imagine that we can not
put this in human language
The root meaning of holiness is to be "set apart" to be other than, to
be different from
• God is Creator and everything else is created
• God is infinite and everything else is finite
• God is qualitatively unique and God says in the Scripture, Isaiah
46:9 - "There is none like Me”
• God is holy and infinitely separated from His creation even these
Seraphim who call out "holy, holy, holy"

The heavens declare the glory of God because His handiwork

shows forth in a physical form His character, His power, his
wisdom, His beauty made known in the created order
Verse 4
Illustration: Loud rock concert can shake the walls with the bass
guitar and drums
But how about the finest palace that you can possible imagine
where the foundations are shaking.

This is portraying to us the intensity of their worship toward

God

In heaven when we get there and are freed from all our inhibitions
and sin then we are going to worship from purified souls and our
worship will take on an intensity that we never thought possible.

Illustration: Jason McKnight taking me to a pastor's conference

and telling me to get ready for 1200 pastors who are ready to sing
and worship God
The temple is filled with smoke, so where did that come from?

In verse 6 we get the clue and it is from the altar that has burning
coals on it

This smoke is filling the temple and represents the absolute

purity of God

So the smoke symbolizes purity of God because it is from this

very altar that a coal will be pulled to purify Isaiah.

And now we realize that this God is not only powerful, glorious,
majestic, great and awesome in who He is but He is also morally
perfect and pure and can't have anything like sin or sinners in
His presence.
The word “woe”

Woe is me is another hidden gem in the literature. And there is a

reason that Isaiah used the term "woe"

In the OT, the prophet was a spokes man for God.

The difference between the priest and the prophet was simply this;
The priest spoke to God in behalf of the people
The prophet speaks to the people in behalf of God

So the prophet did not start a sentence with "in my humble opinion"
or "in my judgement"
When they gave the message they started with "Thus says the
LORD"
They were vessels of divine announcements
The literary form common to the prophet was the oracle.
These were of two types
1. An oracle of will
2. An oracle of woe

Announcements that came from God that were good news and
those that came from God that were bad news.

The word used to introduce the good news was the word "blessed"
Jesus uses the form of the oracle when He gives the sermon on the
mount
The people of His day would recognize this literary device.
He was pronouncing the divine blessing on people that did certain
things

Sermon on the Mount

“Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see the Lord”
The oracle of woe was a grim and terrifying announcement of God's
judgment. (All through the writings of the prophets)

The prophet Zechariah "woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves

his flock”

Jesus gives His denunciation of the Pharisees in Matthew 23:15

““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you travel
around on sea and land to make one proselyte; and when he
becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as
yourselves.”

He gives the OT oracle of "woe"

The word "holy" is the only attribute of God in the Bible that is
mentioned to the third degree. But it is not the only word
mentioned to the third degree, there is another one.
Revelation 8:13
And we can find this word during the final judgment of mankind in
Revelation.
“Then I looked, and I heard an eagle flying in midheaven, saying with
a loud voice, “Woe, woe, woe to those who dwell on the earth,
because of the remaining blasts of the trumpet of the three angels who
are about to sound!”

Back to Isaiah 6 verse 5

This prophet of God pronounces an oracle of doom upon himself.
"Woe is me"
As soon as Isaiah sees the unveiled holiness of God he sees who God
is and for the first time he sees who Isaiah really is.

And what came out of his life was a primordial scream

"Woe is me, for I am undone"
Undone is a good translation because what is happening to Isaiah here
is a process of psychological dis-intergration.

A person who is healthy we describe as whole.

A person who is not healthy we say they are falling apart

Integrity is having ones life together in a consistent way.

Here is probably the most righteous man in Israel who sees God for
who God is and he immediately comes apart. And that is what
happens when people see God for who God is.

We spend the majority of our lives protecting ourselves from the true
character of God.
Notice that Isaiah doesn't say "I have got some personal baggage
that I need to work through."

We have no idea to the degree of the wickedness of the human

heart

Now look at the word FOR - which could be read BECAUSE

Because my eyes have seen the greatness, majesty and holiness
of God.

Isaiah here is not recognizing his worth or anything that is owed

him
He sees here to the very depths of his human sinfulness
And he recognizes he has no right to stand before this righteous
and holy God

Why does Isaiah mention his lips?

Because as we learn later in the gospels from Jesus, from
the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks

Matthew 12:34 - You brood of vipers, how can you, being

evil, speak what is good? For the mouth speaks out of that
which fills the heart.
Read Matthew 15:16-20
When we are free to speak with no restraints or when we
speak the first things that come into our minds when
something happens to us it reveals what is going on in the
heart
Illustration: Going to the men’s Bible study Tuesday night
when a lady comes down the street with her bright lights on
glaring in my face. My response, “get some of this” and I
drive behind her and turn on my bright lights.

Our mouths betray us all the time

740 BC was a time of great rebellion against God and here we
have Isaiah who is on of the good guys

Many of the people had turned to idol worship and Isaiah could
have determined in his mind that he was doing quite well
compared to the crowd and said I'm not that bad
He could have thought, I am a prophet and I am hot stuff

But then he sees the LORD and what does he conclude?

"I am a man of unclean lips just like everyone else"
The depth of our: sin, need and depravity is most manifested
when we can catch a glimpse of the holiness of God

This chapter could stop here, and there doesn't have to be a

verse 6

God is not obligated to do anything but to judge the sinfulness of

Isaiah and thereby condemn him as a man of unclean lips

In the same way God would have been just to strike Adam dead
immediately in the Garden of Eden and start over.
But at the point we think God will show His wrath instead we
see His mercy
Isaiah Chapter 6 and verse 6
So we see that there is a coal pressed upon the lips of Isaiah in order
to burn away all of his iniquity before the LORD

Where we should expect judgment instead we see right at this point

God's amazing grace

Notice the One here who initiates the grace

• Answer - it is God Himself
Isaiah is before God probably laying is a prostrate on the floor feeling
hopeless and helpless

And now notice the means that God uses in His display of mercy for
Isaiah
Purification
Forgiveness
The Seraphim touches the lips of Isaiah
Here is the Biblical principle
 God has the exact remedy of forgiveness that is able to match
your sin

There is a coal to burn away the sin and now this leaves Isaiah as
righteous before God
Isn't this the wonder of the doctrine of "justification by faith"
We receive the righteousness of Christ that is credited to our account
via faith (Romans 4:25)
The goal is nothing less than Isaiah's restoration to service in
ministry

Do you think of Christian service in this way?

Not only does God initiate saving grace that brings us to salvation
which purifies and restores us
But then He calls us to be in ministry with Him
What a privilege we have to be servants of this great and glorious
king
The ministry that God calls Isaiah to as we can read later on is
anything but warm and fuzzy

But instead God is saying to Isaiah that the vast majority that you
speak my word to you will face nothing but ridicule and hardship
And Isaiah you can expect this for a lifetime but know that there
will be a remnant

What could possibly motivate Isaiah to this kind of service?

Answer - he has seen the very face of God!
He has seen and experienced the grace of this God who is
infinitely great
Willing service is an overflow from this knowledge of God
Especially for endurance in the service of God
How does Isaiah hang in there for a lifetime of tribulation?
Isaiah knows God
Conclusion
Point 1 - we can clearly see in Isaiah a vision of God's goodness
the kindess and the grace of God but we see first and foremost
the transcendence of God's greatness and God's glory
And we see God's greatness as it compares to our sinfulness, and
wretchedness

If you are wondering if we as the creation have any rights the

answer is yes, we have one right
We have the right to condemnation because we have offended the
infinite holiness and glory of God

The breath that you are taking right now is because of His grace,
the food that you will eat today at lunch is by His grace, and the
recreation and rest you will have this afternoon is by His grace.
And now wrap your mind around this, the very God that is
transcendent and great, glorious and above us has freely chosen to
come to us
Romans 8:32 - He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered
Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us
all things?
We are going to have to work hard in this culture against this push
to try and convince us or our self importance and self worth
God brings us to His grace and He did not have to do it

Point 2 - Let us rethink as Christian people what it means to serve

God.
1 Peter 4:11 “Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking
the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is
serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things
God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the
glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”