Weekly Worship 7/5/20

Call to Worship: Devotional (By Pastor Dan Loch)

¹ In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. ² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.”

⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. ⁵ Then I said,

“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because 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.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷ He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

Isaiah 6:1-8

There is such a great contrast presented in the calling of Isaiah. First Isaiah is presented with the perfect holiness of God and the overwhelming weight of His glory. Even the Seraphim cannot help but attend to Him and sing His praises. Isaiah sees this then looks at himself and finds his own holiness is lacking. He is ruined because he, an unclean sinner, is in the presence of a holy God. Yet God has a plan and Isaiah is cleansed, not by his own deeds, but by a burning coal that God provides from His altar. Then, once Isaiah has surrendered to God’s holiness, acknowledged his own unworthiness, and received cleansing in a way that only God can provide, then and only then, does he stand before a holy God and say “Here am I. Send me!”.

This foreshadows our relationship with Christ. It is because Christ has cleansed us by His sacrifice that we are able to participate in God’s story, not as sinful rebels, but as His beloved children. Then, as His children, we go into the world proclaiming the good news that all who believe that Jesus Christ is lord will not perish but will have eternal life. May the heights of His holiness and the depths of His love spur us to do His will here on earth as it is done in heaven.