156 14 Habits of Highly Effective Disciples
Interpreting the Scriptures
Isaiah’s Vision (Isaiah 6:1–5)
6:1. Isaiah indicates that his divine vision and prophetic commission
occurred in the year of King Uzziah’s death. According to 2 Kings 15:2
and 2 Chronicles 26:3, Uzziah, the son of Amaziah who was also known
as Azariah, began his reign as king of Judah at the tender age of six-
teen and reigned for fifty-two years. It was Uzziah, you might recall,
who although he “did what was right in the sight of the Lord” (2 Kings
15:3), failed to remove rival worship sites in the land (so-called “high
places”) and was punished by the Lord, becoming leprous (2 Kings 15:5).
Uzziah, who merits mention in Matthew’s genealogy of Jesus (Matt. 1:9),
is thought to have died around 740 b.c.
What is it that Isaiah saw when he saw the Lord? Akin to the proph-
ets Micaiah (1 Kings 22:19) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:26), Isaiah sees the
Lord enthroned “high and lofty.” The throne in the inner sanctuary
of Solomon’s Temple was fifteen feet high and was formed by the out-
spread wings of two golden cherubim (see 1 Kings 6:22–28). No ordinary
ancient dignitary was he, however. So great was the God whom Isaiah
encountered that the “hem of his robe” (that is, the border on the bottom
of the robe or the part of the robe that hung down below the knees) filled
the temple. Indeed, Isaiah would come to recognize that no temple is
sufficiently large to contain a Lord whose throne is heaven and whose
footstool is earth (note Isaiah 66:1).
6:2–4. In addition to a Lord enthroned on high, Isaiah saw six-winged
seraphs “in attendance above him.” (This is the only biblical passage
that mentions seraphs by name. Some scholars suggest that the seraphs
Isaiah saw were the winged-cobras that frequently featured in Egyptian
art and sometimes appeared on Judean seals.) The unnumbered seraphs
put their six wings to good use. Two they used to shield their faces from
God’s glorious radiance; two they used to cover their unclean feet in
God’s holy presence; and two they used to f ly about as they called out
one to another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is
full of his glory.”
No temple can contain a thrice-holy God. Even as the seraphs’ praise
shakes the building, the temple fills with smoke. Holy smoke is right!