Isaiah Sees the Throne
Isaiah sees our Father enthroned the year Uzziah dies, undone by his own unclean lips until a coal from the altar touches them. He volunteers before hearing the assignment: speak to people who will not understand, until the cities stand empty. Only a stump remains.
6 1In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord Jesus seated on a throne, high and lifted up, and the hem of his robe filled the temple. a a v1 The apostle John tells us Isaiah saw Jesus' glory — John 12:41. 2Above him stood seraphim, each with six wings: two covered the face, two covered the feet, two flew. 3They called to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the Lord of heaven's armies; the whole earth is full of his glory." b b v3 The seraphim's threefold holy is heard by Christian tradition as worship of the Triune God. The New Testament names each Person of this throne-vision: Jesus (John 12:41), the Holy Spirit (Acts 28:25), and the Father — echoed in John's parallel vision (Rev 4:8).
4At the sound of their voices the thresholds' foundations shook, and the house filled with smoke. 5Then I said: "Woe to me! I'm ruined! I'm a man of unclean lips living among people of unclean lips—and my eyes have seen the King, Jesus, the Lord of all heaven's armies!"
6Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a glowing coal in his hand, taken with tongs from the altar. 7He touched my mouth with it and said, "See, this touched your lips; your guilt is removed, your sin atoned for."
8Then I heard the voice of our Lord Jesus saying, "Whom should I send? Who will go for us?" I said, "Here I am. Send me."
9He said, "Go, tell this people: 'Keep hearing, but never understand; keep seeing, but never perceive.' 10Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and their eyes blind—so they will not see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."
11Then I said, "How long, Lord Jesus?" He answered: "Until cities lie ruined and empty, houses without people, the land left utterly desolate,
12"Until our Father has sent the people far away, and vast emptiness covers the land. c c v12 Jesus, on the throne, names our Father here — naming a different Person of the same God who is sending the people into exile.
13And though a tenth remains in it, it will be burned again—like a terebinth or an oak whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump." d d v13 A terebinth is a large, spreading tree — similar to an oak — that leaves a wide stump when cut down.
