Isaiah’s Commission (Isaiah chapter 6)
6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the
temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their
feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
4
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5
“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.”
6
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he
touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
8
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!”
9
He said, “Go and tell this people:
“‘Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.’
10
Make the heart of this people calloused;
make their ears dull
and close their eyes.[a]
Otherwise they might see with their eyes,
hear with their ears,
understand with their hearts,
and turn and be healed.”
11
Then I said, “For how long, Lord?”
And he answered:
“Until the cities lie ruined
and without inhabitant,
until the houses are left deserted
and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12
until the LORD has sent everyone far away
and the land is utterly forsaken.
13
And though a tenth remains in the land,
it will again be laid waste.
But as the terebinth and oak
leave stumps when they are cut down,
so the holy seed will be the stump in the land.”
Footnotes
a.
Isaiah 6:10 Hebrew; Septuagint ‘You will be ever hearing, but never understanding; / you will be ever seeing, but never
perceiving.’ / 10 This people’s heart has become calloused; / they hardly hear with their ears, / and they have closed their
eyes
Isaiah chapter 6 summary
In 1917, theologian Rudolf Otto coined the term ‘numinous’ to express an individual’s encounter with something
‘wholly other’, something beyond himself and even beyond the created order. It is a good and fitting term to
describe Isaiah’s encounter with God recorded in Isaiah 6. Have you ever considered the pattern of Isaiah’s
experience of the numinous? Notice these steps:
1. Isaiah sees the LORD in all His Glory, and observes the worship rendered to Him constantly. Though he had
experienced something of the worship of God in Jerusalem’s Temple, he had never known anything like this
before. It was ‘wholly other.’ The worship in Jerusalem was largely hypocritical–the worship in the LORD’s
throne room was genuine.
2. Overwhelmed because of a sudden understanding of the majesty of God and his own nothingness, he falls
down with a confession of his own sinfulness. Encounters with God can do nothing else–unless mediated
through Jesus Christ our Lord. R.C. Sproul called this Isaiah’s ‘dis-integration.’ The glory of God caused him to
come apart. Not only is the creature in the presence of the Creator, but he is piercingly aware of his own sinful
creatureliness.
3. Isaiah receives forgiveness through the action and word of the Seraphim. We must notice that this act and
pronouncement of forgiveness is of divine initiation. It involves cleansing of a painful kind, but immediately the
prophet’s sins are forgiven. He now stands before God in a new light-pardoned and welcome.
4. Now the holy man hears the voice of the Lord. Isaiah was brought into the presence of the Lord to receive and
to hear. Forgiveness has been granted, now come the inquiry: “Who will go for us?”
5. Glad for the opportunity to serve this majestic and forgiving God, he offers himself in response to the query–
“Here am I, send me.” This was his best response. Now Isaiah was to be a living sacrifice–a prophet of God to a
sinful covenant nation.
6. Finally, a commission is given. Now Isaiah knows the words he is to speak as the Lord’s messenger. Isn’t it
curious how different his message was to that of the Seraphim. The one brought a message of cleansing and
forgiveness; the other received a message of condemnation.
Isaiah’s experience progressed from sight to hearing. The experience of seeing God was enough to humble him
immediately, and it wasn’t until he had been granted forgiveness that he was prepared to serve God. Initially,
Isaiah was overwhelmed by what he saw, and repulsed by himself. Afterwards, he was prepared to offer himself
in service to this gracious God. This was an encounter with the numinous!
Source
https://irbsseminary.org/isaiahs-experience-numinous/