The vision of the throne

Our first stop is a passage from Isaiah 6, the passage that was read to us earlier.

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces. With two they covered their feet, and two were flying. And they were calling to one another:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. “Woe to me!” I cried. “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.” Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and you sin atoned for”.

This is an amazing scene that Isaiah the prophet sees in a vision. At the centre of what he sees is the Lord himself on a high and exalted throne. And he is wearing an extraordinary garment, isn’t he? What do you think that comment about the train of his robe filling the temple means? It gives a glimpse of the huge scale of this figure on the throne. It is funny how Isaiah sets the scene, because he sees the throne first and then tells us about the temple. Is God in the temple? There was no throne stationed there usually. The way I imagine the scene, it is as if Isaiah in his vision is sitting in the temple and the roof of the temple is peeled away so he can gaze on this heavenly throne. And he has a group of heavenly being that attend him, the seraphs. And their job is to give a voice to what they see. What do they say? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. [in Hebrew, repetition means VERY!]

The whole scene tells us what it means for the God of Israel to be holy: