Old Testament - Isaiah 6 & 7 - September 7, 2022

 9/7/2022 – Isaiah 6-7

In chapter 6, Isaiah is called by the Lord to be a prophet. Isaiah tells us the year that he “saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” (v 1) Isaiah also tells us that there were two seraphim near the Lord’s throne. The Bible dictionary tells us that seraphim are angelic beings that minister in the courts of God. Their wings are symbolic of the power to move or to act. But at this time, Isaiah heard them calling out “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord or hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” (v3) At that moment Isaiah was quite concerned and said: “Woe is me! For I am undone; [cut off; overwhelmed by his consciousness of the sins of himself and his people—footnote 5a] because I am a man in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” (v5) At that point a seraphim took a live coal from the alter and put it on Isaiah’s mouth, and then the Lord explained to Isaiah that the coal that “touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.” (v7). The Lord continues on, asking whom shall He send, and Isaiah answered “Here I am; send me” (v8) Isaiah desired to serve the Lord and was cleansed from his sins. That same wonderous thing can happen in our lives also, for that is how God works. The really neat thing is that as we become ever more willing to do what God asks of us, we continue to lose our sins and our mistakes—their burden is taken from us by a loving Father

In Isaiah’s case, as a new prophet, the Lord answered him, telling him to go help the people to change their hearts for that will allow them to understand the Lord, and once that occurs they could be converted and thus healed. 

I think it’s of prime importance that we all remember that a hardened heart causes us to be spiritually deaf and it also blinds our spiritual eyes. And that is a hard and sad way to live.

Chapter 7: Isaiah is back with his people, and they are now experiencing war that they are not winning. The Lord tells Isaiah to tell the Israelites to “take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted” (v4) and the Lord explains how the fighting will go and that the Israelites will not be harmed. The Israelites don’t understand how they could survive, and once again the Lord assures them they will be okay—and yet the Israelites worry and doubt that they can be saved. At that point, Ahaz, their king, tells them not to weary the Lord with their questions, for what He says will be what will happen. But Ahaz tells them that the Lord will give them one more sign…and that sign is the Lord’s telling them of Christ’s coming to the earth. I find it very interesting that the Lord tells them of something that will occur centuries from their own time. But when the time of Christ’s being born on earth DOES come, then the Israelites who read their scriptures will be strengthen and helped during their difficult times. The Lord’s scriptures are for all of us. I have certainly found that reading and studying the scriptures every day has given me a sweet comfort and I feel that is because I really am closer to the Lord. My prayers are daily—morning and night and sometimes in between. I can talk with Him about the sweetness in my life, and the hard times in my life, and doing that has changed the way I use my days, and that changes the way I feel inside. I am happy. I am calm. And that is a blessed way to live.


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