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2 - Encountering God (Isaiah 6) |
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Read Isaiah 6 at Biblegateway.org
Interpreting the PassageThe account of Isaiah’s prophetic call in chapter 6 richly develops not only the narrative of the prophet himself, but important motifs as well. It is a theophany story, or a story where God becomes visibly manifest to humanity. The narrative carries a message about who God is and what it means to respond to God’s person. This should not be read in isolation, but is important for the rest of Isaiah’s content. The other oracles reflect the themes and motifs of this story, building on what is said about God here. The Israel that God is chasing in the oracles fails to understand God’s holiness, the need and possibility for grace, or their place in God’s mission. These themes are so important that you can feel the immediacy and desperation in God’s voice as he speaks through Isaiah. These themes create the passion of the oracles. All of that passion originates in this story of the call, where Isaiah experiences these realities first-hand. The opening questions are, “What does it mean to encounter God? Who is this God that is encountered?”
HolinessThe narrative of chapter six opens with a time marker, placing the following story in a historical context. The God Isaiah encounters is interacting in the course of history. (The date is around 740 BC.) The Lord is revealed as enthroned, and so great that the train of his robe fills the entire temple. The message is clear: God is vast, boundless. The temple, which is a symbol of his presence, could not even contain the train of his robe in reality. HIs glory fills the entire earth! God is above all and majestic.
The seraphs that surround the Lord serve to announce his holiness. Their cry of “holy, holy holy, is the Lord Almighty” means that the Lord is different, beyond the ordinary, outside of our normal understandings. “God is different, different, different.” “God is beyond, beyond, beyond.” “Other Other, Other, is the Lord Almighty.” God cannot be limited, cannot be fathomed. There is not very much specific information about what God physically looks like here, any such description be inadequate and detract from the point:
Any estimation of God is an underestimation!
This experience of God’s holiness has immediate personal consequences for Isaiah, as we see in the next section.
GraceIsaiah’s reaction upon seeing God manifest is immediate and desperate. By becoming God-aware, Isaiah’s own self-awareness takes a dramatic shift.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined, for I am man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” -Isaiah 6:5, NIV
Isaiah realizes that before a Holy God, his own unrighteousness endangers him. We don’t get specifics here, Isaiah only characterizes himself (and Israel) as a people of unclean lips. That might simply describe general unrighteousness, point towards earlier praise that now appears blasphemously weak, or acknowledge that for many reasons Isaiah’s life makes him a liar. He fails to keep the covenant his mouth proclaims, fails to live faithfully by his words. This mismatch between what we say about God and our relationship to him and what we do is a theme for Isaiah. Ultimately though, the point isn’t the specific “unclean lips” as much as Isaiah’s unrighteousness revealed in God’s presence.
Before God, the best of us might as well be the worst. Any holiness for ourselves that we imagine to have gained by our own efforts and discipline becomes clearly unclean when matched against God. importantly, this holiness theme is matched by God’s power and sovereignty. It would be one thing if God were more holy than we were, but less powerful. Isaiah would have no need to fear in that case. But, the one who is holy is also “the King”. He is “the Lord Almighty.” Isaiah has no chance to defend his unholiness. All of the things that God is revealed to be in this theophany carry consequences for Isaiah. God is holy, Isaiah is not. God is mighty, Isaiah is powerless. God is an enthroned king and Isaiah is under his domain.
What is astonishing though, is God’s response to Isaiah’s cry. God does not bring destruction, death, or punishment. Instead, one of God’s servants carries a holy coal to Isaiah and touches Isaiah’s unclean lips. This is a passage that carries intense drama, particularly if we can manage to read it “live”, as if we were hearing it for the first time. In that context, it is easy to imagine that the approaching seraph is coming to bring Isaiah’s ruin. What happens next is astonishing!
The seraph touches the coal to Isaiah’s lips, and proclaim that Isaiah’s guilt has been taken away, his sin atoned for. There is no explanation of how this works, or why God acts this way. This is a free act of God’s sovereign grace. God chooses to use his power not for Isaiah’s destruction, but for his salvation and sanctification. God makes Isaiah holy.
MissionThis moment of sanctification is clearly an act of grace towards Isaiah, but it is also important to note that Isaiah is not being made holy for his own sake. This happens as a way of preparing him for the service to which he is called. Isaiah is made holy for the sake of God’s mission.
After Isaiah’s experience of God, he is not a reluctant servant, but enthusiastically jumps at the first chance to take part on God’s mission. After all, Interestingly, God is pictured as someone seeking a servant. God solicits help, and Isaiah, newly sanctified, steps up immediately. Isaiah has experienced God’s holiness, his own need for forgiveness and God’s willingness to grant it. These realizations about his own position before God were not limited to him, though. He also realizes his people’s position before God (6:5)!
The call is not what he expects, though. God tells him that the people will fail to respond, that the message will only serve to make them stubborn and hard-hearted. They will leave the offer of grace on the table. Isaiah is to be a prophet ignored. He cries out in response, “O Lord, how long?” Here Isaiah learns that the message will be ignored fully, until the land is ruined and the people are carried away. Then though, at the very end of this gloomy prophecy, god reveals that even in that destruction there will be a holy seed left behind, a promise of restoration. Isaiah’s mission is part of God’s long plan, one that Isaiah will not see the fruits of. The holy God who reveals his boundless holiness to Isaiah draws him into a plan that is much bigger than himself.
Teaching the LessonFrom a teaching perspective, the primary objective with this text might be to communicate the real nature of our position before God. This must begin with humility as a teacher, because anything we say about the holiness of God still pales before the reality. Israel had an elegant temple built to demonstrate God’s holiness and presence, and yet it couldn’t contain God’s holiness at all. How much less so might our words! One of the prime things we can communicate about this text is a sense of the humility that must come from it.
Strategically, it might be helpful to begin this class with a discussion of the ways that people visualize God. What do people see or hear when they imagine God? Perhaps this text or others have already played a part in developing that conceptualization. What are some places that people have gotten their conceptualizations of God?
Another way this text might provoke us is by meditating on the things in our own lives that would cause us to cry out in God’s presence “Woe is me! I am ruined, for I ____________!” While that may be sensitive to discuss, it may be worthwhile to let the question hang in the air. How can you create a moment in your class that allows the members to consider their standing before God in this way? Then we may be ready to discuss how they identify with Isaiah’s feelings in that moment.
If that can be achieved, then it may be a good next step think about what it would mean to fully experience grace as Isaiah does. What would our reaction be (or has it been) to hearing, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for”? How can we capture that joyful reality in our lives?
Finally, what moments in our lives have we found ourselves willing to respond with Isaiah, “Here am I, send me.” Are there ties when we resist mission? How can experiencing God’s holiness and grace lead to more faithful responses to God’s call to mission?
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