Saturday, February 09, 2008

Afraid of God?

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. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.

"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."

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!" (Isaiah 6:1-8b)

Have you ever felt afraid of God?

When I was quite a bit younger, my parents belonged to a church where the pastor was a fiery, gray-haired man. When he preached, his sermons reminded you of God’s anger at sins. Parents with unruly children often sat right in the front pew, because the pastor’s preaching style usually frightened noisy kids into silence! Once, when one youngster was asked who that person in the front of the church was, the child answered "God."

Clearly, that man of the cloth had the ability to convey the power of God’s authority to the congregation. That pastor knew how to preach God’s convicting Law powerfully and effectively. And the effect of God’s Law is to frighten us with the threat of condemnation for doing wrong.

But there is a danger with focusing only on God’s holy Law. When we do this, we can become so frightened of God’s anger that we actually can become afraid of God Himself! Now respectful fear is not a bad thing; the Bible tells us that it is appropriate to fear God. Psalm 111 verse 10 says, The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom. In Luke 12:4-5 Jesus says, I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. But notice that God rewards those who take His authority seriously; in Psalm 34:9-11 David wrote, Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing. Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the LORD. And in Psalm 103:11-14 David also wrote: as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. As a father has compassion on his children, so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. Our fear of God should be tempered by our trust in His unfailing love for us.

Fear and love. Isaiah experienced both of these feelings towards God when he was called to be a prophet. As Isaiah shares with us his vision of the heavenly throne room, we can certainly understand his fear. First, he sees the Lord seated on a throne. A throne is a special chair reserved for rulers. When a king is seated on his throne, it means that his royal court is in session; the king is ready to make decisions of supreme importance, life or death decisions. Isaiah describes the Lord as being seated high. Earthly thrones usual rest on raised platforms, so that even when the king is seated his subjects must look up to see his face; being the highest person in the room shows that the king is due the highest respect. To exalt someone is to sing his praises, to tell everyone how wonderful this man is; when Isaiah records that the Lord is exalted in His temple, he is telling us that every voice in the room is singing of the wonderful things that the Lord has done. To exalt the Lord is to show Him honor by recognizing His mighty deeds.

Isaiah also tells us about the train of the Lord’s robe. In America, the only place you usually see a train on wedding a gown, but royal clothing often have trains to show the monarch’s wealth; only a wealthy man can afford a long train of expensive fabric. Isaiah tells us that the train of the Lord’s robe filled the entire temple—a testimony to the power of the heavenly King who wears it.

Next, Isaiah describes the Lord’s flying attendants. These particular types of angels are called seraphs, which means "burning ones." These angels are creatures of brightness, and their function is to personally attend to the Lord in His temple. Like all angels, these seraphs are pure, completely free from any sin. Yet amazingly, even these perfect creatures, set apart by God to serve in His presence, dare not look upon God with their eyes—the prophet tells us, with two wings they covered their faces.

The seraphs are the ones who are exalting God. They sing Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty. With these words, the seraphs acknowledge the mysterious glory of the Trinity—by singing holy, holy, holy we are prompted to think of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three distinct holy persons who yet are miraculously united as one God. We see further evidence of this when Isaiah quotes God as saying "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" Whom shall I send shows that God is one being; who will go for us shows that God consists of three persons. The singing of the angels speaks of God as a being of incomprehensible wonder.

And this God, who we cannot truly understand, is also holy. "Holy" means to be without the slightest imperfection. Such a thing must be terrifying to behold. None of us has ever seen perfection; everything within the grasp of our five senses is tainted with impurity. To see something that is truly holy would be to see something completely alien to human nature, something frightening because of its strangeness to human eyes.

The seraphs continue their song with the words "the whole earth is full of his glory". "Glory" is what is seen by human eyes when God reveals even the merest hint of Himself. "Glory" is what we see when we look upon the divine. By saying that the whole earth is filled with His glory, the seraphs are telling Isaiah that there is evidence of God’s power and love all around us. In Psalm 19:1-4 David sings, The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. The dependability of the laws of science; the complexity of earth’s ecosystem; the miracle of a baby’s birth--all these give daily testimony to the power and the careful attention of God. Creation everywhere reveals God’s glory.

What an incredible vision! Is it any wonder that Isaiah reacted in fear? He must have been overwhelmed by this vision of God’s majesty. And he must have remembered that God told Moses "you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live" (Exodus 33:20). And so Isaiah responded with words of despair: "Woe to me! 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."

What did Isaiah mean by "unclean lips"? Remember that Paul told us in Romans 10:10, "it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved." God expects us to honor Him with the words that come from our mouths. Yet our mouths too often betray the evil that lurks in our hearts; Jesus observed, the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these make a man `unclean.' For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. These are what make a man `unclean' (Matthew 15:18-20). Isaiah recognized that he, along with everyone that he knew, had evil lurking within him, and that this evil often slipped past his lips making him unclean, unfit to stand in the presence of God. This is why Isaiah was gripped with fear.

But which person of God was Isaiah actually looking at? Jesus would later say, No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God; only he has seen the Father (John 6:46). If only Jesus has seen the Father’s face, who was Isaiah looking at? The Apostle John clues us in when he writes, Isaiah…saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him (John 12:41). The reason that Isaiah was not struck dead during his heavenly vision is because the person that He was permitted to look upon in awe and wonder was not God the Father; Isaiah was allowed to look upon the Son of the living God.

This becomes even more obvious when we see how the Lord reacts to Isaiah’s fear at being in the heavenly presence. 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." This immediately makes us think of Jesus, who was sacrificed on the altar of the cross to atone for our sins so that our guilt could be taken away. When we receive the wonderful message that God offers us mercy because of Jesus’ sacrifice, it is as if we are burned with a fire—a fire that sterilizes infections, that boils away impurities. In speaking of the coming Messiah, Malachi wrote: Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come…But who can endure the day of his coming? Who can stand when he appears? For he will be like a refiner's fire (Malachi 3:1-2). John the Baptist picked up this theme when he spoke of Jesus: I baptize you with water. But one more powerful than I will come, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire (Matthew 3:11).

When Isaiah speaks of being touched by a live coal from God’s altar that takes away his guilt and provides atonement for his sins, we cannot help but conclude that in a sense, our Lord baptized Isaiah by this process. Isaiah was baptized with holy fire from God’s altar, the altar where the Son of God destroyed the power of sin, a sacred altar that even the angel dared not touch directly with his hand. Through this vision, our Savior purified Isaiah from his unrighteousness and made him acceptable to stand in the presence of the Almighty!

And look at the change in Isaiah’s attitude. A moment ago, the man was quaking in fear. But now when the Triune God says, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" Isaiah immediately, enthusiastically replies, "Here am I. Send me!" Gone is the fear; a man who was afraid of angering God because of his imperfection would never have the courage to suggest that he could be worth God’s time as a servant. Fear of God has been replaced with love, trust, and gratitude; having been touched by the Lord’s mercy, Isaiah wishes to express his thanks by offering his life to God’s service.

There is a story of a man in ancient Rome who attended a slave auction. A young woman was brought forward for bidding. She was made to turn and display her body, so the bidders could properly evaluate her worth as a worker. Being young and strong, the bids came quickly. But the man outbid everyone else and ended up in possession of the woman. After the auction he told her, "You are free to go." The woman looked at him in fear and confusion. The man repeated, "You’re free to go. I purchased you so that you might be free." When the young woman saw the saw the kindness on his face and heard the sincerity of his words, she fell at his feet with tears of joy. She said, "Sir, please don’t send me away! Let me serve you, not as a slave but as a friend!"

That young woman served the man who freed her, not because she feared him but because she loved him. Isaiah offered his service to the Lord who purified him from uncleanness, not because he feared God but because he loved Him. It is my prayer that you too will dedicate yourself to serving your Lord Jesus who has given you new life through the altar of the cross, not because you fear Him but because you are grateful to Him and love Him.

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