CHAPTER 6 May 16 
God Calls to Isaiah 
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. 2Above Him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings; with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet and with two he flew. 3One called to another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of His glory! 4The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of Him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5Then I said, Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell amongst a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies! 6Then one of the seraphim flew to me having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. 7He touched my mouth with it and said, Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin forgiven. 8I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here I am. Send me! 9He said, Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand; and you see indeed, but don’t perceive’. 10Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed. 11Then I said, Lord, how long? He answered, Until the cities are waste without inhabitant and houses without man and the land becomes utterly waste, 12and Yahweh has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. 13If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed: as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stump remains when they are felled; so the holy seed is its stump.

Commentary

6:1 In Isaiah 6:1-4 we have a vision of “the Lord high and lifted up", enthroned in the temple, with an earthquake, the temple filled with smoke, the doorposts that held up the veil being shaken (with the implication that the veil falls; 6:4). Rev. 15:5-8, building on this passage, has the veil being removed, the Most Holy opened, and the temple filled with smoke. This sends the mind straight to the rending of the temple veil at the crucifixion and the earthquake (Mt. 27:51). The Lord “high and lifted up" is a phrase that occurs later in Isaiah (52:13), concerning the crucified Lord Jesus, lifted up and exalted “very high" by the cross. John 12:37-41 tells us that Isaiah 6 is a prophetic vision of the Lord Jesus in glory; and in this passage John quotes both Isaiah 6 and 53 together, reflecting their connection and application to the same event, namely the Lord’s crucifixion. When Isaiah saw this vision he was convicted of his sinfulness, as we should be before the cross: “Woe is me, for I am undone...". And yet the same vision comforted him with the reality of forgiveness, and inspired him to offer to go forth and witness to Israel of God’s grace. The vision of the cross convicts men of their sin, and yet inspires them to go forward in service. Rev. 4:9 alludes to the Isaiah 6 vision, and applies it to the future judgment. Yet silhouetted within the vision of the judgment throne is a slain lamb (Rev. 5:6), as if before the judgment, all will be aware of the Lord’s sacrifice. The accepted will utter praise immediately after realising the wonderful verdict pronounced for them- in terms of praising the Lord Jesus for his sacrifice, and recognising their eternal debt to the blood of His cross (Rev. 5:9). The cross and the judgment and reward are connected. In Jn. 12:31,32, in the same passage in which Isaiah 6 and 53 are connected and applied to the crucifixion, He Himself foretold that His death would be “the judgment of this world". Whenever we come before the cross we come before our judgment, and therefore self-examination at the breaking of bread service is natural.