“In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple.” Isaiah 6:1
Dear Ones:
It is hard for us to grasp the significance of Isaiah’s vision with regard to its magnitude and power. There is no doubt that the vision of God had a powerful impact on his life from that time forward. In the first chapter of Revelation, we see that John the Apostle also had a vision of God, specifically of the glorified Christ. Again, there is no doubt that the vision of this vision had a tremendous impact on everything pertaining to his life. But, beyond the effects of the visions in both instances, about 700 or more years apart, we need to ask the question: “Why did God in His wisdom, at that time, choose to reveal Himself in that particular way to these men?” “Is there a very practical, and life-changing, message for us?
In both cases, the Lord reveals Himself to His faithful servants, men who would carefully communicate what they saw and heard. There is no effort to deceive, or even influence, the hearers or readers concerning the accounts. What is significant is that God would use the truth of both “revelations” to accomplish His purposes, both then and now. As Isaiah would later write concerning the word of the Lord, that “…it shall not return unto Me void, but accomplish that which I please,” (55:11), so the revelation would have its purpose, and would accomplish that for which God gave it. What fruit then would the revelation have, and what objective would it accomplish?
We have already seen in the book of Habakkuk, that when the Lord gives a “vision,” that clear perception of spiritual reality concerning Himself, or spiritual truth, that He does so in order to produce a reaction, a proper response. “Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may RUN that reads it.” (2:2) When Jesus was speaking of His second coming, giving different illustrations and historical references to confirm the reality of it, He then tells the disciples: “Watch therefore: for you do not know what hour your Lord shall come.” (Matt. 24:42) With the vision comes the call to believe and respond in obedient faith.
In a very different way, and yet, following the same pattern in dealing with us, God gave to Isaiah the picture of the suffering Servant, the suffering and death of Christ, in Isaiah, chapter 53. Again, over seven hundred years later, after Pentecost, a angel of the Lord would tell Philip the apostle, to go southward from Jerusalem to Gaza, to a desert. There Philip would meet the treasurer for Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who was reading Isaiah 53, howbeit, not understanding the meaning. Since the eunuch had gone up to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning to his own country, he most certainly had heard of the crucifixion, burial, and resurrection of Christ. However, it will not be until Philip climbs up into the chariot with him, and “preaches Christ” to him from that passage, that the eunuch would have his “vision” of the truth of Christ. His perception of the truth, according to the revelation of Christ, would result in him asking to be baptized, having believed that Christ was indeed the Son of God. Here a single man, reading the Scriptures on a desolate road, being confronted by Philip who gives him a “vision” of Christ. The response is life-changing.
Dear Father, anoint our eyes to see Thee and the Lord Jesus through the truths of Thy word. In beholding Him in truth, change us forever for Your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad