Isaiah 6:1

This is one of the most famous chapters in the whole prophecy, but there is this mystery about it, namely, that nobody knows for sure just where it belongs chronologically. Practically all of the liberal and radically critical writers make it the beginning of all of Isaiah's prophetic writings, identifying it with his original call to the prophetic office. More conservative scholars find many objections to that understanding of it. If it was Isaiah's call to the prophetic office, why should it have been placed this deep into the prophecy? Furthermore, at the very beginning of Isaiah, his prophecies were identified with the reign of King Uzziah and other kings; and, since this vision is placed in the year of Uzziah's death, with the evident presumption that King Uzziah was already dead, making this vision the first one Isaiah ever had would leave no room for those prophecies clearly stated to have occurred in Uzziah's reign. It appears to this writer, therefore, that there is a better explanation of this chapter than the current fad of making it Isaiah's call to the prophetic office. Note that the scriptures do not even hint that this was the beginning of Isaiah's prophetic ministry.

Therefore, we understand this great chapter as a second appearance of the Lord to Isaiah, much in the same manner that God appeared to Abraham a second time in Haran, to Jonah a second time, and to Daniel a number of times. The true reason for God's appearance to Isaiah in this marvelous vision lies in the importance of the tremendously significant prophecy that Isaiah was here commissioned to deliver to Israel, namely, Israel's final and fatal apostasy that resulted in their official judicial hardening by God himself. This is one of the greatest prophecies in the Bible; it is quoted no less than four times in the New Testament; and it is fully applicable to the secular Israel even to the present time. This judicial hardening of Israel so dramatically prophesied here was the end of racial Israel as the "chosen people of God." Such a message, Isaiah would have understood perfectly; and the prophet's need of a special revelation and commission from God Himself in order to enable and encourage Isaiah's announcement of it is evident enough.

We fully agree with Lowth that this vision (of Isaiah 6) could be, "A new designation to introduce more solemnly a general declaration of the whole course of God's dispensations in regard to his people and the fate of the nation (Israel)."[1]

The cosmic sweep of this prophecy concerning the rejection of the once "chosen people" including, of course, the salvation of"a remnant," was also noted by Lowth, as follows:

"Although it relates primarily to the prophet's own times, and the obduracy of the Jews of that age, and to their punishment by the Babylonian captivity; it extends in its full latitude to the age of Messiah, and the blindness of the Jews to the gospel; (See Matthew 13:14,15; John 12:40; Acts 28:26,27; and Romans 11:7,8) to the desolation of their country by the Romans, and to their being rejected by God."[2]

Thus the extremely significant implications of the prophecy in this chapter constitute the only reason needed to explain why a special revelation from God to Isaiah accompanied the giving of it. The chapter falls into three short divisions: (1) The Vision of God (Isaiah 6:1-5); (2) Isaiah's cleansing (Isaiah 6:6-8); and (3) Prophecy of Israel's hardening and rejection (Isaiah 6:9-13).

Isaiah 6:1-5

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke, Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts."

"In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord ..." The king Uzziah is thought to have been the cousin of Isaiah; and he was no doubt held in highest honor and appreciation by the prophet. At any rate, his death was a public tragedy and occasion of great sorrow. It is no accident, therefore, that upon such a tragic occasion a special vision of the Great King should have appeared to his prophet. Israel's salvation could never have come from the activity of any earthly king, no matter how good, or how great. Too many might have been looking to the wrong throne for the blessings Israel needed. It was high time that their vision should have been lifted upward to God Himself, to the true throne of authority and blessing. Many a human being has found an occasion of great personal tragedy to have been also an occasion when a new vision of God upon his throne enabled him to find new cleansing and deliverance from the Lord, as did Isaiah here.

We appreciate McGuiggan's discerning comment on this: For someone it might be: in the year that my wife, or my son, or my little girl died, or in the year that my business failed, or in the year my child became a drug-addict, or in the year when my son was born crippled, or in the year of any great personal tragedy ... I SAW THE LORD SITTING ON A THRONE, high and lifted up.[3]

This is always the correct answer. No matter what tragic sorrow overwhelms and destroys mankind, whether individually or collectively, let all men behold the Lord upon the eternal throne. There and there only is the source of our hope and salvation.

Note our assumption here that Uzziah was already dead when this vision came to Isaiah. As Lowth said, "The phrase, In the year that king Uzziah died, probably means `after the death of Uzziah'; as the same phrase, Isaiah 24:28, means `after the death of Ahaz.'"[4]

"His train filled all the temple ..." The marginal note gives "skirts" instead of "train" here. "Robes" might be a better word.

The three pairs of wings on each of the seraphim are believed to stand for reverence, humility, and speedy obedience to God's will.

"The seraphim ..." These may not be identified with the Cherubim which had four wings (in the temple, two wings), not six. "This word is nowhere else in the Bible applied to God's attendant angels; but the word is applied to the fiery, flying (not winged) serpents that bit the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 21:6)."[5] It might be that the suggestion of these strange beings is connected in some way with the satanic wickedness which was destined, finally, to overwhelm and destroy Israel, which eventuality this revelation from God to Isaiah so sternly prophesied.

The word "house" in Isaiah 6:4 is more properly translated as "temple." Jamieson also identified the "smoke" in this passage with the holy Shekinah of 1 Kings 8:10 and Ezekiel 10:4, indicating the presence of God.

Notice that Isaiah's consciousness of God's presence resulted at once in his awareness of his own sins and uncleanness. Throughout the Bible, this reaction on the part of any person becoming aware of God's presence is normal, indeed without exception. Examples of this are Gideon (Judges 6:22), Manoah (Judges 13:22), Job (Job 42:5,6), Peter (Luke 5:8), John (Revelation 1:17), and the thief on the cross (Luke 23:40,41).

The notion that Isaiah was just as wicked as the Israelites generally were should be rejected. True, all men, in the presence of God, must inevitably be overcome with a sense of wickedness and unworthiness; but that is a different thing altogether from being as wicked as are those in full rebellion against God. Both Noah (Genesis 7:1) and Lot (2 Peter 2:8) were called "righteous" in scripture; but no man is truly righteous in the ultimate sense. Thus, we should understand Isaiah's confession of sin here as a conscious realization of the wickedness of all flesh in the sight of God, and not as an admission that he was just as wicked as the Jews generally were in that rebellious era. If he had been, God most certainly would not have entrusted him with the commission given in this chapter.