Isaiah 6:1-5
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. 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.
The word “holy” in Scripture comes from the Hebrew word qadosh and the Greek word hagios. Both of these words literally mean “cut” or “separate.” Functionally, they mean pure, sinless, and separated. When we talk about our calling to be holy (1 Peter 1:15-16), we mean that we are to be separate from sin and set apart for God’s purposes. When we talk about God’s holiness we not only mean that God is without sin (1 John 1:5; James 1:13-15), but we are describing His “otherness.” There is nothing like God or that can be compared to Him. Isaiah 40:25 records, “To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One.” Hannah prayed in 1 Samuel 2:2, “There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God.”
There are many passages of Scripture that affirm and communicate the holiness of God. Among the greatest of those is Isaiah 6. In this passage, Isaiah is given a vision of the Lord exalted, worshipped, and magnified as “Holy, Holy, Holy.” In this passage, we are given a glimpse of the holiness of our God and are brought to a humble reverence for Him as Isaiah was. There are five responses you and I are to have to His holiness. We will look at two this week and the remainder next week.
First, we must note that we are called to worship His majesty. Isaiah receives this vision in the year that King Uzziah died, which most believe to be 740 B.C. Uzziah had been a mostly good king for Judah and Israel had seen great peace and prosperity under his rule for about 52 years. Now, his rule has ended and it is quite possible that Isaiah, along with the rest of Judah, were in a panic about what was going to happen to them, especially with the Assyrian Empire posing an increasingly larger threat. In the vision, Isaiah sees the Lord exalted on His throne and His glory filling the temple. In His presence are creatures called Seraphim. The word literally means “burning ones.” They are on fire from the holy presence of God, created to be so. They cover their faces and their feet with two wings and then fly with two others. They are amazing creatures, most likely the same as the Cherubim (Ezekiel 1:4-11; 10:3; Revelation 4:6-8). What is more important is what they say and whom they worship. They never cease to cry, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” The threefold repetition of God as holy here conveys two things. First, it is a clear reference to the Trinity, which is that God is One divine being who eternally exists as three person: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He is thus, thrice holy. Secondly, it conveys that He is the perfection of holiness. Repetition in Scripture is meant for emphasis. To say something twice was to emphatically declare something (as in Matthew 7:21 with “Lord, Lord”), but to say something three times was meant to communicate the absolute perfection or representation of something. These angelic beings declare the perfect holiness of God upon His throne. He is to be worshipped above all others.
Secondly, we learn that we should reverence His person. The decree of the Seraphim causes the foundations and doorposts of the temple to shake and the room is filled with smoke. The smoke is perhaps the smoke of incense like the high priest was required to permeate the holy of holies with on the Day of Atonement (Leviticus 16:12) or it could be the smoke of His burning wrath toward a sinful world. Either way, the scene is one of extreme reverence. Isaiah understands the picture very well and response by crying out in admission to His own sin and unworthiness of being present before such holiness. He expresses the sin of his “unclean lips” and his unworthy “eyes” and has to cry out “I am undone!” You and I do not truly know God until we know Him in this way. He loves and desires to save sinners, but sinners can only recognize their need for salvation when they see God as the perfectly holy, sovereign ruler of the universe and themselves as doomed without Him and unworthy before Him.
God’s holiness should produce in us a humble attitude of worship and reverence. We must join in the recognition of the Seraphim that He is perfectly holy and exalted above all else. We must join with Isaiah in recognizing that He is so infinitely worthy and we are not. Have you ever seen yourself as “undone” like Isaiah did? The good news is that God has made provision for our holiness and ability to approach Him through His Son Jesus Christ. He came and shed His blood on a cross for the forgiveness of our sin that we might be reconciled to God and One day spend eternity with Him. Isaiah will receive cleansing and forgiveness based upon this in the verses ahead. Have you? Will you?