Forty years ago I lived in Miami, Florida, and spent a lot
of time on Key Biscayne. One of the men I came to know on that island was a man
who didn’t have to work for a living. His substantial wealth afforded him the
luxury of freedom from financial worry.
When I first came to know him, I asked all the normal
questions men ask like, “What do you do?” His answer was telling, “Whatever I
want to do.” I followed that one with, “Well, where do you work?” He replied,
“I don’t.” Within several minutes he divulged the reason for his ease. He said,
“It all happened on January 28, 1977. That was the day my ship came in.” What I
would later learn is that it was on that day that he made a commodities trade
that set him up for life.
Now every one of us have “marker” dates in our lives, those
titanic days on which something remarkable happened. Think of the assassination
of JFK, September 11, 2001, the day your first child was born, or the date
someone close to you died. We all have them and so did so many of the Old
Testament characters we’ve examined in this series, “Divine Exposure”. Think of
the day God came and answered Job’s searing questions. Think of the moment God
found Elijah under that broom tree in the wilderness. Think of the night Jacob
wrestled at the Jabbok, or the day Abraham raised the knife to slay his son,
Isaac. All of these exposures stand as markers not only for the Old Testament
figure involved, but for us as well. However, no such exposure is greater, or
more profound than Isaiah’s vision of God in Isaiah 6. Someone has called it
the Matterhorn of all Old Testament peaks. Here Isaiah is carried away from the
temple in Jerusalem in a vision to the
throne room of heaven.
This text is so seminal, so pivotal, that a sermon could be
preached on every word. But what we will seek to do this Sunday is look at the
dramatic parallels between what Isaiah experiences that day and the experience
of every true Christian. For the truth is, what God does for Isaiah in that
vision nearly 2800 years ago is what He has done for each of us.
On Sunday we will look at five common experiences between
Isaiah and us. We will look at the Reality of the experience in verse 1,
the Diversity of the experience in verse 1, the Beauty of the
experience in verse 2, the Humility of the experience in verse 5, and
the Festivity of the experience in verse 8.
In preparation for Sunday you may wish to consider the
following:
1. What
is the significance of the death of King Uzziah?
2. What
does his death mean for Isaiah and Judah?
3. Unpack
the details of the vision in verse 1 – what do they mean?
4. Who
is Isaiah and how does God tailor this experience to meet his deepest need?
5. J.
Gresham Machen once noted, “A low view of the law always produces legalism; a
high view of the law makes a person seek after grace.” How is that relevant
here?
6. What
is it that prompts Isaiah’s woe in verse 5?
7. What
does he mean by “lost”?
8. Someone
has said, “Isaiah doesn’t know himself until he sees God.” Do you think that’s
true for you too?
9. How
many times are Seraphim mentioned in the Bible and why twice here?
10. What
is the message of the Seraph with the coal in verse 7?
11. How does
Isaiah go from his utterance in verse 5 to the one he makes in verse 8?
See you Sunday!
