Holy Holy Holy

If ever there was a man of integrity, it was Isaiah ben Amoz. He was a whole man, a together type of fellow. He was considered by his contemporaries as the most righteous man in the nation. He was respected as a paragon of virtue. Then he caught one sudden glimpse of a holy God. In that single moment, all of his self-esteem was shattered. In a brief second he was exposed, made naked beneath the gaze of the absolute standard of holiness. As long as Isaiah could compare himself to other mortals, he was able to sustain a lofty opinion of his own character. The instant he measured himself by the ultimate standard, he was destroyed---morally and spiritually annihilated. He was undone. He came apart. His sense of integrity collapsed.

Isaiah was groveling on the floor. Every nerve fiber in his body was trembling. He was looking for a place to hide, praying that somehow the earth would cover him or the roof of the temple would fall upon him---anything to get him out from under the holy gaze of God. But there was nowhere to hide. He was naked and alone before God. Unlike Adam, Isaiah had no Eve to comfort him, no fig leaves to conceal him. He was pure moral anguish, the kind that rips out the heart of a man and tears his soul to pieces. Guilt, guilt, guilt. Relentless guilt screamed from his every pore.

The holy God is also a God of grace. He refused to allow His servant to continue on his belly without comfort. He took immediate steps to cleanse the man and restore his soul. He commanded one of the seraphim to jump into action. The angelic creature moved swiftly, flying to the altar with tongues. From the burning fire, the seraph took a glowing coal, too hot to touch even for an angel, and flew to Isaiah.

In this divine act of cleansing, Isaiah experienced a forgiveness that went beyond the purification of his lips. He was cleansed throughout, forgiven to the core, but not without the awful pain of repentance. He went beyond cheap grace and the easy utterance, 'I'm sorry'. He was in mourning for his sin, overcome with moral grief, and God sent an angel to heal him. His sin was taken away. His dignity remained intact. His guilt was removed, but his humanity was not insulted. The conviction that he felt was constructive. His was no cruel and unusual punishment. A second of burning flesh on the lips brought a healing that would extend to eternity. In a moment, the disintegrated prophet was whole again. His mouth was purged. He was clean.
"Also I hear the voice of the Lord, saying, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, 'here am I, send me'. Isaiah 6:8
Isaiah's vision took on a new dimension. Until this point he had seen the glory of God; he had heard the song of the seraphim; he had felt the burning coal upon his lips. Now for the first time he heard the voice of God.  Suddenly the angels were silent, and the voice boomed throughout the temple, the voice that Scripture elsewhere describes as the sound of many waters. That voice echoed with piercing questions: 'whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" There is a pattern here, a pattern repeated in history. God appears, people quake in terror, God forgives and heals, God sends. From brokenness to missions is the human pattern.

R. C. Sproul - 'The holiness of God'  -chapter three {selected from pgs. 28 - 31}
Tyndale House Publishers Inc.