Isaiah 6:3-5 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 posts of the door
moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. (5)
Then said I, Woe 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 hosts.
J. Vernon McGee
Isaiah 6:3
This pictures the holiness and glory of our God. He is high and
lifted up; and, if we would see Him today in that position, we would be
delivered from low living. It would also deliver some folk from this easy
familiarity that they seem to have with Jesus. They talk about Him as if He
were a buddy and as if they could speak to Him in any way they please. My
friend, you cannot rush into the presence of God. He doesn't permit it. You
come to the Father through Christ. This is the only way He can be approached.
You can never come into the presence of the Father because of who you are. You
come into His presence because you are in Christ. The Lord Jesus made
that very clear when He said, "No man cometh unto the Father, but by
me." If you are His child, you can come with boldness to the throne of
grace, but you cannot come to Him on any other basis. "The voice of him
that cried" is the voice of the seraphim as they proclaim God's holiness. What
effect is this going to have on Isaiah? Isaiah was God's man before he had this
experience, but it still had a tremendous effect on him. The reaction of Isaiah
to such a vision is revolutionary. He sees himself as he really is in the
presence of God—undone. It reveals to him his condition. When he had seen God,
he could see himself. The problem with many of us today is that we don't walk
in the light of the Word of God. If we did, we would see ourselves. That is
what John is talking about in the first chapter of his first epistle: "But
if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with
another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth [keeps on cleansing]
us from all sin" (1Jn_1:7). If we walk in the light of His Word, we
are going to see exactly what Isaiah saw—that we are undone and men of unclean
lips. You have never really seen the Lord, my friend, if you feel that you are
worthy or merit something or have some claim upon God. Job had an experience
similar to Isaiah's, and his reaction was, "I abhor myself." Job was
a self-righteous man. He could maintain his integrity in the presence of his
friends who were attempting to tear him to bits. They told him that he was a
rotten sinner, but he looked them straight in the eye and said, "As far as
I know, I am a righteous man." From his viewpoint he was right, and he won
the match against them. But he was not perfect. When Job came into the presence
of God, he no longer wanted to talk about maintaining his righteousness. When
Job really saw who he was, he said, "I have heard of thee by the hearing
of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent
in dust and ashes" (Job_42:5-6). If you walk in the light of the
Word of God, you will see yourself, and you will know that even as a child of
God you need the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse you from all sin. You will
find that other men had the same reaction when they came into the presence of
God. John, on the Isle of Patmos, wrote, "And when I saw him, I fell at
his feet as dead …" (Rev_1:17). When Daniel saw the Lord, he said,
"Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained
no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I
retained no strength" (Dan_10:8). That was also the experience of
Saul of Tarsus, who became Paul the apostle. After Paul met the Lord, he no
longer saw himself as a self-righteous Pharisee, but as a lost sinner in need
of salvation. He then could say, "But what things were gain to me, those I
counted loss for Christ" (Php_3:7). He saw his need of Jesus
Christ.
