“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up here, and I will shew you things which must be hereafter.” Revelation 4:1
In the book of Isaiah, he describes a vision that God gave him of heaven, more specifically, of the Lord of heaven, sitting upon a throne. Why did God give this specific vision to Isaiah, and how is it that we have it written down and available for us to read and meditate upon today?
In the book of Proverbs we read: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (29:18) How is the lack of a vision, (…by vision Scripture speaks of the vision of God and His ways), linked to perishing, or destruction? We know that the great principle by which sinful man alone can know God, walk with Him, obey and serve Him, is that of faith. The gift of faith to be received by the lost sinner, is only received by one having a certain knowledge of God, and His ways. How does one come to this knowledge? It is by revelation, that specific working of the Spirit of God when He takes the truths of God revealed in nature, and more specific and magnified, in the word of God, making them come alive to the heart. These words are Spirit and they are life, with the power to convict and convince. In responding to these truths, these points of discovery of the nature and person of God, and Christ’s work of redemption on the cross, faith is given to be saved. Power is given to believe. It all begins by the Spirit moving in the heart and mind of the individual to bring him to the place where he sees his lost condition, the result of a “vision” of God, the true perception of Who and What He is. In Jesus’ day, that vision may simply have been the realization of God working to heal the sick, and provide miraculously to feed the thousands. It may have been overwhelmingly grasped in a boat in the midst of a storm, with Jesus rising and commanding the wind and sea to be still…and it was. For Isaiah, it was a vision of God upon His throne, with seraphims flying and crying one to another: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” (6:3)
Why does God reveal this vision to Isaiah with such clarity and specific, concentrated intent? It is to communicate, not only to the prophet, but to all of mankind, the holy character which is perpetually true of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The intended result or effect of this vision was to bring Isaiah, in comparing himself to what he saw, to the overwhelming conviction that he was NOT holy, NOT of that divine nature, pure and perfect. He was of a different makeup, or nature, one which was in opposition to this Almighty King, whose glory filled the earth. Nothing in his existence, in and of itself, could bridge the divide between him as lost, and the thrice holy God upon His throne. Only by the gracious coming, and working of the Gracious Creator and Redeeme could Isaiah be reconciled to God. The first aspect of the Divine purpose in giving this vision to Isaiah was to bring him to see, and us also, not only our nothingness, but the fact that there is no remedy to reconciling the sinner with a holy God at any point except by the intervention of God.
There is a second intent of God in giving the vision, and it has to do with His authority as the King, the Lord of lords. (v.5) After Isaiah realizes his helpless and hopeless condition, God instructs a seraphim to take a live coal from the altar, and lay it upon the mouth of Isaiah, his lips being unclean. God alone mercifully cleanses from sin.
Dear Father, Fill our vision with Christ. In Jesus’ name, Amen.