“Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.””
Isaiah 6:5-7 NLT
The vision of God in the Temple was a life-changing experience for Isaiah, and the first thing he encountered was his sin. His vision of the Lord included seraphim, six-winged beings who were constantly calling out to each other, “… Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!” (Isaiah 6:3), and the sound and presence of their voices “shook the Temple to its foundations”. A scary experience, but instead of a terror response in fear and trembling, Isaiah becomes very aware of his sin. In the presence of our holy God, everyone, sooner or later, will be confronted by their sin. But Isaiah also became aware of his “filthy lips”, a condition that also impacted all the people he lived with. As we considered yesterday, it is through a person’s lips that come the thoughts and desires of their hearts, and in his innermost being, Isaiah became aware that he was corrupted by sin, and the fruit of that came from his sinful lips. Rightly, without a remedy, he concluded that he was “doomed”.
But burning coals as a remedy? The temple would have had a fire burning on the altar, as we know from Leviticus 6:13, from the instructions given to Aaron, “Remember, the fire must be kept burning on the altar at all times. It must never go out”. Was the coal a real ember from the fire or was it a spiritual experience? In this context, I think the coal was taken from the Heavenly altar, which represents the place of sacrifice, atonement, and the presence of God. The book of Revelation contains several references to an altar in Heaven, such as Revelation 8:3, 5, “Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. … Then the angel filled the incense burner with fire from the altar and threw it down upon the earth; and thunder crashed, lightning flashed, and there was a terrible earthquake”. The altar in the Temple, complete with its fire, was no more than an earthly copy, a “type” of what was in Heaven.
The act of touching Isaiah’s lips with the burning coal was life-changing because it cleansed him from his guilt and sin. His guilt was removed, and his sins were forgiven. But were Isaiah’s lips permanently damaged by the contact with the coal? We don’t know, but we do know that this was the point when he was ordained to a prophetic ministry to his people.
We pilgrims of the New Covenant are in a different season than that of Isaiah’s, nearly three thousand years ago. No Temple, no animal sacrifices, and a society that was very different to ours. But there are similarities: people then and today are burdened by their guilt and sin. Jesus said to Nicodemus, “God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him” (John 3:17). He also said, “For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost” (Luke 19:10). Jesus’ mission was clear, and He constantly reached out in compassion to those who were sinners. We think of Zacchaeus, or the woman caught in adultery and others. He told the parable of the lost sheep, and we read in Luke 15:4, “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it?” In the parable of the Lost Son, we read that the Father constantly looked out for the return of the prodigal, and when he saw that he was coming, He ran to meet and greet him, something even more significant when we realise that running was considered undignified in those days. God will go to extraordinary lengths to ease the transition from guilt and sin to forgiveness and spiritual cleansing.
The people around us are burdened by their guilt and sin, and we pilgrims know the remedy. Our encounters with the risen Jesus changed us from the inside, and we are now able to stand in God’s presence, with our guilt removed and our sins forgiven.
Dear Heavenly Father. Thank You for Jesus, without whom we would still be lost in our sins. Thank You for Your love and grace. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 