Bible Commentaries
Isaiah 6

Verses 1-5

Isa 6:1-5

Verse 1

This is one of the most famous chapters in the whole prophecy, but there is this mystery about it, namely, that nobody knows for sure just where it belongs chronologically. Practically all of the liberal and radically critical writers make it the beginning of all of Isaiah’s prophetic writings, identifying it with his original call to the prophetic office. More conservative scholars find many objections to that understanding of it. If it was Isaiah’s call to the prophetic office, why should it have been placed this deep into the prophecy? Furthermore, at the very beginning of Isaiah, his prophecies were identified with the reign of King Uzziah and other kings; and, since this vision is placed in the year of Uzziah’s death, with the evident presumption that King Uzziah was already dead, making this vision the first one Isaiah ever had would leave no room for those prophecies clearly stated to have occurred in Uzziah’s reign. It appears to this writer, therefore, that there is a better explanation of this chapter than the current fad of making it Isaiah’s call to the prophetic office. Note that the scriptures do not even hint that this was the beginning of Isaiah’s prophetic ministry.

Therefore, we understand this great chapter as a second appearance of the Lord to Isaiah, much in the same manner that God appeared to Abraham a second time in Haran, to Jonah a second time, and to Daniel a number of times. The true reason for God’s appearance to Isaiah in this marvelous vision lies in the importance of the tremendously significant prophecy that Isaiah was here commissioned to deliver to Israel, namely, Israel’s final and fatal apostasy that resulted in their official judicial hardening by God himself. This is one of the greatest prophecies in the Bible; it is quoted no less than four times in the New Testament; and it is fully applicable to the secular Israel even to the present time. This judicial hardening of Israel so dramatically prophesied here was the end of racial Israel as the "chosen people of God." Such a message, Isaiah would have understood perfectly; and the prophet’s need of a special revelation and commission from God Himself in order to enable and encourage Isaiah’s announcement of it is evident enough.

We fully agree with Lowth that this vision (of Isaiah 6) could be, "A new designation to introduce more solemnly a general declaration of the whole course of God’s dispensations in regard to his people and the fate of the nation (Israel).”

The cosmic sweep of this prophecy concerning the rejection of the once "chosen people" including, of course, the salvation of"a remnant," was also noted by Lowth, as follows:

"Although it relates primarily to the prophet’s own times, and the obduracy of the Jews of that age, and to their punishment by the Babylonian captivity; it extends in its full latitude to the age of Messiah, and the blindness of the Jews to the gospel; (See Matthew 13:14-15; John 12:40; Acts 28:26-27; and Romans 11:7-8) to the desolation of their country by the Romans, and to their being rejected by God.”

Thus the extremely significant implications of the prophecy in this chapter constitute the only reason needed to explain why a special revelation from God to Isaiah accompanied the giving of it. The chapter falls into three short divisions: (1) The Vision of God (Isaiah 6:1-5); (2) Isaiah’s cleansing (Isaiah 6:6-8); and (3) Prophecy of Israel’s hardening and rejection (Isaiah 6:9-13).

Isaiah 6:1-5

"In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is Jehovah of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke, Then said I, 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: for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts."

"In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord ..." The king Uzziah is thought to have been the cousin of Isaiah; and he was no doubt held in highest honor and appreciation by the prophet. At any rate, his death was a public tragedy and occasion of great sorrow. It is no accident, therefore, that upon such a tragic occasion a special vision of the Great King should have appeared to his prophet. Israel’s salvation could never have come from the activity of any earthly king, no matter how good, or how great. Too many might have been looking to the wrong throne for the blessings Israel needed. It was high time that their vision should have been lifted upward to God Himself, to the true throne of authority and blessing. Many a human being has found an occasion of great personal tragedy to have been also an occasion when a new vision of God upon his throne enabled him to find new cleansing and deliverance from the Lord, as did Isaiah here.

We appreciate McGuiggan’s discerning comment on this: For someone it might be: in the year that my wife, or my son, or my little girl died, or in the year that my business failed, or in the year my child became a drug-addict, or in the year when my son was born crippled, or in the year of any great personal tragedy ... I SAW THE LORD SITTING ON A THRONE, high and lifted up.

This is always the correct answer. No matter what tragic sorrow overwhelms and destroys mankind, whether individually or collectively, let all men behold the Lord upon the eternal throne. There and there only is the source of our hope and salvation.

Note our assumption here that Uzziah was already dead when this vision came to Isaiah. As Lowth said, "The phrase, In the year that king Uzziah died, probably means `after the death of Uzziah’; as the same phrase, Isaiah 14:28, means `after the death of Ahaz.’”

"His train filled all the temple ..." The marginal note gives "skirts" instead of "train" here. "Robes" might be a better word.

The three pairs of wings on each of the seraphim are believed to stand for reverence, humility, and speedy obedience to God’s will.

"The seraphim ..." These may not be identified with the Cherubim which had four wings (in the temple, two wings), not six. "This word is nowhere else in the Bible applied to God’s attendant angels; but the word is applied to the fiery, flying (not winged) serpents that bit the Israelites in the wilderness (Numbers 21:6).” It might be that the suggestion of these strange beings is connected in some way with the satanic wickedness which was destined, finally, to overwhelm and destroy Israel, which eventuality this revelation from God to Isaiah so sternly prophesied.

The word "house" in Isaiah 6:4 is more properly translated as "temple." Jamieson also identified the "smoke" in this passage with the holy Shekinah of 1 Kings 8:10 and Ezekiel 10:4, indicating the presence of God.

Notice that Isaiah’s consciousness of God’s presence resulted at once in his awareness of his own sins and uncleanness. Throughout the Bible, this reaction on the part of any person becoming aware of God’s presence is normal, indeed without exception. Examples of this are Gideon (Judges 6:22), Manoah (Judges 13:22), Job (Job 42:5-6), Peter (Luke 5:8), John (Revelation 1:17), and the thief on the cross (Luke 23:40-41).

The notion that Isaiah was just as wicked as the Israelites generally were should be rejected. True, all men, in the presence of God, must inevitably be overcome with a sense of wickedness and unworthiness; but that is a different thing altogether from being as wicked as are those in full rebellion against God. Both Noah (Genesis 7:1) and Lot (2 Peter 2:8) were called "righteous" in scripture; but no man is truly righteous in the ultimate sense. Thus, we should understand Isaiah’s confession of sin here as a conscious realization of the wickedness of all flesh in the sight of God, and not as an admission that he was just as wicked as the Jews generally were in that rebellious era. If he had been, God most certainly would not have entrusted him with the commission given in this chapter.

Isaiah 6:1-4 THE GLORY: The throne of David is the throne of God on earth. Exodus 19:4-6; 1 Samuel 8:7; 2 Samuel 7:12-16 it should be established forever. 1 Chronicles 29-23. Now the King is dead, the throne is vacant till a new King is crowned. Knowing the helpless, weak, vacillating condition of the people, a sense of impending national trouble comes to Isaiah. At this time is granted to him a vision of the glory of God. God is on the throne! Supremacy! Permanence and Power! The earthly throne may be vacant, the scepter fallen from dead hands; but here is One whose throne is never vacant, from whose hand the scepter never falls. Here is assurance, positive and beyond doubt that however weak man had corrupted the earthly counterpart of God’s throne, God still reigns and controls all things. His “train,” skirts, robes, fill the “Temple,” His house, palace. Flowing robes of priestly royalty flll the temple. No room for human glory and authority in God’s house. “Seraphim” – “Fiery ones.” Cf. Revelation 4:8. “Four living creatures.” Six wings – rapidity in carrying out God’s orders, God’s will. In the Holy Presence, however, the Seraphim covered his face with his wings from the intolerable effulgence of Divine Glory; another pair of wings covered the feet, soiled in their various ministrations, unmeet for all pure presence; while the third pair of wings sustained him in his place near the throne. Ceaseless activity in God’s service. One cried – “kept crying” (Cf. Revelation 4:8). This cry of worship and adoration was a result of their vision. Its first note is the affirmation of the holiness of God. Its second is the declaration that the earth is full of His glory.

A Sermon from Seraphim

1. The lowliest Reverence becomes the Highest Created Beings Isaiah 6:2

2. The Heavenly Life is largely spent in active service Isaiah 6:2

3. The Celestial Intelligences have a keen appreciation of the Divine Holiness Isaiah 6:3

4. The highest Intelligences see all things in their relation to God Isaiah 6:3

The earthquake symbolizes that material, earthly things are temporary and shaken. Though the very temple itself be shaken and Old Testament religion itself undergo a change and old established customs of worship and institutions of administration pass away, God’s throne and authority are eternal. In this vision of Isaiah we have a prelude or a preparation for what Isaiah is going to teach about the Messiah and His Kingdom. Isaiah will soon begin to proclaim that when the Messiah comes and establishes His Kingdom (the church), it will seem to the Jews as if the throne of God had been abandoned. All the Old Testament institutions were to be replaced. But what the Jews would need to understand was that God was still on His throne and that all the Messianic activity would really be God ruling. Paul deals with this Jewish problem in Hebrews (esp. Hebrews 12:18-29). The word “holy” attributed to God emphasizes His absolute separation from man. He is Lord and not a man. Although the creation depends upon Him, He himself is entirely independent thereof. This is the heart and core of Isaiah’s theology. God’s holiness is a necessity if we are to be able to entrust our eternal destiny to Him.

Verses 6-8

Isa 6:6-8

Isaiah 6:6-8

"Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he touched my mouth with it, and said, Lo, this has touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin forgiven. And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I; send me."

The forgiveness of Isaiah’s sin here was not final and absolute, because the ultimate price of all human redemption from sin had not at that time been paid in the bloody sacrifice of Jesus Christ himself. The meaning is simply that God "passed over" his sins as explained in Romans 3:23-26. Rawlinson observed that the symbolical "forgiveness" achieved here by means of the live coal from off the altar actually demonstrated that (1) sin could indeed be purged; but that the highest supernatural creatures, even one standing before God Himself could alone procure such a forgiveness. If this should be allowed, then the live coal from off the altar would be a symbol of that greater and all-sufficient sacrifice in Christ that the ancient altar typified.

"And thy sin forgiven ..." "This forgiveness was not accomplished by any physical effect of fire to cleanse from sin, but in relation to that altar-sacrifice, of which Messiah in his death was to be the antitype.”

God’s challenging question, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" raises the problem of who is meant by "us." Some think that God here included members of his heavenly court; but our own view is that we have here exactly the plural that was used when God said, "Let us make man, etc." The Trinity is therefore the most logical answer to the question; but this is not absolutely certain. because, "The plural may merely indicate majesty.”

Isaiah 6:5-7 THE GRACE: The cry of need. Isaiah 6:5. Isaiah’s vision of the Holiness and glory of Jehovah brought conviction of his own sinfulness.

(a) “I am cut off,” “destroyed.” He had seen God and could not expect to live. Exodus 33:20. Doomed to die.

(b) “My lips are unclean!” And if his lips are unclean, then his heart is unclean. James 3:2; Matthew 12:34.

(c) "My people are unclean," 1 Corinthians 15:33.

(d) "Mine eyes have seen the king" – The Real King.

Isaiah 6:6 THE DIVINE RESPONSE: A glowing coal from the altar – a “hot stone.” Altar of Incense – Prayer. Isaiah’s prayer of confession of sin is answered as the angel takes a coal from Altar of Prayer to cleanse his impure lips. Here is revealed the Grace of God:

1. The prayer of the sinner is heard.

2. The song of the Seraphim is hushed that the prayer of the sinner might be answered.

Isaiah 6:7 DIVINE FORGIVENESS: “Thy sin is forgiven.”

(a) Sin can be purged.

(b) The highest angelic nature alone cannot purge it.

(c) God never acts alone in saving men from sin.

(d) Forgiveness from sin is always conditional upon the following:

1 Desire on part of sinner

2 Intervention of second person (messenger – servant)

3 Application of divinely appointed means.

Isaiah 6:8 WHO WILL GO: Someone must go to the nation with this message that God is still upon His throne. Someone must deliver the message that God is going to shake old institutions and provide the real believers (all believers) with a Heavenly King and a Heavenly Kingdom. Considering the present carnal, materialistic attitudes of the people, the messenger must feel a divine compulsion and be commissioned with a divine commission. God speaks of Himself and to Himself in the plural “us” referring, undoubtedly, to the triune Godhead. The concept of more than one Person in the Godhead is not absolutely foreign to the Old Testament (Cf. Genesis 1:26 and Proverbs 8 where Wisdom of the Word of God is personified). The word Elohim (God) is always in the plural in the original language of the O.T. And, of course, the O.T. prophets have a great deal to say about the Messiah who will be the incarnation of the Omnipotent God. Isaiah, having been captured mind, heart and will by the divine experience he had just participated in, immediately met the challenge—Here am I; send me! No man is ready to do God’s special work of preaching His revelation until that man has grasped the holiness of God, his own total in-adequateness and sinfulness, and the magnificent grace of God which cleanses him when he did not deserve it! This is, for all practical purposes, the same experience Saul of Tarsus had which turned him into Paul, the apostle to the Gentiles.

Verses 9-13

Isa 6:9-13

Isaiah 6:9-13

"And he said, Go and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed. Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until cities be waste without inhabitant, and houses without man, and the land become utterly waste, and Jehovah have removed men far away, and the forsaken places be many in the midst of the land. And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall in turn be eaten up; as a terebinth, and as an oak, whose stock remaineth when they are felled; so the holy seed is the stock thereof."

"Go and tell this people ..." This must be contrasted with "Go and tell my people." Israel is no longer God’s people, but "this people". Furthermore, this designation was not confined to Israel, the northern kingdom; but "Even Judah, under certain circumstances, is addressed contemptuously as `this people’ in Isaiah 8:11; Isaiah 28:11; Isaiah 28:14, and Isaiah 39.

What is prophesied in this passage is the judicial hardening of Israel in their rebellion against God. The prophecy is stated in different forms. Here it appears imperatively; but in other places the prophecy is referred to as self-accomplished as in Acts 28:27, or as having occurred passively as in Matthew 13:13-15. Here, as Dummelow pointed out, "The result of Isaiah’s preaching is spoken of as if it were the purpose of it.”

The Hardening of Israel, here prophesied by Isaiah, is a Biblical phenomenon of the utmost importance; and it is extensively illustrated by examples of it given in the holy Bible. Christ himself declared in both Matthew 13:14, and in Mark 4:12 that this prophecy of Israel’s hardening was actually fulfilled in that rebellious people.

The classical example from the Bible is that of Pharaoh, of whom it is stated ten times that "Pharaoh hardened his heart ..." after which it is said that, "God hardened Pharaoh’s heart." God never hardened anyone’s heart who had not already hardened his own heart many times. Thus it was said of this prophecy that Israel had themselves shut their ears, closed their eyes, and hardened their hearts.

Thus we may say that God hardened Israel, that Israel hardened themselves, and further, that Satan hardened their hearts. "The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving" (2 Corinthians 4:4). The "blinding" of this passage and the "strong delusion" of 2 Thessalonians 2:11 KJV, and the "working of error" (2 Thessalonians 2:11, ASV) are all designations of exactly the same condition described here as "hardening."

The consequences of judicial hardening are very extensive. The physical destruction of hardened individuals or nations was the result usually to be expected; and when Christ himself publicly announced the hardening of Israel as a fulfillment of this very passage, the followers of Christ accepted it as a judgment of doom and destruction upon the physical Israel. This Gentile hatred of the Jews (because most of Christ’s followers in that first century were Gentiles) resulted at once in an attitude of hatred toward the Jews just like that which the Jews of earlier times had developed toward the Gentiles; but the apostle Paul launched a blockbuster of a prophecy to counteract Gentile conceit which is recorded in Romans 11:25-26, indicating that the hardening of Israel would not result in their physical destruction but that the race would continue until "the fullness of the Gentiles be come in." Paul called this a "mystery"; and indeed it is, because the hardening of Israel did not issue in the total death of the people, as previously had been the case with hardened peoples, as with Pharaoh and the Egyptians, Sodom and Gomorrah, Tyre and Sidon, and many others.

"How long ...?" It was fulfilled primarily in the events of the conquest of Israel by Babylon, the destruction and captivity of many of the people; but the ultimate fulfillment came when the Romans under Vespasian and Titus destroyed Jerusalem, put to death 1,100,000, crucified 30,000 young men upon the broken walls of Jerusalem, deported thousands to Egypt, and destroyed the government of Israel for almost two millenniums.

Paul’s declaration that "all Israel shall be saved" is frequently misunderstood to be a declaration that all of the old racial Israel shall be saved; but the Israel Paul was speaking of in that passage is the spiritual Israel, from which the racial Israel is indeed not excluded, but which is not connected in any manner whatever with racial considerations. Jamieson commented as follows on this:

"According to Isaiah, not "all Israel" but the elect remnant alone, is destined to salvation. God shows unchangeable severity toward sin, but covenant faithfulness in preserving a remnant, and to that remnant Isaiah bequeaths the prophetic legacy of the second part of his book, Isaiah 40-66.”

"And if there be yet a tenth in it, it also shall be eaten up ...!" This statement is variously understood; but we find Lowth’s comment on this fully in line with all that is known about it.

"This prophecy has been made so clear by its accomplishment (fulfillment) that there remains little room for doubt of the fulfillment of it. Nebuchadnezzar took into captivity the great part of the people; the "tenth" remaining in the land, of the poorer people, followed Gedaliah (2 Kings 25:12; 2 Kings 25:22). Even these, fleeing into Egypt contrary to Jeremiah’s warning, perished there ..." In the subsequent and more remarkable fulfillment in the Roman destruction (A.D. 70); after the great majority perished, the "tenth" remainder increased rapidly and became very numerous in the days of Hadrian, who, being provoked by their rebellions, slew half a million more, thus a second time almost exterminating the nation. Yet after such signal and near-universal exterminations, the stock of the old Israel still remains.”

Furthermore, these repeated massacres and exterminations of Israel have continued throughout history and even down into current times when they were again repeated under Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany. In the light of all this, the meaning of Isaiah 6:12 is clear enough.

Some have pointed out that the Septuagint (LXX) reads somewhat differently from the American Standard Version in these final verses of Isaiah 6, but as Kidner noted, "The Dead Sea Scroll Isaiah supports our text.”

Isaiah 6:9-10 TELL THIS PEOPLE . . . hear what I am saying but . . . do not understand. What a strange commission. It will appear that Isaiah’s ministry is a complete failure. People will hear him but not understand. In fact, the more they hear the more adamant they will be against what they hear. They will become “fat hearted,” smug, self-satisfied. Their thoughts will be so thoroughly world-oriented they will be deaf and blind to spiritual things. God, using some irony of His own, commands Isaiah to tell the people to continue in this condition. Both Jesus and Paul repeated this characterization of Jews in their own ages (Matthew 13:14-15; Acts 28:26-27). Because Isaiah told them the truth the people would not believe. Truth has the awesome power to harden the one who morally rejects it. The more he told the truth, the more they (the majority) refused to accept it. Noah faced the same attitude in his preaching. Jesus faced it (John 8:39-47). Ezekiel and Jeremiah faced it (Jeremiah 1:17-19; Ezekiel 2:1 to Ezekiel 3:15). How many men would be willing to say, Here am I; send me, today, if they knew that their mission would be as difficult and bereft of any apparent success (as the world measures success)? Yet we all need to renew in our minds the promise of Jesus, the servant is not above his Master. If they rejected Jesus, they will reject the messengers of Jesus. But we are not to become discouraged. God does not measure success like the world measures it. God demands faithfulness—and He, Himself, takes care of the success.

Isaiah 6:11-12 HOW LONG: This was a natural reaction. If his ministry was to be fraught with such apparent failure, how long would the Lord expect him to preach to deaf ears? Even Jesus indicated that the time comes when God’s messenger should refrain from “giving that which is holy to the dogs and casting pearls before swine.” God’s answer is that the prophet is to preach until the captivity takes everyone away and there are no more people to whom to preach. For Israel, the northern kingdom, that would be only twenty years hence. For Judah approximately 136 years. Isaiah, of course, would not be alive when Judah was exiled, but his prophecy would live on in written form,

Isaiah 6:13 A HOLY SEED SAVED: this will be the result of Isaiah’s faithful persistence. Whatever or whomever is salvaged from apostacy by the ministry of Isaiah will be purged again by some form of testing (probably the captivity). “Tenth” is what we would call a “round number.” A figure of speech to indicate a small percentage of return for his preaching. But even that will undergo further purging. God is interested primarily in quality. When the message of God’s truth is preached without compromise quality will be the result. But when the messenger of God is inordinately concerned with quantity, there is a tendency to compromise the message. God demands that His messengers be faithful to the message and He will see to the quantity (numbers). Our success in the eyes of God is not judged on the basis of numbers.

There will be a small number of people turned back to the Lord through Isaiah’s ministry and they will form the faithful remnant, This faithful remnant will continue through the captivity and pass on from generation to generation a faithfulness to the Lord and a hope in His promises. These generations will succeed one another in walking in the way of the Lord through 700 years until one of them, a virgin by the name of Mary of the tribe of Judah, will surrender herself to become the “handmaiden of the Lord” and give birth to the Incarnate Son of God. These generations will succeed one another until some of them become the nucleus of the Kingdom of God (the church).

God’s judgment would not result in annihilation of the people. Here is expressed the Messianic potentialities of the people of God. They will continue to exist (a remnant of them) till Shiloh comes (Cf. Genesis 49:10). “The scepter shall not depart from Judah; nor the rulers staff from between his feet, until Shiloh come.” This prophecy was fulfilled in an amazing way. There never was a ruler of the Jews not from the tribe of Judah until Herod the Great who was King of the Jews when Jesus was born. Herod was an Idumean by birth and not even a Jew. The Christ is “Shiloh” and when He came the scepter had departed from Judah. He came and established the rule of the royal family forever! Now we see why the “tenth” had to be purged again! The Messiah must have a faithful, sanctified remnant through which to come!