Worship and the conscience have always been interconnected. Isaiah describes for us how he saw the glory of the Lord. He saw not the fullness of the Lord’s glory but rather just the hem (“train”) of the Lord’s robe. This vision of the Lord’s glory did not bring shouts of joy from Isaiah’s lips but rather a lament, “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” His conscience was struck, not because He looked at other men and saw that he did not measure up, but rather because He saw the Lord and realized that he and no one who he knew measured up to the glory of the King, the Lord of hosts.
This is the essence of worship: seeing God in relation to ourselves as He really is and seeing that the only right thing we can do is submit ourselves to Him. Yet there is an unworthiness that strikes our conscience. We cannot help ourselves. We need mercy. As with Isaiah, mercy is available to us through the Lord Himself (v.7).
It was then that Isaiah was ready to go. He already knew that his hearers would be unclean and in need of mercy. He learned, however, that they would not hear his message. Isaiah responded as we certainly would respond, “How long?” (v.11).
It was a long time before many people began to respond to Isaiah’s message but they did. They did because they were able to see the glory of God (Isaiah 45:18, 21-23). They saw the glory which he himself had seen and which had showed him his sin and the way of salvation
Comments are closed