Isaiah 6:1-8, vs. “8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: “Whom shall I send, And who will go or Us?”Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
In preparation for calling Isaiah to be the prophet, he would proclaim the coming judgment. God gave him a vision of His majestic holiness so overwhelming that it devastated him and made him realize his own sinfulness.
Vs, “4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips …” It is interesting to read that Isaiah did not have a warm fussy feelings about a loving gentle God even though God is loving and gentle. He saw the posts of the door shaken by the voice that terrified him, but nothing terrified him, I believe, like his sin made clear by the holiness of God. Think of it this way, you are dusting your table in the morning, it appears very clean after you dust it, then you open the windows for the early morning sunlight to come in. To your horror, you see dust on the table you just cleaned, and you see dust in the air. Would you say the light created dust? Of course not, the light merely exposed what the natural eyes could not see. Isaiah’s experience is similar as if the Lord pulled the curtain of the holy of holies and allowed him to see the sin (dust) in his life.
Have we seen our deep sins to cry “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips”? The question we need to ask ourselves is, is sin a disease or a crime? Most of us consider sin as a disease, God considers it a crime. Would you call yourself wretched (meaning a person of great hardship, deprivation, and hopelessness)? Many believers believe they are sinners but have never had the curtains of the holy of holies pulled back to show them their deepest darkness so that they can see how wretched they are. We sing it in the hymn Amazing grace “… that saved a Wretch like me“, easy to sing what we don’t mean/understand. These are the things that wake us up to our condition and especially to the condition of the ungodly. If we found ourselves hopeless having seen our sins with no way of escape until God saved us, how can we assume and be comfortable that the lost will find away out unless we become the witness of what we have seen and experienced? Woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips says Isaiah and vs. 5, “…And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts”. Here is a man who was shown his condition, instead of looking at others first, he decides to start with himself and right there and then he begins to think of the fate of those who like him. Having seen the King, the Lord of hosts and did not die shows how the goodness of God preserved him.
At this point he is not only concerned for himself, he is also concerned for the people around him. 2Corinthians 5:11, “Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men;”. Isaiah’s vision made him painfully aware of his sin and broke him, in this way God would prepare him for his cleansing and his commission. If we are convinced by our own thoughts that God is all loving and will accept everyone, there would be no drive to change and be used. When we learn the terror of the Lord from our own experience with the Lord, it will ignite something in us to hunger for cleansing and have a deep desire and passion to warn those who are lost and bring them to the saving knowledge and grace of Jesus Christ. I am undone, because I, Evans I am a man of unclean lips, may the Lord continue to awaken me and others. To finish blessings Ev
He Has Magnified His Word 