CHAPTER VI.
The Glory of the King, the Lord of Hosts, in the Temple.
WE need have no doubt as to the subject matter of this sixth chapter, since it is fixed for us by the Spirit of God in an apostle. John, speaking of Jesus, and quoting some of the words of the chapter, says (Jno. xii. 40) “ These things said Esaias when he saw His glory and spake of Him.” We are therefore in the presence of a vision of the glory of the Lord Jesus enthroned as king of the whole earth ; and as heirs of the kingdom, “if we suffer with him,” are interested in tracing out the upbuilding matters therein presented.
The time of the vision is stated to be “ the year that King Uzziah died.” There is doubtless a good reason for the introduction of this information. A consideration of the salient facts in the history of that king, in comparison with the matter of the vision, seems to reveal the fitness of time and circumstance. The death of Uzziah was a matter of peculiar sadness, for the king was a leper, and not only so, but a leper because of transgression. We are told in the history ot Kings and Chronicles that he came to the throne at the early age of sixteen years, and reigned fifty-two years ; and that “ he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.” It is further said of him that “ He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God, and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him to prosper.”
No doubt the ministry of Zechariah would have to do with the young king's upright walk, as was the case with Joash before him under the faithful guidance of the High Priest Jehoiada. How long Uzziah’s prosperity continued does not appear; "But,” continues the unsparing record, “when he was strong his heart was lifted up to his destruction : for he transgressed against the Lord his God, and went into the temple of the Lord to burn incense upon the altar of incense ”
In this rash enterprise he was withstood by Azariah the priest with eighty subordinate priests. “ Thou hast trespassed,” said he, “ neither shall it be for thine honour from the Lord God.” And the wrathful king, censer in hand, resisting God’s High Priest,was smitten with leprosy; and fled from the temple in disgrace. And he was “ a leper unto the day of his death, and dwelt in a separate house, being a leper ; for he was cut off from the house of the Lord ; and Jotham his son was over the king’s house judging the people of the land.”
Under these circumstances then, “ in the year that King Uzziah died,” Isaiah saw this vision, the central feature of which is the sanctification of the Lord of Hosts, in the glorious reign of a future Son of David, who on his temple-throne should, without “ trespass,” combine the dual offices of king and priest. For, as another prophet says, " He shall bear the glory, and shall sit and rule upon his throne ; and he shall be a priest upon his throne ; and the counsel of peace shall be between them both ” (Zech. vi. 13).
“ I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” Isaiah was not the only prophet who had visions of this divine throne to be set up on earth. Ezekiel and Daniel both had similar revelations, which in their imagery correÂspond with that of Isaiah, and are made further intelligible to the “ servants of God ” by “ The Revelation of Jesus Christ ” himself. Ezekiel in his opening chapter describes “ visions of God ” in which figure “ the likeness of a throne ” and of a man enthroned, and also the other elements of Isaiah’s vision of the glory of God, as for instance the Cherubim. Daniel beheld in vision the enthronment of one like the Son of Man ” and the casting down of all human power before him.
The fourth and fifth chapters of Revelation make the meaning of such visions clear beyond mistake. Who is “ the Lamb,” “ the Lion of the Tribe of Judah,” “ the Root of David ” ? Who but the Lord Jesus ? And those four living creatures who, with the four-and- twenty elders, in songs of rejoicing ascribe their salvation to the Lamb, and exult in the prospect of reigning with him as kings and priests on the earth—who could miss the signification of their words, Thou hast redeemed us ” ? So turning back to Isaiah, we recognise in the elements of his vision those “ heavenly things ”— namely, Christ and his brethren—which under the Law of Moses were foreshadowed in the wonderful symbolic ritual of God’s own appointÂment, and which were subsequently exhibited to and by the prophets upon the basis of what had previously been laid down.
The throne in the vision, and “ his train ” or “ the skirts thereof ” (margin) are related to “ the temple.” “ The thrones ” of the kingdoms of men that are to be " cast down ” before the Son of Man sustain no such relation, notwithstanding their pretensions, especially that of the so-called “ Eternal City,” whose occupant ” opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” By the side of this, the transÂgression of Uzziah sinks into insignificance ; and if the penalty of that was leprosy unto death, the judgment of this is destruction with the brightness of the Lord’s coming.
“ The temple,” whether considered literally or “ spiritually,” is the place chosen of God for His dwelling and manifestation. Its material, design, location, and service are altogether of Divine appointment. Thus “ Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle. . . . See that thou make all things according to the pattern showed to thee in the Mount ’ (Heb. viii. 5). David also gave to Solomon, in preparation for the building of Solomon’s temple, “ the pattern ot all that he had by the Spirit.’ “ All this,” said David, “ the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern. So Ezekiel is controlled by “ the hand of the Lord ” in the exhibition of all the forms, ordinances, and laws of the future temple (Ezek. xl. 4 : xliii. 10-11).
And the care thus bestowed upon the literal is, of course, not absent from that “ house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth ” (1 Tim. iii. 15). Its lively stones ” (2 Pet. 1, 5) have to be conformed to the pattern of Jesus Christ, the “ chief corner stone, elect and precious,” “ in whom all the building, fitly framed together, groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord” (Eph. ii. 21). The manifestation on earth of this ** holy temple,” when the Lord Jesus shall be enthroned upon Mount
Zion (Rev. xiv.) “ before his ancients gloriously ” (Is. xxiv. 23), is the subject of this sixth chapter.
“ His train ” or “ skirts ” connects with the drapery of the tabernacle and the garments of the High Priest. It is in conÂnection with these garments that most of the other occurrences of the original word are found. The High Priest of Israel in his ministrations before the throne of God, clothed with garments of God’s appointment, represented Christ personal and multitudinous. Whether we consider the “ fine linen,” the girdle of needlework, the Ephod, the Breastplate, or other details, the substance is all of Christ and his celestial train,” some of whose characteristics and excellences are by these things prefigured. If it should seem strange that clothing should stand for a multitude of individuals of any sort, it has only to be remembered that it is God’s own figure, as clearly expressed in a prophecy of Zion’s marriage after long widowhood. “ As I live, saith the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all as with an ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doeth ” (Is. xlix. 18). That is, Zion’s children shall be gathered to her in glory. There is also the fact that in belief of the Gospel and baptism we “ put on Christ,” and if faithful unto death are to be associated with him in glory, when “ clothed upon with our house which is from heaven.”
The Seraphim of Isaiah’s vision correspond to the Cherubim of Ezekiel and the Living Creatures of the Apocalyptic visions, and are representative of the saints when made equal unto the angels and commissioned to execute the judgments written. The meaning of the verb whence the term is derived is ” to burn or consume,” and that is said to be the mission of Christ and the saints in the preliminary stages of subduing the world to God. “ The judgment shall sit, says Daniel, “ and they (the saints) shall take away his dominion (that of the Fourth Beast), to consume and to destroy it unto the end (ch. vii. 26). “ The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel ” (2 Thess. i. 8). Like the living creatures of Rev. iv., they ascribe Holiness to the Lord, and in almost the same terms : “ Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of Hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.”
There is no support in this for the doctrine of Trinitarianism for which it is adduced. There is a plurality certainly, clearly visible both in the term “ hosts ” and in the “us ” of verse 8, but it is not a plurality consisting of three co-equal co-eternal gods, one of whom is incomprehensibly enough termed “the Father,” another "the Son,” and another “ the Holy Ghost.” The very first principle of divine teaching both by Moses and the Prophets, Jesus and the Apostles, is that there is One God (Deut. vi. 4 ; Isa. xlii. 8 : xliii. 10-13 ; Mark xii. 29 ; 1 Cor. viii. 6). He reveals himself as the " Most High God : the Possessor of Heaven and Earth,” “ the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and as being pleased in the fulness of time to manifest Himself upon earth in a multitude redeemed from among men upon principles of His own appointment, and finally exalted to the glory, honour, and incorruptibility of the divine nature. In the exhibition of these principles, it pleased Him to reveal Himself in Israel in the person of “ a Son ” who was also “ Son of David, and the nature of whose relationship to the Father is defined by angels and prophets and by himself, in a manner that altogether excludes the mystifying co-eternity and co-equality of Trinitarian speculations.
The vision of “ his glory ” that is here before us is in harmony with all this. The title " Lord of Hosts Yahweh Tzvaoth, literally
means He who will be Hosts, and memorialises the purpose of the Eternal concerning Christ and his body the Saints. In harmony with this purpose we hear the Lord, before he suffered, pray for his people “ that they all may be one, as thou Father art in me, and I in thee, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one ” (Jno. xvii. 21). This saying illustrates the unity and plurality in question.
The adoration of the Seraphim introduces a principle that has almost been lost sight of on earth, although written deep and strong in the history of Israel. It is that God, is “ great and dreadful,” that He “ will be sanctified in them that come nigh Him,” and that there must not be any obscuring of His majesty or tampering with His will by the creatures of His hands. This is repugnant to the natural man, whose “ high thoughts ” insist upon liberty to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience. The word of God is mighty in the casting down of such reasoning. Look at Cain’s rejected offering ; look at the fate of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. See Nadab and Abihu fall dead before the fiery indignation that avenged their offering of strange fire. See this King Uzziah driven leprous from the temple for presuming to intermeddle with the service of God’s appointment.
It is a grave mistake to suppose that there is less restriction in access to the divine favour in Christ. We hear Christ:—“ He that entereth not by the door into the sheep-fold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber . . . I am the door ” (Jno. x.). The apostolic ministry exhibits the mode of entering— believe the Gospel and be baptised. How does Christendom stand measured by this rule ? Christ’s own answer is on record in Rev. xi. in the symbol of the unmeasured outer court of the temple, cast out and given to the Gentiles. The lesson so often and terribly enforced upon Israel has been forgotten by the Gentiles, and the time draws on for their chastisement and enlightenment in the terrible “ day of the Lord ” that will level all human pride in the dust. Then, Hallowed will be God’s name, when in His Kingdom His will is done on earth as it is in heaven.
The fourth verse of this sixth chapter finds illustration in the later vision of Rev. xv. 8, which exhibits the “ seven last plagues ” by which all nations are made to come and worship before God, because His judgments are made manifest. In this chapter of RevelaÂtion it is said, “ The temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from His power, and no man was able to enter into the temple, till the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.” As the peaceful reign of Solomon and the dedication of the temple succeeded the wars and victories of David, so will the peaceful glory of the Kingdom of the “ greater than Solomon ” follow his manifestation as the second David. He is first manifested as "the Name of the Lord coming from far, burning with his anger ” against the nations, and afterwards, when the smoking wrath of God is finished, he stands forth as " the Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah was overcome with consternation at the vision : “ Woe is me ! for I am undone ; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have
seen the King the Lord of Hosts.” An overpowering sense of uncleanness and helpless incompetence in the presence of the divine Majesty has been the visible characteristic of many of God's servants. Moses, when directed by God to bring Israel out of Egypt, hung back even to the point of provoking God’s anger. “ Behold,” said he, “ I am of uncircumcised lips, and how shall Pharaoh hearken unto me?” Manoah feared death because he saw the angel of the Lord. JereÂmiah lamented his incapacity, saying, “Ah, Lord God ! Behold I cannot speak, for I am a child.” The feature is a beautiful one in many ways, assuring us of the genuineness of the Scriptures, for human writings do not thus belittle their prominent men ; making us also feel that the prophets were men of like passions with ourÂselves, with whom we shall be at home in the Kingdom of God if it please Him to grant us a place therein. Then again it is an illusÂtration of the altogether satisfactory philosophy of the case that Paul gives us in 2 Cor. iv. 7, “ We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellency of the power may he of God, and not of us.” Or, as he elsewhere expresses it : “ God hath chosen the weak things . . . that no flesh should glory in his presence ” (1 Cor.
i. 27.)
“ Then flew one of the seraphim unto me having a live coal in his hand which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar. And he laid it upon my mouth and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips and thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged.” Jeremiah and Daniel in similar conditions were similarly equipped for their missions. Jeremiah says, “ The Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth. And the Lord said unto me, Behold I have put my words in thy mouth ” (Jer. i. 9). Daniel in his reception of a vision of the King in his glory (chap, x.), being overcome, was strengthened by an angel touching his lips (x. 16), and then received further divine communications respecting the future of Israel till the uprising for judgment in the time of the end of Michael the Great Prince.
Comparing the cases of Isaiah and Jeremiah we see that the touch of the Lord, and the putting of God’s words in the prophet’s mouth, are equivalent to the touch of the live coal from the altar, and the purging of iniquity in preparation for his mission. The appointment of God in Israel for the purging of sin at the altar, and the subsequent exhibition of the substance in Christ, gives us understanding of the matter. The qualification of those who spoke for God was the cleansing from iniquity. In the case of the prophets this is illustrated in the manner before us, and constitutes the great difference between the false and the true. The false were uncleansed and spoke visions of their own evil hearts which God repudiated. The true spoke His word faithfully through all the suffering and dishonour it brought upon them.
The relation of Christ to the apostles of his choice further illustrates this feature of Isaiah’s vision. Christ is himself the antitypical altar, in touching whom in the way divinely appointed we are purged from our iniquity. As “ the Word made flesh ” who dwelt in the midst of Israel speaking “ God’s words,’’ his cleansing power is visible in his last addresses to “ his own ” before he suffered. “ Now are ye clean, ’ said he, “ through the word which I have spoken unto you.” There was an exception truly in the person of " the son of perdition : ’’ “ Ye are clean, but not all.” But his necessary evil presence did not obscure the principle. The word did not cleanse him because it did not find a lodgment in his heart; and as the lips are but the organs of the expression of the fulness of the heart (“ for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh ”), we have no utterances of Judas, save the betrayal of the Lord and a hypocritical grumble at an accepted offering. But the others “ cleansed by the word ” and endowed with power from on high, go forward as Christ’s witnesses “ conquering and to conquer.”
Though the days of inspiration are past (or rather suspended) according to the pre-determination of God, these things are not without their application even now. The rule of acceptable utterance is still similar, as the apostolic writings testify : "If any man speak, let him speak as the Oracles of God.” “ Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom.” The audible voice of Christ is for a little while longer unknown to earth, but “ the word of Christ ” in the fulness of all the Holy Scriptures, which focalise in Him, is accessible to all; and the extent of its cleansing and transforming power will not be known till the day of the manifestation of the Sons of God, when Isaiah among all the prophets will “ prophesy again.”
The message which the prophet was to bear to Israel was a heavy one, as had been that of Moses centuries before. He said, Go and tell this people, “ Hear ye indeed but understand not; and see ye indeed but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes ; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert and be healed.”
“ Why,” says an objector, “ if God did that to them how could they be blamed for unbelief ? ” “ Why doth he yet find fault ? ” “ For who hath resisted his will ? ” “ Nay, but O man,” says the apostle, “ Who art thou that repliest against God ? ” And he puts it that God “ endures with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction, that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy.” The bulk of the people whom God rebuked by Isaiah were “ vessels of wrath fitted to destruction.” Not that God gave them no chance of mercy. Very far from it. He challenges them on this point : “ 0 inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge I pray you between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my vineyard, that I have not done in it ” (ch. v. 3). The blinding of Israel came only after “ much long- suffering ” on God’s part, and steadfast persistence in evil on the part of the misguided people.
Christ’s own application of these words of Isaiah illustrated the matter further. “ I speak unto them in parables, because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith “ By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive. For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest at any time, they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them ” (Matt. xiii. 13). Men who closed their eyes to Christ, in the unmistakable divinity of his words and works, were in hopeless case, as he says (Jno. xv. 24). In their rejection and cruciÂfixion of him, they filled up the measure of their iniquity, and “ wrath to the uttermost ” was thenceforth their portion.
But “ how long ? ” In common with the other prophets, Isaiah was greatly exercised by this question. “ Then said I, Lord how long ? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.” From Isaiah’s day, we stand now about two thousand six hundred years down the stream of time. Looking back we can only say, “ The former things have come to pass.” In the days of the last King with whom Isaiah was contemporary—Hezekiah—the ten-tribed kingdom of Ephraim went into captivity, and in about a century afterwards Judah shared a like fate at the hands of the Babylonians. Then under the Persian kings there came the partial restoration, but at length in their rejection of Messiah, the nation encountered the divine indignation, and the end came with the overwhelming flood of the Roman invasion, the effects of which still challenge the attention of almost the least thoughtful of mankind in the spectacle of scattered Israel and the forsaken land.
God did not give Isaiah any other answer to his enquiry than the verses quoted : but subsequently to other prophets he revealed times and seasons, in the understanding of which, we have the happiness of knowing that the desolation of Israel is nearly at an end. That it was terminable was plainly revealed to Isaiah both in this and other visions. In this case the concluding words of God run thus : “ But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return and shall be eaten, as a teil tree and as an oak, who substance is in them when they cast their leaves : so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof. Though the sinners of Israel were to be “ as an oak whose leaf fadeth ” (ch. i. 30), the Israelitish tree itself was not to be wholly destroyed. There would be a remnant exhibiting the characteristics of the “ blessed ” spoken of in Psalm i.—-and who, delighting in the law of the Lord, would at last be in the estate symbolised by its beautiful figure of a fruitful evergreen by rivers of water.
All the dealings of God with Israel illustrate this principle, to which Christ also alludes in speaking of the judgment coming : “ For the elect’s sake, those days shall be shortened.” " The elect ” are “the holy seed,” to which all ages and generations have contributed their humanly undiscerned and unvalued number. The fathers of Israel themselves were “ few men and strangers ” in the land of their future everlasting inheritance. The Prophets were often outcast fugitives. The Lord Jesus himself was despised and rejected, cast out of the vineyard and slain, by the apparently honourable husbandmen of Israel. His people have shared his experience as he said they would. Though in truth “ the holy seed ” and “ the salt of the earth,” they have been esteemed “ the offscourings of all things.” But divine verities are not affected by human estimations, and when the fulness of the Gentiles shall have " come in ” to the elect “ remnant ” of Israel, as Paul calls it in his teaching concerning these things in Romans xi., the “ consensus of opinion ” of mere human philosophy will weigh nothing with God by the side of the “jewels” of His own development against the day of earth-filling glory which Isaiah beheld in vision so long ago, and which is now so much nearer its actual manifestation.
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