Sacredness of the Work
17
upon a throne high and lifted up, while the train of His glory filled
the temple. Around the throne were seraphim, as guards about the
great King, and they reflected the glory that surrounded them. As their
songs of praise resounded in deep notes of adoration, the pillars of the
gate trembled, as if shaken by an earthquake. With lips unpolluted by
sin, these angels poured forth the praises of God. “Holy, holy, holy, is
the Lord of hosts,” they cried; “the whole earth is full of His glory.”
[See
Isaiah 6:1-8
.]
The seraphim around the throne are so filled with reverential awe
as they behold the glory of God, that they do not for an instant look
upon themselves with admiration. Their praise is for the Lord of hosts.
As they look into the future, when the whole earth shall be filled
with His glory, the triumphant song is echoed from one to another in
melodious chant, “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts.” They are fully
satisfied to glorify God; abiding in His presence, beneath His smile
of approbation, they wish for nothing more. In bearing His image,
in doing His bidding, in worshiping Him, their highest ambition is
reached.
As the prophet listened, the glory, the power, and the majesty of
the Lord was opened to his vision; and in the light of this revelation
[22]
his own inward defilement appeared with startling clearness. His very
words seemed vile to him. In deep humiliation he cried, “Woe is me!
for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips: ...for mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
Isaiah’s humiliation was genuine. As the contrast between human-
ity and the divine character was made plain to him, he felt altogether
inefficient and unworthy. How could he speak to the people the holy
requirements of Jehovah?
“Then flew one of the seraphim unto me,” he writes, “having a live
coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
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.”
Then Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I
send, and who will go for us?” and strengthened by the thought of the
divine touch, he answered, “Here am I; send me.”
As God’s ministers look by faith into the holy of holies, and see
the work of our great High Priest in the heavenly sanctuary, they
realize that they are men of unclean lips, men whose tongues have