No. 11. >> Earlier I referred to the history of the Bible leading up to the death of Moses. Chapter 6 of Isaiah appears to connect to Moses in some way. Why? What theme is Isaiah beginning to explore? >>DR. R. REED LESSING: A critical and important verse for understanding all of the prophets is in Deuteronomy Chapter 18 Verse 15 where Moses makes the promise that the Lord will raise up a prophet like him. And it's to him that Israel needs to harken toward. Critical idea. That every prophet then who would come along after Moses in some way, shape or form is called to be like Moses. What do I mean? Already the next person in line is Joshua. And it's very clear in the early chapters of the book of Joshua that Joshua is somewhat like Moses. Moses parted the Red Sea. Joshua will part the Jordan River. Moses had this encounter with God and he took off his sandals because he was on holy ground in Exodus Chapter 3. Joshua has almost a word-to-word exact experience in Joshua Chapter 5. Moses is this huge figure then who casts a shadow on all of the rest of the Bible, especially as it is related to prophets. So if you're going to be a valid prophet in Israel, somehow you have to be like Moses. Before we get into Isaiah Chapter 6, let me give you an example from one of my favorite prophetic books, the book of Amos. How is Amos like Moses? Amos is like Moses? That Moses was a shepherd. You can find that in Exodus 3 Verse 1. Amos was a shepherd before God called him. You can find that in Amos 7 Verse 15. Moses had all of these plagues dumped upon Egypt. Amos talks about plague after plague in Chapter 4 Verses 6 through 11. Moses intercedes for Israel in Exodus Chapter 32 during the golden calf apostasy. And God relents and changes from judgement to grace. Amos in Chapter 7 Verses 1 through 6 also successfully intercedes for Israel so that the Lord changes from law to Gospel and spares the people. In like manner, we could do the same connecting links with any number of other prophets. But this is what validated Amos. You see, you doubt me, you doubt my message: Hey, I'm just like Moses. In Deuteronomy 18:15 promises God will always have a mosaic spokesman for his people. All right. Now, let's look at Chapter 6 of Isaiah and see how we have all of these connecting links with Moses with Isaiah to validate and confirm that Isaiah is a true prophet. So these links are as follows: The most important is Isaiah's call to make the heart of people fat literally. Their ears heavy. And their eyes closed. So that they will be unable to repent and be healed. That's in Chapter 6:9 and 10. Certainly this intentional hardening of people has a huge impact in the ministry of Moses as he is called to also harden Pharaoh's heart throughout the plague narrative. The appearance of seraphim in Isaiah Chapter 6, these flying winged creatures, is significant in that their only other appearance outside the book of Isaiah is connected with the wilderness wanderings in Numbers 21:4 through 9. Where they inflict the rebellious people with death because of their rebellion against the Lord. And then Moses lifts up a serpent in the wilderness. All who look at that are saved. Likewise, Isaiah's question: How long should I keep preaching this message of hardening? We would see that in Chapter 6 Verse 11. The how long should I continue in ministry is exactly what Moses asks in Numbers 14:27. Isaiah's lament that he's a man of unclean clips corresponds to Moses's object that he is slow to speak in Exodus 4 Verse 10. And a man of uncircumcised lips in Exodus 6:12 and 30. The Lord's response is that he will provide for Moses in his ministry. And in like manner, he provides for Isaiah in his ministry. So there we have some very subtle but important connecting links with the intentional hardening, the appearance of the seraphim, the question how long and the lament over not being able to speak with unclean clips for Isaiah and uncircumcised lips for Moses. This is a way in which, again, Isaiah's ministry is validated. Isaiah 6 is also a vocational calling in which we also have several other people called in this way. Where there's a divine confrontation, an introductory word, a commission, an objection, a reassurance. And then a sign. And we see that in the life of Moses. The divine confrontation, the burning bush in Exodus 3. Isaiah is confronted in the temple in Chapter 6. We also see that we have the introductory words. God identifies himself to both Moses and Isaiah. The commission: Go to this people for Isaiah. Go to Pharaoh for Moses. An objection: I can't do it. And then the people are reassured. So in that way, as well, Isaiah and Moses are connected thematically as well as theologically. Now let's get our bearings in terms of where Isaiah is. And we're going to use several slides here. Isaiah is in the Solomonic Temple. There you can see it. This would be an artist rendition of Solomon's temple. This would be another picture of the temple just to get an idea of its size. We're looking at the basin of water whereby a priest would ritually purify people. Now we go inside the temple. And this would be an artist's rendition of the Holy Place. Not the Holy of Holies. Just the Holy Place where priests would go in. There would be the Altar of Incense as well as the Altar of Sacrifice. The Bread of Presence is there in our picture. And the way this relates to Isaiah is as follows: Many people believe that Isaiah is in this very section of the Holy Place of the Solomonic Temple. He's there because he's celebrating the Old Testament festival of Yom Kippur or the Day of Atonement. The Day of Atonement would be that one day of the liturgical year in the Old Testament where the high priest would open up that veil that you can see on our slide. And he would enter into the very presence of God. Isaiah is within the community. He's within the presence of the people of unclean lips he tells us. And he says: My eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty. How did Isaiah say he saw the King, the Lord Almighty? Apparently when the high priest entered into the Holy of Holies on this Day of Atonement, he had to part the curtain. And when that curtain was parted, Isaiah saw a glimpse of the Ark of the Covenant and a glimpse of the real presence of God. We don't want to overtly spiritualize, you see, Isaiah Chapter 6. No. He's very much in the temple in Jerusalem. He's very much in a congregation of worshiping Israelites. He really does see God behind the veil and into the Holy of Holies. This next particular slide shows you what the Holy of Holies would look like. We certainly have an enlarged picture of the cherubim or the seraphim, they are synonomous in terms of angelic hosts. And each of these cherubim or seraphim were positioned on the cover of the Ark of the Covenant. And apparently Isaiah saw into this Holy of Holies. Our next slide simply in terms of trying to understand how all of these events in Isaiah 6 came about is to help you see the Holy Place where we have these altars of incense and offerings as well as the most Holy Place, the Holy of Holies. Apparently, again, Isaiah was in this exterior place of the temple and peering into the Holy of Holies. All right. Let's go ahead now with this understanding that Isaiah is Moses like. Isaiah is in the Solomonic Temple on the Day of Atonement. And this is what happened. It was the year of the death of the King Uzziah. We've already said that's in and around 740 BC. This whole chapter is filled with death. Now, we already said that death is a prominent part of the book of Isaiah. Already we saw in Chapter 1 when we looked at Verse 4 with this woe. Woe means death. The nation was dead. Uzziah is dead. Isaiah is going to say: I'm dead. The sacrifice on the altar is made possible because the animal is dead. And then Isaiah's call is to go and create more death. You say: What's all this about? This must be classic Old Testament turn and burn, die and fry. God is angry. He's the judge. We have to go to Jesus to find mercy and grace. No, that's a much too simplified understanding. It's always death before life. It's always law before Gospel. It's always judgement before grace. And that's what holds Isaiah Chapter 6 together. There is death. But it's only by means of death that people live. It's only by means of the death of Christ that we live. It's only by means of being crucified with Christ in the waters of baptism, Galatians 2 Verse 20 and 21, that we live. Death permeates Isaiah Chapter 6. But so does life. So Uzziah is dead. Now, can anybody out there in Delto land tell me who the next king is? Some of you are probably saying: Oh, I know. Jotham is the next king, right? And then Ahaz and then Hezekiah and then Manasseh. Well, on a human level you're right. But one of the key messages of Isaiah is that there is really only one true king. And even when Uzziah dies, who does Isaiah see in Chapter 6 Verse 1? I saw the Lord, he says, high and lifted up. And later in this same chapter, he will tell us in Verse 5 that: My eyes saw the King. Very important that we understand that the ruler, the monarch, the sovereign of Israel, is not Jotham now. It's Yahweh. And Yahweh is high and lifted up and his train filled the temple. High and lifted up. These are two terms that we saw in three other places of Isaiah. Now let's unpack this a little bit because it's critical to understanding much of the book of Isaiah. Only the Lord is high and lifted up. ***Rume and ***nasa, if you love the Hebrew, those two verbs. The Lord is lifted up in 33:10 and 57:15. But then remember I said we have these two verbs together in only one other verse in Isaiah. And that's 52:13. You say: What's 52:13? I say: That's the beginning of the Fourth Servant Song, the richest text in the whole Bible. It doesn't begin in 53. It begins in 52:13 where Isaiah says: Behold my servant. He is high and lifted up. Whoa. That means Isaiah is saying that the Lord God, who is the only high and lifted up person in the whole book, is one and the same with the suffering servant in Chapter 52:13 through Chapter 53 Verse 12. What does that mean? We have to wait for the fullest dimension of this when Jesus will say in John 10 Verse 30: I and the Father are one. But we don't understand that until we understand Isaiah. Isaiah says: The servant is high and lifted up. He's greatly exalted in 52:13. This servant and the Lord are one and the same. This is the God who suffers for his people. We already see that in Exodus 3 Verse 7 where God says: I know the pain of my people. There is no other ancient Near Eastern deity whoever gets that intimate or are close to people. But this is no regular ancient Near Eastern deity. This is the only God. This is Yahweh who is high and lifted up in Isaiah 6 Verse 1. Well, let's continue then in Verse 2 these seraphim are standing around. And they are flying. And in Verse 3 they cry out: Holy, holy, holy. You know, Hebrew only uses a three-peat two other times. And they are both in the book of Jeremiah. When Hebrew wants to repeat something, it repeats it twice for emphasis. To repeat something three times is almost unprecedented in the Old Testament. But here we have it: Holy, holy, holy. It means that God is completely removed. He's completely different. He's cut off. He's separate. He's totally other than us. He's completely transcendent. Three times. One scholar calls this the super superlative. Now, we've kind of talked about this already. But the next word in the text is Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. Oh, that's kind of weak. The Lord of armies, better. Reed Lessing says: General Yahweh. That's it. See, the Lord of hosts is the general and commander of the armies of Israel. That's who is so holy, holy, holy. Now, look at this. This is beautiful. At the end of Verse 3: All the earth is filled with his glory. If holiness is the transcendence of God, glory is the imminence of God. This God is not only way out there, way different, he also incarnates himself by means of glory. Glory is God's nature revealed. Holiness is God's nature concealed. Glory. Glory in the Bible is always something tangible and real. The glory of God filled the tabernacle and the temple. And people saw it. There was a cloud in the tabernacle. Exodus Chapter 40. There's a cloud in the temple. I Kings Chapter 8. Glory is a huge idea. Especially in the fourth Gospel where John says in 1:14: The Word became flesh. And we beheld his glory. See, the glory is the very presence of God in the world Isaiah says. Specifically in this temple he's in. Climactically the glory is revealed in Jesus. Isaiah then feels the temple pivots shake. And it's filled with smoke. What smoke? Well, look again at our slide. This is the smoke coming up from the offerings. And Isaiah is there. And he says: I am dead. See, in Verse 5: Woe is me. You can't see God and live. That's what the Lord tells Moses in Exodus Chapter 33. Isaiah is dead. He's undone. He's a man of unclean lips. And he lives in the midst of people of unclean lips. And he's seen the king, General Yahweh. Uzziah is dead. The sacrifice is dead. Smoke filling the room. Isaiah is dead. But when people confess their sins, he is faithful and just, I John 1 reminds us, to cleanse us and forgive us. So that's what happens in Verse 6. One of the seraphim, one of the heavenly attendants, takes in his hand a burning coal. And with tongs places it upon Isaiah's lips. And it came from the altar. The Altar of Incense. And the sin was forgiven. And look at this in Verse 7. And the iniquity is atoned for. Day of Atonement. Isaiah has his own Day of Atonement. From the altar. Once we come into the presence of God, confess our sins, die to self, God forgives. And then he sends. Whom shall we send and who shall go for us? Here am I, Isaiah says. Send me. Then in the rest of the chapter, we have this intentional hardening. If Uzziah is dead, the sacrifice is dead, Isaiah is dead, the people have to die, too. There's only judgement for the people. But out of the judgement, the intentional hardening of the eyes and the ears and the mind, then there's going to come life. Look at the end of the chapter. Verse 13, when everything is mowed down and cut down and destroyed, there is a holy seed from the stump. There's the remnant idea we've already talked about in the book of Isaiah. The metaphor now is of a tree. And it's going to be the Assyrians and the Babylonians who are going to be God's acts that destroys Israel in the north. Judah in the south. But out of that stump comes a holy seed. Out of that death comes life. Out of that crucifixion comes resurrection. Welcome back to this idea when we look at Chapter 11 Verse 1. But suffice it to say that this is not just an Old Testament idea. This intentional hardening. This idea of preaching so people won't see or hear or understand is quoted in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts. See, this is the way God works. He kills to make alive. That's I Samuel 2 Verse 6. That's one of Martin Luther's favorite verses in the Old Testament. Because it explains law and Gospel in such clear and simple terms. So what happened to Isaiah, death and life, is now what he's called to do to the nation. Kill them in order that they may live.