Well good evening everyone and welcome to my forty fifth episode. Tonight, I want to take a look at Isaiah chapter six. As we go through this study, I want you to keep the following three questions in your mind:
- What type of people have been the hardest for you to reach? Why?
- How can we prevent others from feeling unworthy around us?
- How can we maintain a mindset of readiness?
Now I’m going to read the chapter to you in its entirety. Please enjoy.
Isaiah 6
Isaiah’s Cleansing and Call
6 It was in the year King Uzziah died[a] that I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple. 2 Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. 3 They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” 4 Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke. 5 Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. 7 He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.” 8 Then I heard the Lord asking, “Whom should I send as a messenger to this people? Who will go for us?” I said, “Here I am. Send me.”
9 And he said, “Yes, go, and say to this people, ‘Listen carefully, but do not understand. Watch closely, but learn nothing.’ 10 Harden the hearts of these people. Plug their ears and shut their eyes. That way, they will not see with their eyes, nor hear with their ears, nor understand with their hearts and turn to me for healing.”[b]
11 Then I said, “Lord, how long will this go on?” And he replied, “Until their towns are empty, their houses are deserted, and the whole country is a wasteland; 12 until the Lord has sent everyone away, and the entire land of Israel lies deserted. 13 If even a tenth—a remnant—survive, it will be invaded again and burned. But as a terebinth or oak tree leaves a stump when it is cut down, so Israel’s stump will be a holy seed.”
Let’s start off by taking a look at verse one. King Uzziah died around 740 B.C. He actually contracted leprosy when he attempted to take over the high priests duties in the temple. This event is documented in 2 Chronicles 26:18-21. It is true that King Uzziah was a competent leader and he had a long a prosperous reign. But it is also true that many of his people turned away from God. It’s not uncommon for prosperity to breed complacency and pride in a society.
This brings us right into our first question: What type of people have been the hardest for you to reach? Why? I think the hardest people to reach are the ones who are self-righteous. These are the people who already believe themselves to be good without God. Or to be the source of their own goodness. This attitude is usually born from a place of ignorance of the origins of their moral structure. I think the best way to reach people like this is to become friends with them and have conversations with them. You need to get to know a person so you can find out what he or she believes. Then take their beliefs seriously. Find out why he or she believes this. Then, show the person that you truly understand their worldview. Steel man their arguments and show them that you understand them. This will lay the groundwork for you to have an opportunity to effectively explain why Jesus fits their own view better than they may have considered.
Back to Isaiah. This chapter’s main purpose is to record Isaiah’s vision. His vision was actually his commission to be God’s messenger to his people. This was not an easy job. He had to tell people who thought they were going to be blessed by God that in fact they were going to be punished by God because of their disobedience. In Isaiah’s vision, we are given a lofty description of God that provides a sense of his greatness, mystery, and power. Imagine being Isaiah. He’s just a common sinner and all of his inadequacies are highlighted in the presence of Holy God. But what does Isaiah do? He confesses his sins and God forgives him. When we recognize how great God is, how sinful we are, and the extent of God’s forgiveness, we receive power to do his work. How does your concept of the greatness of God measure up to Isaiah’s?
Look at this scene: God is seated on his throne with attending seraphim, or angels. The seraphim are crying out holy three times. All of these elements emphasize God’s holiness. The name seraphim is derived from the word for “burn” and this could indicate their purity as God’s ministers. After all, fire purifies. Isaiah needed to see this because he was living in a time when moral and spiritual decay had peaked. He needed to witness God’s holiness. Holiness means morally perfect, pure, and set apart from all sin. We also need to discover God’s holiness. From daily frustrations, to societal pressures and our own shortcomings, we have a tendency to narrow our own view of God. We need the Bible’s view of God as high and lifted up to empower us to deal with our problems and concerns. God’s moral perfection, properly seen, will purify us from sin, cleanse our minds from our problems, and enable us to worship and to serve. I should say at this moment that if there is a sin that you continue to struggle with, just trust God that he will free you from its power in time. The Holy Spirit works to purify you in His own way. Your job is to trust Him, not stress yourself over avoiding certain sins.
Seeing the Lord and listening to the praise of the angels, Isaiah realized that he was sinful and unclean before God, with no hope of measuring up to God’s holiness. When Isaiah’s lips were touched with a live burning coal, however, he was told that his sins were forgiven. It wasn’t the coal that cleansed him, but God. Isaiah’s response was to submit himself entirely to God’s service. Isaiah was determined to go no matter how difficult the mission might be. The painful cleansing process was necessary before Isaiah could fulfill the task to which God was calling him. Letting God purify us can be painful, but being purified is an important step in your walk with God. Everyone’s pace is different. It’s important to trust God and realize that he knows how weak and flawed you are.
This brings us to our second question: How can we prevent others from feeling unworthy around us? Have you ever been in a place where you were surrounded by experts and your own inability felt highlighted? Like if you go to a gym for the first time and see a bunch of heavy hitters there that have been going for a long time. All of a sudden you feel more out of shape. If you’re the expert and a new person comes into your domain, try to reach out to them and figure out what they like or what they are good at. Everyone has something they are good at or comfortable with. By focusing on that part of the person, you are exiting your own domain of competence and entering theirs. This is an excellent way to build trust with a person because you allow yourself to become the vulnerable one.
The more clearly Isaiah saw God, the more aware Isaiah became of his own powerlessness and inadequacy to do anything of lasting value without God. But he was willing to be God’s spokesman. He was ready to go. So my final question for you is: How can we maintain a mindset of readiness? I think one of the most important dimensions of maintaining your readiness is to guard your time of rest. You need to be rested or you will achieve nothing. Sleep deprivation and burnout will make a fool out of the best of men and women. It’s like when an airliner tells you to put your own oxygen mask on before helping your neighbor with theirs. You can’t pour from an empty cup. If you want to be ready to answer God’s call, make sure you are rested and not overworked. It’s also a good idea to live a lifestyle of preparation for this call. You should always be learning new things everyday and practicing positive routines. Set up your surroundings in a way that promotes your goals and makes your movements efficient.
God told Isaiah that the people would listen but not learn from his message because their hearts had become calloused and hardened beyond repentance. God’s patience with their chronic rebellion was finally exhausted. His judgment was to abandon them to their rebellion and hardness of heart. Why did God send Isaiah if he knew the people wouldn’t listen? Although the nation itself would not repent and would reap judgment, some individuals would listen. God is merciful even when he judges. We can gain encouragement from God’s promise to preserve his people. If we are faithful to him, we can be sure of his mercy.
When would the people in Judah listen? Only after they had come to the end and had nowhere to turn but to God. This would happen when the land was destroyed by invading armies and the people taken into captivity. This happens with many people today. It’s not until they go through their own calamities that they begin to listen to God’s words. Many people could spare themselves the difficulty if they would take it on faith. But I certainly understand them when they need to go through it themselves.
If you find this content valuable, feel free to share it and to use it in your own studies. If you’d like to support this podcast, you can do so at www.patreon.com/michaelhbaun. There is a link in the description. Your generosity goes a long way to promoting the growth of this enterprise and the cause of free speech. Thank you all for joining me this evening, and I will see you in the next episode.
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