Isaiah 6:6-13: a reflection

6Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. 7He touched my mouth with it, and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven.” 8I heard the Lord’s voice, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am. Send me!” 9He said, “Go, and tell this people, ‘You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive.’ 10Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their heart, and turn again, and be healed.” 11Then I said, “Lord, how long?” He answered, “Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without man, the land becomes utterly waste, 12and the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many within the land. 13If there is a tenth left in it, that also will in turn be consumed, as a terebinth, and as an oak whose stump remains when they are cut down, so the holy seed is its stump.”

Isaiah has just seen the holiness of God and been undone by it, crying, woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips. And then grace: a seraph takes a burning coal from the altar and touches his lips, saying, your guilt is taken away, and your sin forgiven. Only after that cleansing does Isaiah hear God's question, whom shall I send, and who will go for us? And he answers, here I am; send me.

Notice the order. The cleansing comes first, then the commission. Isaiah is not sent because he is impressive or qualified; he is sent because his guilt has been taken away by grace he did not earn. The coal from the altar deals with his sin, and out of that forgiven, cleansed place, he becomes available to be sent. His usefulness to God flows not from his own worthiness but from having been forgiven first.

That order matters for us. We often think we must make ourselves worthy before God could use us, and we disqualify ourselves by our sense of uncleanness. But Isaiah's call reverses it: God cleanses, and then commissions. It is the forgiven, not the flawless, whom he sends. If you have felt too unclean to be of any use to God, hear this: let him deal with your guilt at the altar, receive the cleansing you cannot earn, and then, from that forgiven place, you too can say, here I am; send me. Cleansed first, then sent.

Lord, you cleansed Isaiah's guilt with a coal from the altar before you commissioned him, and it was the forgiven man, not the flawless one, whom you sent. When I feel too unclean to be of any use to you, deal with my guilt by your grace, and out of that forgiven place, make me willing to say, here I am; send me.