¹ In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah 6:1–7 ESV

My mother-in-law is from Springfield, OH, and I recall the first time that Kim and I traveled out there together. We were still living in NYC at the time. And one thing’s for sure: when you live in NYC, it’s never really dark. There’s always light from street lamps and headlamps. Even at night, there’s plenty of light coming through your window.

The first night in Springfield, when we turned off the light to go to bed, I couldn’t see anything. Not only couldn’t I see, there was also the sound of crickets and other noise-making bugs outside. I would have preferred the noise of sirens and honking horns, with light, than the serenity of the country with darkness.

God’s light reveals his glory and our guilt. But guilt isn’t the final word.

The Bible is enveloped by the image of light. In Genesis 1 when darkness was over the face of the deep, God’s first words in the creation account are, “Let there be light.” In Revelation 22, God obliterates all traces of darkness when it says in v.5, “And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light.”

At Advent we wait as people upon whom light has shined. God has broken in on our ways with his light, revealing everything, good and bad. His light breaks in on our rebellion, our ungodliness, our disobedience, our unfaithfulness, our unrighteousness, our injustice, our sin. God keeps breaking in on that. As Isaiah tells us the story of how he was reconciled to God, he presses in on us for the same purpose: reconciliation.

Glory

Several years ago, comedian and actor Jamie Foxx hosted the Soul Train Music Awards. He was clearly trying to get a laugh when he said, “It’s like church over here. It’s like church in here. First of all, giving honor to God and our lord and savior Barack Obama.”

He caught a lot of heat afterward for saying that. Even though he was joking, the joke only had any punch because so many people were acting like Obama was the lord and savior. Many people in the country had him as the focal point of our national hopes and trust. The script flipped when a whole other contingent of folk had Donald Trump as the focal point of our national hopes and trust.

Isaiah says, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord.” There is significance to God giving Isaiah this vision of his glory when Uzziah died. He had the most extensive and prosperous reign of any king in Israel since King Solomon. Judah would’ve felt secure under Uzziah.

From Uzziah to Obama to Trump and on down, our tendency is to set our hopes on human leaders. The Lord had work for Isaiah to do. For him to do the work God was calling him to, he needed absolute clarity on who must be the center and focal point of his hopes and trust. The throne that mattered most wasn’t the king’s seat in Jerusalem. It was and is the heavenly throne upon which the Lord of glory sits. “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory!”

Guilt

God’s light breaks in to redirect what is first and foremost on our minds, and break our idols. He breaks in so that no human leader is the center of our hope, so that success and safety are not the center of our world. But when he does so, it’s disturbing because you can’t have a vision of God’s glory without being confronted by your own guilt. Isaiah’s response to God’s glory is, “Woe is me! For I am lost!” He got a glimpse of glory and cannot see because the whole place is filled with smoke. But the voice of the angels, the vision of God’s majesty, and the shaking of the foundations below him was enough to take him apart.

He cannot join in with the angels and sing their song around the throne. Every thought of God’s holiness is a piercing reminder of his unholiness. He is in the presence of one who is absolutely righteous, absolutely pure, the holy one.

Grace

God’s light reveals his glory and our guilt. But guilt isn’t the final word. He breaks in to reveal his glory, to reveal our guilt, and to show incredible grace. This is what Isaiah experiences. The Lord dispatches one of the seraphim to the altar that’s full of burning coals, and Isaiah hears these words, “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”

Isaiah is unraveled. He’s not making vows or promises to God, “Lord, if you’ll deliver me, I’ll serve you faithfully.” Isaiah is in a state of hopelessness. But the reason why Paul can refer to the Lord as the God of hope in Romans 15:13 is because the Lord breaks into our world and, with great grace, eradicates our guilt.

In the gospel of John 12:41, John tells us that the glory Isaiah saw was Jesus’ glory. Not only is it Jesus’ glory that Isaiah saw, it is Jesus’ grace that Isaiah received. It’s the same grace that God breaks in to give to us. What we see at Advent is far more than a baby in a manger. We see the light of the world coming to reveal our sin and extend the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness to us as he reclaims the entire creation for his own possession.

This Advent series was published by Mission to North America. It has been republished with permission. 

Photo by Roan Lavery on Unsplash.