The Beginning of the End
Read Chapter 16
2 Kings 17-19, Isaiah 3,6,13-14, 49, 53

ISAIAH MEETS GOD

“In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple.
 
Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.   And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory." At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 

God’s holiness and Isaiah’s sinfulness

"Woe to me!" I cried. "I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty."
 
The painful joy of forgiveness

Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for." 

The response to being forgiven

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?" And I said, "Here am I. Send me!"
 
Few will listen

He said, "Go and tell this people: "'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed."Isaiah 6:1-10 (NIV)

Prayer

Father, I have yet to experience you in such a painfully exquisite, holy, demanding, yet full of Grace way. Yet I want to see you as Isaiah did. I am afraid to meet you as you are, but I am more afraid of not meeting you as you are. Amen."