Isaiah 6:5-7 – Isaiah’s Call
Isaiah is stunned and terrified in response to this glorious vision. Imagine if someone led you along blindfolded to the very edge of a cliff. They took off your blindfold and suddenly you could see where you were. How frightening! Isaiah, in a manner of speaking, has had the blindfold taken away, and he sees his place. He’s a man of unclean lips, and he dwells in the midst of a people of unclean lips. He is a sinner, a great sinner. He is personally a sinner, and he is covenantally in with a sinful people. But it’s worse yet, because he is also before the Holy One. Jehovah Jesus is incontestably sovereign, irresistibly powerful, and blindingly holy. What a place for a sinner to be!
Yet Isaiah receives comfort by the remission of his sin. The burning coal isn’t there to hurt him. It isn’t there to burn him. It is there to heal him and to clean him. Where does it come from? The coal is from the altar there, the altar of sacrifice, which is looking forward to Christ’s sacrifice under the burning wrath of His Father. This is a picture of Christ going through everything there at the cross, so that sinners will be saved, will be delivered from the judgment of the Father, that the burning will not come to them, but to Him. That’s what this pictures.
Do you ever cry over your sin? Does it cause you grief that the One who has loved you from eternity you treat in such a way? Unbelievers don’t have that grief. But Jesus has cleansed away all our pollution by taking it upon Himself. He has cleansed it away just as this coal cleanses away Isaiah. It is not because Isaiah has deserved it. No. Isaiah himself confesses he deserves destruction. What does he get? He gets mercy. He gets grace. Here’s the assurance for you, Christian, Jesus’ body has been broken, that yours might be resurrected. Jesus’ blood has been shed and His life brought to an end, that yours might be eternal.
Questions
- What is Isaiah’s response to this vision?
- What does the burning coal represent?