Pondering Isaiah Chapter 6

Today I want to share a few thoughts from Isaiah 6. Especially focusing on verses 9-13. I have been pondering this passage for a while now. I was shocked at the realization of what I discovered.

King Uzziah

Chapter 6 begins with Isaiah stating: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 

2 Chronicles 26:3-4 states: Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem... He “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord” as his father Amaziah had done. During the period of King Uzziah’s reign, from approximately 790 to 739 BC, the nation prospered.

King Uzziah was a mighty king. However, Isaiah was now beholding the King of kings and Lord of all lords. There is none greater as evidenced by the train that filled the temple!

In ancient times, the flowing train of a monarch’s robe was a symbol of their glory and splendor.  It was the part of the robe that signified majesty and authority.  The longer the back hem of the robe, the more powerful the sovereign.

Seraphim

Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 

This is the only Scriptural reference to the Seraphim. The word means “the burning ones.” 

And one cried to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

Isaiah’s Response

Isaiah responded: Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.”

Can you even imagine it? The Seraphim that minister at the throne of God dare not to look upon the magnificence of the Lord. The glory of God is so great that they have no choice but to continually proclaim His praises. Moreover, Isaiah is stripped bare to the bone. All sin is revealed. Nothing is hidden before God! And yet, God grants mercy and forgives Isaiah of his sin. He does the same for you and me if we come to Him in repentance.

Tell My People

And He [God our Creator] said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on hearing, but do not understand; Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.’

10 “Make the heart of this people dull, And their ears heavy, And shut their eyes; Lest they see with their eyes, And hear with their ears, And understand with their heart, And return and be healed.”

What I see in verses 9 and 10 is Yahweh’s frustration with His chosen nation. “This people” is God’s chosen nation that He has time and time again provided for their every need. Yet they turn to the gods of the other nations and in effect snub their noses at Yahweh.

He has made it very plain what blessings follow obedience as well as the curses that follow disobedience. Time after time Yahweh warns His people of coming judgment, However, they continually refuse to repent and turn their hearts back to Yahweh.

How Long Do I Warn Them?

11 Then I [Isaiah] said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered:

“Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant, The houses are without a man, The land is utterly desolate, 12 The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.

The Lord never stops reaching out to His creation. Calling them to come to Him and be saved. Until a person’s last breath, our Lord calls out to them.

However, what really came to my mind is the fact that for now, it isn’t those of other lands that the Lord is judging. No, it is those that He freed from the Egyptians and brought to the promised land. His people are judged first. And only a tenth, a small remnant will listen.

The Here and Now

Consider the tree below. This tree represents those that call themselves Christians. Jesus said: “I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. “- John 15:5

Isaiah 6 Tree
Christian’s as a Tree

However our gathering places contain those that call themselves Christians and yet they:

  • Believe all people will go to heaven
  • Believe the Bible is not from God, but is only a human book expressing people’s experience of God
  • Downplay the sinfulness of humanity
  • Think that all people are basically good and not really in need of salvation
  • 59% believe right and wrong depends on situation
  • 45% read their bible at least once a week
  • 33% seldom or never read the Word of God
  • 30% do not believe in hell
  • 45% think abortion is a woman’s choice
  • 54% support homosexuality 
  • 44% support same-sex
  • 61% agree with ideas rooted in New Spirituality
  • 54% resonate with postmodernist views
  • 36% accept ideas associated with Marxism
  • 29% believe ideas based on secularism
  • 23% of Christians strongly agree: “what is right or wrong depends on what an individual believes.”
  • 40% agreed that Satan “is not a living being but is a symbol of evil.
  • 39% agreed that Jesus Christ sinned when He lived on earth
  • 58% agreed that the Holy Spirit is “a symbol of God’s power or presence but is not a living entity.”
  • 33% of Christians agree that the Bible, Koran and Book of Mormon all teach the same truths

The Discipline of God

The above stats clearly show that not all who call themselves Christians are in fact Followers of Christ. There is a shaking and pruning being undertaking by our Lord. A sifting of the true followers of Jesus Christ and those in name only. If God disciplines Israel for her sins, would He not also discipline those today that claim to be called by His Name?

There are approximately 2.5 billion Christians around the world. Yet just suppose for a minute that according to verse 13 only a remnant stump of God’s people will return. From a large tree to only a stump of holy seed.

13 But yet a tenth will be in it And will return and be for consuming, As a terebinth tree or as an oak, Whose stump remains when it is cut down.
So the holy seed shall be its stump.”

That would mean that 10% of 2.5 billion Christians is only 250,000,000. Could there be only two hundred and fifty million true followers of Christ? That is a heart-stopping thought!

Could it be that two billion two hundred fifty million people that call themselves Christians are unknowingly racing through the wide gate to their destruction? To help put this in perspective, currently, the population of the USA is 331,002,651.

Jesus Warned Us

  • And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.” Matthew 24:4
  • “When the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?”- Luke 18:8
  • “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.”Matthew 7:13
Only 250,000,000 actual followers of Christ?

Be sure that you are truly following Christ. The Rapture is immanent!

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