Expositions of Holy Scripture | Page 9

the altar: 7. And he laid 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. 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 fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest
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 be wasted without inhabitant, and the
houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 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 tell tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them,
when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance
thereof.'--ISAIAH vi. 1-13.
WE may deal with this text as falling into three parts: the vision, its
effect on the prophet, and his commission.
I. The Vision.--'In the year that King Uzziah died' is more than a date
for chronological accuracy. It tells not only when, but why, the vision
was given. The throne of David was empty.
God never empties places in our homes and hearts, or in the nation or
the Church, without being ready to fill them. He sometimes empties
them that He may fill them. Sorrow and loss are meant to prepare us for
the vision of God, and their effect should be to purge the inward eye,
that it may see Him. When the leaves drop from the forest trees we can
see the blue sky which their dense abundance hid. Well for us if the
passing of all that can pass drives us to Him who cannot pass, if the
unchanging God stands out more clear, more near, more dear, because
of change.
As to the substance of this vision, we need not discuss whether, if we
had been there, we should have seen anything. It was doubtless related
to Isaiah's thoughts, for God does not send visions which have no point
of contact in the recipient. However communicated, it was a divine
communication, and a temporary unveiling of an eternal reality. The
form was transient, but Isaiah then saw for a moment 'the things which
are' and always are.
The essential point of the vision is the revelation of Jehovah as king of
Judah. That relation guaranteed defence and demanded obedience. It
was a sure basis of hope, but also a stringent motive to loyalty, and it
had its side of terror as well as of joyfulness. 'You only have I known
of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your

iniquities.' The place of vision is the heavenly sanctuary of which the
temple was a prophecy. Eminently significant and characteristic of the
whole genius of the Old Testament is the absence of any description of
the divine appearance. The prophet saw things 'which it is not lawful
for a man to utter,' and his silence is not only reverent, but more
eloquent than any attempt to put the Ineffable into words. Even in this
act of manifestation God was veiled, and 'there was the hiding of His
power.' The train of His robe can be spoken of, but not the form which
it concealed even in revealing it. Nature is the robe of God. It hides
while it discloses, and discloses while it hides.
The hovering seraphim were in the attitude of service. They are
probably represented as fiery forms, but are spoken of nowhere else in
Scripture. The significance of their attitude has been well given by
Jewish commentators, who say, 'with two he covered his face that he
might not see, and with two he covered his body that he might not be
seen' and we may add, 'with two he stood ready for service, by flight
whithersoever the King would send.' Such awe-stricken reverence, such
humble hiding of self, such alacrity for swift obedience, such flaming
ardours of love and devotion, should be ours. Their song celebrated the
holiness and the glory of Jehovah of hosts. We must ever remember
that the root-meaning of 'holiness' is separation, and that the popular
meaning of moral purity is secondary and derivative. What is
rapturously sung in the threefold invocation of the seraphs is the
infinite exaltation of Jehovah above