The Book Of Isaiah. Day 21, The Lord Calls Isaiah To Be A Prophet, Part Two

In the first segment of Chapter 6 we found Isaiah in the temple. We discussed how he was likely feeling worried and discouraged because King Uzziah had died, and because King Uzziah's reign ended on a spiritually sad note, and because things in the nation were going down a wrong spiritual path. The Lord appeared to Isaiah in the temple, seated on a throne, and we talked about how this reminded Isaiah that even though the long and mostly beneficial reign of Uzziah was finished and Uzziah was no longer on the throne of Judah, the Lord is still on the throne ruling over all creation.

When Isaiah saw the Lord and when he heard the voices of the seraphim surrounding the throne, he was completely overwhelmed. He thinks he is doomed because he has has a powerful vision of the Lord in all of his glory. "'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.'" (Isaiah 6:5) 

What does he mean by "unclean lips"? Some scholars believe that although Isaiah loved and worshiped the Lord before he was called to be a prophet, he struggled with the temptation to allow wrong things to come out of his mouth. Wrong things coming out of one's mouth might be curse words or some form of blasphemy but that isn't necessarily what Isaiah is referring to. The Apostle Peter, for example, said a number of wrong things in the gospels (things for which Jesus often had to correct him) but those wrong things were due to his impetuous nature and his tendency to speak before thinking. Peter's heart was usually in the right place but he sometimes spoke without using spiritual discernment. Another thing Isaiah could be referring to is that he didn't consider himself qualified to speak to the nation. You'll recall Moses bringing up just such an objection about himself when the Lord called him to speak to Pharaoh on behalf of the Israelites. Moses' words indicate he had a speech impediment, which he felt disqualified him to speak God's word to the Egyptian king. Although Moses had wanted to be the deliverer of the Israelites, he had hoped in his youth to do it through force rather than through words. When that didn't work out for him, he grew older and put that dream aside, and when the Lord called him to speak he doubted that he would be able to properly speak the holy words of God. 

But the truth is that nobody really knows what Isaiah means when he says that he has unclean lips and that the people have unclean lips. Isaiah is not a sinless man and if he did sin with words then that is not the only manner in which he sinned. That is not the only manner in which the people sinned either. But for some reason the term "unclean lips" comes to the forefront of his mind when he sees the Lord and it could be that he considers himself unqualified to preach the word of God because of things he has said in the past. As we said in our last study session, getting a glimpse of who God is will reveal to us who we are---and who we are isn't pretty, is it? When we see His holiness, we see our sin, and it's natural that the thing we consider to be our worst fault would be the first thing to come to mind.

You may be familiar with the saying, "God doesn't call the qualified. He qualifies the called." That's just what He does next. He fixes the thing that Isaiah believes stands between him and a career as a prophet. "Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'" (Isaiah 6:6-7)

The seraphim takes a live coal from the altar of burnt offerings at the temple---the altar where sacrifices are made---and touches Isaiah's mouth with it. Presumably the hot coal miraculously does not burn Isaiah, because in our next study session we find Isaiah speaking right after this occurrence. I don't believe he was burned or maimed by the coal. What I think is happening here is that the coal from the altar where sacrifices is made is a symbol of the fact that only the Lord can cleanse us from our sins. Isaiah felt he was a man of unclean lips. Isaiah knew that he was incapable of curing himself of that sin or of any other sin. An imperfect human cannot make himself perfect but a perfect God can impute righteousness to an imperfect man. And that is exactly what the Lord does for Isaiah in today's text. And that is what the Lord does for us through the sacrifice of Christ, which is a perfect sacrifice unlike those that were made before His advent. The only cure for sin is the Lord! There is nothing you or I can do to be regarded by God as holy and perfect and righteous except to place our faith in the One who actually is holy and perfect and righteous.