Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth;
unite my heart to fear your name.
I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart,
and I will glorify your name forever.
For great is your steadfast love toward me;
you have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol.--Psalm 86:11-13
Isaiah 6:1-8
In this passage, Isaiah has a vision of the Lord, seated high on his throne, "and the train of his robes filled the Temple." He is surrounded by some very strange-looking creatures which are described as seraphim. Angelic creatures with six wings, two covering their faces, two covering their feet, and flying with the other two. Are these the same creatures that Ezekiel saw? If so, they also had a four faces, one on each side of their head.
Isaiah recognizes his filthiness in the presence of infinite holiness and cries out, "Doom! It's Doomsday! I'm as good as dead!."
But then, one of the seraphim flies to him and touches his lips with a burning coal and says, "Look. This coal has touched your lips. Gone your guilt, your sins wiped out."
Interestingly, the angel touched Isaiah's mouth because Isaiah had just bemoaned his unclean speech. "Every word I've ever spoken is tainted--blasphemous even!"
I wonder where the angel would touch me with his burning coal. I wonder what my life would look like if that were to happen.
Have I ever been so deeply in the presence of God that I have no choice but to fall down and cry out over the utter filthiness of my sin? My friends, I must confess it's been a long time.
I need to pray about that. That would be very difficult...well, maybe not difficult, but it could be very painful.
Grace and peace, friends.