A Vision for all of us

Isaiah 6

What is it like to meet God? I always thought it would be amazing to be in the presence of the Creator and Savior of the world.  But the first part of this passage suggests differenly. After all, the exuberance I've felt when going to a concert and having a seat close to the singer is overwhelming enough for me as I think "O my goodness! I am standing so close to a famous person!" The seraphim in Isaiah's vision keep calling out "Holy Holy Holy is the LORD of hosts. The whole Earth is full of His glory!" So God is so "famous" (if we keep up this analogy, that everything in the world is proof of His fame. And Isaiah got to stand close to Him.

But what does Isaiah say? "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts."

There's something here I hadn't considered, rather than just thinking about standing close to a superstar, to make the analogy accurate (and no analogy can perfectly capture this, but this one makes sense to me).  Rather, this is like finding yourself at a party in front of your favorite celebrity, and all you're wearing is your underwear, and it's dirty. How horrific! You're in front of someone you admire so much and you look pathetic, ridiculous and unworthy of their presence.  That's the sort of feeling Isaiah felt in front of God, because God is so much purer than us, since we are sinful.

But what happens next? One of the seraphim fly over to Isaiah and touches Isaiah's lips with a coal from the altar of God. Then he tells him that he's clean now.  "Your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." Immediately, God asks who would be willing to send a message to the people of Israel, and I can see Isaiah's hand shooting up and waving as he enthusiastically says "Here I am! Send me!" 
And then the message God gives him is one of destruction that is coming, but that like tree stumps, a holy seed will remain (shout out to Jesus!)

Which connects this to Christians today. There's a sort of deja vu here since something similar happens in the Christian life.  As sinners, we are dirty and unworthy of being near God, but God's own son (not a coal this time) came to atone for us. Now we are worthy, and Jesus asked us to deliver a message to everyone, and that is the story about Him, the Gospel.