Isaiah 6: Here Am I, Send Me!

After many weeks, we are at the end of Isaiah’s prophecy concerning Judah, the southern kingdom. Chapter 6 is a fairly short chapter with some very memorable passages. So, as always, let’s begin by reading the chapter:

1 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. 2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!"
4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 So I said:
"Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The LORD of hosts."
6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said:
"Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged."
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
"Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?"
Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

9 And He said, "Go, and tell this people:
'Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'
10 "Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed."
11 Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And He answered:
"Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,
The houses are without a man,
The land is utterly desolate,
12 The LORD has removed men far away,
And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 But yet a tenth will be in it,
And will return and be for consuming,
As a terebinth tree or as an oak,
Whose stump remains when it is cut down.
So the holy seed shall be its stump."
Isaiah 6:1-13 (NKJV)


The chapter begins in the year that King Uzziah died. That was in 735 B.C. In some Bible passages, Uzziah’s name appears in its lengthened form of Azariah. He was chosen by the people to succeed Amaziah after Amaziah’s murder. His reign was a long and successful one of 52 years, beginning at the age of 16. For most of his reign, he feared the Lord, never deserting his worship of the one true God. Zechariah was one of his main influences. His end was the worst part of his reign. He was determined to burn incense on the altar of God, but was opposed by Azariah (the high priest) and 80 others. Enraged at their resistance, he was suddenly smitten with leprosy. He was buried with his fathers. In itself, this is a prophetic story. The kingly line and the priestly line have always been separate, apart from a few exceptions. Melchizedek was an Old Testament example of Christ in that he was a king and priest. In the same order, Jesus is our King and is also the High Priest. In the future, those of us who have become Christians in the Church Age will serve the Lord as kings and priests. Uzziah, in his attempt to join that select group, was struck down by the Lord.
This first verse is a passage familiar to many as it has become a song: “I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple.” There are many places in the Bible where men “lift themselves up.” They elevate themselves through pride, in an attempt to make themselves look better. All you have to do is pick up someone’s resume to see this behavior. We all blow our accomplishments out of proportion. Whether this is to get a better job or just to make ourselves feel bigger doesn’t really matter. Don’t forget, any of our gifts come from the Lord. Without Him, we are nothing. If you use your gifts for your own elevation, for your own glory, you will accomplish nothing. If you use those gifts for His purposes, there is no end to what He will do in your life. Remember, Jesus came as the lowest of men and through that humbleness, He was high and lifted up, on a wooden cross at Calvary. The end of this special verse tells as that the train of His robe filled the temple. This speaks of His magnitude, but to fully understand this verse, a word study of the word “train” is helpful. The word for train is the Hebrew word “shul,” and it actually refers to the bottom edge of a skirt, the hem of a garment. In the study of the Bible, most scholars speak of the “Rule of First Mention.” Basically, the first usage of a word in the Bible is usually the same usage throughout the Bible. The first mention of this word “shul” occurs in Exodus:

33 "And upon its hem you shall make pomegranates of blue, purple, and scarlet, all around its hem, and bells of gold between them all around: 34 "a golden bell and a pomegranate, a golden bell and a pomegranate, upon the hem of the robe all around. 35 "And it shall be upon Aaron when he ministers, and its sound will be heard when he goes into the holy place before the LORD and when he comes out, that he may not die.
Exodus 28:33-35 (NKJV)

Discussing the robes of the high priest, the robes were decorated with blue, purple and scarlet pomegranates, all pointing to royalty. People looked at a hem in Bible times much differently than we look at a hem today. When a man purchased an item on credit, the store owner would press his hem in soft clay, leaving the mark of that man’s hem. It was different than that of others, and synonymous with his individual walk with the Lord. The Jews gave the hem significance from a verse in Numbers:

37 Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 38 "Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. 39 "And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, 40 "and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God.
Numbers 15:37-40 (NKJV)

Two other stories in the Bible show the significance of the hem in other ways. In the Old Testament, when David was being pursued by King Saul, David was hiding in the caves of En Gedi. You can read about this in 1 Samuel 24. By “chance,” King Saul came into the same cave where David was hiding for privacy. While “covering his feet,” a phrase showing us that his garment no longer covered his body as he was going to the bathroom, David cut off a piece of the hem of that garment. David was trying to show King Saul that he had been close enough to have killed him, but out of respect for the king, did not. Yet David also understood that what he had done had been disrespectful, and apologized for it. A man’s hem was very important, and David had violated King Saul by removing part of his hem. A New Testament story told in three of the gospels also shows us another significance of the hem. (Matthew 9:20-22, Luke 8:43-48 and Mark 5: 25-34) A woman with a flow of blood for 12 years had heard about Jesus. She secretly touched His garment and said, “if only I may touch His clothes, I shall be made well.” She was healed immediately, then Jesus turned and asked who had touched His clothes. Jesus saw her trembling and told her that her faith had made her well. She was obviously a Gentile as a Jewish woman with a blood issue was not allowed to be in the crowd. Instead, she would have had to walk around and announce, “Unclean, unclean,” to all around. But she understood that importance of the hem, and once again, that pertains strongly to this passage in Isaiah. Even the hem of His garment that fills the temple with glory points to His power and royalty! The last comment I would like to make about the first verse is that Isaiah says, “I saw the Lord, sitting on a throne.” I do not know if this was a vision that the Lord gave Isaiah, or if he actually was taken to the throne room of God. The Book of Revelation, the New Testament’s prophetic book of our future, has many references to John saying, “I saw,” “I heard,” etc. In the case of John, God transported Him to those future times, as John’s description of those events shows a man’s description of modern weaponry and technology with the eyes of the past. The two are very similar as we can see from the following verse:

2 Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one cried to another and said:
"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts;
The whole earth is full of His glory!"

Above the throne were seraphim. The first thing to notice here is the similarity between the description of God’s throne and the mercy seat and ark of the covenant in the Old Testament. Angels stood over the throne, just as they stand over the mercy seat. The angels had six wings. Two covered the angel’s face, as he was unworthy to look upon the face of God. Every time a man is transported to heaven, he falls on his face and feels that unworthiness to look upon the Lord. It reminds me of the Christian song, “I Can Only Imagine.” In the chorus of that song, it says, “Will I stand in Your presence, or to my knees will I fall?” When we meet the Lord, we will feel what everyone else has felt…our absolute unworthiness to even be in His presence. Two wings covered the angel’s feet. Remember, our feet are symbolic with our walk, and though our walks are dirty, they are covered in the righteousness of God. With the other two wings, the angel flew. What the angels said to each other is beautiful. “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory.” The angels said this even at a time when Satan had dominion over the earth, but still, the earth is filled with the glory of the Lord. There is no excuse for not believing in Him, as His glory is visible everywhere we can look! Why did the angels use the word “holy” three times? One for the Father, one for the Son and one for the Holy Spirit. To see the similarity of this passage to another description of the throne room of God, let’s look ahead to the Book of Revelation:

4 Around the throne were twenty-four thrones, and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white robes; and they had crowns of gold on their heads. 5 And from the throne proceeded lightnings, thunderings, and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. 6 Before the throne there was a sea of glass, like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, and around the throne, were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. 7 The first living creature was like a lion, the second living creature like a calf, the third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. 8 The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying:
"Holy, holy, holy,
Lord God Almighty,
Who was and is and is to come!"
9 Whenever the living creatures give glory and honor and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, who lives forever and ever, 10 the twenty-four elders fall down before Him who sits on the throne and worship Him who lives forever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying:

11 "You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created."
Revelation 4:3-11 (NKJV)

Two of the most noticeable differences with the passages in Revelation and Isaiah are the description of the four living creatures (also described in Ezekiel 1 and Ezekiel 10) and the 24 elders. The 24 elders are there for a reason in Revelation. The Church is no longer on earth, after the rapture. They would not have been present in either Ezekiel’s description or Isaiah’s. Let’s go on to verses 4 and 5:

4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 So I said:
"Woe is me, for I am undone!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King,
The LORD of hosts."

Do you ever feel exactly as Isaiah does here? I used to have a foul mouth. By the grace of God, that has disappeared, but there are still moments when it is a fight. Yet I also feel that way every time even the smallest of white lies comes out of my lips, or if I gossip. As much as I would like to be perfect, there are still daily sins in my life. Though I know the Lord would rather have me not sinning, I also know that He was aware when He saved my soul of every sin I have committed or will commit. Those sins keep me aware of my uncleanness in comparison to His holiness. I also dwell in the midst of unclean lips. Have you noticed that there are certain curse words that are not allowed on television? Regardless of what the censors have removed, I notice that often they do not remove the one that offends my ears the most…the use of the Lord’s name in vain. It has made it difficult for me to go see a movie, and that was something I enjoyed the most before becoming a Christian. Often, I am astounded at the usage of those words, as I don’t see what it adds. It demonstrates to me who is in charge of the Hollywood entertainment industry. Don’t forget, one of the titles of Satan is the prince of the power or the air, and whether it be television, radio or internet, a lot of garbage is being transmitted through those airwaves. The Hebrew word for “woe” is one we should all be familiar with…”oy.” Notice what makes Isaiah so aware of His uncleanness…because his eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Once you have seen the Lord, you will never be the same. This is one of my favorite parts of being a Christian. He has promised that He will never leave us or forsake us. He has told us that He always seeks out the lost sheep. He told the Father that He has not lost one of us. And He has said that the work that He began in us, He will complete. Once we are His, the world will never look the same to us again. The world is full of trappings, and as I mentioned in the previous blog, most of those trappings are plans of God corrupted by Satan into sin to lure us away. Those traps can still trip us, but they can no longer hold us as we have the Lord fighting for our souls. Once you have seen the Lord, you can never see the old way again, as the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. Let’s go on to verses 6-8:

6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth with it, and said:
"Behold, this has touched your lips;
Your iniquity is taken away,
And your sin purged."
8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying:
"Whom shall I send,
And who will go for Us?"
Then I said, "Here am I! Send me."

This is a very memorable section of the Bible, as well. One of the seraphim (remember that in Hebrew a word ending in “im” signifies male and plural) has a burning coal in his hand. This tells us that angels have hands in addition to wings. He took the coal with the tongs of the altar and touched the coal against Isaiah’s mouth. God has told us throughout the Bible that He will separate the chaff from the wheat with fire, burning what is not good and keeping what is good. We are also told that in the Bema Seat Judgment, God will separate our good deeds (the precious stones) from the sins (the wood, stubble and hay) with fire. Fire tempers steel, makes it stronger. So fire is symbolic of test, trial or tribulation. The burning coal touched to the lips of Isaiah purged the uncleanness, and all that remained were the precious stones. The Lord then spoke to Isaiah. “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Here is another example in God’s Holy Word of the presence of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. God asked for a volunteer, and Isaiah had the best response, “Here am I! Send me.” Think back to God asking Moses to speak to Pharaoh. Moses had every excuse. He stuttered. Pharaoh would kill him. He doesn’t think they will believe him. He asks God to send someone else. Moses gives God seven excuses why God should not use him. Yet God uses Moses mightily. Yet here we have a man who actually volunteers. God has a plan in each of our lives. Once we come to Him, we can make bad decisions that will make it more difficult for us, but God will still put in the roadblocks and detours required to put us back on the path He designed. The benefit of following His plan is that it hurts a lot less! We don’t have to go through the constant pain of knowing we have blown it again. Isaiah did the right thing, and it is a reminder to us that one of the greatest gifts we can give back to the Lord is simply our willingness.

This reminds me of something that happened very recently in my life. A dear friend of mine called me one day and asked me to make a phone call to someone I did not know, who was in the hospital. After a tiring week, I was not in the mood and said that I didn’t know the person (excuse number one). I then went on to say that I was really tired (excuse number two). Thankfully, the Holy Spirit convicted me quickly. I was saddened by my initial reaction. How hard could a phone call be? I got the phone number of the hospital and the patient’s name and made a phone call. The man was having some serious health issues. He had diabetes and that disease had taken most of his eyesight. In addition, he had dialysis daily for kidney failure. He also had suffered a stroke. At a church service a few months earlier, he had been saved, though his eyesight made it difficult to read the Bible. I talked to him about the Lord. I asked him how his walk with the Lord had changed his life. We spoke of the Bible and I told him of God’s love and God’s promises. We prayed together over the phone. When I got off the phone, I began to cry, for I was disgusted with my initial reaction. The Lord put it on my heart to keep calling him. Though his issue had been serious and he was expected to remain in the hospital for a lengthy time, there was no answer when I called the next day. The following day, the admission desk had no record of him as a patient. Had he been released or had he died? I called the friend who had contacted me about him and found his illness had suddenly and miraculously gotten better. He had been released. I began to call him at home. Later that week he called and asked if I could baptize him! I didn’t know what to say, as I am not a pastor. I looked through the Bible and found where Jesus calls us to go out and baptize in His name. Other Christians I talked to reminded me of the same, so I agreed to baptize him. I called a friend, who I had met on the Israel trip, and asked him to help. Knowing that we were going to perform the baptism in the Pacific Ocean, I wanted a pair of extra hands. He agreed to help and it wasn’t until later that I found out that he couldn’t swim and had a fear of the ocean. Yet still, when asked to be a part of the Lord’s business, for the Lord’s kingdom, he did as Isaiah did and said, “Here am I! Send me.” By the way, the baptism was such a blessing, as we also baptized the man’s mother. God’s hand was apparent in every step of the process and every step of the day. I will never forget that day and it all came with a simple willing heart, even one that started with unwillingness, at least on my part. Let’s go on to verses 9-10:

9 And He said, "Go, and tell this people:
'Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive.'
10 "Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes;
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed."

Isaiah receives his calling directly from the Lord to be a prophet to the people. His first assignment is to go and tell the people to keep on hearing, though they will not understand, and to keep on seeing, though without the ability to perceive. God has dulled their senses. Their ears are heavy; their eyes are closed, because God does not want them to see, to hear or to understand. But notice the last verse of the passage for it shows the heart of God. He wants them to return and be healed. In God’s wrath, He always has grace. In His punishment, He always has a purpose, and that purpose is for us to turn to Him again. He loves us so much that He will go to any extent to pull us closer to Him. This section reminds me of a few different passages in the Bible. Jesus spoke openly to the people, but when they did not listen, He began to speak in parables. In His explanation of why He spoke in parables, He quoted this passage in Isaiah. Let’s look at that passage in Luke:

10 And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 "For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 "Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand. 14 "And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says:
'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand,
And seeing you will see and not perceive;
15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull.
Their ears are hard of hearing,
And their eyes they have closed,
Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn,
So that I should heal them.'
16 "But blessed are your eyes for they see, and your ears for they hear; 17 "for assuredly, I say to you that many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it.
Matthew 13:10-17 (NKJV)

This also reminds me of one of the saddest places in the Bible. Jesus loved the Jews and loved Jerusalem. Two passages in Luke show us how He has blinded their eyes, because they did not see Him when He came as their Messiah:

34 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, but you were not willing! 35 "See! Your house is left to you desolate; and assuredly, I say to you, you shall not see Me until the time comes when you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the LORD!' "
Luke 13:34-35 (NKJV)

That last passage, “Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord,” is beautiful in the Hebrew—"Baruch haba b’shem Adonai.” Those are the words the Jews will use to call out to Jesus to come and rescue them. At the time, they will most likely be in Petra, Jordan, safe from the antichrist, at the end of the Great Tribulation. Here’s another passage, just after His triumphal entry on the Palm Sunday before His crucifixion:

41 Now as He drew near, He saw the city and wept over it, 42 saying, "If you had known, even you, especially in this your day, the things that make for your peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes.
Luke 19:41-42 (NKJV)

You can see the culmination of these verses from Isaiah in the Bible passage above. God has blinded their eyes because they did not see Him as their Messiah. Just as He punished them with the 70-year Babylonian captivity, He punished them again. This will demonstrate to all of us as Christians another reason why we should not boast against the Jews. I have heard many wonder how the Jews can be so idiotic not to see Jesus. They can’t see Him as God won’t allow it, at least for the time being. There are a handful of Jews who He allows to see Him now. What a blessing! My brother-in-law is one of them! God always has a remnant, and the true remnant in the Great Tribulation will be a remarkable one! Let’s finish the chapter, and with it, the prophecy concerning Judah:

11 Then I said, "Lord, how long?" And He answered:
"Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,
The houses are without a man,
The land is utterly desolate,
12 The LORD has removed men far away,
And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
13 But yet a tenth will be in it,
And will return and be for consuming,
As a terebinth tree or as an oak,
Whose stump remains when it is cut down.
So the holy seed shall be its stump."

Isaiah is asking the Lord how long to preach this message, and the Lord tells him to continue until the cities are empty and in ruins. Looking back historically, we can say that it is until the Babylonian captivity has taken effect. Strangers came in and took over the land, and mingled their religion with that of the Jews. That is the beginning of the Samaritans. (See 2 Kings 24). The new Samaritans were Assyrian by birth. When a man of priestly lineage named Manasseh married a daughter of Sanballat, one of the leaders who opposed the rebuilding of the wall around Jerusalem, Manasseh was expelled from Jerusalem by Nehemiah. He came to Samaria and built a temple at Mt. Gerizim, and at that time, the Jewish religious practices were commingled with the Assyrian polytheistic practices. This will give you more of an idea of the Samaritans when reading the New Testament. As God told Isaiah above, the land became utterly desolate. Then God speaks of a remnant of one tenth of the people, also referred to as stumps or holy seed. Most of the people who were carried away into captivity would continue to reject God, but those spoken of here are the ones who learned from that punishment, and turned back to His ways. They would be the stump that remained when the tree was cut down. Daniel, along with his friends Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were in this remnant. Though this is a prophecy that has to do with the Babylonian captivity of the southern kingdom, it also applies to the stronger punishment that came in A.D. 70. There was a remnant in that time, as well…people who continued to follow the Lord. All of the disciples were Jews who loved Jesus, and each Jew they preached to who accepted Jesus as Messiah became part of a remnant. Today, all Jews who come to know Jesus as Messiah become part of that remnant, as well, just as my brother-in-law. And lastly, as I said before, the true remnant will be like nothing we have ever seen before. After the Church is removed in the rapture, 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes will go out preaching about Jesus. Millions of Jews will come to know Him as their Messiah, and we will all be a part of the same family, the family of God.

Baruch haba b’shem Adonai!