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Isaiah's Vision and Calling

Isaiah 6:1–13 tells of a vision in the temple where Isaiah sees the Lord’s holiness, admits his uncleanness, receives cleansing, and is sent with a hard message that ends with an image of what remains.

Isaiah 6:1–13Older readers with an adult

A watchtower and scroll, symbolic companion artwork for prophetic readings

Understanding the passage

The setting of this message

The passage is dated to “the year that King Uzziah died”. Isaiah reports what he saw and heard: the Lord on a throne, seraphim crying out, the house shaking and filling with smoke, then the Lord’s question and Isaiah’s commission to speak to this people.

Isaiah 6:1–13

Main takeaway

Isaiah 6 presents the holy Lord who forgives Isaiah and sends him with a message of judgement that still leaves a stump.

Explore the message

01The Lord on the throneIsaiah sees the Lord “high and lifted up” with his train filling the temple. Seraphim stand above him, each with six wings.

Explanation

Isaiah sees the Lord “high and lifted up” with his train filling the temple. Seraphim stand above him, each with six wings. Their cry, “Holy, holy, holy”, highlights the Lord’s holiness, and they say the whole earth is full of his glory.

Isaiah 6:1 Isaiah 6:2 Isaiah 6:3

02Isaiah confesses and is cleansedThe thresholds shake and the house fills with smoke. Isaiah responds, “Woe is me”, saying he is a man of unclean lips and lives among a people of unclean lips.

Explanation

The thresholds shake and the house fills with smoke. Isaiah responds, “Woe is me”, saying he is a man of unclean lips and lives among a people of unclean lips. A seraph touches his mouth with a live coal and announces that his iniquity is taken away and his sin forgiven.

Isaiah 6:4 Isaiah 6:5 Isaiah 6:6 Isaiah 6:7

03The call to goThen Isaiah hears the Lord ask, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah answers, “Here I am.

Explanation

Then Isaiah hears the Lord ask, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Isaiah answers, “Here I am. Send me!” The order matters in this passage. Isaiah first confesses his uncleanness and receives forgiveness, and only then does he respond to the Lord’s call to be sent.

Isaiah 6:5 Isaiah 6:7 Isaiah 6:8

04A hard message and a stumpIsaiah is told to speak to people who hear without understanding and see without perceiving.

Explanation

Isaiah is told to speak to people who hear without understanding and see without perceiving. When he asks, “How long?” the answer speaks of waste, removal, and forsaken places. Yet the final picture is of a tree stump remaining, called “the holy seed”.

Isaiah 6:9 Isaiah 6:10 Isaiah 6:11 Isaiah 6:12 Isaiah 6:13

Questions to explore

01What does the cry “Holy, holy, holy” add to Isaiah’s vision of the Lord?

Use the repeated word and the statement about the whole earth being full of his glory.

Isaiah 6:3

02Why does Isaiah speak about “unclean lips” when he sees the Lord?

Read his confession together with the seraph touching his mouth and announcing forgiveness.

Isaiah 6:5 Isaiah 6:7

03How does the end of the passage hold judgement and a remnant together?

Notice both the language of waste and removal and the final image of a stump remaining.

Isaiah 6:11 Isaiah 6:12 Isaiah 6:13

Read the Bible passage

World English Bible Classic

Scripture quotation · Public domain

Isaiah 6:1–13

1In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.

2Above him stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two he covered his face. With two he covered his feet. With two he flew.

3One called to another, and said, “Holy, holy, holy, is Yahweh of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory!”

4The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

5Then I said, “Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, Yahweh of Armies!”

6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar.

7He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.”

8I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!”

9He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’

10Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.”

11Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without man, the land becomes utterly waste,

12and Yahweh has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many within the land.

13If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed, as a terebinth, and as an oak whose stump remains when they are cut down, so the holy seed is its stump.”