Isaiah 6:5, commentary and pictures

Beholding the King, the Lord of hosts, seated on a throne high and lifted up with His glory and majesty filling the temple, Isaiah heard His holiness proclaimed before veiled angels. Against that sight of divine purity and perfection his own sinfulness and inward defilement stood exposed, so he confessed himself ruined and undone as a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of the same defilement. That vision humbles the beholder into nothingness, sinking pride and self-righteousness until there is no boasting of freedom from sin but only meekness, contrition, and trembling before God. His guilt was taken away and his sin purged when a seraph touched his lips with a live coal from the altar, imbuing him with the Holy Spirit and making even unclean lips able to speak for God. So cleansed he heard the call for one to send and answered in willingness, receiving a holy commission to bear God's truth with power, a sight that nerved him with courage through a long and arduous mission.

Holy King Beheld

The verse looks to the King, the LORD of hosts, sitting on a throne high and lifted up. The sight is of the Lord high and lifted up with the train of His glory filling the temple, beheld fresh and directly before the eyes. What happens in the verse is what happens when a person sees God as King on His throne with His holiness proclaimed, bringing conviction of being undone and defiled in speech and joined to a defiled people. The memory of seeing the King nerved for the work before him and stayed through more than sixty years of long and arduous mission amid opposition and resistance, with growing boldness as a prophet of hope predicting the future triumph of the church.

His greatness is shown by the response to seeing the King, and His glory and majesty are revealed before the eyes. The King is seen high and lifted up with His glory filling the temple, and in the presence of that divine holiness uncleanness of lips is confessed. The Lord is high and exalted and His glory fills the temple, and those responsible for sacred work need to behold Him so, because in the presence of His glory and majesty self sinks into nothingness. A correct view of His holiness and glory calls for reverence and continual self-abasement, recognition of need for forgiveness, increased fear of offending Him, and a heart prepared to receive instruction.

His holiness is proclaimed before angels who veil their faces and cry Holy, shaping reverence for God and holy things and how He is approached in prayer. Seeing the Lord's glory and hearing the cherubim proclaim His holiness makes acutely aware of sinfulness and unfitness in the presence of the holy God.

Confession of Uncleanness

The cry of woe is a confession of being ruined, perishing, deficient, unholy and unfit when standing before the King, the Lord of hosts, whose holiness and glory expose personal sin and the sinfulness of the people round about. Beholding divine majesty humbles the beholder and reveals need of mercy, guilt and unworthiness in His presence. The sense of being undone is the contrast between God's holiness and human sin calling for meekness and humility rather than exalting self as equal with God.

To be a man of unclean lips is to confess sinful speech and inward defilement that leave a person unworthy and unable to speak God's holy requirements. The vision of the King exposes that uncleanness by contrast with His holiness, greatness and perfection, bringing trembling and fear and genuine humility. The despairing cry is met by cleansing, so that humbled ministers receive purified lips and help for their work, lose sight of self, recognize the sacredness of their calling and reject what dishonors God.

The confession joins personal uncleanness with dwelling in the midst of a people of unclean lips who share the same defilement. His lips were unclean as were the lips of those among whom he lived, and the vision of God's greatness exposed that common uncleanness while opening the way to cleansing. Beholding glory teaches contrite, meek speech rather than proud, overbearing force, with pride and self-righteousness sinking away.

Unclean lips are also light and trifling conversation and talking and acting as a worldling talks and acts, which dishonors the Christ professed to be loved. Such speech cannot continue when Jesus abides in the heart to purpose, and daily conversion is needed so that every word honors Christ and life is holy in all manner of conversation. For a people, unclean lips means not practicing what is said, failing to bring integrity, fairness, justice, mercy and compassion into business dealings and not living by received light. Neglecting heaven-sent counsel brings judicial blindness and hardness of heart, and the value of words is measured by strict obedience to that counsel.

Clean lips able to plead reform with moral force require avoiding practices that violate God's law, including the use of tobacco. Sanctified lips and tongue speak correct statements only, kindled solely by God's own sacred fire. Lips are converted when personal defects are pardoned, God's blessing is sought in prayer, criticism of fellow workers is put away, and Christ's words are spoken instead.

Humbling Power of Sight

Seeing the holiness, glory, purity, perfection, greatness and majesty of the King exposes by contrast human sinfulness, weakness, inward defilement, unclean speech and deformity of soul. The vision reveals personal uncleanness of lips and a shared uncleanness among the people, leaving the beholder feeling unworthy, undone and unable to speak holy requirements. Those who see Christ's purity and holiness clearly recognize corruption and unworthiness rather than exalting self.

Beholding that glory humbles self into nothingness, so that the beholder esteems self less and less and sinks pride and self-righteousness away. In the presence of divine glory and majesty there is no striving for mastery, recognition, or vain self-uplifting and no desire to lift self into vanity. This humbling is especially needed by those carrying responsibilities for the work.

Those who truly see God's purity do not boast of being free from sin but confess human frailty, corruption, unworthiness, and a sense of perishing before Him. The contrast calls for meekness, humility, contrition and contrite, meek speech rather than exalting self as equal with God or acting with proud, overbearing force. The right response is to humble the soul, distrust self, admit being undone and unclean in speech, confess weakness and ignorance of self, and seek deeper views of God and a deeper, broader knowledge of Jesus Christ and the help and special grace only He can give to keep from falling. That response also includes trembling and fear before God.

The more closely and continuously Jesus is viewed in His purity and loveliness, the less the beholder sees in self to admire, the more unpleasing self appears as the light reveals deformity of soul, and the soul is prostrated before God in contrition, filled with contempt for self and abhorring self. If the curtain were thrown back and His wisdom and glory revealed, finite people who measure His Word by finite minds and limited comprehension and criticize its validity would shrink into nothingness and confess uncleanness of lips in themselves and among their people. Left to his own imperfection and weakness, Isaiah felt undone and unable by himself to carry out his mission.

Cleansing and Sending

Guilt is taken away and sin is purged when a seraph touches the lips with a live coal from the altar, and the heart is imbued with the Holy Spirit. The confession of being undone leads directly to this cleansing, after which the call to go can be answered. Even lips that are unclean may be touched and purified, so that the cleansed one is made able to speak for God and to communicate light to others. Ministers who humble themselves before God receive purified lips and help for their work, losing sight of self and recognizing the sacredness of their calling.

After cleansing Isaiah hears the call, Whom shall I send, and answers in willingness, Here am I, send me. Recognition of need and unworthiness belongs together with the cleansing and willingness to serve that follow. This representation is acted over and over again when workers press close to the side of Christ, wear His yoke, and daily learn of Him as the great Teacher. Imbued with His Spirit, they are fitted to carry messages of peace and comfort to the sorrowing, disappointed, sad, and brokenhearted, while ministering to souls who do not know present truth and sounding the note of warning to prepare a people for the great day of God. Those who serve in this repeated experience are to be humble and consecrated.

So cleansed, with lips touched from the altar, the messenger is fitted to bear a plain, clear message of Bible truth filled with earnestness and power. This is needed at a time when many appointed teachers depart from the faith and evil angels work with delusions and false theories to deceive if possible the very elect. The work of such a heaven-sent messenger can be joined by angels. No one has a right to take hold of God's work in his own spirit, but must first meet with Christ in private communion and derive efficiency from God, bringing no human spirit into the work. Thus cleansed, he goes forth like Moses descending with face glorified by communion and like the high priest coming from the holy of holies.

After the encounter he is entrusted with God's message and a holy commission. The truth he bears is no greater or more precious than the doctrine of the cross and the imputed righteousness of Christ, coming not in word only but in the power of God to everyone who believes. He becomes a co-laborer with Christ in representing God's character and bringing souls back to God. Those who receive light must cherish and share it, being accountable for the people who do not receive that light through their failure.

Courage Providence Last Days

Seeing the King, the Lord of hosts, became a lasting source of courage that nerved Isaiah for the work before him and stayed with him through more than sixty years of long and arduous mission. The memory of that sight strengthened him when earthly powers arrayed themselves against Judah and when opposition and resistance met the Lord's messenger, enabling him to continue his difficult mission despite opposition. He stood before the children of Judah as a prophet of hope, speaking with growing boldness and growing bolder and still bolder in predicting the future triumph of the church. The verse faces the plain duty to lift the voice in protest against the prevailing evils of erring Judah, yet dreading to undertake the work without some assurance of hope. It carries a burden of soul asking whether none of God's chosen people would ever understand and repent and be healed.

The vision shows heaven closely connected with events on earth, with God caring for those who are loyal to Him. The Lord rules over coming events and holds the destiny of nations and the concerns of His church in His charge. It reveals much that is impressive and holds lessons for all who carry responsible work, showing that labor is done as a spectacle in full view of the whole universe of heaven. That position requires faithfulness, guarding the work from what is unsuitable for the time, and giving present truth in due season. It calls for being hid in the cleft of the rock to see Jesus and to be quickened by His Holy Spirit, because important issues must soon be met and no moment is to be lost.

The exclamation is what God's people should make when God impresses them with a view of His glory. Beholding His glory arouses every church member and every youth to become one with Christ and to prepare to meet God. The sight of the divine King comes from contemplating wondrous themes connected with the great power promised under the proclamation of the third angel. That is when the earth is lighted with glory in the loud cry at the closing of the last message of mercy to a fallen world and the last call to fallen Babylon.

Call to Holy Service

Workers in God's institutions need this same experience to stay connected to God and be sanctified through the truth, or they lose the sense of the truth's power and the ability to distinguish the sacred from the common. Every worker chosen of God feels this unfitness when seeing the King on His throne high and lifted up with His holiness proclaimed, convicted of being undone and defiled in speech and joined to a defiled people. That recognition of sin and sinfulness of the people, with confession and humility over unclean lips, expresses unfitness before God. Such recognition of need and unworthiness prepares for cleansing and the call, for the cry of woe is the needed experience before iniquity is taken away and sin is purged by the refining Spirit, after which the worker can answer the call to go and serve.

God's workmen must approach their calling with humility and earnest prayer, with consecration and dependence on God rather than human authority or their own power, trusting God to guide and order His work. Seeing the holiness and greatness of God against Christ's perfection makes a person recognize the sinfulness of speech and unworthiness, and the cry of despair is answered when God cleanses and gives purified lips and help for the work. This cleansing leads to losing sight of self, recognizing the sacredness of the calling, and rejecting anything that would dishonor God. The scene teaches humility before God and, after cleansing and calling, willingness to serve wherever sent, an experience repeatedly acted out in the Lord's work by those who serve humble and consecrated.

Seeing the high and exalted Lord whose glory fills the temple teaches reverence for God and holy things, shaping how people approach Him in prayer before the great and holy God whom angels veil their faces before and cry Holy unto. Beholding His glory and majesty humbles self into nothingness, making Isaiah feel undone in imperfection with unclean lips among a people of unclean lips, a lesson especially needed by those carrying responsibilities. Those who handle sacred things must humble themselves continually and recognize their need of God's forgiveness, for a correct view of His holiness increases the fear of offending Him and prepares the heart to receive His instruction. Only God's own sacred fire must kindle the work, and unclean lips and tongue need to be sanctified so that only correct statements are made.

Peter should have made this confession instead of denying the revealed weakness, admitting that his own heart and speech were unclean and that he was undone when faced with God's searching knowledge revealed by the Holy Spirit. He should have stopped denying the truth about himself, humbled his soul before God, distrusted self, and confessed personal weakness and ignorance of self. He should have sought special grace to keep from falling, and sought deeper views of God and a deeper, broader knowledge of Jesus Christ and the help only Christ can give, in humble dependence when facing temptation. Woe is me expresses grief over having transgressed God's holy, just, and good law, and belongs to the sinner who stops protecting dignity and chooses to repent while Christ is still pleading in heaven. Seeing sin in its enormity brings recognition of the undone condition, and beginning the Christian life involves turning from evil with deep sorrow. The need for sanctified speech shown by uncleanness of lips is met when God cleanses the lips by the cleansing power of the Holy Spirit, and such confession should be met with encouragement and care, not pleasure at another's humiliation.