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Unclean Lips
It was in the context of the horrible picture presented in yesterday’s lesson that the prophet Isaiah gets his call. It came about 740 B.C., the year King Uzziah of Israel died. Uzziah, starting out well, eventually fell into apostasy (2 Chronicles 26) and met a terrible end. At this time, Isaiah began his ministry but not before getting a powerful vision of the Lord.
Read Isaiah 6:1–8. What kind of reaction does Isaiah have? Why is that so significant, especially for our understanding of the plan of salvation?
“Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5).
Notice, Isaiah’s response wasn’t about the power and majesty of God in contrast to his own weakness; nor was it about the eternity of God in contrast to his own temporality. Instead, the response was one dealing with morality. Isaiah, seeing this vision of God, seeing “the train of his robe” (Isa. 6:1, NIV) filling the temple, was overcome by the contrast between God’s holiness and his own sinfulness. At that moment, he realized that his great problem was a moral one, and that his fallen nature and his corruption could be his ruin. Plus, too, how could he, a “man of unclean lips,” speak for the Lord of hosts?
What was the solution to this problem?
The symbolic act of touching his lips with the coal revealed the reality of Isaiah’s conversion. He was now forgiven his sin; he had a new life in the Lord, and the fruit of that conversion was revealed in verse 8, when he cried out, “Here am I, send me.” Knowing that his sin was “purged,” he now moved ahead in faith, trusting the righteousness and holiness of the God revealed to him in that vision.
Isaiah’s guilt was purged, his sin atoned for. He was “born again,” and the immediate fruit was his willingness to answer the call, “Who will go for us?” Now ask yourself, What kind of fruit is being manifested after your own conversion?
| MONDAY | May 16 |
It was in the context of the horrible picture presented in yesterday’s lesson that the prophet Isaiah gets his call. It came about 740 B.C., the year King Uzziah of Israel died. Uzziah, starting out well, eventually fell into apostasy (2 Chronicles 26) and met a terrible end. At this time, Isaiah began his ministry but not before getting a powerful vision of the Lord.
Read Isaiah 6:1–8. What kind of reaction does Isaiah have? Why is that so significant, especially for our understanding of the plan of salvation?
“Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips” (Isa. 6:5).
Notice, Isaiah’s response wasn’t about the power and majesty of God in contrast to his own weakness; nor was it about the eternity of God in contrast to his own temporality. Instead, the response was one dealing with morality. Isaiah, seeing this vision of God, seeing “the train of his robe” (Isa. 6:1, NIV) filling the temple, was overcome by the contrast between God’s holiness and his own sinfulness. At that moment, he realized that his great problem was a moral one, and that his fallen nature and his corruption could be his ruin. Plus, too, how could he, a “man of unclean lips,” speak for the Lord of hosts?
What was the solution to this problem?
The symbolic act of touching his lips with the coal revealed the reality of Isaiah’s conversion. He was now forgiven his sin; he had a new life in the Lord, and the fruit of that conversion was revealed in verse 8, when he cried out, “Here am I, send me.” Knowing that his sin was “purged,” he now moved ahead in faith, trusting the righteousness and holiness of the God revealed to him in that vision.
Isaiah’s guilt was purged, his sin atoned for. He was “born again,” and the immediate fruit was his willingness to answer the call, “Who will go for us?” Now ask yourself, What kind of fruit is being manifested after your own conversion?
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