1 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.
2 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.
3 And they were calling to one another: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory."
4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
5 "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."
6 Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar.
7 With it he touched my mouth and said, "See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for."
8 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!"
9 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."11 Then I said, "For how long, O Lord?" And he answered:"Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged,
12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken.
13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land."
Isaiah 6:1-13
There's a lot of imagery here, and it can be easy to miss its relevance for us today. But what stands out to me is how Isaiah's response is as attention getting as the very vision he is confronted with.
Imagine yourself caught up in a vision, finding yourself in the throne room of the LORD, and angelic beings flying around. What is your reaction? A throne room is not something we Americans can really identify with, and even the idea of seeing God on a throne isn't necessarily something that we could imagine too easily. We won't even touch on angels with six wings. But what they said made Isaiah shudder with fear ... and maybe we, too, should pay attention and pay heed to what they said.
Upon hearing their call - "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty" - Isaiah becomes mindful of his own sinfulness. We are not told why he becomes so conscious of it. We don't know exactly what he has done. But this is not the issue.
We need to realize that regardless of how "good" we think we are, our goodness, or our good deeds in no way measure us up to God, who is the very definition of "good". This is where 'Wisdom' comes to play. Wisdom from God helps us understand that in the presence of God, we must cry out for mercy, we must cry out for grace. God's Wisdom helps us realize that we need His salvation. It was Wisdom that helped Isaiah realize that being in the very presence of God was dangerous just because God is so holy, because to be in the presence of God is not safe.
I am drawn to remember that part of the story from the Chronicles of Narnia, in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, where the children are in Mr. and Mrs. Beaver's den, and he tells them about Aslan. The children are scared of what they've been told, and ask, "Is Aslan safe?" "Safe? No, Aslan isn't safe. But he's good."
God is not safe - He is not something we can manipulate for our own sense of good. God is not here to make us happy. Isaiah understood this.
This is the sort of wisdom that confronts us when we are in the very presence of God. We cannot resist it. It cannot be ignored. Why? Because it is part of how we were created. It is part of our DNA, as we have been created in the image of God. As Scripture elsewhere tells us, that every knee will bow before God (Rom. 14:11; Phil. 2:9-11). In the presence of God, we do nothing else - it is wisdom.
The question then is how do we gain this wisdom and apply it to our every day lives? How do we live in a way that is 'wise'? Again, Isaiah offers us a great example. He cries out his confession, and humbly receives God's grace and forgiveness. But then he does something that I think we often miss ...
Isaiah becomes quiet, and he listens. He does not try to make excuses, nor does he try to make bargains. Neither does he babble. He listens. And when he hears God's voice, God's call, "Whom shall I call, who shall go for us?", Isaiah is able to respond in faith. He can respond in faith because He knows God's grace - he knows, as in knowing by experience, God's forgiveness - he has experienced who God is. He speaks up, "Here I am, send me!"
This is wisdom. I want to suggest that wisdom can be differentiated from knowledge in several ways, one of which is that wisdom is not just something that fills the head, but is by its very nature, something that positively impacts the decisions and choices we make. It is an adverb to the way we live. Wisdom takes knowledge and applies it in a way that honors God, and shows us living much more closely to the way that God intended for us.
Even though God sends him on a difficult task - to deliver a message - he is willing to go ... confident in his relationship with God. This is no small thing. The mission is to deliver the hard news of judgment to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. But Isaiah does so, and does it willingly.
Why? I think that it is because he knows who he trusts is trustworthy. This is the point of Wisdom.
Are you willing to humble yourself to living out of the Wisdom of God, or will you reject it in favor of what you think you know? what you think is right? The Wisdom of God has been fully revealed in the event which billions of Christians around the world celebrate in Christmas. Jesus Christ is the Wisdom of God personified, incarnate, the living example of who God is, and who God calls us to be.
It is in reading the inspired Word of God that we see Wisdom lived out. Turn to such a passage as Matthew 5, and see it unfold in the teachings of Jesus. Turn to the crucifixion narratives in any of the Gospels, and feel it in Jesus' forgiveness of His murderers. Turn to Acts 1 and 2, and pay attention to Jesus' promises, as He gives the Wisdom of God in the giving of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.
As Christians, we have access to the Wisdom of God because the Wisdom of God dwells in us. This is the good news. Now I invite you to choose Christ Jesus; choose to live wisely. And you will live out and live out of the Wisdom of God.
