Week 5: The Year King Uzziah Died

In the year Judah buried King Uzziah, Isaiah sees the King who never leaves His throne. The hem of the Lord's robe fills the temple, and the seraphim, the "burning ones," cover their faces and cry holy, holy, holy until the doorposts shake. Isaiah has just pronounced six woes on Judah. Now he pronounces one on himself. He's a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips, and one look at the throne tells him he's finished. Then a seraph flies to him with a coal from the altar, touches the lips he's just confessed, and tells him his sin is atoned for. Isaiah brings nothing to the moment. Uzziah once forced his way into the sanctuary with fire in his own hand and came out unclean for life. Isaiah receives fire from God's altar and is made clean. John tells us whose glory Isaiah saw that day (John 12:41), and this lesson asks what happens when a sinful person stands before a holy God, and what God does about it.