Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts; the whole earth
is full of his glory! (Isaiah 6:3 ESV)
Isaiah had a
heavenly vision. His reaction may surprise you: He cried out, "Woe is me!
For I am lost" (Isaiah 6:5; ESV).
I always
thought that I would love to have such an experience. Seeing something like
this would forever rid me of any lingering doubts I may have about God's
existence. It would change my life for the better. I would live the rest of my
life as a modern day Bible hero!
Not having
had such an experience, I cannot say for sure what its effects would be. But if
Isaiah is any indication, then it would be quite devastating. And he is not
alone. If you are familiar with the other dramatic revelations of God in the
Scriptures, then you know that Isaiah's reaction isn't all that unusual. Seeing
heavenly things is actually pretty scary.
This section
of the Book of Isaiah begins by telling us that this occurred around the time
of King Uzziah's death - a time of uncertainty for the nation of Israel. King
Uzziah had been a great king who came to a sad demise due to pride. Times of
uncertainty tend to cause us to question the things that we hold dear,
including our belief systems.
It was in
the midst of such a time that God’s reality confronts Isaiah: As we already
read, “Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts; the whole earth
is full of his glory!” (Isaiah 6:3; ESV).
Look at the
second part of this statement: "The whole earth is full of his
glory." The term "glory," "kavod" in Hebrew, refers to
the outward manifestation of one's character and ability. Someone may claim
talent, intelligence and other internal attributes, but when those things are
outwardly demonstrated in life, they are that person's glory. God's glory is
the tangible evidence of his invisible attributes. When the creatures called
out, "The whole earth is full of his glory," they were proclaiming
that God's reality was being evidenced throughout the entire world. But this
was not how Isaiah was seeing things. His belief in God may have been intact,
but it is likely that he had trouble accepting that God's reality was affecting
the entire world, let alone the situations around him.
It is even
possible that he had been expressing his doubts to others, which could explain
his confession: “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!” (Isaiah 6:5; ESV).
He knew that
it was the heavenly creatures who spoke truth - not himself or his people.
Isaiah was devastated by this truth, yet he accepted it, which prepared him to
serve God in the days ahead.
From that
time on Isaiah would speak out the truth as God would reveal it to him, no
matter how contrary it seemed from what was going on around him. His
understanding of the great contrast between heaven’s perspective and his own
enabled him to confront lies just as he had been confronted.
That same
perspective confronts us today. Each day we have a choice as to which
perspective we will believe, which version of reality will guide our speech, and
according to whose word we will live.
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