Living the Christian Life Magazine

 The Throne of Holiness (Part 1 )

“I saw the Lord sitting on a throne lofty and exalted”

God gives Isaiah a vision of His majestic holiness that was so overwhelming it devastated him and made realize his sinfulness and unworthiness to come before the LORD. It was the sight of the Lord that changed everything for the Prophet. Henceforth he saw everything in the light of that glory.

Paul in the New Testament experienced a similar encounter with the Sovereign Lord which also turned his life completely upside down.

“Suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him and he fell to the ground and heard a voice saying Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me” (Acts 9:3)

“At midday, O king I saw in the way a light from heaven, above the brightness of the sun, shinning round about me and them who journeyed with me” (Acts 26:13)

What both Isaiah and Paul saw was the “Eternal Son of God” John reveals to us  

“These things said Isaiah when he saw His glory and spake of Him” (Ch 12: 37-41)

Isaiah saw the Lord as King of Glory. He heard the Seraphim calling one to another “Holy. Holy  Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of His glory.

The sight of God’s glory brought to Isaiah the conviction of his own sinfulness and need, and made him cry “woe is me” for I am undone.”

1. He had an overwhelming sense of sin and God’s judgment,

2. An all prevailing sense of His power and holiness.

3 A clear vision of Christ and His Salvation, and of His ultimate universal       dominion.

So often our vision of God is clouded by our own problems and circumstances that we fail to see His Glory and Majesty. Yet so long as men see themselves and their sins in the light of their own circumstances, or in the judgment of society, or of the Church, they will not feel their need of cleansing as shown in these verses. It is only when we are confronted by the awesome majesty of Almighty God that we will be moved to confession.

But when, like Isaiah, they see themselves in the Divine Light they must cry out like the Prophet that they are undone (v5).  That word “undone” means justly doomed to death. In the light of the throne Isaiah learned that he was a moral leper, and that his people were also.

 The Throne of Worship (v2-3)

The heavenly beings around the throne could not see God, His glory was too glorious (v2)  they covered their faces with their wings. Moses reflected “God’s glory” when he came off the mount

They covered their face because they dared not gaze at God’s glory even though they were angelic beings. Their covering of their feet acknowledges there lowliness even though engaged in Divine service.

The four wings emphasize worship and praise to the One on the throne. They were serving the Triune God; this is emphasized in the adoration of “Holy, Holy, and Holy.

The primary thrust of the threefold repetition of God’s holiness is to emphasize God’s separateness from and independently of His fallen creation, though it implies secondly that God is three persons.

When we speak of the distinctions of the Godhead as persons, we must realize that the expression is used in a figuratively sense and not as three human persons.

Continued on next page - Part 2