Isaiah 6:5 - Meaning and Application

Our curiosity might make us ask more about the seraphim, their songs, and their service. But here we must leave them and pay attention to what passed between God and his prophet. Secret things do not belong to us, including the hidden things of the angelic world. What has been revealed to and through the prophets, which concerns God’s rule among people, is what we are given to hear.

Now we come to the prophet’s deep shock at the vision of God’s glory (Isaiah 6:5). Then I said, “Woe is me!” He might have said, “Blessed are you, who have been so highly favored, honored, and lifted for a time into the privilege of those glorious beings who always see the Father’s face. Blessed are the eyes that saw the Lord seated on his throne, and the ears that heard the angels praising him.” One might think he would have said, “I am happy forever. Nothing can now trouble me, make me blush, or cause me fear.” Instead, he cries, “Woe is me, for I am undone. Alas for me, I am a doomed man. I will surely die” (Judges 13:22; Judges 6:22). He feels silenced, as if struck dumb and struck dead. In the same way, Daniel became speechless when he heard the angel’s words, and no strength or breath was left in him (Daniel 10:15, Daniel 10:17).

Notice what the prophet thought about himself that filled him with fear: “If God deals with me in strict justice, I am ruined, because I have made myself worthy of his displeasure. I am a man of unclean lips.” Some think he meant a specific careless word he had spoken, or his sinful silence in not rebuking sin with the boldness and freedom it needed. That is a fault God’s ministers have too much reason to confess and mourn. But the words may also be taken more broadly: I am a sinner. In particular, I have sinned in speech, and who has not? (James 3:2). We all have reason to grieve over this before the Lord.

First, our own lips are unclean. Our speech has not been set apart for God. He has not had the first fruit of our lips (Hebrews 13:15), so they are treated as common and unclean, like uncircumcised lips (Exodus 6:30). Worse still, they have been polluted by sin. We have spoken from unclean hearts, and that kind of speech corrupts good morals and defiles many. We are unworthy to take God’s name on our lips. The angels praised God with pure lips, but the prophet says, “I cannot praise him like that, because I am a man of unclean lips.” Even the best people have reason to be ashamed when they compare themselves with the holy angels. The angels had been praising God’s purity and holiness, and that is why the prophet calls sin uncleanness. Sin is hateful because it goes against God’s holy nature. That should make sin seem both ugly and frightening to us. The impurity of our lips should grieve our souls, because by our words we will be justified or condemned.

Second, we live among people who are polluted too. We must lament not only that we ourselves are defiled, but that all mankind is defiled. This sickness is inherited and widespread. That does not lessen our guilt, it should deepen our sorrow. It is especially serious when we think of how little we have done to help cleanse the polluted speech of others. Instead, we have often learned their ways and picked up their language, as Joseph in Egypt learned the courtier’s oath (Genesis 42:16). “I live among a people whose shameless sins are bringing destructive judgments on the land, and I, being a sinner myself, may rightly expect to be caught up in them.”

What brought these sad thoughts to him at that moment was this: “My eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” He saw that God’s rule cannot be challenged, for he is the King. He saw that God’s power cannot be resisted, for he is the Lord of hosts. These are comforting truths for God’s people, yet they should also fill us with awe. A true sight of God’s glorious majesty should move us to reverence and holy fear. We have good reason to be humbled by the vast distance between God and us, and by our own sin and shame before him. We should fear his displeasure. We are ruined unless there is a Mediator, one who stands between us and this holy God (1 Samuel 6:20). Isaiah was humbled in this way to prepare him for the honor of being called as a prophet. Those are most fit to serve God who think lowly of themselves and deeply feel their own weakness and unworthiness.

Then the prophet’s fears were quieted by the good and comforting words that came through the angel (Isaiah 6:6, Isaiah 6:7). One of the seraphim quickly flew to him to purify him and so calm him. God has strong comforts ready for those who mourn in a holy way. Those who humble themselves in shame and fear for their sin will soon be encouraged and lifted up. Those struck down by visions of God’s glory will soon be raised up again by visits of his grace. The God who wounds is the one who heals. Angels are serving spirits sent for the good of God’s people, especially for their spiritual good. Here one of the seraphim was sent away for a time from attending God’s throne to bring a message of grace to a good man, and he gladly came flying to him. Even to our Lord Jesus, in his agony, an angel appeared from heaven to strengthen him (Luke 22:43).

Here was, first, a comforting sign that his sin was being removed. The seraph took a live coal from the altar and touched the prophet’s lips with it, not to harm them, but to heal them. It was not a burning to destroy, but a burning to cleanse. There are purifications by fire as well as by water, and the filth of Jerusalem is cleansed by the spirit of burning (Isaiah 4:4). The blessed Spirit works like fire (Matthew 3:11). The seraph himself was kindled with divine fire and passed that life to the prophet, making him more fervent too. The way to cleanse the lips from the uncleanness of sin is to fill the soul with love to God. This live coal came from the altar, either the altar of incense or the altar of burnt offering, both of which had fire burning on them continually. Nothing has power to cleanse and comfort the soul except what comes from Christ’s sacrifice and from the intercession he always makes in the power of that sacrifice. It must be a coal from his altar that gives us life and peace. Strange fire will not do it.

Second, the meaning of the sign was explained to him: “See, this has touched your lips, and this assures you that your guilt is taken away and your sin is purged.” The guilt of his sin was removed by pardoning mercy, especially the guilt of sins of the tongue.

Your sinful nature is removed by renewing grace. Because of that, nothing can stop you from being accepted by God as a worshiper, or from being used by him as a messenger to others. Only those who are cleansed from an evil conscience are ready to serve the living God (Hebrews 9:14).

Taking away sin is necessary if we are to speak with confidence and peace, either to God in prayer or from God in preaching. No one is so fit to show others the riches and power of gospel grace as those who have tasted that grace themselves and felt its work. Those who complain of sin as a burden, and see that it is putting them in danger of being lost, are the ones who will have their sin taken away.

III. The renewing of the prophet’s mission, Isaiah 6:8. Here we see a conversation between God and Isaiah about this calling. Those who want to help others in their dealings with God must not be strangers to that kind of fellowship themselves. How can we expect God to speak through us if we have never heard him speaking to us? How can we serve as the mouth of others to God if we have never spoken to him honestly for ourselves?

Notice here, first, God’s purpose about Isaiah’s mission. God is pictured, in human terms, as thinking and asking: Whom shall I send? And who will go for us? God does not need advice from others, nor does he need to consult himself. He already knows what he will do. But this shows that there is wise purpose in everything he wills, and it teaches us to think carefully about our own ways. It also shows that sending out ministers is a matter for mature thought, not haste.

Notice who is doing the speaking. It is the Lord God in his glory, the one Isaiah saw on the throne, high and lifted up. That gives great honor to the ministry, because when God wanted to send a prophet in his name, he appeared in the glory of heaven. Ministers are ambassadors of the King of kings. No matter how humble they are, the one who sends them is great. This is God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, asking, Who will go for us? This recalls Genesis 1:26, Let us make man. They all work together in creation, and also in redemption and rule. Ministers are set apart in the same name into which all Christians are baptized.

Notice, too, what the question is about: Whom shall I send? And who will go? Some think this points especially to the message of judgment against Israel in Isaiah 6:9-10. If so, it asks who would willingly carry such a painful message, one that would leave them sorrowing in their hearts (Ezekiel 3:14). But it is better to take it more broadly, as referring to all the messages Isaiah was given to bring to that people in God’s name. The hardening effect in Isaiah 6:9-10 was not the main aim of the message, but an added result of it (2 Corinthians 2:16).

Whom shall I send? This shows that the work needed a chosen and well-prepared messenger (Jeremiah 49:19). God now appeared with holy angels, and yet still asks, Whom shall I send? He wanted to send them a prophet from among their own brothers and sisters (Hebrews 2:17). This is a great kindness from God, that he sends his message through people like us, whose fear does not overwhelm us, and who are themselves touched by the messages they bring. Those who work with God are sinners and sufferers like the rest of us.

It is also rare to find someone fit to go for God and carry his message to people. Whom shall I send? Who is enough for this? A faithful minister needs both courage for God and concern for people’s souls. He also needs enough understanding of the mysteries of God’s kingdom to speak wisely. Such a person is rare, one in a thousand (Job 33:23). And no one is allowed to go for God unless God sends them. He will own only those he appoints (Romans 10:15). It is Christ’s work to place men into the ministry (1 Timothy 1:12).

Second, notice Isaiah’s willing response: Then I said, Here am I, send me. He was being called to a sad and difficult mission. The office seemed unwanted, and everyone else would have avoided it. Yet Isaiah offered himself for the task. It is an honor to stand alone in serving God (Judges 5:7). We should not say, “I will go if I think I will succeed.” We should say, “I will go, and leave the success to God. Here am I, send me.”

Isaiah had just been in a troubled state of mind, full of doubts and fears (Isaiah 6:5). But when he received assurance that his sin was forgiven, the clouds lifted. Then he was ready for service and eager to do it. His words show his readiness, “Here am I, a volunteer, not someone forced into service.” The word means, “Look at me.” God says to us, “Look at me” (Isaiah 65:1), and “Here I am” (Isaiah 58:9), even before we call. We should answer him in the same way when he calls us.

His words also show his resolve: “Here I am, ready to face the hardest work.” He had set his face like flint. Compare Isaiah 50:4-7. And his words show that he placed himself in God’s hands: “Send me wherever you want. Use me however you please. Give me your commission and clear instructions, and then you will surely support me.” It is a great comfort to those whom God sends that they go on God’s behalf. They may speak in his name with authority, and they can trust that he will stand by them.