Isaiah's Image of the God of Holiness

ISAIAH’S IMAGE OF THE GOD OF HOLINESS

One of the dangers we face, whenever we try to describe God, is that we describe him in purely human terms. When we do that, we always finish up in reducing God to the image of ourselves and all the limitations which that may imply. In other words, we finish up making God less than God.

If you like, it is rather like trying to play a Beethoven symphony on a mouth organ. Whilst we may recognise the music, the mouth organ can never do justice to such an orchestral composition.

In the same way, whilst our words may give us a picture of God which we can recognise, they can never do justice to the full picture of God. He is beyond our comprehension and our capacity to describe Him. At the heart of any description of God lies a deep unfathomable mystery.

The prophet Isaiah discovered this way back in the eighth century BC. It is well illustrated in his famous vision recorded in the sixth chapter. Although he starts his description of God on the human level, he suddenly finds himself catapulted from earth into the mystery of God. The human level acts as a sort of springboard into something much greater where only the language of symbolism can be employed to convey something of the greatness of God.

Let me just remind you of the vision.

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to the other and said:

'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.'

The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voice of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said; 'Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!’" (Isaiah 6.1-5)

The vision occurred in the "year that King Uzziah died" in 742BC

King Uzziah had been a strong and powerful king. During his reign Israel had reached the peak of its political and economic power. It had conquered the Philistine plain which had given them the control of the trade routes that passed between the north and the south. As a result of this, its commercial life had expanded. The copper and mining city of Elah had been constructed and agriculture had been developed. In short, Uzziah had become a symbol of strength and stability.

By contrast, his son Jehu who succeeded him, was a weak person. Lurking on the boarders of Israel was the menacing threat of the Assyrians. In order to resist this threat, Israel formed an alliance with Syria which was to prove futile when Sennacherib invaded in 701 BC.

As Isaiah reflected upon the power and strength of the late king, he was reminded of a king whose power and strength exceeded that of any earthly monarch. "I saw the Lord sitting upon the throne."

This vision occurred in the Temple in Jerusalem. This was the magnificent temple which King Solomon had built. But what Isaiah saw that day, was far more magnificent than any building on earth.

It is thought that Isaiah was probably a temple priest, familiar with the day to day cycle of worship. He was probably standing just outside the main door of the temple when the vision occurred. At the far end there was the sanctuary. There, upon a small altar, the incense offering burned. Behind this there was a series of steps which led up to a smaller door which opened into a darkened room known as the Holy of Holies. This was the most sacred room in the whole temple because it was here that the Ark of the Covenant was kept. It stood between two sphinx-like creatures - winged lions with a human head called cherubim. Here, in the thick darkness, it was believed that God sat invisibly enthroned upon the Ark. It was therefore upon this room that Isaiah's attention came to rest.

Meanwhile, the daily worship of the temple was in progress - the antiphonal singing, the smoke of the incense rising and the priestly attendants moving slowly around.

Suddenly Isaiah found himself being transported from this earthly experience of worship in the temple at Jerusalem to the worship of God in the heavenly temple. He is suddenly catapulted into the deep mystery of heaven itself where we are told he "saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple."

Even the temple Priests become transformed before him. They appeared as seraphs " in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew." Thus their wings expressed symbolically their appropriate response to God's presence. With one pair of wings they shielded their faces from the King's blazing glory; with another pair they hid their nakedness from his holy purity, and with the third pair they flew to their appointed tasks.

No longer are the priests offering worship on earth. They are now leading the worship of heaven where they call to one another and say:

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory."

Whilst the prophet makes no attempt to describe the appearance of God, the imagery he uses communicates the overpowering and aweful effect of his sovereignty. We are told: “The pivots on the threshold shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke."

You will recall that the images of earthquake, smoke and fire are often used in the Old Testament to portray the glory and majesty of God. As the psalmist records:

"The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice; let the many coastlands be glad!

Cloud and thick darkness are all around him; righteousness and justice are the foundations of his throne.

Fire goes before him and consumes his adversaries on every side.

His lightnings light up the whole world; the earth sees it and trembles.

The mountains melt like wax before the Lord, before the Lord of all the earth" (Psalm 97.1-5)

So the God of Isaiah's vision is far greater than humankind can comprehend. Whilst he is active in the world, he cannot be imprisoned by it. He is not an object which can be controlled by man and manipulated according to human purpose and understanding. He is far greater than either the human mind can understand or lips express.

I am reminded of that hymn by Carl Boberg which says,

"O Lord, my God when I in awesome wonder,

consider all the worlds thy hand has made.

I see the stars, I hear the rolling thunder,

thy power throughout the universe displayed"

The only response one can make is to such a God is:

"...sing my soul, my Saviour God, to thee:

How great thou art, how great thou art.

Then sing my soul, my Saviour God, to thee:

How great thou art, how great thou art."

If I wanted one word to sum up Isaiah's picture of God, it would be the word "Holy". Isaiah's God is first and foremost a holy God. The word “holy” means "separate from". In other words, although God can be encountered by us in this world, he cannot be confined only to this world. There is far more to God than meets the eye.

So Isaiah's image of God, acts as a warning to stop us from trying to domesticate God whereby we make God less than he really is.

It stops us from thinking we can manipulate and control God. God is not a puppet on the string of our whims and fancies. Quite the contrary, we are the puppets and he pulls the strings.

Alas, this tends to go against the grain because we like to think that we are all-powerful and in control, just as King Uzziah was all-powerful and in control. But the prophet Isaiah points us to a more powerful King outside the realm of our personal day to day experience.

A God,

"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand

and marked off the heavens with a span,

enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure,

and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in balance" (Isaiah 40.12)

A God to whom

"even the nations are like a drop from the bucket,

and are accounted as dust on the scales." (Isaiah 40.15)

A God

"who sits above the circle of the earth,

and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers;

who stretches out the heavens like a curtain,

and spreads them like a tent to live in;

who brings princes to naught,

and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing." (Isaiah 40.22-23)

Before such a God, all we can do is to fall upon our knees in worship and join with the priests in the temple as they call to one another and say,

"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of your glory."

Let us try to recapture something of the holiness of God in our worship and in our lives and learn to gaze upon him in adoration and wonder.