As you can’t invite people into your home for a meal and give them dirty (uncleaned) plates and knives and forks, so God cannot invite people into His House if it is polluted (unclean), saturated with the filth of the effects of pagan traits, false preachers and people who live in willful sin. If one considers the holiness of God in His character, personality and Throne Room in Glory, we cannot offer Him sloppy, half-baked Christianity. We cannot give him worship that we would not give an earthly king or president. Even though Isaiah was called to be a prophet and a great revival preacher … he understood his smallness and sinfulness before God.
Isa 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy , holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “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.” 6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
(1) The picture Isaiah saw of God in his vision was literally not for human eyes.
Isa 6:1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2
(2) In seeing the King of Glory, Isaiah realized how decrepit and depraved he was in the presence of holy glory.
Isa 6:5 “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.”
(3) The “beings” in God’s presence sing of His holiness. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy , holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” Our God is the thrice holy God … He is Triune.
(4) The experience was electric with holiness as God appeared.
Isa 6:4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
The picture is that when God appeared in His holiness and the seraphs sang of His holiness the structures of God’s temple shook. What an awesome experience!
(5) At that moment Isaiah experienced purification.
Isa 6:6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
The picture of him saying he was a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips was a reference to him acknowledging how sinful he was before a holy God … and now, because of him humbling himself in confession and repentance, God cleansed him … and now he is fit and ready to serve God.
Isa 6:8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!” 9 He said, “Go and tell this people: “‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
Read the passage and see that although the passage points to Messiah, it firstly points to the ministry of Isaiah. His ministry would not be easy … but he was ready and equipped for service because he was made holy. O my friend, what I am trying to do in these Daily Notes is to show you that before God will come in revival, both His people and the Church establishment needs to be holy as He is holy.
1 Pet 1:15 But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; 16 for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”
8) Reformation, the eight step.
The king continued the cleanup … now he gets rid of “royal idolatrous alters and idols” that king Solomon made!
2Ki 23:13 The king also desecrated the high places that were east of Jerusalem on the south of the Hill of Corruption—the ones Solomon king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians, for Chemosh the vile god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the people of Ammon 14 Josiah smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles and covered the sites with human bones.
Many nominal Jews would have passed by these “high places”, not seeing it as places of worship but as institutional objects of State or history. In their life time it was always there and now king Josiah recognizes them as objects of wrath because they were detestable in God’s sight. King Solomon started off so well, but he did the three things God said kings must not do … such as … (1) Horses from Egypt for military purposes; (2) Wealth that becomes a god … and … (3) Many wives. Between wives and concubines he had a thousand plus. Most were pagan marriages. Through these he succumbed to religious pressure because he was unequally yoked and built temples and places of worship for these wives. Sadly he joined them in worship. (a) Ashtoreth the vile goddess of the Sidonians was normally worshipped under trees and identified as the moon goddess, associated with Baal the sun god. Worship included sexual immorality, prostitution, divination and fortune telling. (b) Chemosh the vile god of Moab. This god had a taste for blood … human sacrifices were part of ritual worship. (c) Molech the detestable god of the people of Ammon. We have already dealt with this religion where children were sacrificed in the fire. Note the violent destruction … desecrated the high places … and … smashed the sacred stones … and … cut down the Asherah poles … and … covered the sites with human bones … making it despicable. The king was serious. What he was doing was also teaching his people how to approach and destroy paganism. He was revolutionary, radical and full of intent. Absolutely nothing would distract him from cleaning up the temple, hills and country to return the nation (people and land – temple and worship) back to God in a better spiritual condition than he had inherited. He was God’s man and he was readying the country for a spiritual revival should God chose to send one.
O Lord, as we deal with the theme of revival, please grant us as your people a desire to do everything we can for ourselves and our church so that should You choose, we will be ready for revival. Amen.