“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.” (Isaiah 6: 5)
When Isaiah saw the Lord, high and lifted up, seated on his eternal throne, that scene lifted his eyes far above the mournful state of Judah after good King Uzziah’s death (Isaiah 6: 1). The veil of heaven was lifted, and for a moment, Isaiah saw the unshakeable heavenly throne, and the shining glory of the illimitable God he served and worshipped. He heard the flaming ministers of God, the seraphim, crying out in thunderous rumbles that shook the temple, “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty, the whole earth is full of his glory” (6: 3). It was an incredible experience.
We envy Isaiah as we read of his encounter with God, and wish that we too would be given such a remarkable glimpse of heavenly things. Our eyes are fixed with longing for uplifting visions of God’s splendour and greatness. We expect a spiritual high to overtake us when we see God.
Isaiah’s vision of God’s glory occasioned a response from him, but that response was hardly one of effusiveness and spiritual indulgence. “Woe to me!” Isaiah cried. “I have seen God, and now I know just how filthy I am! What shall I do? I should be stricken dead!” His desperation is clear to all.
We look forward to the cleansing coal of the seraph in verse 6, of course, and are comforted that God quickly sends us relief at the sight of our sins in verse 5. But we should not gloss over these uncomfortable verses or Isaiah’s horror at himself. He fully expected to die: what sin-filled person could see God and live?
We should never forget that any true vision of God’s glory and holiness must elicit in us a heart-wrenching recognition of our wretched sinfulness. God does not show up just to entertain us with his beauty and greatness; he shows up to show us his holiness, and his expectations of us as his worshippers: “You are to be holy to me because I, the LORD, am holy” (Leviticus 20: 26). It was only when Isaiah really saw God that he really saw himself in the blazing searchlight of that perfect holiness.
If our faith has become too cosy, and our understanding of God limited to nothing more than a sentimental portrayal of what we think he should be like, and how he should satisfy our needs, then we need to be reminded of God’s holiness and our deep sinfulness. Yes, we should pray for a glimpse of heaven. We should pray too that in seeing the holy God, we would understand the humbling smallness of our stature and the abject poverty of our broken and sinful ways, so that, rising from the ashes, we would be moved to echo the seraphic cry, “Holy, holy, holy …”
