Chapter 11 God calls Isaiah
Isaiah 6
Before we look in detail at how God speaks to Isaiah in chapter 6 it might be worth reflecting on the first chapter of the prophecy. Isaiah was born in Jerusalem in 740BC and lived till 687BC. He was considered to be a very godly man who spoke God’s word to the people. The opening chapter of Isaiah begins with:
“1 The vision concerning Judah and Jerusalem that Isaiah son of Amoz saw during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.
A Rebellious Nation
2 Hear me, you heavens! Listen, earth!
For the LORD has spoken:
“I reared children and brought them up,
but they have rebelled against me.
3 The ox knows its master,
the donkey its owner’s manger,
but Israel does not know,
my people do not understand.”
4 Woe to the sinful nation,
a people whose guilt is great,
a brood of evildoers,
children given to corruption!
They have forsaken the LORD;
they have spurned the Holy One of Israel
and turned their backs on him.”
There was a persistence in the people of God to want to embrace the idolatry of the other nations around them. Perhaps it would be good for just a few moments to consider what was at stake and why idolatry is considered such a serious issue:
The Canaanite religion consisted of a pantheon of gods rather than one God. The very root of the Jewish faith is that there is only one God. Some would argue that the whole of the book of Genesis is a religious statement directing us towards the fact that there is only one God [theology refers to this as ‘monotheism’] and that this one God is the sole creator and sustainer of everything. The first 3 commandments warn us about how serious an issue it is to God for us to believe only in him and directs us away from idolatry.
The Canaanite religion included human sacrifice [normally children] and temple prostitution. Human sacrifice may have taken place if there was a failure of the crops and the people believed that the gods needed appeased. Temple prostitutes were part of the religious cult where men would have sex with these women as part of a religious ritual. You can see how fear and ignorance might draw people towards human sacrifice and how appealing, on the other hand, to many men the idea of uncensored sexual activity.
When Isaiah uses terms like, “they have rebelled against me”, we can see that this is the language of a husband who feels he has been deserted by his wife or a father who has been deserted by his children – things that would have been unthinkable in the society Isaiah lived in. These are images that Isaiah, and many of the prophets will return to again and again as they try and emphasise to the people in spiritual terms what their behaviour means to God. God feels hurt and betrayed.
We have got at this point to be careful that we do not relegate idolatry to the rather crude practices of the Canaanites and what followed with the Greeks and the Romans. Idolatry is principally a cultural response to setting up an alternative to the true worship of God:
The priority for a Christian is to do the will of God and live out the principles of the Kingdom of God.
- Sexual freedom and the throwing off of all restraint is the cry of many in our world – they are setting up an alternative morality and the great danger is that Christians will adopt, at least in part, this new morality. There is a seduction that can lead us away from the principles of God into ‘new ideas’ that are not a million miles away from the moral practices of the Canaanites.
- Money, what we possess, and what we can achieve through wealth can very easily become idolatrous – one moderator of the Church of Scotland wisely said that “money was a good servant but a bad master.”
- There is a worship of self, our bodies, and celebrity, at the heart of our society. We have got to be very careful that we do not buy into what is essentially an alternative view of life that is ungodly. Jesus told us that we are to adopt the same attitude as himself – we are to be servants and not put the development and fulfilment of self above service to God and our neighbour – we need to be careful not to worship at the altar of self-image and celebrity.
- Isaiah warns the people against religion taking the place of a genuine relationship with God. Here is the scenario. A person might:
Be indifferent to goodness. Goodness is the essence of living out the will of God in all of our relationships and activities.
Be indifferent to justice. Christians should always be concerned when they see injustice at home or abroad and be at the forefront of campaigning for reform.
Be indifferent to the oppressed. Who are the oppressed? Everyone who is marginalised by society and who very often have no-one to stand as their advocate – people who need the strong and those with influence to stand with them.
Be indifferent to the orphans – often the forgotten children of our society and the world, who through no fault of their own are often institutionalised with little or no love in their lives. God’s people cannot ignore their plight.
Be indifferent to the widows – in most places in the world, a group of people who have few rights and little support.
Isaiah warns that mere religious activity can never make up for a basic concern by God’s people for what concerns Him most. Doing and being church is no substitute for the real thing – doing the will of God and being concerned for everything and everyone who concerns Him. Worship is only meaningful as it spills out into action over the week! A service on a Sunday – which is how we describe what we come to; should be a place where our lives are fine-tuned and serviced to enable us to go back out into our world and be effective Christians.
The moral and spiritual bankruptcy of the people is at the heart of Isaiah’s message. But would the people have noticed anything wrong? They were living in a time of relative prosperity where there was a real “feel good” factor by the average person. It is often the case that in times of prosperity it is difficult to see personal, moral or spiritual poverty!
Isaiah would have considered himself to be a just man who tried to live in such a way that pleased God – indeed that was the independent assessment of his life by those who knew him well. However, Isaiah was a vision that rocks him to the core. We must remember that this vision has a terrible sense of reality about it that is deeply felt by the prophet. Here is how he describes his experience in chapter 6:
In verse 1 there is a deliberate play on words. Uzziah was sixteen when his rule as king began and he ruled in Judah [the Southern Kingdom] for 52 years – a long reign for any king in those days. Two different parts of the Bible describe Uzziah’s reign – 2 Kings 15: 1-7 and the whole of 2 Chronicles 26. How is he described?
The passage in 2 Kings describes him as a man who “did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight.” There was one exception and that was that he did not completely get rid of all the pagan shrines in the nation.
2 Chronicles gives us a slightly different picture. It speaks at length about the king’s victories and spirituality – “Uzziah sought God during the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God. And as long as the king sought the Lord, God gave him success....the Lord helped him wonderfully until he became very powerful.” But, this is then added, “When he had become powerful, he also became proud, which led to his downfall.” He was struck down with leprosy till the day he died.
There is the good and godly, but not perfect Uzziah, who reigns for 52 years, on the one hand, and then there is the perfect, ever-living God on the other!
The vision describes the indescribable. Isaiah is in the Temple and he see the Lord on a lofty throne. This is a throne that lasts forever that has a permanent resident. It is raised up in order to indicate God’s power and majesty. The enormity of the robe fills the whole temple. The angels who surround the throne have one task – worship!
The angels who surround the throne say,
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is filled with his glory.” [verse 3]
What are they saying? Remember that these creatures have known and experienced God from before the beginning of time!
“Holy, holy, holy...” What do they mean by this?
You are absolutely unique – there is no-one else like you!
When we see you we cannot help but burst into praise and worship!
You are the thrice holy God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
You are not just holy – you are intensely Holy.
You are perfect; beautiful; without the stain of sin.
In seeing this vision of God, Isaiah is seeing something that he is not – he becomes aware of the gulf that exists between him and this glorious God in whose presence he stands. He is profoundly aware of his sin and un-holiness.
“...Lord Almighty!”
Isaiah knows that he is in the presence of ultimate and absolute power. We have recently witnessed the power of a tsunami in Japan – that is nothing in comparison to the evidence of power that Isaiah is witnessing. I was listening to Professor Cox speaking about the power of the sun and the awesome power of black holes throughout the universe – they pale into insignificance when compared to the Lord Almighty! Here is the source of all things that exist!
“The whole earth is full of his glory!”
Our whole earth is full of the evidence of the power, glory and uniqueness of its Creator. Paul tells us this in Romans 1:20
“From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.”
Does God speak to me? Paul would say that he does this every day, and very clearly too! What is he saying?
“Look at the world around you and look at the sky at night. Look at the seas, the flowers and all the creatures of this world. Look at yourself in a mirror. What do you see? I am speaking to you about my eternal power; more than that, I am speaking to you about my divine nature. You are seeing evidence of the following things:
The incredible power I had to create all this and the matching power I have to sustain it.
You are seeing into my heart. When you are seeing the beauty of everything that is around you and above you and beyond you, you are seeing the beauty of my nature. You are seeing what brings me pleasure and joy.
You are seeing the evidence of my grace and love. I could have destroyed all of this and you with it when you sinned. But I have given you an incredible world to live in. My love? All of this is not just for me, but also for you. My heart wants to share it with you.
You are seeing evidence of my desire to look after you. Do you not remember what Jesus said in Matthew’s gospel – “Look at the birds. They don’t need to plant or harvest or put food in barns because your heavenly father feeds them. And you are far more valuable to him than they are.”
How does God speak to us? Instead of rushing into, and through each day, take time to stop and look and ponder that God is shouting to us about his eternal power and divine nature and all that that means!
Isaiah is not just seeing evidence of God’s nature, he experiencing his presence! What effect does this visitation of the presence of God have upon Isaiah’s immediate environment?
“The glorious singing shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire sanctuary was filled with smoke.”
I have been to some really powerful worship services where figuratively speaking, “we lifted the roof off” the church. I have never been to the kind of worship where the walls of the church shook and the foundations shook too – especially in a building as great and substantial as the temple in Jerusalem! I it just the worship of the angels that has this effect – not the voice or the presence of God! How does this affect Isaiah?
“Woe to me for I am ruined! I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
On the one hand we might say that God has in effect not spoken a word, yet his very presence has communicated something to Isaiah!
The presence of God has “undone” Isaiah. What does this mean? The word that is used in the original language would indicate that Isaiah felt that he was disintegrating – very similar to someone having a complete nervous breakdown. The presence of God revealed in even its partial glory is something that no sinful human being is designed to withstand. God speaks to Isaiah through this experience, indicating that no matter how good his reputation as a person, when compared to the glory of God he is “a man of unclean lips.” The immediate presence of God creates an awareness in the prophet of the extent of what sin has done to his life – he feels utterly contaminated and he feels that his immediate environment and social relationships are contaminated. He feels to the very core of his being that he is a sinner! So profoundly does this impact on him, he virtually disintegrates emotionally and psychologically.
How can God then be described to speak to us through this experience if he never even speaks a word? His glory does the talking and the angels speak about him with Isaiah personally responding. He communicates that he is utterly holy in all that that word means. We just need to look around us and we will see all the evidence of his glory and nature – he speaks to us fundamentally and powerfully in his creation.
Finally, God spares us the immediacy of experiencing his presence because in our sinful state it would destroy us; even his perfect angels have to veil their faces in the presence of his glory. Paul tells us this:
“12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” [1 Corinthians 13:12]
The best we can hope for in this life is to see everything in a partial sense. Why? Because we are inherently sinful and cannot bear the immediacy of the presence of God. He speaks to us in veiled ways but one day he will fully reveal all things. If we ask to both see God and hear him speak we are asking for more than we bargain for and can hope to cope with – such a revelation would destroy us, such is the corruption of our nature and the glory of God’s.