“My Eyes Have Seen the King!”

        The young priest, Isaiah, had just helped with the sacrifice of an animal on the altar. Now, as the embers burned down, he came inside the Holy Place, ready to offer incense. What a shock he was in for! There at the far end, perhaps fifty feet away, appeared a glorious throne and seated on it the magnificent personage of the LORD, Jehovah Himself! And, flowing all the way down both sides of the Holy Place, the great folds and radiance of the hems of His robe.

        The ceiling was over forty feet above him and, in that space, flew great six-winged angels, calling “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty.” Their voices shook the doorposts and thresholds behind him, and the room was filled with smoke.

        Isaiah was overwhelmed—he expected to die! Wasn’t this what happened to sinful men like him? Hadn’t Nadab and Abihu perished, even as they tried to offer incense? But wait. One of the angels takes a live coal off the altar, a remnant of the sacrifice that had just died. As that representation of the sacrifice touches his lips, the angel reassures him, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

        This whole passage in Isaiah chapter six is a powerful bit of reporting. Some writers treat it as a vision and how can a vision hurt you? On the other hand, remember that Jacob wrestled with the Lord and came away crippled for the rest of his life. (Gen.32:30, 31.) Zechariah saw an angel, again in the Holy Place of the temple (Luke 1:8-22), as he offered incense in worship. For him, it was the loss of the power of speech.

        I think this was the real, physical thing. This was the Lord breaking through from heaven to Isaiah’s immediate world. And that ember burned his lips. He had the scars for the rest of his life. The wonderful thing is that, through the searing pain, he got mercy and assurance—“Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

        Now the question arises—just who was that great King? Who was the “LORD Almighty”, who was Jehovah, who was Yahweh? This is where it gets even more interesting. Look at John 12: 41— “Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him.”  That LORD Almighty was Jesus!

        Now we’re into the New Testament and the picture changes a bit. Think of the Last Supper, and the Lord saying, “This is my body given for you…This cup is the new covenant in my blood.” (Luke 22:19, 20.)  Now we have, not a burning ember from repetitive sacrifices, but bread and wine that represent the once, forever sacrifice of God’s own Son, Jesus. May we realize, as we take these emblems, as they touch our own lips, that, like Isaiah, through Jesus “Our guilt is taken away and our sin atoned for.”