BIBLE PASSAGE:
“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord
sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train
of His robe filled the temple.”
(Isaiah 6:1)
MEDITATION:
Would you like to enlarge your understanding of God’s presence?
We would really like to see the magnitude of His presence wouldn’t
we?
Isaiah had a painful event in his life, however, through this bad
experience, he was able to grasp a greater understanding of God’s
holiness. He saw all of God’s attributes united in His complete
moral excellence.
Look at the magnitude of His holiness:
Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two
wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their
feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling
to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.” At the sound of their
voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple
was filled with smoke.
(Isaiah 6:2-4)
At the same time, God enlarged Isaiah’s realization of his own sins.
“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)
We get a glimpse of how Isaiah’s sins were magnified when compared
to the holiness of God. Even the ‘little, small, minuscule’ sins became
enormous when they were next to God’s holiness. When righteousness
is next to unrighteousness, there’s a stark contrast between the two.
Just imagine for a moment that all your sins are stacked right beside
God’s holiness. More than likely, we would have the same reaction
as Isaiah. We would probably think thoughts like:
“I don’t stand a chance when I see the ugliness of my sins”.
“I wish I could turn back the clock and avoid those sins in my life”.
“How I wish I had obeyed all of God’s commands”.
“Oh how I wish I had shown more of my love for Him
and served Him in some way”.
I’m sure we could add many more thoughts to the list, but
the bottom line is, we would have huge regrets for the things
we did, and some things that we didn’t do out of disobedience.
But aren’t you glad we have a God who forgives and cleanses
us of our sins?
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)
When we see the description of how God forgave Isaiah’s sins,
it can create a painful image, can’t it. When we visualize a hot
coal being place on his lips, it should remind us that when God
forgives us, the method He uses to ‘sanctify’ us may include a
type of physical or emotional pain, but the results are well worth
any agony we might experience.
Isaiah may not have been able to appreciate and accept the magnitude
of his cleaning from God as he should have, until he realized the depth
of his own sins. Every one of us can decide today to try to avoid any
disobedience in the future, but how many will actually do it?
Will we continue to categorize our sins of commission, and our
sins of omission as small, large and enormous? All sins are ‘big’
in God’s eyes. Will we continue justifying the sins we commit
and the things we don’t do in obedience to God’s commands?
Will we learn from the Bible’s report of Isaiah’s experience,
or will we continue doing the things we want to do, and ignore
some of the commands God has given us?
How did Isaiah react to his experience? What choice did he make?
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!”
(Isaiah 6:8)
We can see that Isaiah realized the magnitude of his sins and he
wanted to start serving God. He was ashamed of the sin in his life
and he had a strong desire to prove his love for God. Instead of
choosing to continue in his sinfulness, he made a conscious choice
to become obedient to God’s commands.
He didn’t choose to start obeying some of God’s commands, and
ignoring others. He wasn’t stubborn about what he wanted to do,
he didn’t resent any of God’s commands, and he didn’t try to justify
his sins. Instead, Isaiah basically said to God:
“You have my attention and my FULL commitment.
I will obey You even if it takes me out of my comfort
zone. I will not allow my personal desires to take
precedence over the things You want me to do. I will
no longer justify disobeying Your commands when they
interfere with my daily routines and my sinful habits. I
will obey You even if it causes an inconvenience for me.
I don’t want to have anything in my life that shows the
magnitude of my sins and disobedience when placed
beside Your holiness. Here I am at Your disposal to do
whatever You want me to do.”
Here is a man who made a conscious decision to change his life;
to stop living for ‘self’ and start living for the God who could
save him. He made a commitment to be available for God at any
time, and to reach out to others in an effort to help them increase
their understanding of God.
ACTION:
The question we should ask ourselves is,
“Would I like to increase my understanding of God’s presence?”
Are you willing to make the same commitment Isaiah made?
Would you make yourself available for God to use you as He
chooses? Will you choose to obey all His commands, and not
just the ones that are easy for you, or the ones you like the best?
Pray,
“Heavenly Father, I want to understand and appreciate
Your holiness and Your presence more now than I have
in the past. Knowing about You is fascinating, but knowing
You personally is life-changing! I am willing to make myself
available to You for whatever service You have for me. I want
to prove my love and commitment to You by choosing to obey
all of the commands You have given me, and not just the ones
that are easiest, or the ones I like best. Create in me a new heart,
a new mind, and a new soul. Teach me to have the faith and trust
of a little child so that I will be qualified to enter Your kingdom.
Take away all selfishness and self-righteousness from me and
give me a new attitude that includes a concern for others. I want
to ‘enjoy’ being a child of Yours and not ‘just exist’ as someone
who is trying to do right as a way of avoiding punishment.”
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