Isaiah’s ‘Yes’ to God = ‘Yes’ to Sin
The readings today in I Kings 8 - the dedication of the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem - and John 6 both focus on God’s holiness. In the John passage Peter says to Jesus, ‘We believe and know that you are the Holy one of God. Isaiah’s prophetic ministry also focussed on God’s holiness – Isaiah’s YES was to bear testimony to the Messiah to come – that Holy One of God, the ‘Servant’ who would become sin, forgive sin and make it possible for all of us to be forgiven each and every one of our daily sins. So Isaiah’s ‘yes’ to God was necessarily a ‘yes’ to sin – an affirmation that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’. And it all began with Isaiah’s personal experience in the same temple that Solomon dedicated with that wonderful prayer that we have heard today.
Isaiah – who was he?
Isaiah was chosen by God to be His prophet at a time when the southern Kingdom of Judah had forgotten who God was – they forgot that God alone had created the universe, that He alone could forgive sin, that He alone was the living God, that His holiness and glory were such that He could broach no sin. Judah was in rebellion against God. But if Isaiah had simply prophesied judgment, that would only have been the beginning of the story – it would not have taken into account God’s tremendous mercy. And that mercy is something that the prophets always struggled with. They could understand God’s judgment, but they could not understand God’s compassion. So we have in Isaiah chs.13-24 a series of prophesies or oracles against the nations that have dragged Judah down by their idolatrous practices and/or have wielded excessive power over Judah, destroying its sovereignty. These oracles are situated in what might be called a ‘praise sandwich’. God’s judgements and actions on behalf of the people He loves will result in their praise. Ch.12 tells us, ‘In that day you will say: “I will praise you, O Lord,” and ch.25 says, ‘O Lord, you are my God, I will exalt you and praise your name’.
But God’s people are not released from judgment themselves – they are responsible – it isn’t all ‘someone else’s fault’ – a propensity that we see displayed all too often today! So in chs.28-31 there are a series of woes directed against Judah. The woes are directed towards God’s people, so that they will turn from their sin and trust God rather than human beings. Ch.35 describes the results of such an acknowledgement of God’s glory:
Then will the eyes of the blind be opened
And the ears of the deaf unstopped.
Then will the lame leap like a deer,
And the mute tongue shout for joy….
And a highway will be there;
It will be called the Way of Holiness.
The unclean will not journey on it;
It will be for those who walk in that Way; [Jesus IS the WAY]
Wicked fools will not go about on it.
‘The unclean will not journey on it’ was borne out in Isaiah’s personal experience recorded in ch.6, but first he gives us an introduction – a bit like a novel that doesn’t start at the beginning, but rather begins with something more important that the real beginning, coming later, then explains. The introduction reveals God’s heart for His people – He wants continued, unbroken relationship with His people more than anything else! Ch.1.18 says:
“Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
Sin is the only thing that can interrupt our relationship with God, but God is also the only one that can transform our sins into something else – so paradoxically, we have to come to Him with our sins in order to restore relationship with Him. Sometimes that is the last thing that we feel we want to do, but that is what we must do! And we are give that opportunity every Sunday in our worship. When I wash my hands during the Eucharist, I always say a prayer, ‘Wash me, O Lord - though my sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow.’
Trusting God is the next message Isaiah introduces. After describing the great and terrible Day of the Lord, when ‘the arrogance of all people will be brought low and human pride humbled,’ he says, ‘Stop trusting in human beings, who have but a breath in their nostrils. Of what account are they?’
I remember an interview with Billy Graham that I saw on television. He was asked whether he thought that human beings would end up destroying themselves with all the powers of destruction that they had invented. Billy Graham said (paraphrase), ‘God is in control. Nothing can happen that He doesn’t allow. The end of the earth will come when He decides it is time.’
These two prongs of taking our sins to God and trusting Him are the lessons Isaiah learned personally as recorded in Isaiah 6:1-8: [get someone else to read]
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty;
The whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”
In Sunday worship together we always proclaim that God is holy – three times! Then we say ‘blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord’. And the one who comes in the name of the Lord is primarily Jesus, whom we acclaim today. But here in Isaiah God is asking for someone to speak for Him. And Isaiah replies wholeheartedly, “Here am I. Send me!”
Who will speak for the Lord?
Only someone who is only too aware of their own SIN and of God’s capacity to forgive and to transform people can speak for the Lord. That is what gives us the HOPE that Paul says in the NT that we are to give an answer for, whenever anyone, amazed at that hope, asks us about it.
This commission of Isaiah’s has often been used as a missionary commission, and it is absolutely spot on, only if we can say as Paul says, that ‘I am the chief of sinners!’ That ‘Woe is me!’ is just the beginning, but it is a necessary beginning. It is only that that makes it possible for Isaiah to speak God’s judgment without sounding judgemental – he is one of the many among a people of ‘unclean lips’.
In Isaiah 59, there is a synopsis of Isaiah’s message of sin, confession and redemption: [someone else read?]
Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.
But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.
For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt.
Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters wicked things.
None call for justice; none plead their case with integrity….
Our offences are many in your sight, and our sins testify against us.
Our offences are ever with us, and we acknowledge our iniquities:
Rebellion and treachery against the Lord,
Turning our backs on our God,
Fomenting oppression and revolt,
Uttering lies our hearts have conceived.
So justice is driven back, and righteousness stands at a distance; truth has stumbled in the streets, honesty cannot enter.
Truth is nowhere to be found, and whoever shuns evil becomes a prey.
The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no-one, he was appalled that there was no-one to intervene;
So his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him.
He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
According to what they have done, so will he repay wrath to his enemies and retribution to his foes; he will repay the islands their due.
From the west, people will fear the name of the Lord, and from the rising of the sun, they will revere his glory.
For he will come like a pent-up flood that the breath of the Lord drives along.
“The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the Lord.
Awareness of sin does not come from ‘navel-gazing,’ but rather, like Isaiah, from an amazing vision of God’s holiness. It came on Isaiah as he was worshipping in the temple, where God’s presence overwhelmed him. It can come on us, too, suddenly, as we worship Jesus with all our hearts, minds and souls today. The awareness of our sin that such a vision of God’s holiness inspires is the most freeing thing on earth, because it leads to confession and repentance, making it possible for God to forgive and restore.
Brother Roger’s prayer – love and joy instead of faith and hope – who I am more important than what I will accomplish
We cannot love fully as human beings, unless we are able to say, with Paul, that we are the ‘foremost of sinners.’ Being judgemental sets us up as God, who alone is judge. It is assuming that we can say what is right and wrong about others – putting ourselves in the place of God as JUDGE. It is idolatry. It is what Adam and Eve chose to do when they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, imagining that somehow God was keeping something from them that would be good for them.
Richard Foster, in his classic Celebration of Discipline, says this, first quoting AW Tozer:
‘“The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.” To think rightly about God is, in an important sense, to have everything right. To think wrongly about God is, in an important sense, to have everything wrong.
We desperately need to see who God is: to read about his self-disclosure to his ancient people Israel, to meditate on his attributes, to gaze upon the revelation of his nature in Jesus Christ. When we see the Lord of hosts “high and lifted up,” ponder his infinite wisdom and knowledge, wonder at his unfathomable mercy and love, we cannot help but move into doxology. [thanksgiving]
To see who the Lord is brings us to confession. When Isaiah caught sight of the glory of God he cried, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” The pervasive sinfulness of human beings becomes evident when contrasted with the radiant holiness of God. Our fickleness becomes apparent once we see God’s faithfulness. To understand his grace is to understand our guilt.’
Let’s be real – let’s say, ‘”Yes!”, I have sinned’ – just as Isaiah did. Only then can we be cleansed and ready to be sent out to others in His name. AMEN.