Story 3: The Throne Room of God
Isaiah 6:1-7
The man you are about to learn about is one of the greatest men in history. His name is Isaiah, and he was a prophet. God would give him important messages to tell the people of Israel. Some of the Israelites would learn through Isaiah how to show their love and faithfulness to their Lord. Others would learn about God’s judgment by ignoring and disobeying what Isaiah said.
Isaiah was a prophet through the reigns of four different kings, starting with King Uzziah (1:1). Some of these kings honored the Lord and the words of Isaiah, and some did not. Several of them rejected Isaiah and persecuted him. But he bravely continued to proclaim the Word the LORD gave to him. We are not sure how Isaiah died, but the belief of the Jews and the Christian Church for the last two thousand seven hundred years has been that he was sawed in half. The last king hated the words Isaiah spoke because he stood firm for God, and so he had Isaiah killed. What a privilege it is for us to learn from a man who loved God so wholeheartedly.
Isaiah had probably been a prophet for some time while King Uzziah ruled the nation. As we learned in the last story, King Uzziah’s rule had been a very good season for the people of Judah. It was a time of peace. Because Uzziah was a good leader, Judah was respected as a nation by all the other nations around it. When King Uzziah died, his son Jotham became king. King Uzziah had suffered from leprosy, and so his son had already been ruling in his place for many years. Yet the change from one king to another could be a very scary time. What if King Jotham began to make bad decisions now that his father was gone? With all the power he had over the armies, would Jotham lead the people of God to times of even greater peace, or would he lead them into war?
To make matters worse, there was another big problem. It was called the Assyrian empire. Assyria was a great nation with a very powerful, deadly army. They had been quietly minding their own business for many years, but now Assyria had a new king. His name was Tiglath-pileser III and he wanted to take over the whole world. All the nations were afraid that Assyria might attack them. When Assyria attacked, they were brutal. When Assyria invaded a country, they would kill off whole groups of people. They would take their food, their animals, and everything that was valuable. They often forced everyone in the cities and villages to leave their homes and move to places far away. They were famous for how they tortured and killed their captives.
When the people of Judah heard rumors of threats that King Tiglath-pileser III might send his army to attack them, they were terrified. It would destroy their lives! Nothing would ever be the same.
In this terrifying time, the Most High God, the True King of Israel and the ruler over all of human history, raised up his special servant, Isaiah, in a special new way. Isaiah had already spoken the words of God to Judah while King Uzziah was alive. Now God would appoint Isaiah and elevate him to an even higher, holier message. It was a message that would be recorded for all time. It would become part of the sacred Word of God.
In the year that King Uzziah died, God came to His prophet Isaiah. Or maybe we should say that God brought Isaiah to Himself in a special way. In chapter 6 of the book of Isaiah in the Old Testament, Isaiah tells about how he was brought into God’s Holy Temple in Heaven. What Isaiah saw and heard is the most awesome experience anyone can ever have. It was the throne room of the Most Holy God where He reigns over all the universe. God is there right now, reigning over the world, reigning over you and me.
This is how Isaiah described it: “‘I saw the LORD seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple.’” Can you imagine? Try to picture this in your mind. Isaiah was standing there in the great temple, looking up at a tremendous Throne, and there in front of him is the Most High God. The brilliance of God’s holiness filled the whole room with radiant, pure light. As the Lord sat in magnificent splendor and power on His throne, Isaiah looked up and saw great, winged creatures that looked like flames of fire. They were seraphs, mighty angels who hover above the throne in constant motion, ready and waiting to do the will of God.
God is so pure and holy that the seraphs cover their faces and their feet in His presence. Isaiah watched as the seraphs called out to each other in worship of their Lord, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.” Their joyful, all-consuming worship had a powerful effect on the whole throne room. As Isaiah stood there, the whole place shook! The Great Temple of the true and living God filled with the smoke of God’s glory as He received their worship.
The holiness and power and beauty and worth of the Lord filled Isaiah with awe and shame. Compared to such purity and goodness, Isaiah suddenly became aware of the filth of his own sin! “Woe to me!” He cried out, “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.”
Isaiah knew that his unclean lips made him unworthy to be in the holy presence of God, and he cried out in despair. He knew that anything touched by evil and sin in the presence of such righteous perfection should be struck down and destroyed. It would have been right for God to ruin Isaiah. And while the LORD is a God of utter holiness and purity, He is also a God of tremendous mercy and grace. He had chosen Isaiah. He was to be a man of God’s own special purposes. He provided a way for Isaiah to be cleansed.
One of the seraphs flew down to Isaiah. He used tongs to pick up a burning coal from the fires of the altar before God. He touched the hot coal to Isaiah’s lips. “See, this has touched your lips,” he said, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” The filth in the heart of Isaiah was made clean. The barrier of sin between Isaiah and God was removed. Now the LORD God Himself spoke to Isaiah from the throne.
“Whom shall I send?” God asked, “And who will go for us?” God had a task, a very important job for someone to do. It was so important that God Himself brought this messenger from earth to Heaven to appoint him in person. God did not force Isaiah to take the task of being His messenger. It would be very difficult. But Isaiah loved his God and freely offered himself. “Here am I!” He said. “Send me!”