“Consider the lilies of the field how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, ‘That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.'” Matthew 6:28,29
Almost the entire life of Isaiah, sometimes called the Messianic Prophet, was lived when Assyria was the dominant world power. Several times the Assyrians invaded different regions around Israel in his day, even coming to the walls of Jerusalem when he was an old man but being driven away by the intervention of God. Assyria was a godless empire, very cruel in its dealings with its enemies, and yet projecting the image of being culturally sophisticated. It was an empire that lived in opposition to, and defiance of, the living God. It was at such a time as this, when Israel lived under this menacing cloud, that Isaiah would write of his vision of God. In that vision, we discover that he saw first and foremost, the Lord sitting upon His throne. He also saw seraphims, angelic beings created, and positioned in heaven to constantly worship the of God of heaven. Their powerful consistent worship of God was centered upon the proclamation of his Holiness. Coupled with the revelation of the thrice Holy God, came a wonderful, and magnificent proclamation: “…the whole earth is FULL of His glory.” (Isaiah 6:3) All that the Assyrian empire could produce in structure and man’s wisdom, was absolutely nothing compared to the incomparable greatness of God’s glory revealed in nature, in the earth. The message of this glory was not limited to the speech of the Seraphims in heaven but declared daily by its existence in and throughout the earth, in things both great and small. The problem for man in Isaiah’s day, and in our own, is that he is not looking to see the glory of God. The proof of this, which is also a condition of seeing, is the exercising faith in God, trusting the Spirit of God, to open his eyes to see. Jesus once told Martha at the occasion of the death of her brother, that if she believed, she would SEE the glory of God. God calls us to look, to behold, to SEE His glory in and through His creation on earth, and in the heavens.
In David’s nineteenth Psalm he wrote: “The heavens declare the glory of God: and the firmament shewth His handywork. Day unto day UTTERETH speech, and night unto night knowledge.” (v.1,2) Man does not see the glory of God because firstly he is not looking. Secondly, he cannot see if he does not believe in God. It is God alone who can open up the beauty of His creation, and the revelation of His glory, to the one who will trust Him for it. It was Wade Robinson who wrote in his great hymn, “Loved With Everlasting Love,” the following: “Heaven above is softer blue, Earth around is sweeter green; Something lives in every hue, Christless eyes have never seen: Birds with gladder songs o’erflow, Flow’rs with deeper beauties shine, Since I know, as now I know, I am His, and He is mine.”
The question then arises that, if the glory of God is revealed in creation to whomever is willing to believe, then how is the glory of God revealed in and through the gospel of truth, which brings man to a saving knowledge of Christ? Is not creation like the lily of the field, and the revelation of Christ like the glory of heaven itself? When the Son of Man, Christ, came and dwelt among us, He revealed the same glory of God that Isaiah saw. He came as the light of the world, to reveal the love of God to a lost and dying world. He came as the only Hope of the world, the sure remedy for sin, and a complete, perfect salvation provided by the Father. There is in the constant revelation of Christ, the constant declaration of the holiness of God, but also the fulness of Life to know.
Dear Father, Anoint our eyes today. In Jesus’ name, Amen.