#DailyDevotion The LORD God Is Not Your Buddy & Pal
Isaiah 6:1-8 In the year when King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and lofty throne, and His robe filled the temple. 2Above Him stood angels [seraphim]. Each had six wings, two to cover his face, two to cover his feet, and two to fly with. 3They kept calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of armies! His glory fills the whole world.” The voices of those who called shook the foundations under the thresholds, and smoke filled the temple.
Now which person of the Trinity did Isaiah see? Yes, that is a question. Many contend since we cannot see God and live it must be the pre-incarnate Christ who is the image of God. Yet that really doesn’t make sense because the pre-incarnate Christ is still God in all his glory. Is it the Father, perhaps. Generally the Holy Spirit likes to stay behind the scenes. Personally, I believe Isaiah is seeing the LORD, the Holy Trinity. I will say more about this in a second. We get no image of the LORD other than a being sitting on a throne and his robe filling the temple.
We have this vision of two seraphim that have six wings before the throne of God. Why two? What are seraphim? Hebrew dictionaries generally define them as fiery serpents with six wings. Now when I hear serpent in the bible my mind goes to Satan in the garden and in Revelation. We know Satan was a pretty high up creature. He is called serpent. Because of the thrice holy in this chapter, I often think that Satan was once one of these seraphim who stood closest to God and praising him. My have the mighty have fallen. It is a good warning to us to remain humble before the LORD and know all we are and have is by God’s grace alone. Now you don’t have to accept Satan was one of these, but you should pay attention to the warning anyway.
The seraphim cry out “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of armies! His glory fills the whole world.” Now what better reason to believe that all three persons of the Trinity are there on the throne? One “Holy” for each person of the Trinity seems to be what is going on here. We note the humility of the seraphim. They cover their faces to not look upon God’s glory and their feet to not expose their shame for they are but creatures of God too.
God is holy. He is wholly other as some philosophers like to say. He is not your chummy buddy and pal. We often forget this about God in our informal culture of today. Even the seraphim, as such creatures, that as they praise God the foundations of the temple shook. Smoke filled the temple, perhaps to hide the glory of God from Isaiah before it is too much for him, they cover their faces and feet.
Yet the LORD is our Father who cares for us and loves us. He sends the Word to be made flesh to die for us and to atone for our sins. The Father and the Word send the Holy Spirit to us so we may hear the good news of this atonement and believe so we may live at peace with God and with one another. God in all his glory cares for you, loves you and wants what is best for you.
Heavenly Father, may your Holy Spirit ever bring us your Word, our LORD Jesus Christ that we may believe on him, have peace with you and have the boldness to call you Father. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.