Isaiah 6

The first five chapters of Isaiah are a picture of a court room where God's people are asked to give an account of their actions. We are going to go back and look at those chapters but this week we are going to skip ahead to chapter six. I think that it would be easy for the people to be a little upset about all that Isaiah has said about them in the introduction to his book but in chapter six he backtracks and shows that before he went digging specks out of their eyes he did some serious demolition on the house in his own. Isaiah's own sin disturbed him so greatly that he wanted to die, but in the year Uzziah died something happened that changed everything.

With the death of the king uncertainty filled the hearts of God's people. Although Uzziah wasn't the best king spiritually the people felt safe under his care in a world where nations were falling to the Assyrians right and left. It was in this time that Isaiah was reminded that whoever held the thrown on earth would come and go but the true ruler of Israel does not come and go like shifting shadows.

Isaiah 6:1-4

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:

"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory."

4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

This is an amazing picture. The Lord in all his glory being worshiped as He ought. No one is defaming Him, no one is exercising their will to not believe, no one is calling him a liar or calming he is not powerful for this or that and NO ONE is trying to say he doesn't exist. I love this picture! I can't imagine anything greater than a world where the truth is so bright that nothing else can possibly exist.

Dwelling on the Holiness of God's can affect us in two ways.
1) We can be encouraged and filled with the comfort of knowing that with the perfect unchanging Holy God on the thrown we have nothing to fear and
2) With the perfect unchanging holy God we, as sinful broken powerless people have everything to fear, because we do not deserve to live.

Isaiah saw the holiness of God next to the corruptness of himself and reacted accordingly.

" 5 "Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For 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."

And then of course the Holy, LOVING God revealed to Isaiah His perfect plan for removing his sin and taking him as His own.

6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"


And so Isaiah is free to worship the Lord without fear. It is here that Isaiah is telling the people that he too has sinned but his sin has been taken away by his Lord and that is why he is writing this book. He explains exactly what the Lord called him, or rather saved him to do.

9 He said, "Go and tell this people:
" 'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'

10 Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed."

11 Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?"
And he answered:
"Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,

12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.

13 And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."

So if you were Isaiah would you be like, YES SIGN ME UP! There isn't a lot of encouragement here. Isaiah's ministry will actually cause some people to be even more hard hearted, deft and blind to the truth. Rather than make things better, his ministry is going to end in failure and he knows that from the very beginning. But this isn't chapter one of Isaiah it's chapter six. We already know that ultimate "failure" has not stopped him from following God's call. He did not ask what the task would be and THEN say he would go, he said he would before he even knew what God would ask. Because it wasn't about him. He saw the Lord in all his glory and his sin was taken away. That was all that mattered, that he be like those surrounding the throne continually calling out to the world to take notice that, "Holy, Holy is the Lord God almighty and the whole earth is filled with his glory!"


1) Why would God close the peoples ears and hearts if it meant the destruction of his nation?
Is this sarcasm? (Verse 9-10)

These verse are quoted six times in the new testament, Matt.13:13-15,Mark 4:12, Luke 8:10,John 12:40, Acts 28:25-28, Romans 11:8. Read a few of these and consider the context in which they are quoted.

How does this close minded attitude apply to the church today?


2) How does the symbolism of nation as a tree being cut down bring hope? (read verse 13)


3) How real is the holiness of God to you? Does this make a difference in the way you live your life?