Isaiah 6:3-7

Remember God’s faithfulness! It is not about our worthiness but His and not about our ability to cleanse ourself but His power to take away our sin. He provided the only way to Him in Christ Jesus. Faith is His gift  and it is our choice: to believe, to hear and to complete whatever He brings to us for His glory!

To say the word holy twice in Hebrew is to describe someone as “most holy.” To say the word holy three times intensifies the idea to the highest level. In other words, the holiness of God is indescribable in human language. To be holy means to be different, distant, or transcendent. Thus the song of the seraphim is a constant refrain that the transcendence of God is indescribable. Although the Lord is totally different from us—He is perfect—in His mercy He still reaches down to take care of us. 

Confronted with this vision of the Lord, Isaiah realized that he was under judgment—that he was undone. He must have thought that he had come to the end of his life. Isaiah knew that he was a sinner.  Isaiah’s plight is the plight of every person. No one, in his or her present state, is capable of standing before the Holy One. 

The live coal … from the altar symbolizes both the purification of blood and the fire of the Spirit that enabled the prophet to speak. From that point on, his words would be light to his hearers and power to those who would listen. The fact that a coal from the altar was used reminds us that ultimately all sin is forgiven because of a sacrifice. The sacrifices on the temple altar point to the ultimate sacrifice of the Savior Jesus. God sovereignly and graciously forgave Isaiah’s sin.

Isaiah 6:3-7

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; 

The whole earth is full of His glory!” 

⁴ And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 

⁵ So I said: 

“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 my eyes have seen the King, 

The Lord of hosts.” 

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. ⁷ And he touched my mouth with it, and said: 

“Behold, this has touched your lips; 

Your iniquity is taken away, 

And your sin purged.”