Angels: Burning in God’s Presence

Click here for the audio message of – Isaiah 6:1-7

Chapter 6 starts the call and commission of Isaiah the prophet. The King is dead after 52 years of reigning over his people. King Uzziah was considered to be a good king overall and the southern kingdom of Judah was blessed during his reign, according to God’s promises.

But now that the King is dead, Isaiah is sad, afraid, and concerned for the future. He knows the history of the Israelites and He knows what will happen. They will be taken captive again and their prosperity and blessings from God will cease.

So what does Isaiah do? He does what all of us should do when we are distressed, upset, afraid, or concerned. He goes to the temple, a place to be with God. He comes to the earthly temple seeking comfort from God and he was given this vision of the heavenly temple.

Isaiah saw the Lord sitting on His throne. The temple shook and smoke filled the air. He sees these beings hovering above the Lord. And they would call out to each other singing, “Holy, Holy. Holy, is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.”

What a sight to see and experience. Most of us today would pull out our cell phones or digital camera’s and start snapping pictures to send to all of our friends, but not Isaiah. He was overwhelmed with the presence of God.

As he looked around he realized how unworthy he was. He realized he fell way short of perfection. He saw God’s purity, His majesty, His holiness.

Isaiah cries out, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips.” He realized that the only thing he was worthy of was God’s wrath and judgment. And not only himself but also of those around him.

It exposed the corruption of his society. The same holds true for us today as well. The closer and closer we get to God the more we realize that we too are unworthy of His blessings and that our society is also deserving of nothing but God’s judgment and wrath.

After Isaiah said these thing an angel, a seraphim, flew over to him and touched his lips with a burning coal. Isaiah was purified because he realized his unworthiness. God cleansed him and Isaiah repented of his sin. Repentance is truly painful, but satisfyingly joyful as well.

What an experience this must have been for Isaiah. There are so many things we could investigate here, but this morning I want to focus on those angelic beings, the seraphs or seraphims.

Seraphim are around the throne of God. We don’t know much about them as they are only mentioned a few times in Scripture. Much of what we do know, however, can be gleaned from this passage and Isaiah’s experience.

We know the word Serpah means to burn. So the Serpahims are called the burning ones. These angels are the closest to God. They fly around Him praising Him and glorifying Him. They burn with God’s holiness.

We need to remember that angels are personal beings. They have intelligence. They are not just mindless robots obeying commands. Rather, they have a deep desire and ability to see and respond to God’s glory.

Angels have a will of their own, however, their will is in perfect tune with the will of God and therefore act obediently to what God commands. Angels have the ability to speak as we see in our passage this morning. They are praising God as well as talking to Isaiah.

Angels are a unique part of God’s creation. They were created to relate to people and to God. They assist God in carrying out His will. They also assist people with carrying out God’s will as well.

As I mentioned the seraphs are the closest angels to God. As I said, they fly around God’s throne and praise Him continually. They simply worship God perpetually. So when we come here each week and worship God we are not alone with our worship. The seraphs are worshipping with us as well.

I think we often times forget that today. We need to pass the truth about angels on to our children and other believers. Angels are used by God throughout the bible. We sing hymns that have references to angels in them.

Of course, we must have our scripture correct. We should never worship angels, but we should remember that they too worship the God we worship. They worship with us and we worship God with them.

I have heard from Christians that don’t believe in angels. I always wonder what other portions of Scripture they don’t believe in as well. Angels are a part of God’s creation, they are described throughout His Word. Angels are real and they are here serving God.

Think about Isaiah’s experience and how he must have felt as he left the temple that day. He went there in grief and concern, but left with probably the best worship experience of his life.

Think about your own life and worship experiences. Can you think of a time when you felt very close to God during a worship service? What is preventing you from that same feeling again?

I am sure after this experience, Isaiah’s own personal worship of God was changed for the rest of his life. Think about your most memorial worship of God this week and try to worship God like you felt that day.

As we worship God we become closer to Him. And that is our ultimate goal, right?

Closing Prayer

Lord, we thank you for our time in your word this morning. Help us to learn the mysteries of your word and help us to realize the presence of angels with us. Fill us with your spirit so that we too may be close to you, praising you each and every day of our lives like the seraphim.

AMEN