Week of July 4

Some of the most memorable testimonies I have ever heard come from people whose lives have been radically transformed by God. From addictions to newfound freedom in Christ, they have been reborn! Their journeys toward healing led them to reach out to God and invite Him into every thing they thought or did each day. This required them to slow their lives down and think about each decision and subsequent action. They were now connected to God and this encounter with the Lord was life changing. We will do well to listen to Isaiah today in our age of addictions. He has a message for our hearts.

Isaiah 1-5 has described how God’s people had rejected their “Holy One,” but Isaiah 6 tells us of a face-to-face encounter with Him. The year was 740 B.C., and it was the year that king Uzziah died, seemingly taking the hopes of a nation with him to the grave. Our national leader is alive, but there has been considerable political turmoil across all levels of government in recent years. The same holds true around the globe. Let’s imagine today that the prophet’s message freshly comes into our lives. Isaiah called the people (and us) to lift their eyes to receive a vision of the real King, the Lord, sitting on His heavenly throne (cf. HCBC)!

Recognize the value of a direct message from God. Isaiah’s lips were purified by the Lord for him to preach God’s word to a spiritually insensitive people. His was not an easy call. He was to proclaim God’s truth until Israel faced God’s judgment and the people were carried into exile! Only a remnant would remain. We need to recognize something about the context that would also be the case with the first Apostles—the message is more important than the messenger (cf. Philippians 1:15-18). God’s message, clearly proclaimed, must go forth. Hold on to this thought.

Receive the message directly into your heart. Please notice that Isaiah speaks in the first-person singular (“I”) in this section of the book, which may also be compared to the “we” passages in the book of Acts. There is an immersion of the messenger into the message, so that his or her soul is soaked in God’s saving word of hope. The importance of the message belied the fact that so many people participated indifferently in temple worship. We, too, often sit apathetically in our pews, insensitive to the call of God to heed, then herald, His message. 

Humbly offer your life in service to God. This is the only passage in the Bible where heavenly beings are called “seraphs” (EBC, NAC, comparison to Ezekiel 1:5-14). The name literally means “burning ones” and they were either standing higher than God or flying above the throne. These beings were “very much alive and worshiping God.” With two sets of wings, they were covering their faces and feet, not from shame or guilt, but because of humility (cf. NAC). These creatures, as strange as they were in appearance, are worthy of our focus here because of their response to God! Their “antiphonal declarations” of His holiness are key to getting the message right (6:3).

The old maxim reminds us that it is quite difficult to light a fire with wet firewood. This truth leads me to ask, “What type of spiritual kindling are we?” Can the fire of the Spirit set our lives and churches aflame with our unholy attitudes and practices? Seek God’s fire when you worship, and then fan the flames with your life, so to speak, throughout the week.

We may learn much by observing the seraph’s worship behavior before God. First, God is not our “Buddy.” Like Israel and Judah, we too often adopt a casual attitude about God. Isaiah’s vision of a God who is separate from everything that is vile and ugly in a profane world is critical to understanding how we are to relate to Him. This holiness is revealed in both God’s actions and His will (NAC). So, when the seraphs say that the “whole earth is full of his glory,” they likely mean that the design of God’s work is such that His holiness should become manifest. How may this be the case when we live in such a wicked world? 

Secondly, this level of worship should be our longing. Holy messengers communicating God’s vital message is the key to the realization of the longing. In other words, God’s way should fill the earth and we, ourselves, are to be filled with His way (cf. John 14:6; Leviticus 20:26; 1 Peter 1:16; Franz Delitszch). Our starting point in worship is to see the need, and then to be radically changed by what we encounter in God’s presence. Isaiah (we, also) could only see his unworthiness (6:5) and need for atonement (6:6-7). Isaiah cried out in his sin, and God reached out with His grace! One wonders how anyone, or any church, could fail to herald God’s salvation after an encounter like that one? One does wonder!

1. When and where was your Isaiah moment? Write it down in a paragraph or two. If your worship is cold and lifeless, and you see no essential need of bearing the message of hope, then go back to your Isaiah moment and find renewal.

2. For Families: If it is possible, plan to take your children early one morning this summer to a special place. Choose ahead of time to travel to a tall mountain or hill, where you can park the car, take your picnic blanket, and watch the early morning unfold. Hopefully, you can find a hill, an elevated mound, or a lake – somewhere you can feel the wind and watch nature as it awakens to a new day. 

Ask your children to be very still to listen for five minutes. Ask them to sit in the silence and to listen carefully to sounds that only God makes. Not man-made sounds, like airplanes and car engine noises, but God’s sounds. Ask them to remember what they hear. Then spend the moments of silence together. When the time is up, ask your children to tell you what they heard (wind, animals, leaves in trees, grass blowing, birds, even thunder or rain). Remind them that God has filled the earth that He has made with signs of Himself. God is amazing and not like us. Show your children the majesty of God’s creation – as Supreme Creator and Sustaining Artist of our world. This God also lives in us, and we can share our magnificent God with other people too.

May your paths be straight,
Larry C. Ashlock