God’s Message To God’s People - Isaiah 6 Series

Isaiah 6

Vs. 1 & 2 - 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. 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.

Uzziah was a good king. He became a king when he was a teenager and reigned for over 50 years. During his time, he built roads and fortresses and built up the army and did a lot of good things. You can read about him in 2 Chronicles 16. But some of his reforms were religious and he undid a lot of high places.

Ps.121 says “I lift my eyes to the hills…where does my help come from? My help comes from

the Lord.”

What would you see at the top of the hills? You would see shrines and temples. It is kind of like going to Mysore and you see the Bull. You look at a lot of temples to other gods. So the psalmist is saying, “I look at the hills, where does my help come from?” It does not come from anywhere else than from the Lord, who made the heavens and the earth.

If the Bible says, “Lift your eyes,” it does not say lift your eyes to the hills, because your help is coming from the hills. That is not the idea. You lift your eyes toward heaven, because your help is coming from God. So, Uzziah eliminated some of the high places, some of the shrines and reinstituted the worship established by Moses as the standard for the nation. He actually went a bit overboard. He got very zealous and went to burn incense in the temple. It is only the priests who burn the incense. So he takes the incense in. There is the high priest who goes in and he also has other priests with him. You have to keep in mind that the king has an army at his command. If someone has to stand up against the king and say, you cannot do this, it is a very risky thing to do. But it says that they were very brave men and they stood against the king. And the king was really angry that they questioned him. He started to rail at them. He was getting very arrogant and yelling at them. And he had leprosy that began to break out. They could just see it happening. It started on his forehead and it began to spread. Then he saw it on his hands. If you have leprosy you cannot come into the temple even if you are the priest. So the priests rushed him out of the temple and he was quite eager to go himself. From that time on, he had to live in a separate house, because he had leprosy. And his son reigned in his place. And it says that he lived in a separate house and the phrase that comes after that is a bit difficult to understand, but it looks like he says that he didn’t have any official duties with the government, because his son had to take over.

So the end of his career was not very good. But he was a good king, and he really did desire to do according to the Law of God. He wanted to follow the Law of Moses. In a sense, his strength became his weakness. He was so zealous in religion, that he actually went against the teachings of Moses and went inside the temple himself and did things he should not have done as a king.

Uzziah died. His son did not follow his father’s footsteps when it comes to righteousness. His son was an unrighteous king and didn’t do nearly as good a job. It looks like everyone knew that this was going to happen. So in the year that King Uzziah died, you have a good and a godly government that is being replaced by a reprobate government.

How will a prophet of God feel and as a citizen of nation if you really desire to see God glorified? You are likely to be depressed wondering what is going to happen now? And it says, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and lifted up and the train of his glory filled the temple.” The temple is a model of the throne room of God. So where would the throne be? The throne would be in the holy of holies. So the idea is that He is sitting there where His throne would be in the holy of holies.

The train of His glory filled the temple. So it must have been quite a vision he had. And he has these big living creatures that are described in Ezekiel on either side of the throne. They have their wings that are covering their eyes. The idea is that they are respecting God. They are in the presence of God. And they also have wings to cover their feet and wings with which they fly.