Seeing the King (Isaiah 6:1-8)

The time

Isaiah tells us when this meeting took place, but he does not say why he was in the temple. Maybe he had gone there to pray or to offer a sacrifice. It was in the year when King Uzziah died. This does not mean that Uzziah had died before the vision took place. He could have died after Isaiah saw the vision. In 1:1 Isaiah says that he was a prophet in the reign of Uzziah, and perhaps those years of his ministry are described in chapters one to five of his prophecy. So this vision could have been divine preparation for the sovereign’s death, which the Lord knew would happen that year, rather than a reaction.

Uzziah became king when he was sixteen and he reigned for fifty-two years, first as a teenager and then as an adult, perhaps initially as a joint-ruler with his father. For most of his reign, he pleased the Lord, although he did commit a sin that had drastic consequences for him. In that sense, Uzziah is a reminder that it is not enough to start well but to keep on fearing God throughout life. He sinned because of his pride and thought he could do in the temple worship what God had commanded him not to do. He became a leper and had to live in isolation for the final years of his life and his son became a joint-ruler with him. Nevertheless, his death was one of great significance. Probably most people alive in Judah could not remember Uzziah’s father who had been the previous king. But they had grown up under Uzziah’s government and had known blessing as a result because it had been a prosperous time.

We don’t know exactly what the year was when Uzziah died, but we do know the date when our recent queen passed away. All of us can look back to events that happened during her reign. We can recall with fondness her dedication to her role and her delight in fulfilling it. Although she was the queen, she saw herself as a servant. And she fulfilled her role well. She spoke of her love for the Saviour and of the Bible and of prayer.

Yet although she had lived a long life and reigned for many decades, the day came when she too had to leave this life and enter the eternal world. She left behind the world that she knew well and entered the heavenly world where God’s people reign with Christ.

The throne

Isaiah would have gone to the temple expecting to see a lot of people there because it was a busy place. But having gone there, he found himself seeing what he had never seen before when he had an amazing vision. He also heard words that he had never heard before.

What did he see? He saw the sovereign Lord on a throne. So he saw the One who reigns over all things and people. His throne was high, perhaps placed above the temple (since his robe filled the temple and took up all the space). There was no other throne in the temple, so we can say he is the singular God without a rival. This difference highlights what the seraphim said about him – he is separate from his creation because he is the Holy One, superior to them all. We are also told that he is strong, able to bear a robe that fills the temple, which was a huge building. How heavy would such a robe be?

What else did he see? He saw the attendants to the throne, the seraphim. We are not told how many there were. There were at least two, and I suspect two, like the number of cherubim who were on the ark of the covenant, which was the throne of God in the temple. We are told about the wings of the seraphim and what they were used for. Two prevented him looking at God, highlighting reverence and respect; two prevented him focussing on his feet, perhaps on his actions; and two were hovering, implying he was constantly ready to serve.

We are also told what Isaiah heard? He heard the assessments of the seraphim as they spoke to one another about the Lord. Their speech was harmonious in that they both said the same words about him. Moreover, their speech was incessant, a reminder that when you are in the presence of the Best you would only want to speak about the Best.

What was it that they had to say? They reminded one another of the elevation of God, of what makes him divine. Holiness means separation from something because whoever possesses it is above all others. God is pure and perfect and praiseworthy, and he is that constantly. He never declines or deteriorates. He is unchangeable. He is holy, a reality that is mentioned three times to highlight its superlativeness. Angels are holy, but they have a creaturely holiness. God is infinitely greater.

Their speech revealed that they were far-seeing. Isaiah had seen that the temple was filled with God’s robe, and his robe would be something glorious, as is the case when monarchs wear their robes. It was amazing for Isaiah to see that the temple was full of God’s glory, but the seraphim could see that the whole earth was full of it. They are saying that God is omnipresent. They don’t mean that everything on earth is glorious – the inhabitants are sinners, after all; but they do indicate that sinners do what they do in the presence of the glorious God.

Obviously, Isaiah saw an incredible sight in his vision. He saw the Lord, and he saw the angelic attendants, and he saw the large building shaking at the cries of the seraphim. How fragile the power of man was seen to be! Yet smoke appeared, probably from the altar of incense, and its fragrance revealed the pleasure that God had in what was taking place.

What an incredible vision of God! John tells us in his Gospel that the One that Isaiah saw was Jesus (John 12). Here is our Saviour on the throne. Surely a suitable sight when things are difficult.

The Trauma

Although his description of what he saw was beautiful, Isaiah felt overwhelmed. His sight of the glory of God disturbed him greatly, even demoralised him. His awareness of the speech of the seraphim showed him that his own speech was defiled and inadequate, as also was the speech of everyone else in the country. The presence of two angels stunned him, but he would have known that the God he had seen had a heavenly host of worshippers composed of thousands and thousands of angels, and what would happen if they all appeared? We should realise that Isaiah’s response was appropriate for the occasion. How else should he have felt? How else should we feel in the presence of God even although we cannot see him?    

But a great surprise awaited Isaiah. Instead of being punished by the holy God, he was purified, made fit for the presence of the Lord. One of the seraphim stopped uttering his statement of praise to God because he now had something to say to Isaiah. I wonder what Isaiah thought as the seraph flew rapidly to him. He may have thought he was going to be destroyed, but all he felt was the burning of his lips as they were purified by the hot coal from the altar. What had happened to him was that the effects of the sacrifice, perhaps his sacrifice that he had offered earlier that day, was applied to him personally because atonement had been made for his sin.

Earlier we noticed that Isaiah had seen that God was sovereign in his position, singular in his majesty, separated from his creation and elevated far above it, and strong. Isaiah also discovered from the actions of the seraph that God was a saviour, ready to pardon a sinner, ready to purify a sinner, and here we have a picture of the wonderful reality that the blood of Christ cleanses believers from all sin. And where was Jesus at that moment? He was on the throne. But in order to cleanse us he would have to go to the cross and pay the penalty for our sins.

The task

Eventually Isaiah hears God speaking (he has been silent so far as the seraphim and Isaiah spoke). It is Jesus who is speaking and asking the question about who shall be sent on a special mission that he has in mind. We should recognise that there is only one person present that he can send and that is Isaiah. But it is Isaiah in a particular state of having been cleansed before he can be called to serve. And that requirement is made of everyone who serves him. Without such cleansing, there cannot be any discipleship.

Having been cleansed, Isaiah now realises that the verbal challenge of the Lord applies to him and so he announces to the Lord that he is ready to go. The challenge set for him is to take a message to his generation from God. We are so used to thinking of Isaiah as the prophet who said much about the future and the sufferings and glory of the Messiah that we tend to forget that he was called to witness to his own peers, his contemporaries who were imitating the slackness of Uzziah in the things of God. He was willing to do so, and because he did, we have his amazing book.

Lessons

One lesson is that we recognise God at times of national crisis. It is good to have competent human leaders, as we do and for which we should be thankful, but our faith and confidence must be in the sovereign God, the God who reigns throughout eternity.

Second, no doubt Isaiah would have prayed for the kings that followed on from Uzziah, and we can read about some of his interactions with them in his book. He even wrote a book about the reign of Uzziah, retaining knowledge of him for future generations (2 Chron. 26:2). We are called to pray for our new king, and we should be grateful that there are ample records of the faith of the queen who has gone.

Third, in the post-Uzziah situation, Jesus the sovereign God expected Isaiah to play his part as a witness to another kingdom and to another king. It was good to hear that recognition of God in the statements that were made in the various events that have taken place in connection with the passing of the Queen. Surely, in the year that Queen Elizabeth died, we are challenged as to what contribution we will make to the future. Prayer for the new king is essential and demanded of us. But much else is as well.