In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple… “Woe to me!” I cried. “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.” Then one of the seraphs 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.”
Isaiah 6:1, 5-7
The sound of the angels singing “holy, holy, holy” filled the throne room as Isaiah looked upon the LORD. He is God’s chosen prophet and is about to be called to serve Him, but what Isaiah sees is more than he can handle. He is completely overwhelmed by the holiness of God. In this moment, Isaiah is faced with the reality of who he is – a sinner; a sinner who is now standing in the presence of his holy and righteous God. I can almost feel the desperation as he cries out, “Woe to me! I am ruined!”
There is nothing quite like a fresh encounter with the holiness of God, to bring us to our knees and to remind us of who we are. God already knows; Psalm 103:14 says “He knows how we are formed, He remembers that we are dust”, but sometimes we need a little reminder, that apart from God, apart from His Spirit within us, we are nothing. Standing in the presence of the LORD that day, Isaiah knew that he was nothing.
The beauty of this passage is that our loving Father does not leave Isaiah this way. He sends the seraph to him to cleanse him, and to restore him. He takes away his guilt and provides atonement for his sin. God reaches out to Isaiah and offers him grace and forgiveness at a time when Isaiah couldn’t have felt any more undeserving.
We serve that same holy and righteous God and He offers that same grace and forgiveness to us. So often, we as women strive to do things under and own strength, and carry a burden of guilt and shame around that God never meant for us to carry. Who do you know that is in need of the grace and forgiveness that God so freely gives? Maybe it is you that is longing for forgiveness and in need of accepting God’s grace. Turn to the one who loves you so much that He Himself provides what we could never attain on our own.
His grace covers all.
Father, thank you for your faithfulness to us. You are holy and righteous and yet you offer grace to us when we are so undeserving. May our response to you be that of Isaiah’s who offered his all in service to you. In Jesus name, amen
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