Devotion//Isaiah's scream

Isaiah's vision of heaven (Isaiah 6:1f) terrified him. It knocked his knees out from under him and slammed his face into the floor.

Edvard Munch's painting, The Scream, comes to mind. Imagine Isaiah's voice shrieking like the unfortunate subject of that portrait.

Woe to me!

The prophet tells us he cried, “Woe to me! 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.”

What frightened him?

I saw the LORD, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 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.

Only a moment into his vision, Isaiah realized he did not belong in the LORD's presence. There only perfection existed. Isaiah's presence mucked up paradise.

“Woe to me! I am ruined! …a man of unclean lips, …a people of unclean lips, …my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”

Send me!

But grace transforms the scene.

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.”

From heaven's altar, from the ultimate place of sacrifice and worship, one of the angels takes a white-hot coal. He presses it against the prophet's lips. His guilt is gone. His sin is forgiven. He stands before the perfect God as a perfect person.

Isaiah did nothing to atone for his unclean lips -- not to mention his unclean thoughts and unclean actions. The LORD provided everything Isaiah needed to belong in God's presence.

Fright changed to faith. Self-focus to grace-focus. Despair to dedication.

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!”

Our transformation

That same transformation is ours. The woeful screams of imperfect people facing a perfect God are gone. They are burned away on the altar of God's grace. Those woes are replaced with a grace-empowered commitment to serve the God who loves us so much he made us perfect in his sight.

Paul says it this way, Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again…. We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:14,15,20).