The Gospel According to Isaiah (1): When He Saw His Glory – Isaiah 6

Sermon Audio:

The Gospel According to Isaiah: When He Saw His Glory

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1. Introduction to Isaiah

Isaiah is the premier prophet of the Old Testament in several ways: (1) temporally – as one of the first, he stands at the head of the amazing tradition of writing prophets before, during, and after the great captivity of Israel and Judah; and his message is so profound and monumental that everything written by the prophets afterwards is in some ways colored and shaped by his foundational work. (2) in volume – Isaiah is the longest prophetic book in the canon; his book, like his message, is big and broad, multi-faceted and all-encompassing, a microcosm of God’s whole purpose in human history. (3) in theme, style, and scope – there is simply no one else who wrote as diversely, as powerfully, as poetically, and as broadly as Isaiah. Martin Luther famously (and with good reason!) referred to the Psalms as a “little bible,” because they contain in some fashion every aspect of God’s gracious revelation to us. Isaiah is perhaps the only other book that could bear that designation with equal appropriateness. Reading Isaiah is like reading the Cliff’s Notes version of the bible – he takes you back to the eternal, inter-triune council before the foundation of the world, moves you along through fall, promise, failure, exile – then brings you to a stunning climax of redemption, which flowers into a brilliant conclusion of eternal significance. Isaiah is a truly astonishing and wonderful book: it is Gospel, like the Evangelists; it explains the theological truths inherent in those accurately depicted gospel-scenes, like John; it shouts from beginning to end that the person and work of Christ is superior to all that had come before, like Hebrews; it concludes the whole world in sin before having free mercy for all, by grace through faith alone; and it shows how the casting off of the Jews means salvation for the whole world, both Jew and Gentile, like Romans; it soars above and beyond human history and shows the coming eschaton in brilliant imagery, like Revelation.

2. Isaiah’s Thesis: There is a Greater Salvation Coming

Oh, how I struggled to encapsulate the central message of Isaiah in one pithy proposition! The sheer volume of material is overwhelming, and it is all so rich, so many-layered, so full of hidden and beautiful insights that I felt as though I could come up with a thousand lovely themes, and each one would be more delicious than the finest fruits of Paradise. But I finally felt as though I had come to the very peak of the lofty mountain, from which I could see every other rock of truth supporting and buttressing the one great conclusion upon which I stood; and that conclusion was this: a greater salvation awaits the people of God, for the greater glory of God. The devastating backdrop of covenant apostasy, the horrifying promise of wrath and exile, merely paved the way for a redemption greater than Moses had provided when he brought the people through the Red Sea. That was a temporal redemption of one small nation, which failed in its purpose to restore Eden to one little plot of land; but the coming redemption would swallow up even death and hell, and bring all nations into a garden-paradise that is both universal and eternal.

But how will this salvation come about? After further wrestling, I came up with five sub-themes that work together to express that one great thesis. (1) Exile: because God’s people have been incorrigibly wicked and broken the Covenant, God has determined to cast them off. (2) Restoration: but because of his own righteousness and faithfulness, he will not utterly and permanently forsake them, but will preserve and restore a remnant of them. (3) Advancement: when he does restore this remnant, the restoration, built upon the manifold work of the coming Christ, will be far better than anything his people had ever seen before, and will include richer and greater gospel blessings than the Old Covenant ever had. (4) Expansion: and because so great a condition is too wonderful to keep to a small remnant alone, it will spread to all the nations, until the whole world experiences the unspeakable blessings of the restoration. (5) Culmination: human destinies will be finally and dramatically decided for eternal good or evil on the basis of this great salvation wrought by Christ.

3. Outline of Isaiah

Before we look at our text today, I would like to survey the whole prophecy of Isaiah from on high, with a bird’s eye view; I hope this will help us keep our bearings throughout the next five weeks. First, I have put together a simple outline to lay out the parameters of the entire work, as if from a satellite photo; then, we will zoom in to do a quick fly-over of the first five chapters, which work together as a sort of introduction to and synopsis of the whole work; and finally, we will land in chapter six, and walk through the details of this foundational account of Isaiah’s call and commission.

Part One: Christ Promised
1. Introduction (1-6)
2. God will raise up an heir to David, who will reign forever: Immanuel, born of a virgin (7-12)
3. God will bring every nation on earth into judgment, so that he might usher in a new earth, where righteousness dwells, for all his redeemed people to live in forever (13-27)
4. Woe to all those who delight and trust in this world’s powers; for they will have no part in this new, redeemed world (28-35)
5. The proof is in the doing: God acts supernaturally in history, in a way that proves his ability and willingness to do all that he has foretold (36-39)

Part Two: Christ Portrayed
1. The incomparable God who pre-writes all history has spoken the news of redemption (40-48)
2. The great drama of history: the suffering servant will perfectly accomplish God’s eternal plans in shockingly paradoxical ways (49-55)
3. The great conclusion of history: we must live in light of the eternal future that God’s great redemption has guaranteed, for the sacrificial Lamb will return as a conquering Warrior, and destinies will be finalized (56-66)

4. Summary of the First Five Chapters

a. The Judgment of Coming Exile because of Impenitent Disobedience

We immediately see Israel convicted in God’s court of gross and incorrigible apostasy:

Ah, sinful nation,
 a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evildoers,
 children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the LORD,
 they have despised the Holy One of Israel,
 they are utterly estranged. Why will you still be struck down?
 Why will you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick,
 and the whole heart faint.
 From the sole of the foot even to the head,
 there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and raw wounds;
 they are not pressed out or bound up
 or softened with oil. (1:4-6)

b. The Preservation and Restoration of a Righteous Remnant

Then, immediately after this indictment, we see the promise of a remnant:

If the LORD of hosts
 had not left us a few survivors, we should have been like Sodom,
 and become like Gomorrah. (1:9; quoted in Rom. 9:29)

c. The Great Advancement in Blessedness for the Righteous Remnant

But this remnant will not only be barely spared from the judgment; they will be restored to an even better condition, with more gospel blessings, at the same time as the wicked are destroyed.

“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet,
 they shall be as white as snow; 
though they are red like crimson,
 they shall become like wool.
 If you are willing and obedient,
 you shall eat the good of the land;
 but if you refuse and rebel,
 you shall be eaten by the sword;
 for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.” (1:18-20)

Zion shall be redeemed by justice,
 and those in her who repent, by righteousness.
 But rebels and sinners shall be broken together,
 and those who forsake the LORD shall be consumed. (1:27-28)

d. The Expansion of These Advanced Blessings to all the Nations

But is this promise to the obedient remnant of a perfect cleansing from sins, and a perfect redemption by God’s own righteousness to those who repent, for Israel alone? No, these advanced blessings, taking occasion by the failure of the Jews, will spread to all the nations, as we see immediately afterward:

It shall come to pass in the latter days    that the mountain of the house of the LORD shall be established as the highest of the mountains,    and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it,    and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD,    to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways    and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go the law,    and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations,    and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares,    and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation,    neither shall they learn war anymore. (2:2-4)

e. The culmination in a New Jerusalem

After this glimpse of a renewed Jerusalem, in which all nations will take part, Isaiah denounces the rebellious nation of Israel again; and again he looks to a day in which a Branch will spring up from this dry, stricken nation, ushering in a new paradise, in which all the typological blessings of the first Jerusalem will be perfectly realized.

In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel. And he who is left in Zion and remains in Jerusalem will be called holy, everyone who has been recorded for life in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion and cleansed the bloodstains of Jerusalem from its midst by a spirit of judgment and by a spirit of burning. Then the LORD will create over the whole site of Mount Zion and over her assemblies a cloud by day, and smoke and the shining of a flaming fire by night; for over all the glory there will be a canopy. There will be a booth for shade by day from the heat, and for a refuge and a shelter from the storm and rain. (4:2-6)

f. A Metaphor: God’s Vineyard

Finally, after laying out his theme in detail, Isaiah gives a metaphor that will continue to be a major strand throughout his prophecy; that of a garden, or vineyard. Christ reminds Israel’s leaders of this metaphor just before he fulfills all that was written in Isaiah, and shows how it speaks of the gathering in of the Gentiles, which will take place after Israel’s being cast off.

Let me sing for my beloved    my love song concerning his vineyard: My beloved had a vineyard    on a very fertile hill. He dug it and cleared it of stones,    and planted it with choice vines; he built a watchtower in the midst of it,    and hewed out a wine vat in it; and he looked for it to yield grapes,    but it yielded wild grapes.  And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
 and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more was there to do for my vineyard,
 that I have not done in it? When I looked for it to yield grapes,
 why did it yield wild grapes? And now I will tell you
 what I will do to my vineyard. I will remove its hedge,
 and it shall be devoured; I will break down its wall,
 and it shall be trampled down.
 I will make it a waste;
 it shall not be pruned or hoed,
 and briers and thorns shall grow up;
 I will also command the clouds
 that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts
 is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah
 are his pleasant planting; and he looked for justice,
 but behold, bloodshed; 
for righteousness,
 but behold, an outcry! (5:1-7)

“Hear another parable. There was a master of a house who planted a vineyard and put a fence around it and dug a winepress in it and built a tower and leased it to tenants, and went into another country. When the season for fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the tenants to get his fruit. And the tenants took his servants and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other servants, more than the first. And they did the same to them. Finally he sent his son to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But when the tenants saw the son, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him and have his inheritance.’ And they took him and threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. When therefore the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those tenants?” They said to him, “He will put those wretches to a miserable death and let out the vineyard to other tenants who will give him the fruits in their seasons.” Jesus said to them, “Have you never read in the Scriptures:

 “‘The stone that the builders rejected
 has become the cornerstone; 
this was the Lord’s doing,
 and it is marvelous in our eyes’? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits. And the one who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces; and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.” When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them. (Mat. 21:33-45)

5. Isaiah’s Call and Commision (Chapter Six)

Isaiah 6 is a phenomenally important chapter of the bible. It is apparent at a glance that it is an unusually significant passage, as it takes us behind the veil to the Holy of Holies, and shows us the Almighty Lord, whom no one has ever seen or can see, sitting upon his throne in unimaginable splendor. It is not until the final book of the bible, Revelation, that we will be granted further descriptions of the enthroned, reigning God of the universe that rival this one.

It also bespeaks the great importance of this chapter that it is one of the most quoted passages in the New Testament (although not the part of it that you might think!). Part of this brief chapter is quoted at length no less than five times in the NT – only one or two other passages in all the OT are quoted as much. It is of great importance to note one of these NT quotations: in the twelfth chapter of John, the Evangelist quotes a portion of Isaiah 6, just when the Gentiles are seeking out Jesus. Until that time, Christ had devoted himself to bringing the gospel news of his coming to the nation of Israel; and throughout John’s gospel a theme that he had been bringing up time and again was that his hour had not yet come. But at this time, he says something very different: his hour had finally come, and he would paradoxically be lifted up in glory on a shameful cross, and draw all the nations to himself. In response to this event, John quotes from Isaiah six, about the blinding of the Jews, and comments that Isaiah wrote that passage when he saw Christ’s glory, and testified of him. From this testimony, we may conclude that the Almighty Lord sitting upon his throne was none other than Christ; and that his divine glory was displayed nowhere so fully as when, through the hard-hearted opposition of the Jews, he was lifted up on a cross to bring salvation to all the nations of the world. With this in mind, we will look at this passage of Isaiah’s commission and draw out from it the following characteristics of the Christ who forms the centerpiece of his whole book of prophecies.

a. Christ is very God, almighty, holy, and separate from sin (6:1-5)

The gospel promises that Isaiah will give throughout the rest of his book are so rich and staggering that it is important to consider what kind of authority is backing them up: what kind of promised Savior could do all the wonderful things that Isaiah is going to look ahead to throughout the remainder of his prophecy? From the outset, at his call and commission, we are introduced to the Almighty Lord of heaven and earth, at whose fearful presence the whole world shakes and the very angels cover their faces.

It is impossible to have too high a view of the divine nature of Christ. All throughout church history, there have been some who pretend to speak highly of him as the first and greatest of God’s creatures; but anyone who has seen him, by the illuminating power of the Spirit, in the way that Isaiah here saw him, will at once be appalled at the blasphemous denigration of viewing him as anything less than the almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth.

The train of his robe denotes the glory and splendor that flows from his person, as the glorious robes of an oriental monarch flowed out from him in majesty. The whole temple is filled with this train, showing that, whenever and wherever man can enter God’s holy presence and not be consumed, in all time and eternity, it is only the unique glory of Christ surrounding and enabling this mysterious wonder. There is only one Mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2:5), and it is the unique glory of this God-Man that fills the earth and shakes its very foundations. No one has seen God at any time (John 1:18); but wonder of wonders, the only-begotten God has indeed revealed him, so that man, and sinful man at that, might indeed see him and live!

The astonishing fierceness of this blazing glory is underscored by the actions of the highest angels of creation. These angels are seraphs, burning ones, who are ablaze, as it were, with a created holiness. Unlike men, they have never sinned, but ceaselessly do God’s bidding. They are so holy that they fly constantly, and will not even touch the ground with their feet – no, but they will not even let their feet be seen from the ground, but instead cover them up with their wings. Not only are they holy, but they are active in serving God, and do not cease night and day singing his praise and proclaiming his holiness. But even though they are so holy and separate from the rest of creation, and even though they constantly and purely serve Christ, they still cannot look upon his face, but must cover their radiant countenances with their wings. If the holy, burning seraphs cannot look upon God, how then could man, who was made a little lower than the angels? No, but how can sinful man, who has not covered his feet, but rather stained them with the filth of sin? What kind of glorious mediator could purge man and make him able to look upon so holy a God? Isaiah could not conceive of looking upon this holy God while still in his sin, and so he cried out in desperation.

b. Christ has found a way to reconcile sinful men to himself through the burning holiness of his nature (6:6-7)

But when Isaiah cried out in terror, the most amazing thing happened: God sent one of these burning seraphs to take a burning coal from the altar before him; and when this burning coal touched his lips, he was not consumed, but rather purified. This teaches us that there is only one place where the holiness of God made be found in all its burning purity, but where that burning holiness will not consume and destroy sinful men; and that place was shown to Isaiah in symbol as the altar of God. We must go back to the Pentateuch, and the book of Leviticus in particular, to understand this image; but the point is this: when God had compassion upon sinful men, and desired out of pure mercy alone to redeem them back to himself without violating his fierce justice nor staining his eyes, which are too holy to look on sin, he promised to send a spotless substitute, upon whom he would pour out all his blazing wrath and righteous judgment against sin, so that all whose sins were transferred to that substitute could be brought back into God’s holy presence alive. Here, the burning seraphs bring coals that burn with wrath and righteousness to a sinful man; but instead of being consumed, he is purified – because those coals came from the altar, where the Sacrifice had already absorbed God’s wrath. God’s righteousness that flows directly from him and not through the altar where the Lamb was slain can only destroy; but when it passes through the altar, it can only purify.

When God touched Isaiah’s lips with a coal, he then spoke, and said, “Your sins are forgiven”. We may learn from this that when God works for our redemption, he also speaks, and gives us understanding of his gift of grace. He does not give us only the message of redemption without signs, seals, and confirmations; neither does he give us an unexegeted symbol without explanation. Because we are too stupid to learn the message from the symbol, he also speaks; and because we are too weak and fearful to believe the message apart from the symbol, he also confirms with visible proofs of his gospel message. It is neither safe nor right to ignore either aspect of God’s gospel message to us.

God’s words here are, in a sense, to Isaiah alone: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for”. Isaiah was made an example of God’s condescension of grace so that his message of coming redemption might be fully exemplified in him, and be believable to the desperate nation to whom he wrote. But the confirmation Isaiah was given was only a signified promise that the intended effect of the typical altar was his; how much more reason do we have to hope, when the word, “This is my body, broken for you,” is spoken to us? For in that word, we are given the promise of Christ that not just the altar of the Temple, but the Cross of Calvary; not just the passover lamb, but the true Lamb of God is freely given to us. Every time the bread and wine of the sacrament touches our lips, we may hear the words, “Behold this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away,” as though they are then spoken directly from God to our troubled conscience. When we see God’s burning holiness, we are full of fear and doubts, for our consciences condemn us; but we have a visible word more powerful than this word spoken to Isaiah, far more powerful than any word of condemnation that our consciences or the devils could ever speak.

c. Christ has chosen a paradoxical way to spread this redemption to all the nations (6:8-10)

After Isaiah receives this sign, he is given the rare and precious privilege of listening to the eternal, inter-triune council of God, even as David before him was given, about which he wrote in Psalm 2. And what a wonder! When the holy God who cannot look upon sin is heard speaking forth his plans for human history, and deliberating over how to accomplish his purposes, it is a deliberation over how to spread forth nothing but the message of redemption.

But if this is amazing, the next verses are shocking and paradoxical, for they seem to undo what Isaiah had just been shown in the vision. The vision says, because of this Altar, you will be purified, so that you can see God; the very Word of God will speak, so that you can hear his mercy that he has stored up for you. But then, when God commissions him he does not say, Go and tell this people, “See God and live; hear him and be healed;” no, he says, “See, but do not perceive; hear, but do not understand; be hardened in your hearts so that you do not repent, and I do not heal you”. If God’s plans are for mercy and salvation, then why would he commission Isaiah with this message? What a paradox! Is it not the exact same paradox that Paul takes up in Romans 9-11? And what does Paul discover? That “God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all.” And this leads him to exult, “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! “For who has known the mind of the Lord,
 or who has been his counselor?” “Or who has given a gift to him
 that he might be repaid?” For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. (Rom. 11:32-36) This paradox, then, that the Jews would be cast off so that the whole world, Jew and Gentile alike, would be saved, is at the very heart of the gospel; and hundreds of years before it was revealed to Paul, Isaiah saw it at his commission to be the evangelist-prophet.

d. This coming redemption will not arrive until all other hopes for salvation are utterly stripped away (6:10-13)

So this gospel-message of Isaiah would be paradoxical and display the surprising wisdom of God. But when and how would it come about? Well, the rest of the book takes that question up, in its many precious glimpses of the coming Messiah; but the first hint of an answer is given here, that it would not be until all other possible hopes are utterly vanished away; but then it would come with the surprising power of new life.

The final portion of chapter six is obscure and difficult language; it tells in a shadowy way what the rest of the book will make clearer. This is what is literally said: Isaiah’s surprising result of hardening for the Jews will be effective until they are scattered from the land, so that there is only a remnant left; and afterwards, even that small remnant will be scattered and burned, so that all hope appears to be lost; but just then, when least expected, new life will come, and God’s people will spring back up in miraculous newness of life. The imagery in which this message is conveyed is of a tree, cut off to its stump; and then, even the stump is burned. But in the hidden root, there is still life, and so after the burning, a shoot springs up. Finally, Isaiah says, somewhat enigmatically, that the stump is the Holy Seed.

Now, there are other places, both in Isaiah and elsewhere, where a people or a nation are spoken of under the figure of a tree or trees. In Daniel 4, Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom is spoken of as a great tree which would be cut down, but would grow up again from the stump. And here in Isaiah, the fearful, rising superpower of Assyria, which would come up against Israel like a flood, is treated as a forest of trees, which God would cut down with his axe, and burn in his wrath, signifying the destruction of the nation (Isaiah 10:16-19). So then, here in chapter six, the burning of the stump shows God’s wrath poured out against the nation; and afterwards, the Holy Seed springing up from the root, shows that same nation becoming fruitful again.

Now, by Holy Seed, Isaiah sometimes means the whole remnant of grace collectively; but it seems here to be referring most especially to Christ, to whom all the survivors would be joined, as branches to a root or vine, so that they all become fruitful (see John 15:1-11). We may take the passage this way because when Isaiah elsewhere speaks of a shoot rising up from dry ground, or from a root, he clearly intends Christ, as in chapter 11 or 53. But it is also clear that Isaiah is speaking of the resurrection of the whole nation; so then, when we put it all together, this is the message we may gather: after the first captivity, even the remnant would be again scattered, as it were, and the last stump would be burned with the fires of God’s wrath – even as Zechariah would later say, smite the Shepherd (that is the burning) and the sheep will be scattered (Zech. 13:7). But then, a shoot would arise from the stump, and be fruitful (that is Christ rising from the dead, with all who believe in him made fruitful branches). Then, this fruitful branch would spread over the whole world, and turn everything into a Garden, just as we saw in the fourth chapter of the book, and will see again in many places to come.

Conclusion

Although the truths here spoken refer ultimately to the one great act of God’s redemption in Christ, which comes always through mysterious and paradoxical ways, that one meaning has countless applications for anyone who is going through trials of any kind, especially when they seem designed to destroy rather than build up. The greatest loss and most inexplicable sorrow came when the promised Seed and Champion of God’s people was put to death; and so his disciples sorrowed deeply, for they did not yet understand Isaiah, and realize that God was then working their greatest salvation, pouring out his fires of wrath not to destroy, but so that in him sin and guilt might be destroyed. But the logic of the apostle may apply to any of us who are in any difficulties whatsoever: if God did not spare his own Son for our sake, then there is no good thing that he will withhold from us (Rom. 8:32). If even this great paradox of loss worked for our redemption, then we may trust that any other losses we have to face will likewise work together for our good. The two joint truths that we have encountered thus far, and will continue to encounter in ever more brilliant ways in our journey through Isaiah, is that God is almighty, powerful, holy, and sovereign over all creation; and that this sovereign God, in ways far above and beyond us, has determined to work for our good and redemption. This truth does not change and has application to any difficulty we may ever meet in our long and often puzzling journey home.

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