Chapter 6
Isaiah's vision of heaven, in the year Uzziah (Amaziah) died. The vision is of God on His throne in heaven, high and lifted up. And smoke fills the house - as it did the Tent of Meeting, and later the Temple of Solomon. God gives Isaiah a direct message for the people in vss 9b-13. It seems to say that God will wait no more. He will harden their hearts so that they do not repent. They will refuse to hear - more than that, He will make them blind and deaf so that they cannot hear, and then God will lay waste the land. Their time of repentance has passed. Judgement is here pronounced on them, and God's hand can no longer be turned. How do we know when it gets to this point?
A relatively short chapter.
2021 - Vs 2 describes the seraphim, with six wings each. And their song:
[Isa 6:3 ESV] And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" This for comparison:
[Rev 4:8 ESV] And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"
The voice of one of the seraphim is so powerful that the foundations even of heaven are shaken, and then the house fills with smoke. This happened at the dedication of the tent of meeting, and the dedication of the temple. It showed the presence of God - a physical presence I think you would have to say, because the priests could not go in while the smoke was there. The smoke gave "thick darkness", and God is in the thick darkness. Isaiah is humbled to the point of believing his life forfeit for seeing what is so pure and perfect with the eyes of sinful man. We can't even imagine being so humbled. Americans are just not made to be humble. Our culture was about the sovereignty of the individual, about how anyone can do anything, rise to any position, don't tell us about your blue blood. Now we're about our rights and what we ought to have, and about how all are equal. Never ever have we been about "serving others", not really, not as a culture.
2024 - The throne itself is not described, nor are we told what God's appearance is like. Only the seraphim connect this scene to others in the Bible.
2021, Then this -
[Isa 6:6 ESV] Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.
[Isa 6:7 ESV] And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for."
God, through a messenger, removes Isaiah's sin, that he may stand in the presence of the Holy One. Surely God's power and benevolence was the cause of the action, but the action was carried out by an angel. A coal from the altar, so hot even the angel had to use tongs. This searing purifying fire was required to remove sin.
2023 - It was the burning coal that removed guilt and atoned for sin. The coal is Christ. The coal was on the altar. I don't know that I have ever heard this preached as either type or metaphor of Christ. Surely there are things to discern about this scene. A coal from the altar, when it touched Isaiah's lips, took away guilt and atoned for sin. The coal is what remains after the offering is burned? Or the coal is underneath - part of the fire?
2021 - God speaks directly to Isaiah. This is a rare thing. Hasn't happened to many, not since Moses. Solomon once, David perhaps, and the high priests in some manner. But this is with a voice, directly. "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?"
The interlinear is interesting here. 14 Hebrew words, but really , only four have direct translations, and those into multiple words. I'm not sure what this means exactly. Maybe it means that there are things here with no real English equivalents. So despite preferring word for word translation, sometimes it just isn't possible. The words of God, directly from His mouth, cannot be spoken in English, but only in Hebrew? This is what happens using the forward interlinear. In the reverse, only 8 words are listed. In this presentation, English phrases or words correspond to each of the eight, and there is one English word with no Hebrew word. I need to learn the differences between the reverse and the forward. It is almost like the forward presents the Hebrew text, and tries to connect English to it, and then the reverse takes the English, and points it backward to the words it derived from.
One additional note from looking at the interlinear is that Lord is the translation here of Adonai. Same back in vs 1. Is Lord always and exclusively the translation of Adonai?
2023 - These words:
9 And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' [Isa 6:9 ESV]. The following verses are more of the same. God is telling them that the line is crossed, and that they will not comprehend from this point forward. Vs 10 starts with making hearts dull, ears heavy, eyes blind. Jesus quotes this verse in the NT in a way that says this "curse" has continued to that day. How can we view it as anything but continuing to THIS day. They still do not see their Messiah. Isaiah asks when this will end, and he gets an answer. When things are desolate, and similar language. We might make a pretty good case that Israel looked like that after 135 AD. The Romans devastated the whole area and Jews for not allowed even to be there. We could also say it looked like that after the Babylonian's last conquest of Jerusalem. And then there is vs 13:
13 And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump. [Isa 6:13 ESV]. It will be burned yet again. So...technically, there is no end to this. Even though things are repeatedly desolated, it will be burned again. What does the reference to stump burning tell us? Maybe it means that even if you cut the tree down, it will try to regrow from the stump. This "new growth" would need to be burned again and again to keep the tree from regrowing. So 70 AD, 135 AD, the Holocaust, and now today? Or things worse than today, are all about making sure the oak does not regrow as before...though some growth will always be there. Connect this back to 5:25b: 25 ...For all this his anger has not turned away, and his hand is stretched out still. [Isa 5:25 ESV]. We need to watch carefully for verses that tell us what to look for at the end of his wrath. If we take the position that Israel will receive the promises at the end, then God's wrath as described here must some day be turned away. What will that look like, and when will that be. Perhaps Isaiah will explain it to us as we go along.
But we ought not be surprised at the "burning", the repeated burning of the people of Israel. This curse that started in Isaiah's day will not end until God's wrath turns away.
2021 - The message is that the time for repentance and help is past. What is coming cannot be turned or averted. Things are going to get really bad, and then they are going to get worse yet. The literal words say that the population will be reduced to a 10th, and then burned again. Looking ahead, we know that Isaiah's prophecy is pre-Assyria in the north, and certainly pre-Babylon in the south, since that conquest does not come until Jeremiah's time. But even here, at the very day 1 of Isaiah's ministry, it is all over. The people are going to be purposely prevented from comprehending and acting on Isaiah's message. His preaching is doomed to fall on - not deaf ears - but on ears sealed shut. Pretty sure this passage is quoted in the NT also, as still being in effect at that time. This is the current situation with the Jews too, it is still going on. There is a remnant, but for the most part, the Jews will not hear about Jesus. Reminds me of the Ben Shapiro interview of John MacArthur. Any time MacArthur mentioned Jesus, Shapiro would get this condescending look that said, you poor ignorant little kid. You believe that Jesus stuff? This "curse" if I can call it that of dull hearts, heavy ears, and blind eyes continues because of what had happened up to Isaiah's time, and compounded by what happened in Jesus' time.
Further, one could go through every verse, 9b-13, using the interlinear, and see just how much trouble the translators had with the direct words of God.
2024 - I am convinced that this curse pronounced by God in Isaiah's time continues to this day. There is a remnant, the tenth part of Israel, that God keeps for himself, but the other 90% hear nothing, see nothing, and are just shut completely off from God. These are not chosen. God punishes generations and generations of Jews for the rebellion of their fathers. We must see this as NATIONAL punishment, not individual punishment, because the whole nation of Israel has rejected him, and that two times. As the Gentiles wandered in darkness during the time when the Mosaic Law was in effect, the Jews wander in darkness now, with the New Covenant in effect. God is never obligated to save. Everyone who ever lived deserves hell. He saves whom he will, and since there is no one who can earn it, He is just to condemn all. Yet through His grace, He saves some. How thankful we ought to be for our salvation!
2025 - These verses - Isa 6:8-10 - applied to Isaiah's time and following. I think they continue all the way to the beginning of the 70th, when Israel returns to God. We are going to see a lot of prophecy about that return. This curse is on Israel to this day. We know it because Jesus repeated it. He does not allow them to repent...except for that remnant in vs. 13.
2025 - Perhaps the answer to Isaiah's "how long?" question tells us when this curse will end? I can see the description applying to Israel after Assyria, and to Judah after Babylon. So we don't need to push all the way up to the 70th...but remember, Isaiah did not live to see the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon. If we are strictly literal, the situation in 11-13 could refer solely to Isiah's lifetime.