Isaiah 6:1
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. 2 Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 One cried to another and said:
“Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts;
the whole earth is full of His glory.”4 The posts of the door moved at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar in his hand. 7 And he laid it on my mouth, and said, “This has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.”
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?”
Then I said, “Here am I. Send me.”
King Uzziah ascended the throne when he was only sixteen years old, and his reign continued for fifty-two years (2 Chronicles 26). The Bible records, “And he sought after God in the days of Zechariah, the one who instructed him in the fear of the Lord. And in the days that he sought after the Lord, God caused him to succeed” (2 Chronicles 26:5). Although most of his reign was characterized by godliness, we are told, “And as he grew strong, his heart grew more proud, leading to his destruction” (2 Chronicles 26:16). In his pride, King Uzziah entered the temple intending to burn incense on the altar, which only the consecrated priests were allowed to do. Azariah, along with eighty other priests opposed him in this. Tragically, instead of simply repenting of his error, the King became angry. The text records the tragic results,
Then Uzziah was enraged, and in his hand was a censer for incense. And when he became angry with the priests, leprosy appeared on his forehead in front of the priests in the house of the Lord, near the altar of incense. 20 Then Azariah the head priest and all the priests turned to him, and he had leprosy on his forehead; and they hastened to remove him from there, and he also hurried to leave because the Lord had struck him.
21 So King Uzziah had leprosy until the day of his death. He dwelt in a separate house with his unclean disease because he was cut off from the house of the Lord.
The tragic end to a decades-long reign must have been devastating to the nation. Nonetheless, the prophet Isaiah writes that it was in the very year of the king’s death that he saw the Lord. In verse five, he says, “…my eyes have seen the King.” Uzziah’s death, tragic as it was, served as a reminder that the true King has not left his throne. It gave an opportunity for Isaiah to refocus. As we enter 2023, there are lessons we can learn from Isaiah’s words. It’s a new year, and it’s time for new goals.
1. Lay to Rest the Things That Cannot Be Changed
“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord…” -verse 1
Isaiah couldn’t change the fact that Uzziah’s reign ended with foolish sin, illness, and death. He had to lay that to rest and move forward in the fresh revelation of God that he was given. Pastor David says, “Lay to rest the mess that you can’t change.” Our first goal as we enter 2023 needs to be to leave some stuff behind.
Pastor David illustrates this with a box of tissue. After inviting Lane Houston to the platform and handing him a box of tissue, he says, “If I tell Lane to hold this box of tissue out in front of him, he will have no problem doing it. It probably doesn’t weigh more than a pound. It’s no problem. However, if he keeps holding it out there until next Sunday, his arm is going to get very tired. The weight of it one time is no problem, but the weight of it over time becomes exhausting. Sometimes the issue is not that you cannot carry the things life has thrown at you, but when you try to carry them day after day, it becomes too much. We have to lay some things down!” It is time to lay down unforgiveness, bitterness, past hurts, and past tragedies. If you cannot change it, it’s time to lay it to rest. He continues, “Some things are still alive because you keep breathing fresh breath into it. You keep talking about it and bringing it up. It’s time to stop giving it life and move forward.
2. Position Yourself to Have a Move of God
“One cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of Hosts;
the whole earth is full of His glory.” The posts of the door moved at the voice of him who cried, and the house was filled with smoke.” -verses 3-4
The conversation that Isaiah witnesses in Heaven is nearly as impressive as the sights that he beholds. Isaiah sees the seraphim, which seem to be an angelic-type creation that some believe are made of fire.1 They are speaking to each other about the holiness of God and the vastness of His glory. The seraphim understood how to position themselves to live in God's presence. Rather than talking about the death of an earthly king or the crises that God's people were facing, the seraphim obsessively spoke to each other about God's holiness.
If believers want to position ourselves for a move of God, if we want our house of worship to be filled with the smoke of His presence, we must adjust our speech and our habits. We must choose to live lives of prayer, of worship, and of obedience. We need to spend time with God outside of church as well as inside it. This requires intentionality. It has been observed in nature that things have a tendency to move from order to disorder. This is also true regarding spiritual things. It requires no effort to let chaos take over. However, if we desire a life that is well ordered and prepared to experience God’s presence, we must be intentional. Let this be the year when we develop healthy rhythms of bible reading, prayer, fasting, worship, generosity…Christian living.
3. Quit Examining Everyone Else and Embrace Self-Examination
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of Hosts.” -verse 5
Pastor David says, “If all your relationships are full of turmoil, it is time to examine yourself.” This is a painful but important truth. A person once came up to me quite angry and exclaimed, “I saw you in Walmart, and you didn’t even speak to me!” I responded, “Did you speak to me?” With that, they became silent. I continued, “Just because you saw me does not mean I saw you.” This individual was offended by an assumption they had created within their own mind. Some nagging sense of low self-esteem led them to believe I was predisposed to not like them. The truth is, I never saw them. In every arena of life, we would benefit from a deeper level of self-examination.
This is certainly true in our walk with Christ. Let this be a year when we reach deep within ourselves and consider what steps we can take to grow in Christ. Let us refuse to blame others for our lack of spirituality and instead choose the path of repentance, humility, and spiritual maturity. Nothing will make us aware of our true condition more than an authentic encounter with God. May God grant each of us such an encounter this year.
Reflecting on the King James Version’s rendering of Isaiah’s Heavenly vision in chapter six, Leonard Ravenhill once noted,
It was an upward vision. He saw the Lord. It was an inward vision. He saw himself. It was an outward vision. He saw the world. He heard three words: Woe, Lo, and Go. He said, “Woe is me.” The seraphim said, “Lo, this hath touched thy lips…thine iniquity is taken away.” And he also heard “Go.” “Go and tell this people.” It was a vision of holiness…he saw the Lord. It was a vision of hellishness…he saw himself. It was a vision of hopelessness…he saw the world.2
Ravenhill’s reflections reveal the truth that Isaiah could only be of value to a hopeless world once he saw himself for who he really was and allowed God to cleanse him and take away his iniquity. We must lift our eyes to Heaven while also reaching deep within ourselves.
4. When God Starts Doing Something and Says, “Who Shall I Send?”, Say, “Send Me”
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar in his hand. 7 And he laid it on my mouth, and said, “This has touched your lips, and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin purged.” 8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me.”
In Matthew West’s song Do Something, he powerfully illustrates the necessity of believers stepping up to answer the call of God.
I woke up this morning
Saw a world full of trouble now
Thought, how'd we ever get so far down
How's it ever gonna turn around
So I turned my eyes to heaven
I thought, God, why don't You do something?
Well, I just couldn't bear the thought of
People living in poverty
Children sold into slavery
The thought disgusted me
So, I shot my fist at heaven
Said, God, why don't You do something?
He said, I did, I created you
Now listen
If not us, then who
If not me and you
Right now
It's time for us to do something
If not now, then when
Will we see an end
To all this pain
Oh, it's not enough to do nothing
It's time for us to do something
We have to do something. Some studies have suggested that above 80% of the Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists in this world do not know a single Christian personally. People love to talk about whether or not God is just, but what greater injustice is there than for humans to know the truth and refuse to share it? We cannot love our neighbors if we don’t even say hello to them. We must evangelize the world, but evidently a good starting point would be to have a cup of coffee with someone that doesn’t look like us. Atheist performer Penn Jillette once quipped, “How much do you have to hate somebody to not proselytize? How much do you have to hate somebody to believe that everlasting life is possible and not tell them that?”3 The point is well taken. Jillette went on to say that if he sincerely believed that a truck was coming toward someone and they refused to believe it, there would come a point where he would tackle them.
When we realize that the God of Heaven and Earth is calling us to make a difference, there has to come a point where we say, “Send me.” Pastor David notes that if every believer in the world simply lived lives of generosity as the Bible instructs us to, we could end world hunger. I have often noted that believers are on the front lines of orphan care, poverty alleviation, and offering care to refugees. While this is true, there remains incredible untapped potential if those who claim to be Christ-followers would simply step up. The world can be evangelized in our lifetime, but only if we will step up and do something.
5. How Long? Keep Working Until You Go to Heaven or Until There is No One Else to Tell
“Then I said, ‘Lord, how long?’ And He answered: ‘Until the cities are laid waste without inhabitants, and the houses without man, and the land is utterly desolate.’” -verse 11
Sometimes like Isaiah, we ask the Lord to tell us how long He expects us to live selflessly and continue calling people to Him. The answer, like he answered the prophet, is that we are to continue doing so until everything is completed. Pastor David notes that believers are called to maintain a high standard in order to call others to come follow Christ. There are things we should lay aside that are not necessarily sins, but if they hinder our witness, the loving thing to do is lay them aside. If we want to see Heavenly glory descend to Earth, we must take a cue from the seraphim and relentlessly focus on the holiness of God. Pastor David explains, “You will never convince God to lower the standards of what He wants to do to the level of how you want to live.”
Pastor David once heard his father talking about the great things people in the past had seen God do. When the question was asked as to why those things often don’t happen now, Larry responded, “We are not willing to live where they lived.” These are convicting words, but they are often true. If we want to see God work mightily, we must embrace a life that looks different than most people’s lives.
More than a decade ago, believers all through the Arkansas River Valley were impacted by the words of Missionary David Hogan as they resounded deep within Pastor Robert Boen’s spirit. Hogan said, “I’m no different than you are. I’ve just found a place in my life where miracles happen, and I’m disciplined enough to stay there.” When we find ourselves asking, “How long?”, it is my prayer that we will be disciplined enough to abide in the place of God’s blessing and favor. We must hold the standard high and refuse to quit. The sacrifice will be worth it.
Concluding Thoughts
As we enter the new year, let these new goals guide us.
Lay to rest the things that cannot be changed.
Position yourself to have a move of God.
Quit examining everyone else and embrace self-examination
Commit yourself to answer the call of God and to be the change that is needed.
Commit to keep working until you go to Heaven.
The Hebrew word from which “seraphim” is derived literally means “to burn with fire” or some define it as “burning ones.” Some sources suggest that they physically appear to be on fire, while others have suggested that they have power over fire. In this passage, they take a burning coal from the altar to purify the prophet’s lips.
I am quoting from memory, as I do not have a copy before me, but these reflections are taken from Why Revival Tarries by Leonard Ravenhill.
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