SEEING GOD CLEARLY

I’ve got my double glazing with me today. I fumble for my glasses now to be able to read the Bible. If we’re out for a meal, and I forget them, I have to ask a family member to describe the menu choices!! I can’t see as clearly as I used to. So, thanks to whoever invented glasses as many of us are short or longsighted, and we deal with cataracts, or in poor xxxx case a cornea transplant in order to see clearly.

There is pain in having imperfect vision. And often there’s pain in our faith journey too because we can’t see God clearly. There’s reasons for this, chiefly the prince of this world has blinded many people who can’t see clearly because they have the world’s lies covering their eyes! They live to satisfy their own desires. God is an abstract idea; He’s old man out to get us; a God who’s watching from a distance while we live out our lives on planet earth.

The way we see God determines our attitudes on everything, including justice, morality, war, natural disasters, science, politics and love. Yet, these practical images of God are so far removed from the truth. The idea of Him at a distance is not good theology. Jesus tore the curtain that separated God from us. In Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through Him everything on earth and in heaven was reconciled to a holy God by making peace through the blood of the cross.

It comes down to this: He who created the universe wants to have a personal, eternal relationship with us. Jesus is the most visible manifestation of the invisible God. He showed us that God is our Heavenly Father (Jn.14:9). However, folk don’t want to know the truth and they come up with their own distorted views as to what God is like. Some think they have a relationship with Him, but they don’t because that relationship is false and they are scared in case He finds out about them!!

We can’t see God clearly if we don’t look at ourselves honestly. Many try to defend themselves as decent, noble, upright folk who live correctly, declaring that their ‘goodness’ is good enough for God. That’s no different to the folk living in Isaiah’s day. Even though they continually offered sacrifices, they made them to satisfy their own hearts. They didn’t love the Good Lord who says: “If they did, they might turn to me and be healed.” So the prophet is told: “To make their minds dull, their ears deaf and their eyes blind, so that they cannot see or hear or understand.” (Is.6:10).

In other words to deliberately preach an uncompromising, unpopular message that will irritate, provoke and enrage people compelling their hearts to change if they so desire. Many are called. Few are chosen. Jesus did pretty much the same thing with parables. Most of them are of judgement as: “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.” (Jn.3:19).

It matters not what we look like, or how prosperous and popular we are. What matters in the end is for everyone to have a real relationship with God. Remember Judas had the best pastor, teacher, healer, therapist, yet he failed to love Jesus. We can’t blame anyone. Definitely not God-fearing ministers who uphold the Word. The problem is not the leadership or the church we go to, if our attitude or character doesn’t change, or our hearts don’t transform – we will always be the same! No one is good, except God alone. (Lk.18:19).

We must let Him show us what He is like. He is utterly holy and different. Only Moses and Aaron were allowed anywhere near Mt. Sinai. Even flocks and herds were not allowed to graze by God’s holy mountain. He is separate, set above all creation. Divine Holiness reminds us of the divide between God and humanity. In the OT God made covenants, gave laws to His people and sent them the prophets to bridge the divide (reminding them how to live in true relationship with Him). Holiness, this aspect of God is something Isaiah wants us to see.

Ch.6 begins by telling us the exact year when he was called to be a prophet. It was the year that King Uzziah died in 740BC. Isaiah remembers that detail because in that moment, his life changed. For the first time in history he saw God in a way no one had ever seen Him. He saw the Creator of the universe sitting on an eternal throne “high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the whole temple…above him were seraphim…calling to one another: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty’…” (6:1,2,3).

This is the single most important picture of God we find in the OT. His glory doesn’t just fill the whole temple – “the whole earth is full of his glory.” (6:3). More than any other attribute – mercy, grace, love, power, knowledge – He is described as holy. His Name is holy. He cannot be compared with anyone else or anything else. He cannot be incriminated with sin. Habakkuk, another prophet says: “His eyes are too pure to look on evil and he cannot tolerate iniquity.” (1:13). If we don’t see Him as holy we have the wrong view of God.

To approach the holiness of God requires reverence and absolute obedience to His commands. So often we think we can just do as we please with our lives and then come running to God for a few minutes of prayer and get an answer right away. But that’s belittling grace to satisfy our own desires. Peter reminds us: “But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy. For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” (1 Pet.3:15-16). It’s when Isaiah sees God in all His holiness that he notices his own sinfulness. And he doesn’t like it. He mourns: “Woe to me! 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.” (Is.6:5). In that split second of his vision he realises all his so-called goodness, integrity and decency is nothing compared to God’s purity.

It’s a moment of humility and fear of the Lord. That’s why in the next verse a seraphim flies to him with a live coal in hand. When we are honest in our relationship to God, He gets merciful in His relationship to us. He deals with Isaiah’s unclean lips and the prophet, in an instant, is relieved of his guilt and sin. He’s cleansed and forgiven. If we desire that sort of relationship with God we also need to get real and see Him for who He is, and see ourselves for who we are.

When we’re cured of a disease, we want to help someone with theirs. If we find a product that relieves anxiety, improves sleep, saves us money we want to proclaim it. This is what happens next. Right after his vision he hears a conversation between the Holy Trinity: “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (6:8). Isaiah bursts out, “Here I am, let me do it! People have to know about this. People need this kind of relationship with God, and I’ve got to go and tell them…I can’t put if off they desperately need to know.”

With his corrected vision, Isaiah could see the true picture of God, the true state of the people around him and that everyone had the same need. They couldn’t see the way Isaiah did and God warned him about people’s imperfect vision. His ministry would make their senses dull, heavy and blind to the healing God offered. Nonetheless the message must be preached: “But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”” (Rom.10:14-15).

The Gracious Lord is always looking for people like Isaiah, an ordinary man who was willing to see God clearly and to step out in faith. The question is are we prepared to do the same? Will we be spectators or partakers? We all stumble in many ways, but it’s our love and our honesty before the Most High that reveals a true walk of faith!

Love in the Messiah. Blessed be the Word.

Holy God, Lord Jesus, you said to your disciples,“Why are you sleeping?” – may your Church today wake from its slumber and do your work of sharing the Good News of the Gospel. Amen.