“Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.”
The Truth
Isaiah sees the throne room and the seraphim are not singing about God’s power or his love first. They are crying holy, three times, the ancient way of saying utterly, completely, without qualification. Before anything else true about God, this is true: he is set apart, other, in a category with nothing and no one else.
Isaiah’s own response is not curiosity. It is collapse. Woe is me, he says, for I am undone. Real holiness does not make a man feel impressed. It makes him feel exposed. When you actually glimpse who God is, your first honest reaction is rarely admiration. It is the sudden, clear sight of your own smallness and stain.
This is the piece a casual view of God skips. He is not a bigger, nicer version of us. He is categorically other, and that otherness is not cold. It is the very thing that makes his mercy toward Isaiah, and toward you, so staggering. A seraph touches a coal to Isaiah’s lips and his guilt is taken away. Holiness did not destroy him. It cleansed him.
Come to God today with your hat off. Not casual, not overly familiar, not managing him like an idea. Holy, holy, holy. Let that word do its work on you before you ask him for anything else.
Live This Truth
- Read Isaiah 6:1-8 and sit with Isaiah’s reaction before his commission.
- Name one way you have made God small, safe, or merely useful.
- Approach him today, even in casual moments, with renewed reverence.
Prayer
Holy, holy, holy Lord, I have made you too small and too safe. Let me see you as you are, and let that sight undo my pride and cleanse rather than crush me. Amen.
Carry this today
He is not like me. That is exactly why I need him.