“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.” Isaiah 6:1
September 12, 2022
Queen Elizabeth II died on September 8, 2022. For seventy years she reigned as the Queen of England. I have vivid memories of her coronation on June 2, 1953. It was carried on television from London. Queen Elizabeth II reigned with dignity and honor through fifteen Prime Ministers of England, while offering a sense of stability and wisdom amidst crises at home and abroad. The commission of Isaiah the prophet is framed in Isaiah 6 by the historical marker of a critical time in Israel’s history. King Uzziah had reigned for 52 years. He had become king at age 16. He is said to have done right in the sight of the Lord, unlike many of his predecessors. King Uzziah died in 740 B.C. He had been a great and mighty king. It was at the time of his death that Isaiah was commissioned. In what is one of the great theophanies of the Old Testament (Isa. 6:1-13). God’s holiness is contrasted with Uzziah who had finished his reign as a leper under divine chastisement for deliberately defying God. The truth rings out loud and clear: Judah’s king may fall, but there is one King who never falls. Great leaders sin and die but there is one King who doesn’t. God gave Isaiah a vision of the One who really counted. We would do well to remember this fact in the flow of human history. History is not primarily the story of the rise and fall of world leaders and great nations. It is God’s story told in Scripture in such a way to magnify the sovereign God of time and eternity. Isaiah’s prophetic ministry parallels a time of spiritual decline and Isaiah was told that his own ministry would have little effect on the covenant nation. We must hold on tightly to God’s supreme royalty and majesty which never end. H
A time to pray: “O Lord over all of time and space, our joy and hope is not in sinful human rulers but in you as ‘Holy, Holy, Holy.’ “