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The Daily Word of Righteousness
In the Year That King Uzziah Died, continued
As long as we are praising ourselves our environment remains seemingly secure, tidy, predictable. But when we begin to offer our praise to the Lord God Almighty our security is shaken, our tidiness turns into hopeless turmoil, our ability to predict our "safe" pathway is undermined and removed.
We come face to face with our Creator. Then we perceive God for who He is and ourselves for what we truly are.
We see ourselves and God for the first time.
Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. (Isaiah 6:5)
To realize we are in a woeful, wretched condition, that we are completely undone, that we have unclean lips, that we dwell among people of unclean lips, and that God is a great King and worthy of all worship, is to begin to see matters as they really are. Any other view of the world is a deception.
The Christian who has his heart set on his own glory, and is occupied solely with himself and his little group of friends, is coming short of the Glory of God. Each of us must look up and behold the awful majesty of Christ—He who holds the angels of the churches in the right hand of His thundering, stupendous might.
Then we will cry, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts." We shall discover that we and our friends are in a deplorable condition and have unclean lips. We are not the favored children we thought we were.
But God loves us.
The moment we make our confession of unworthiness, as did Job in a similar situation, the seraph touches our lips with a glowing coal from God's Altar. God is far more than our Teacher. He brings us into relationship to Himself by blood, by fire, by circumcision. The Lord is much more than a theologian or religious philosopher. He is the consuming Fire. We are the little fires that find no rest until our flame becomes one with the larger Flame.
Our God is the holy Fire. Sin and self-will also are fires. "And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell," James informs us (James 3:6). With our mouth we confess Christ unto salvation or else we lie, blaspheme God, and curse men. Our words will stand in the Day of Judgment to justify or condemn us.
Uzziah "worshiped" God in his self-exaltation and self-will, hoping to enhance his own glory. Isaiah made the proper confession: "I am humbled because I have seen the King!" No self-glory here. This is the red clay of the earth adoring the Living Eternal Fire from which it received the breath of life in its nostrils.
The glowing coal from the holy fire of the Altar of Incense touches our lips and all our uncleannesses are taken away. The fiery Word purifies us, burning away the proud flesh.
Then Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord:
. . . Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? . . . (Isaiah 6:8).
As soon as the Lord puts to death our self-exaltation and self-will we can hear His voice. He always had been speaking but we were not in a position to hear. We did not have "ears" because we were filled with our own ways.
To be continued.