Isaiah 6:5-7 - Exposition

THE SEQUEL OF THE VISION — THE PROPHET 'S SENSE OF UNWORTHINESS .

The vision of God in this life, whether natural or ecstatic, cannot but produce in the beholder a deep feeling of his unworthiness. God "is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity;" even "the heavens are not clean in his sight" ( Job 15:15 ). Man, being never wholly purged from sin while on earth, cannot but shrink from contact with the absolutely Holy. Hence Isaiah's cry (verse 5); and hence, to comfort him, the symbolic action of the seraph (verse 6) and his encouraging words (verse 7).