Isaiah 6

Isaiah 6:1-4

In this chapter we have, 1. The vision which Isaiah saw of the glory of God, ver. 1—4. The frighte it put him into, ver. 5. and the relief given him, by an assurance of the pericles of his Son, ver. 6, 7. 2. The commission which he received, ver. 8. 3. The observance of the Jews notwithstanding their definition forctual, ver. 9. 4. The rumours that should be issued, amidst the general destruction, ver. 13.

1. IN the year that ‘king Uzziah died, I saw also the LORD ‘stinging upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. 2. Above it stood the Seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he slid ‘fit. 3. And one cried unto another, and said, ‘Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts,’ the whole earth is full of his glory. 4. And the poets of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

Isaiah had before, at God’s command, begun his prophetic employment; a solemn confirmation of it is made in this august vision, as a means to strengthen his faith, and quicken his diligence in the discharge of his important office. The date of the vision is the year Uzziah died, after a long and pious reign of fifty-two years; though during the latter part of it, the leprosy, under which he laboured, excluded him from the administration, which was lodged in the hands of his son.

1. What the prophet saw: I saw also the Lord stinging upon a throne, the Lord John Christ, withstood in the glory which he had with the Father before the worlds were; for to him is this expressly applied, John vii. 41. and contains one of the most inconceivable proofs of the official Godhead of our incernant Redeemer; high and lifted up, exalted above all bleffing and prairie, infinitely transforming all treated excellence; the King eternal, to whom every knee must bow, and every tongue confails: and his train filled the temple, either the bright angelic spirits, who grazed his pretence, or the irradiation that he had around him; or perhaps it may refer to his church on earth, filled with the gifts and graces which, on the day of Pentecost, were so eminently bestowed upon the apostles; by whose preaching, a vast succession of converts was quickly made. Above it, or near him, stood the Seraphims, the barters, the heavenly hosts, or those emblematic representatives of the ministers of the gospel, Rom. 1. 13. each one had six wings; with music he entered his feet, as unable to hear the transcendent brightness of the Redeemer’s glory; with music he entered his feet, as to his best services unworthy of God; and took music he did by, delighted, ready and swore to obey God’s high commands. Thus do Christ’s ministers with shame acknowledge their forbearance and unworthiness to look up to God, and own the imperfection of their so-heit walk; whilst burning with soul, they are ready to fly at his word to preach his gospel, and fulfill his abelian. Not, (1.) We cannot entertain apprehensions of the glory of our Immanuel, according to his excellent greatness, if harpish knowledge. (2.) Before God, the highest creature stands a

thamed; Before God

shamed; and how much more cause hath man, a sinful worm, to bluffs and be confounded, when he appears before the throne of Jesus. (3.) Burning zeal for God, is the character of his faithful ministers. (4.) Delight and chastful readiness for God’s work and will, is the way to rise to fellowship with angels.

2. What he heard. One cried unto another, with fervency and unanimity, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hoffs, the trisure God, glorious in all his attributes, and especially in his holiness; the whole earth is full of his glory, manifested in all the works of creation and providence, but especially of redemption and grace. Thus do God’s ministers of flame on earth unite in preaching the one glorious gospel, and giving to Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, the pride of that holiness displayed in the justification of the sinner’s person, and the sanctification of his soul, by the atoning blood of Jesus, and his efficacious grace.

3. The effect of this cry. The path of the dear merced at the voice of him that cried, denoting the removal of the temple worship and service; or the powerful effect of the gospel on men’s consciences, shaking their vain confidence, and awakening their souls to a force of sin; and the heals was filled with smoke, in allusion to the cloud of incense, which covered the mercy-fear on the day of atonement, and intimating God’s acceptance of his ministers services; or signifying the judgments that would come upon the Jewish people, when their city and temple should be destroyed; or finally, the smoke of the sinner’s torment that ascendeth up for ever and ever.

4. ¶ Then said I, ‘Wo is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hoffs. 6. Then ‘flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off’ the altar. 7. And ‘he said it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 8. Also I heard the voice of ’the LORD, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for’ us? Then said I, ‘Here am I, send me.

5. 5.—8. Struck with the astonishing vision, the prophet is confounded, conscious of his own sinfulness, and inability to stand before this holy Lord God.

6. He laments over himself. It is me, a sinful worm, for I am undone, if this holy God be strict to mark what is amiss; because I am a man of unclean lips, defiled in nature, and probably conscious of fear, and want of boldness in the delivery of the awful messages with which he was charged; and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, whose iniquities were, to his bitter sorrow, ready to draw down the heavy judgments of God upon them; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hoffs, the Lord Christ, whose perfection of holiness, like the bright beams of city, discovered those foots and impurities that in the dark before he did not perceive. Note, (1.) The more we know of God’s purity and perfection, the more we shall discover of our own vibness and pollution. (2.) The highest stains of God, who know him best, are most lowly in their own eyes. (3.) A good man not only laments over his own corruption, but when he looks around, his heart is grieved with the filthy convulsion of the wicked, and he trembles for their approaching ruin.

7. A gracious message is sent him for his encouragement. The Son one of the seraphims unto me, on his humbling confession, having a live coal in his hand, signifying the powerful and lively word of the gospel, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar of burnt-offering, which was the type of the Lord Christ, whose atoning sacrifice alone can procure the sinner’s pardon; and he said it upon my mouth, not to condemn his unclean lips, but to purify them from their pollution, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips, intimating the application of the pardoning word of God to the sinner’s soul, by which he is enabled to take the comfort of the promise; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged, or expiated, utterly blotted out before God, wiped away from his conscience, and perfectly expiated by the sacrifice of Jesus. Note, (1.) God delights to comfort the mourners in Zion; penitent prayers will find an answer of peace and joy. (2.) Nothing can heal the heartbroken under sin, but the precious balm of atoning blood applied by faith in the word of promise. It must be this coal from the altar, not strange fire, that can quicken the perishing food. (3.) They who would speak to God, or for God, with confidence, must first hear him speak to them pardon and peace. (4.) None are so far or able so feelingly to preach to sinner the grace of a Redeemer, as they who have, by experience, raised the riches of his love to their own sinful souls. (5.) The ministers of God, like burning seraphims, should fly to the relief of the poor and broken-hearted sinner, with the invigorating word of kind consolation.

8. Isaiah offers himself for God’s service. God is intro-

duced deliberating on the choice of a messenger, and the prophet is ready to go. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, the Father, speaking with his conquest Son and Spirit, whom shall I send on this dangerous errand, to reprove a hardened nation, and who will go for us? John xii. 41. Also xxviii. 25. an evidence of the trinity of the persons in the deity of the Godhead. Then said I, Here am I, send me: Since God had purged his pollution, he is now ready to undertake any service for his glory, however difficult of dangerous. Note, (1.) None can rightly speak for God, who have not a divine million from him, and have heard his voice reaching, their own hearts the truths they must deliver to others. (2.) The ordination of a minister is a matter of solemn weight, being it is so rare to find that zeal for God, that love for men’s souls, that acquaintance with the mysteries of godliness, which are such effectual qualifications for a preacher of the gospel. (3.) If a desire to glorify God, and a delight to serve him in the gospel of his dear Son, does not engage us as volunteers in the service, each share of all worldly prospects, and regardless of all suffering, it were a horrid profanation to offer modesty for the ministry, merely because destined by our parents, or to procure a maintenance.

9. ¶ And he said, Go and tell this people, ‘Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. 10. Make the heart of this people far, and make their ears heavy, and thus their eyes: ’let they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed. 11. Then said I, LORD, how long? And he answered, Until the cities he wafted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land he utterly defolate, 12. And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land. 13. ¶ But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: ‘as a test-tree, and as an oak’ whose substance is in them, when they call their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

10. 9.—13. Isaiah having offered himself, his service is accepted, and his commission given him, Go; but he is informed, though to the most it would be utterly ineffectual, to a few it would be blessed with success.

11. He is commanded to tell this people, now abandoned to their own hearts lusts, Hear ye indeed the words of the prophets, but especially of Christ and his apostles, in reference to whose preaching this scripture is several times quoted in the New Testament, but understand not, either the glories of his person, or his doctrine; and see ye indeed his miracles so great and strange, but perceive not the proof of his divine million therein contained. Make the heart of this people far, and make their ears heavy, and thus their eyes: God gives them up to judicial hardness and blindness; because they desire not the knowledge of the truth, in judgment they shall be deprived of it, and find that gospel which was ordained unto life, to them a favour of death unto death: but they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed, to which the preaching of the word was adapted, or at least might see so far as to make some national information, which might avert the judgments God had resolved to bring upon them for the rejection of his Son, and therefore he left them to a reprobate mind. Note, (1.) Many are called by the gospel word, few laced by gospel-grace. (2.) The clearest truths of God’s word are darkness to the fallen mind; the natural man recoveth not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. (3.) Wherever God’s word is preached, it serves to harden those who receive it not in the light and love of it. (4.) They who are converted, will find the wounds healed which sin had made in their souls, whilst the impenetent perish in their iniquities.

12. He is informed of the desolation to be accomplished upon them, in answer to his question, How long should this impenetence and divine judgment upon them continue? even till the whole nation was destroyed and dispersed, the country depopulated, and utter ruin brought upon them by the Roman sword, v. 11, 12. and to this day, both their hardness of heart, and their terrible judgments are continued. Note, (1.) The ruin of men’s souls is the necessary consequence of rejection of the gospel. (2.) Temporal judgments are often the punishment of national sins.

13. Though to the most the prophetic word would be fruitless, a remnant would be fared. But yet in it shall be a need, alluding to the Lord’s portion of the tythes, a few referred amidst the general apostles; and it shall return, and be none, or be burnt; after their return from Babylon, the city and people should be confused with fire by the Romans: as a test-tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, though in winter they are stripped of all their verdure, the principle of life still remains, so the holy seed is the substance thereof; they shall behold, though in their wretched condition, a separate people, for the elect’s

Edd’s fake that shall at last be gathered in; or for Christ’s fake, who shall at last turn away ungodliness from Jacob. Note, (1.) Though the labours of God’s misfitters may not be so extensively useful as they wish, they shall not be in vain; a few shall appear scals of their fidelity. (2.) For the sake of the faithful that are in it, the world is preferred; when they are gathered out, then cometh the end. (3.) Though our souls may sometimes, through temptation and desertion, appear as the trees in waters, if there be spiritual life within, we shall again bud and blossom as the rose.