Isaiah 6:1-13 NLT
[1] It was in the year King Uzziah died that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. [2] Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. [3] They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” [4] Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. [5] Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the LORD of Heaven’s Armies.” [6] Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. [7] He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” [8] Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.” [9] And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’ [10] Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing.” [11] Then I said, “Lord, how long will this go on?” And he replied, “Until their towns are empty, their houses are deserted, and the whole country is a wasteland; [12] until the LORD has sent everyone away, and the entire land of Israel lies deserted. [13] If even a tenth-a remnant-survive, it will be invaded again and burned. But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.”
Isaiah said in Isaiah 6:5:
Then I said, “My destruction is sealed, for I am a sinful man and a member of a sinful race. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord Almighty!”
The most powerful asset a Christian has in his witness to others is his weaknesses. Sharing how depending on a God helps him overcome insurmountable odds.
Isaiah’s vision was his commission to be God’s messenger to his people. Isaiah was given a difficult mission. He had to tell people who believed they were blessed by God that God was going to destroy them because of their disobedience.
The more clearly Isaiah saw God (Isaiah 6:5), the more aware Isaiah became of his own powerlessness and inadequacy to do anything of lasting value without God. But he was willing to be God’s spokesman. When God calls, will you also say, “Send me”?
Most men are aware of their weaknesses. They may not spend a lot of time beating their breast over them, but if confronted with obvious evidence that they have failed they will usually admit that they are not perfect and may even reluctantly concede that they have a problem in that area. Even a strong man, in his nobler moments, will confess to an Achilles’ heel.
Isaiah was different. He confessed he was deficient in what others probably regarded as his greatest strength, his speech. Isaiah was a reputed wordsmith, a skilled communicator, a man capable of sublime statement and exquisite poetic expression. From his lips and quill flowed truth and beauty. But Isaiah confessed he had a problem with his lips! “Woe is me! . . . because I am a man of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5, KJV). Even his strength was flawed with weakness!
Apparently Isaiah was aware that his lips were capable of saying “unclean” things—unkind, untrue, unhelpful, and unacceptable things. There were at least two reasons for this sad state of affairs. First, by Isaiah’s own admission, he was “a sinful man” (Isaiah 6:5)—he had an inbuilt tendency to deviant behavior, a tendency that his lips expressed.
Second, he lived in a society where sinful speech was accepted: “and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5 KJV)—and he had acquiesced in the wrongdoing. As a result, Isaiah’s guilt was not so much in his weaknesses as in his strength!
But this realization did not come to Isaiah as he compared himself with his contemporaries. It could not, for they were no better than he. He needed an external reference point, and he got it in his vision of the Lord (Isaiah 6:1-4). Seeing the Lord in his holiness helped Isaiah see his own fallenness.
Repentance comes in different shapes and sizes. Some “repentance” is nothing more than being sorry that I got caught. Some is a matter of being sorry that I am suffering because of what I did. Some is regret that I do bad things.
But deep-down repentance—real repentance—goes beyond being chagrined about what I’ve done to being distressed about what I am. This kind of repentance recognizes that I am a fallen man, shot through with deviancy. Deep-down repentance leads me to say not just, “I’ve done some bad things,” but to confess, “I am a sinful man.” It involves acknowledging that I am fallen—especially in my strengths.
From an Unworthy servant,
Chris Chloupek
Lead Evangelist