Prophet Isaiah: The Humility Prophet

A Prophet that we cannot ignore as we look at lessons from the lives of the Prophets of the Old Testament by which to guide our lives is the Prophet Isaiah. The Book of Isaiah is a lengthy book that I cannot do justice to in a few words. Indeed the book has sections to it. Yet, I think it is worthwhile to select a specific passage to focus on. I have selected the 6th chapter of Isaiah verses 1-9 to elucidate three truths of experiencing God that we should be aware of.

Only a few men in history have been able to see God even in some limited sense since the Garden of Eden when Adam apparently walked with God. Thirty chapters after the burning bush experience [Exodus 3] Moses, in audacious boldness, asked to see God’s glory and God granted him His “back” but not His “face” [Exodus 33]; Gideon shivered when He saw the face of the angel of the LORD [Judges 6]; Samson’s parents were terrified by the visit of the angel of the LORD calling it “awesome” [Judges 13]; Daniel’s face became pale and troubled when he saw the vision of the Ancient of Days and the Son of Man [Daniel 7]; Stephen after his martyrdom speech see the Lord Jesus and the Father in a heavenly vision and braces himself for death [Acts 7] and John on the Island of Patmos crowns it all telling us that upon seeing the glorified Lord Jesus, he “fell at his feet as though dead” [Revelations 1: 17]. Yet there is the witness of Isaiah that I think is unique from all of these visions and glimpses of the Almighty and Isaiah takes us through three steps that an encounter with the Divine entails.

Step 1: Recognition of His Holiness.
I have to be honest with you, I don’t know what Isaiah is talking about. Is this a vision of “the Lord” or is it a literally real experience? I really don’t know. A friend of mine frequently brings this up. I tend to not imagine Seraphims as physical beings with literal wings and faces but that might be my limited judgment. And what is this talk of a Temple and “robe” of “the Lord" about? I am pretty sure this is the only place where the Seraphims appear in Scripture, both the Old and New Testaments, and we are told that they surrounded the throne of “the Lord”. What an amazing privilege? Not Isaiah but these Seraphims—to be next to the Creator and Sustainer of Life itself! What an earnest longing of my own heart—this poverty stricken heart. Do you long for that encounter?

But what are these creatures doing? In the splendor and excellence of their being, we are not told that they are smiling [as I tend to imagine angels] but rather that they are chanting…Chanting, not that God is “Holy” or that God is “Holy, Holy” but that God is “Holy, Holy, Holy”! The first step in an encounter with God [and Christ] is an inevitable recognition of His Holiness.

Step 2: Recognition of our Wretchedness
I have to place Isaiah’s encounter in the proper religio-historical context. Isaiah begins relating his encounter in chapter 6 with the words “I saw the Lord seated on a throne”. What is interesting to note is that in the first five chapters, Isaiah condemns the Israelites in a seemingly pious disregard for his audience making himself seem utterly righteous. Yet he comes before the “Holy, Holy, Holy” One and, as he would word it later, his righteousness becomes as “fitly rags”. The terrible thing about meeting a Holy God is that the evil and ugliness of your heart and my heart is laid bare before Him. Isaiah may have been righteous before his companions but before God, his only response was “Woe to me…I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips”. The only warning I can give of seeking God is that it can be terrible—terribly awesome, terribly humbling. But such humbleness is necessary for our Prophetic mission. Have you been broken by God? Have you recognized your wretchedness. Paul did and he gives us the account in Romans 7. This Pharesee who was "according to the Law, blameless" exclaimed: "Oh, wretched man that I am"...Less #2? A Recognition of our Wretchedness.

Step 3: Recognition of our Commission
A fascinating thing happens to Isaiah after His encounter with God and His response to that encounter. We are told that one of the Seraphims flies towards the broken Prophet with a burning coal, touches the Prophet's lips with that burning coal and then proclaims the Prophet cleansed by that fiery act. Lesson? The brokenness we experience upon meeting God leads to a cleansing in our hearts that we become the mouthpiece of God and there is only one question left for us to answer thereafter and it was the question Isaiah was asked: “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?”. It is the same statement left by our Lord in the now famous “Great Commission”. Once you get sucked into [and please pardon my language] an experience with the Divine, the only thing left to answer once that Divine meets with us is, “Will we Go”? Isaiah was willing to go. Am I? Are you?

Through Isaiah, we learn the spirit of humility in ministry. First we recognize the “Lo”! where we see God; that “Lo” evokes the “Woe”, when we recognize ourselves and finally, there’s the “Go” where we accept His mandate and recognize His commission. May we grow in the humility of Prophethood