The Bloody Coal
Drawing on the historical setting, Uzziah the king of Judah has died and now his son Jotham has become king of Judah. These verses cover a significant amount of time in Isaiah’s life. According to 2 Chronicles 27, Jotham became king at the age of twenty-five and reigned for only sixteen years. He began ruling after Uzziah was struck with leprosy; reigning in his father’s place until his father died and he took the rule (2 Kings 15). It can be deduced that Isaiah chapter 6 begins during Jotham’s crowning and Isaiah chapter 7 is somewhere into Ahaz’s rule (at the point in which Rezin and Pekah wage war on Judah), which is after Jotham dies. There was a minimum of sixteen years that passed with only one interaction between God and Isaiah.
The point of remembering the timeline is to understand that Isaiah’s life wasn’t filled to the brim with visions and talks with God. As a reader, it is easy to forget the context and think that Isaiah was just sitting in a room, alone with angels and God speaking to him continually. Realistically, Isaiah had received a vision that displayed Israel’s doom and the vile nature of man and was promised a distant hope so far in the future, you and I haven’t even seen it fully fulfilled! Then, years and years of silence before God speaks again to Isaiah followed by more years and years of silence.
There are days, weeks…years of silence and they are lonely.
When one asks, “What’s going on? Are you still there?” does faithfulness prevail? There, in the silence, Isaiah’s gives his famous response to the Lord, “Here am I. Send me!” After all those years of silence; when God seemingly abandons us, would my response be so courageous? The years of mundane activity and drudgery of life tempt the heart to grow cold. Isaiah didn’t even have the luxury of contemporary America.
Isaiah’s example is encouraging; even in my faults and failures, when the Lord calls, I have the opportunity to answer…what will my answer be? Do I respond as Jonah by running from the Lord or do I respond as Isaiah by accepting the Lord’s commission?
In my own life, the vision of the Lord has struck a raw chord in my heart. Perhaps it is the high-fantasy mind of mine or a youthful vision I can’t shake, but Isaiah’s response to seeing God burns in my mind. “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”
I have never seen God or Jesus. Yet, when I think of that moment – the moment for which my entire being anticipates and craves – my pulse quickens and my mind stutters; what can prepare me for seeing God? The images described in the Bible of God and his angels seem very fantastical. I wonder if our eyes are so darkened and minds so blind that we can no longer see reality for what it is. In my mind’s eye, I attempt to envision God in His glory, but my best is a clouded and tainted version.
Despite God’s glory, Isaiah was allowed in the Lord’s presence and one of the seraphim touched a coal to his lips and told Isaiah his sin was atoned for. Notice, before the seraph did this, Isaiah could not have accepted the Lord’s commission and so the Lord did not ask. Isaiah recognized his own insufficiency. Within himself, ruin was his destiny. However, a sacrifice had taken Isaiah’s ruin. From Leviticus and the laws that God gave Moses, one can see that the alter and coal symbolize the sacrifice on Isaiah’s behalf for his sin. This is a foreshadowing of Jesus who is the ultimate sacrifice for us.
While Isaiah’s road might have felt lonely, Jesus road was truly lonely-He was the only one capable of walking it. The coal would have been burned and covered in blood that was sprinkled on the alter and dripping from the sacrifice. Leviticus 17:11 states that “For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the alter; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life.” Yet, Isaiah is in heaven during this vision. There would have been no animals to sacrifice there. Revelation 13:8 reveals there is a “Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world,” which is referring to Jesus Christ.
In 1 Peter 1:18-20, Peter expounds upon Jesus’ as the eternal lamb sacrifice, saying, “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ. For He was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but has appeared in these last times for the sake of you.”
Before the historical life recorded on this earth, Jesus had already become the sacrifice to atone for our sins and provide us the opportunity to respond to the Lord’s call. The way of redemption has been the same from Genesis to Revelation. By His death on the cross in my place, Jesus has offered the chance to respond. What will I say? Will I keep silent or boldly declare “Here am I. Send me!”
