Isaiah 6:1-13
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
4 And the posts of the doora moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone;b because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.
6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
7 And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; sendc me.
9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understandd not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.
11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterlye desolate,
12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.
13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.
We now begin the second part of the first circle of prophecy, which contains the prophecies during the reigns of Jotham and Ahaz. When Uzziah died, Isaiah was called to the exercise of a larger ministry, and was prepared for it by the special vision granted to him.
This vision of the Lord was full of grace and of glory. The majesty of the Most High was manifest in the uplifted and occupied throne, in the solemn chanting of the seraphim, and by the earthquake which made the very foundations of the thresholds tremble. The revelation of grace is as remarkable as that of glory. In answer to the prophet's cry of need, one of the singing seraphim bears to him a live coal from the altar, and his sin is expiated. It is a wonderful unveiling of truth concerning God. The center of all adoring worship, He nevertheless hears the sigh of the sinner in his need, and the song of a seraph's worship ceases in order that the sigh of the sinner may be answered.
Following this vision, the voice of the Lord calls for a messenger, and the prophet, cleansed from his sin, answers. He is then commissioned to the ministry of judgment. In answer to an inquiry on his part, a word is spoken which limits judgment and reveals that the purpose of God in His people is not to be utterly frustrated.