
Isaiah grew up in Jerusalem among those of the family of David. He began to preach when he was just fifteen years old. He lived to be an old man of eighty five. All his life he served the Lord. As a young man growing up King Uzziah was on the throne. He was a godly king, who later sinned and became a leper, all this had made an impression on Isaiah.
In the same year that King Uzziah died Isaiah went up to the temple one day to worship. As he waited quietly there in the house of God, he saw a wonderful vision. Later he wrote, "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up." Above the throne stood angelic beings called seraphim. Each one had six wings. With two wings he covered his face; with two wings he covered his feet; and with the other two he flew. The seraphim cried to one another, "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory."
The whole temple seemed to shake as they spoke, and it was filled with smoke. Before the holiness of God even the seraphim covered their faces and could not look on the vision. Neither could Isaiah. He was very much afraid. In the light of God's holiness he saw his own sinful heart, and he cried out, "I deserve only to die, because I have unclean lips and so do my people." Perhaps he was thinking of King Uzziah whose leprosy was a punishment from God for his sin.
Now Isaiah said, "I am unclean too, and as bad as a leper in God's sight and so are my people. I know that this is true, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." It tells us in the New Testament that it was the Lord Jesus in His glory whom Isaiah saw in this vision, John 12:38-41. In the sight of the people in Jerusalem Isaiah was a good man; but when he saw this wonderful vision of the Lord Jesus, he knew that he was sinful indeed.
Then one of the seraphim with a pair of tongs took a live coal from the altar where fire was always kept burning. He flew to Isaiah and laid the coal upon his lips, saying, "This has touched your lips and your sin is taken away." The fire here was a picture of Jesus dying on the cross, bearing all God's judgement against sin, thus making it possible to have our sins forgiven.
Then Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send and who will go for Me?" Isaiah answered, "Here I am; send me." After his heart and his lips had been made clean, he could go out and serve the Lord and be His messenger. The Lord said to him, "Go and give my people the messages that I give you for them. Whether they listen to you or not, you must faithfully give them My Word." So Isaiah went.




