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Introduction
The goal of this series, and the title of this series, is Beholding God to Behave godly for the glory of God.
The goal for this series is to do life more Biblically and to enhance our experience of Christianity by being more Biblical.
The suggestion that I have is that in spending more time beholding God than we all are currently doing, that we will not run the risk of missing out on enjoyable things,
Not enough knowledge of God
But instead we will experience the most enjoyable things, through the experience of the Supremely good and soul satisfying God.
Not enough of “doing” Christianity with the right approach
To put things into perspective, let’s think about one of the most significant differences between someone who says they’re a Christian and someone who actually is.
This is the difference between someone who is all talk about God vs. someone who is awestruck by God.
And what I mean by “the right approach” is when you worship, read the Bible, fellowship with Christians, what’s the point of doing all that?
One of the most significant differences between someone who is all talk and someone who is awestruck has to do with the glory of God.
William G.T. Shedd said in a sermon on the Supreme Excellence of God:
God alone, therefore, is worthy to receive all the glory, and all the extolling, and all the magnifying that belongs to excellence
He states a little further on his sermon:
The really good man or angel refers his character to God, and is filled with abhorrence at the thought of glorifying himself, or of being glorified for it.
And there is no sin that so grieves him as his propensity to a detestable self-idolatry
Which really summarizes the goal of this series.
The purpose then in looking at is adopt the attitude of beholding God to behave godly for the glory of God.
There are three things that will help us to achieve the lifestyle that a Christian should have, beholding God to behave godly.
The Glory of God Beheld by Angels
There’s something very important to keep in mind as we examine .
There’s a lot of great things that are going on in this chapter.
There’s tons to learn from looking at God, the angels, and Isaiah himself.
And much of the incredible nature of looking at Isaiah and the angels happens when you compare them to God.
But God intended another character to be compared to.
And that’s king Uzziah.
The angels and Isaiah are beholding the glory of the three time Holy God.
And they react appropriately.
But Uzziah the king did not behave appropriately.
(ESV)
16 But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction.
For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.
5 And the Lord touched the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and he lived in a separate house.
And Jotham the king’s son was over the household, governing the people of the land.
(ESV)
16 But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction.
For he was unfaithful to the Lord his God and entered the temple of the Lord to burn incense on the altar of incense.
17 But Azariah the priest went in after him, with eighty priests of the Lord who were men of valor,
18 and they withstood King Uzziah and said to him, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord, but for the priests, the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense.
Go out of the sanctuary, for you have done wrong, and it will bring you no honor from the Lord God.”
Compare that with
(ESV)
5 And the Lord touched the king, so that he was a leper to the day of his death, and he lived in a separate house.
And Jotham the king’s son was over the household, governing the people of the land.
Uzziah had a very long reign and Uzziah had a very big problem.
He didn’t respond appropriately to the glory of God.
He competed with the glory of God rather desiring the glory of God over his own.
It’s significant then that records for us that Isaiah had this vision the same year Uzziah died.
It’s meant to keep Uzziah’s wrong, self-glorifying attitude in our minds as we look at what happens when someone beholds the glory of God.
So the Lord is sitting on his throne, in the temple, high and lifted up, and his robe which is a symbol for his glory fills the Temple.
So that the glory of the Lord has reached every inch of space of the temple.
John tells us in that Isaiah specifically saw Jesus Christ.
And as Isaiah sees Jesus, enthroned, ruling, and glorious, He also sees the magnificent of God as sinless creatures hovered above him.
Now before we continue any further in our first point, I want to make sure that we’re all clear.
We’re not trying to look at how awesome these creatures are.
Our goal in our first point is still to behold the glory of God and behave godly because of it.
So as we examine the angels, what we’re really wanting to do, is look at the example they set.
And I actually get that idea, to look at angels as examples for us, from ,
(ESV)
14 Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?
The word “ministering” is a word in the Greek translation of the OT that refers to the utensils and tools that the high priest would use in performing his priestly duties.
And one of the ways then that angels help out
I mentioned these are sinless creatures.
They’re called seraphim.
Which means burning ones.
And as they literally burned Isaiah’s lips, you can see why they’re called burning ones.
One of them had basically been standing there holding a burning coal, no problem.
And these seraphim are behaving in a way that we wouldn’t expect.
And what I mean is, that these creatures are not sinful creatures.
They’re not creatures who were even formally sinful.
These creatures were created sinless and kept sinless.
It would make sense that sinless creatures would be in the presence of God.
It would make sense that sinless creatures would be worshipping God.
But what, at first, doesn’t make much sense is the way these creatures are behaving.
The description of these creatures is that they have 6 wings.
6 wings means speed, right?
Well they’re probably fast, but some of the wings serve a different purpose.
Only two wings are reserved for flight.
And in fact they seem to be constantly in flight.
Two of the wings, verse 2 says, are intended to cover the face of the seraph.
Why would a seraph need to cover his face?
We’ll you’re probably already thinking that this has to do with the presence of God with His glory filling the temple.
But it would seem that an angel would be able to behold the glory of God.
But these angels cannot behold the glory of God, His radiance is
It’s possible that these creatures simply cannot see the glory of God.
Maybe it’s too painful for their eyes.
I think it’s clear that God is restraining His glory, because otherwise this would be the end of Isaiah.
Which is fantastic to think about, God restraining His glory and yet it still filling the temple and is an absolutely mind blowing sight.
At any rate, these sinless creatures are responding to the Holiness and Glory of God appropriately, not because of who they are, but because of who God is.
God is worthy of this kind of behavior.
The seraphim respond by covering their faces because that’s the right thing to do in the presence of God.
And that’s not all they’re doing.
Two of their wings are also for covering their feet.
Which again is a rather interesting thing for angels to be doing.
I get the concept of covering feet in the presence of God, you walk on feet, feet get dirty, feet are just inherently gross,
But these creatures are in perpetual flight.
And yet with two wings they cover their feet.
Again it has to do with the fact of what feet could represent and even though their feet are sinless, they still cover them out of respect for God and because God is worthy of such behavior.
They’re covering of their face and their feet is also a continuous action.
They’re constantly trying to cover themselves.
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