DEVOTIONALS

November 2008

Isa. 6:1-7 | Encountering the Thrice Holy God

By Andrew Johnson

IN THE PANOPOLY OF OLD TESTAMENT HEROES, Isaiah stands out in stellar relief. He was a prophet of prophets, leader of leaders. He is called a 'major prophet' because of the vast size of the written material that bears his name." So writes R.C. Sproul about the prophet Isaiah. Sproul also writes, "If ever there was a man of integrity, it was Isaiah ben Amoz. He was a whole man, a together type of fellow. He was considered by his contemporaries as the most righteous man in the nation. He was respected as a paragon of virtue. Then he caught one sudden glimpse of a holy God."¹ In catching this glimpse of God and His holiness, the "most righteous man in the nation" of Israel was ruined, undone.

The Hebrew word translated "ruined" is damah, and means to cease, cut off, destroy, silence, or ruin. Isaiah surely experienced a full expression of what this word means. He was indeed "cut off" from any notion of his own righteousness; if he thought himself a holy man before, he ceased to do so in the presence of the thrice holy God. Any integrity or self-esteem was destroyed and his mouth was silenced - he could not even hope to justify himself. He was before Yahweh, of whom the seraphim proclaimed, one to the other, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is Yahweh of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory." Isaiah could only pronounce judgment on himself, exclaiming, "Woe is me!" He could only confess his own profanity, saying "I am a man of unclean lips." Here the holiest man of Israel, a man appointed by God as His mouthpiece to the nation beheld the holy, and saw the profanity of his own lips, indeed, of his whole person.

I believe that there is little difference between the prophet Isaiah and those who are true believers in Christ. What separates us and him is only a matter of time and knowledge; what we have in common is the grace of God, in which we have been granted not only to believe in Christ and the promises of God which are fulfilled in Him, but also to appear before "the LORD of hosts." We may not be prophets in the manner that Isaiah was, and we may not see the Lord as vividly as Isaiah did in his temple vision. However, the apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, "we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit." (2 Cor. 3:18 NASB) Indeed, we may say that we have something even the prophet did not have, continual access to the throne of grace. The writer to the Hebrews put it thus, "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb. 10:19-22 NASB)

Just as Isaiah was himself profane so are we. For Isaiah cleansing came from a burning coal to his lips. For us it is the atoning blood of Christ offered in the heavenly sanctuary, so that we who believe in Him may approach with confidence through Him. Even so, this is not to say we approach carelessly or with a cavalier attitude. We may approach the Lord with confidence and full assurance of faith, but we still are "beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord." We are still coming before the thrice holy God. What awe should fill in our hearts when we think of the Lord and His glory and His holiness? Should we not also see our own profanity and know our utter dependence on the grace which He bestows upon us in Christ?

Indeed, when we come before the Lord, we do so in confidence. Yet when we do, and we behold His glory and His holiness, we should expect to have a sense of "Woe is me!" "What a wretch I am!" as we see our own imperfection and profanity; as we see the dross of our old nature comes to light. Yet we also have the assurance that in His presence we are "being transformed" into the image of Christ, "from glory to glory." That is, in His presence we loose any hope or assurance we may have in our own "goodness," or in our works, and continue to see our need of Him; we come ever more to place our confidence and assurance in Christ who alone is able to save us perfectly.

1. R.C. Sproul, The Holiness of God. 2nd Ed. (Carol Stream, Illinois: Tyndale), 1998. 18, 28-29

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