Isaiah 6 - Trisagion

If you think church is boring, you're not truly encountering the holy God!

This is a must read book for all Christians!

SINCE WE LAST LEFT OFF... The first five chapters of Isaiah expose the depth of Judah’s corruption: the faithful city has become a harlot, justice has been replaced with bribery, and God’s people have traded righteousness for empty religion. The LORD responds with both judgment and purpose—He will purge away the dross and refine a remnant.

Yet the people persist in their rebellion, as seen in the song of the vineyard and the series of “woes,” revealing a nation ripe for judgment. What should have produced justice instead yields bloodshed, and what should have borne righteousness produces cries of distress.

Isaiah 6:1–13 (NASB95)

¹ In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the LORD sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.

² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

³ And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts,

The whole earth is full of His glory.”

⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.

⁵ Then I said,

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!

Because I am a man of unclean lips,

And I live among a people of unclean lips;

For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.

⁷ He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”

Belgic Confession

Article 26: The Intercession of Christ

We believe that we have no access to God

except through the one and only Mediator and Intercessor:

Jesus Christ the Righteous...

But this Mediator,

whom the Father has appointed between himself and us,

ought not terrify us by his greatness,

so that we have to look for another one,

according to our fancy...

Therefore,

in following the command of Christ

we call on the heavenly Father

through Christ,

our only Mediator,

as we are taught by the Lord’s Prayer,

being assured that we shall obtain

all we ask of the Father

in his name.

Summary

This passage is so profound and familiar that it's easy to skip right over the opening detail that sets the very important context of this passage. This magnificent calling came in the year of King Uzziah's death. Here in North America, we're used to cycling through our national leaders every four years, or eight at the most. But King Uzziah had been on the throne for over fifty years - he'd been the only king most people had ever known.

So at the end of this long, stable era, in a moment of intense national uncertainty, Isaiah saw the LORD sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Remember that no matter how shocking the headlines and current events seem, the LORD always omnipotently reigns over all things!

But the LORD doesn't appear alone. Above Him stand seraphim - mysterious winged angelic creatures. The word often means 'burning ones' but also can mean 'serpent like.' But their purpose isn't mysterious at all: to provide continual and uninterrupted worship. Isaiah reports that one called out to another. In other words, they sang antiphonally - a continuous, back-and-forth proclamation.

Isaiah doesn't mention the volume of the seraphim's song, but its words are deafening - indelibly etched into the mind of every God fearing person ever since:

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts,

The whole earth is full of His glory.”

These words - often referred to as the trisagion (thrice holy) - continually sung over God's immediate heavenly presence, have a devastating effect as they descend upon the physical world: the very foundations of the thresholds trembled and the entire temple was filling with smoke - entirely consistent with how His nearness was experienced by the Israelites as they heard His commanding voice boom from atop Mount Sinai.

  Dig Deeper  

RC Sproul notes in his must read book The Holiness of God that one of the most popular reasons people stop attending church is because they think it's boring. As Isaiah hears the seraphim's song - sung here not just to praise the LORD, but also to warn sinners like him to stand clear of God's perfection - Isaiah was anything but bored!

Sproul writes, "The doors of the temple were not the only things that were shaking. The thing that quaked the most in the building was the body of Isaiah. When he saw the living God, the reigning monarch of the universe displayed before his eyes and all of His holiness, Isaiah cried out ‘Woe is me, for I am ruined!’” Isaiah knew his unclean lips and sin stained eyes could not withstand the unmitigated perfection of the living God.

Keep Isaiah's encounter in mind as you respond God's call to worship each Lord's Day. You've not come into an auditorium to watch a program or simply experience great music and hear a few good words with some pepermunts in between. You've been commanded to come into His sanctuary - a holy room - holy not because of its physical beauty (though it often is), but because it's in that place you'll come face to face with the manifested presence of the thrice-holy LORD to worship Him.

But also remember that although you still have sin to confess each week, the LORD does not see you as one who is unclean. The seraphim needed to touch Isaiah's unclean lips with a burning coal to make atonement. But your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven by our one and only Mediator and Intercessor: Jesus Christ the Righteous, whose death and resurrection gives you peace with God.

AAA Prayer (About)

• ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts - The whole earth is full of His glory;

• ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that your posture in God's presence would reflect His holiness;

• ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

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