This year will you be able to say, ‘I
saw the Lord’?[i]
Much is worth seeing. There
is not a lack of good to fill our sight; and a ton-weight of the not so good
thrown in for measure. What would do us the most ultimate good if we
saw it clearly? A sight of who we want
to become? Our identity, character and
depth as a person?
A sight of what we want to become?
Our mission, strategy and stewardship as a church?
They are big. But are they big
enough? How long will they fuel us
for? A month? A year?
Eternity?
A superseding sight of God
In Isaiah 6:8-13 Isaiah receives a
vision from God. It is bleak and
hard. Yet it is a true vision. God
does not always (or even often) call us to ease and comfort but fight and
purpose. It is a mission with minute prospects of success (6:9) that will
take Isaiah’s lifetime (6:11-12) leaving only a shattered stump for the future
(6:13). Is there anyway Isaiah would have accepted his mission without
first seeing who God was? It would produce a terrified no from even the
most stable and strong and yet Isaiah yells ‘Here I am Lord. Send me!’
(6:8). Why? How? Because he stands the other side of a stunning
vision of God. ‘I saw the Lord’ (6:1). Having seen truly who God
is, intimidation and cowering is replaced with blazing hot and so Isaiah’s
story does not end at chapter 6 but chapter 66. Only once he had seen the Lord,
could he say, ‘then I heard the Lord’ (6:8).
The planets of our lives
A stunning vision of God must
supersede any vision from God and gives gravity and life to the planets of our
existence.
Imagine the planets of the solar
system without the gravity of the sun at their centre. Chaos,
uncontrolled collisions, lifelessness. With the sun present there is the
settling, ordered gravitas of its weight and the warming, bright light of its
life-giving rays. God is the sun. Without a clear vision of God
there is no gravity to the cosmos of our lives, and no warmth and light to
flourish and fertilise. Without a clear vision of God the planets of our
lives collide and lose their purpose and life shrivels.
Five glimpses of God Isaiah saw (Isaiah
6:1-3)
In 2015 God is alive
In the year that King Uzziah died I
saw the Lord…’ Uzziah is dead but God lives on. Uzziah, like every head of state
that has ever lived is dead. Every mighty figure today will be dead in 70
years. In a fleeting 130 years the seven or eight billion people in the
world will not include one single person breathing today. The entire
planet will be populated by an entirely new set of people – everyone existing
today vanished like vapour. But not God. God lives.
In 2015 God is in charge
…I saw the Lord, high and exalted
sitting on a throne… The King is dead, his throne is empty but God is on his
throne. He is sovereign: high and exalted above all
others. He is in charge.
In 2015 God is resplendent
… and the train of his robe filled
the temple… Imagine a bride whose train did not simply flow behind her,
or need gathering up and carrying by an army of maids but instead stretched and
billowed and folded into every corner and rafter of a battle-ship sized
cathedral! In Israel’s day the temple was the most splendid place.
Yet every part is surpassed by the splendour of God. What is your place
of most splendour? The splendour of God once seen would make that
previous breath-taking sight ugly and chintzy by comparison.
In 2015 God is honoured
Above him were
seraphim, each with six wings; with two they covered their faces, with two they
covered their feet, and with two they were flying. No one knows what
these creatures are. They are not chubby winged babies fluttering about. The
scene is of grandeur – nothing puny or silly here. When one of them
speaks, the foundations of the temple shake (6:4). They are more like the
Red Arrows diving in formation before the royal entourage and cracking the
sound barrier as they sweep past causing even the experienced guard
involuntarily cowering. They would terrify us with their brilliance yet they
hide themselves in reverence of God.
In 2015 God is knowable
And they were calling to each other
‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty… Holy means set apart. Utterly
different. Not the same as. Hidden. Repeated three times it
emphasis above everything this is the core reality of who God is. Yet …the whole world is
full of his glory. Glory is the public display of God’s holiness. What was hidden is
now made public and seen by all. God can
be known.
Go hard
In 2015 my prayer and purpose is that
we go hard after a stunning vision of God that supersedes any vision from God. A vision of God that dominates and
subjugates everything else that crowds into our eye-line of life. A
vision of God that brings ordering gravitas and bright warmth to the planets of
our lives.
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