Spiraling Up

Spiraling Up
Isaiah 6:1–8

Isaiah 6:1–8 (NKJV)
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because 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.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.” Also 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.”

1. Tribulation and Revelation

2 Chronicles 26:5 (NKJV)
He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.

Isaiah 6:1 (NKJV)
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.

Matthew 5:3 (MSG)
You’re blessed when you’re at the end of your rope. With less of you there is more of God.

2. Praise and Power

Isaiah 6:4 (NKJV)
And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

> I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed. It is frustrating to have discovered a new author and not to be able to tell anyone how good he is; to come suddenly, at the turn of the road, upon some mountain valley of unexpected grandeur and then to have to keep silent because the people with you care for it no more than for a tin can in the ditch; to hear a good joke and find no one to share it with. . . . The Scotch catechism says that man’s chief end is ‘to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.’ But we shall then know that these are the same thing. Fully to enjoy is to glorify. In commanding us to glorify Him, God is inviting us to enjoy Him. ---C.S. Lewis

3. Humility and Wholeness

1 Peter 5:6 (NKJV)
So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.

Isaiah 6:7 (NKJV)
your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

John 12:41 (NKJV)
Isaiah said these things after he got a glimpse of God’s cascading brightness that would pour through the Messiah.

Matthew 27:51 (NKJV)
At that moment, the Temple curtain was ripped in two, top to bottom. There was an earthquake, and rocks were split in pieces.

4. Availability and Opportunity

Isaiah 6:8 (NKJV)
Also 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.”

> You may look, and look, and look again, and still see more. Christ is a well of sweetness and joy so deep that we shall never come to the bottom of it. ---C.H. Spurgeon