But God says, “Turn to me for healing”
Isaiah 6:5-6 Then I [Isaiah] 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 6:10 The hearts of these people are hardened… Their hearts cannot understand, and they cannot turn to me and let me heal them. (Greek version)
I remember, as a child (I think I was seven), not being able to sleep one night because I had told my father a lie. I tossed and turned and finally crept into my parents’ bedroom, woke Dad and confessed my sin. I still remember how relieved I felt when he forgave me. My heart filled with thankfulness as I returned to my bed and to sleep.
Shutterstock: Chernyshov Konstantin
Dad didn’t say, “Oh, honey, that’s nothing to worry about.” He took my confession seriously and extended the solution to my guilt: forgiveness.
God doesn’t say, “Oh, no worries, Isaiah. Don’t feel bad. I’m sure everything will turn out all right. Other people are worse than you. You should cultivate the ability to feel good about yourself.” This was, essentially, the message of the false prophets to the people of Isaiah’s time.
No. There is right and there is wrong. It’s not all fuzzy and gray and rationalizable. It’s no gift to sugarcoat sin, any more than it would be a kindness for an oncologist to deny the presence of cancer in a patient’s body.
God accepted Isaiah’s self-diagnosis, his recognition and confession of his sin. And he offered a solution, one that caused physical pain but healed Isaiah spiritually. (Isaiah has enough to say the rest of his life that we know the burn on his lips also healed.)
I used a translation of Isaiah 6:10 from the Greek version of the Old Testament because that’s the one Jesus quotes in Matthew 13:14-15/Mark 4:12/Luke 8:10 when he’s explaining the parable of the Sower to his disciples. And it’s the version Luke uses at the end of the book of Acts that Paul quoted while preaching the Gospel to Roman Jews from prison (28:26-27). Some were persuaded, but others did not believe. Paul quotes Isaiah to say, “Even if you Jews will not accept the Gospel, the Gentiles will” (Acts 28:28).
So, what is required of me if I seek God’s forgiveness and healing? I must:
1. Acknowledge my need. In the presence of God, Isaiah realized he could not fulfill God’s calling of him—to communicate God’s words to the people—with lips that had spoken sinfully. His need became clear when he encountered firsthand God’s sovereignty and holiness.
2. Recognize my part in causing my condition. I have made sinful choices, allowed sinful thoughts to occupy my mind, carried out sinful deeds that violate God’s holiness and harm other people as well as myself. Isaiah made no excuse for his sinful lips. He blames no one else.
3. Realize I can’t change myself with any amount of positive thinking, discipline, or willpower. Isaiah despaired; he believed his life was over because he could not help himself.
4. Accept the cleansing and forgiveness God offers. He is ready and wanting to heal me, when I “understand with my heart” and turn to him. The future sacrifice of Jesus (which Isaiah foretells in his writings more clearly than any other prophet) is symbolized by the burning coal from the altar, which purified his lips, the agents of sin in Isaiah’s confession.
Isaiah felt such gratitude for God’s cleansing and healing that he was ready to say, “Here I am. Send me.” He served God the rest of his life not to earn forgiveness, but out of thankfulness for his healing. He passionately desired to guide the people of his generation to likewise find release and forgiveness from their sinfulness.
One clear message for us from Isaiah 6: Understand with your heart your need for forgiveness, and turn to God for healing.
Debra Kornfield 