Isaiah 6 | At Water’s Edge

She’s Come Undone

Posted on May 24, 2021 by Betsy

Have you ever had something happen to you that left you completely “undone?” Something so devastating, shocking, surreal, or life-altering that you thought you would never be the same again? Where do you suppose God was in that moment?

It happened to Isaiah.

Isaiah 6 (Common English Bible)

6 In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a high and exalted throne, the edges of his robe filling the temple. ²Winged creatures were stationed around him. Each had six wings: with two they veiled their faces, with two their feet, and with two they flew about. ³They shouted to each other, saying:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of heavenly forces!
All the earth is filled with God’s glory!”

⁴The doorframe shook at the sound of their shouting, and the house was filled with smoke.

⁵I said, “Mourn for me; I’m ruined! I’m a man with unclean lips, and I live among a people with unclean lips. Yet I’ve seen the king, the Lord of heavenly forces!”

⁶Then one of the winged creatures flew to me, holding a glowing coal that he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷He touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips. Your guilt has departed, and your sin is removed.”

⁸Then I heard the Lord’s voice saying, “Whom should I send, and who will go for us?”

I said, “I’m here; send me.”

This holy (and wholly frightening!) encounter occurred around the year 742 BC. It was the beginning of Isaiah’s ministry, which lasted through four kings, ending with Hezekiah. His audience comprised the people of Judah and Jerusalem after the time of Israel’s separation into the Northern and Southern Kingdoms.

In one breath, Isaiah states that in the year King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord. Ever wonder if these two things are connected? Perhaps the popular and successful earthly king was a distraction from the heavenly one. In any case, Isaiah is standing in the temple and he suddenly sees the Lord on the throne.

We get a clue about what had caused Isaiah to look away from God in the first few verses. Isaiah saw the high and exalted Lord wearing a train so magnificent that it filled the entire temple. Kingly trains were designed to be long, heavy, and imposing, as though to convey the image of a man who was so powerful, he had attendants just to carry his train. The attendants in this case were flying creatures called seraphim; they spoke only to each other as they cried out, “Holy, Holy, Holy!” in voices so thunderous the pillars shook. Isaiah’s response immediately reveals that he is overcome with his sense of unworthiness. He woefully cries out in fear and shame, declaring himself to be ruined, or as the King James Version says, “I am undone.”

Several years ago I attended a women’s retreat where one of the participants sought me out at the end of a very intense session. We sat under a piano in the dining hall late into the next morning, and her story spilled out between sobs and whispers. It was a story of failed marriages, alcohol and drug abuse, infidelity that resulted in an unwanted pregnancy and abortion, and the loss of her family and every job she had. Here we were on the cold, hard floor when she finally saw God for the first time. But her feeling of shameful disgrace was like a blindfold over her eyes. She could not see how God could possibly love or forgive her. She had truly come undone.

In Luke 5:8, we see Simon Peter having a similar response when sees Jesus. He fell to his knees and said, “Go away from me, Lord! I am a sinful man” (NIV).

And yet in every case, the activity of Christ on the cross makes the sinner worthy. We can never achieve this on our own, but the shed blood of the atonement brings us into a place of redemption in the eyes of God. To deny him that power is to proclaim that our sin is greater than the cross. Are we really so boldly arrogant as to say that to God?

That is what I told that woman that night, and she woke up the next day with perfect spiritual eyesight. She clearly saw God’s grace-filled presence in her redemption. She has never looked back from that moment.

Have you ever come undone? Do you struggle with feelings of unworthiness?

Charles Spurgeon once said, “God is faithful to his purpose. He does not begin a work and then leave it undone.” So maybe a takeaway from this lesson is that it is good to be undone! What God has begun in you, he will be faithful to complete.

We are invited to give God all of our brokenness, our ruin, and our “undone-ness,” and ask him to make us whole. With repentance comes forgiveness. Don’t wait another day.

Remnant Theology

Posted on May 14, 2021 by Betsy

Someone long ago planted a group of jonquils in front of my mailbox. It predates my arrival here, which happened eleven years ago. Every spring they pop up with their cheerful faces and strong pronouncement that winter is over and we can turn our faces toward summer. This gift of foresight on someone else’s part is always welcome. For most of the year, that patch of ground is empty and desolate. My neighbor once told me that the entire mailbox was once ringed with jonquils. Now only this one patch remains, and I am grateful.

In reading the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, we encounter something known as “remnant theology.” This describes God’s practice of taking a land, a society, or a whole nation down to almost nothing and then restoring a small percentage back after a period of desolation. Think of Noah’s family after the flood…it was up to them to replenish and repopulate the world when they finally came upon dry land. They were God’s remnant.

In the sixth chapter of Isaiah, we see God preparing Isaiah to speak a word of doom into a hopeless situation. The nation had fallen hard into apostasy, and their impending disaster was upon them. Isaiah was called to preach to a group of people who were too calloused and hard-headed to hear him, and the length of his service would be determined by how long it would take for them to turn with their hearts and seek God’s healing:

Isaiah 6 (Common English Bible)

⁹God said, “Go and say to this people:

Listen intently, but don’t understand;
    look carefully, but don’t comprehend.
¹⁰Make the minds of this people dull.
    Make their ears deaf and their eyes blind,
    so they can’t see with their eyes
    or hear with their ears,
    or understand with their minds,
    and turn, and be healed.”

But even in the midst of this proclamation, God offers the hope of a remnant that would provide a holy seed for the rebuilding of Israel.

¹¹I said, “How long, Lord?”

And God said, “Until cities lie ruined with no one living in them, until there are houses without people and the land is left devastated.” ¹²The Lord will send the people far away, and the land will be completely abandoned. ¹³Even if one-tenth remain there, they will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, which when it is cut down leaves a stump. Its stump is a holy seed.

The dichotomy of a God who destroys and a God who restores is striking. His mercy is always balanced with his judgment, and remnant theology teaches us that mercy always prevails, thanks be to God! God always leaves behind a holy seed.

If you are in a season of desolation and judgment, remember Isaiah. In the beginning of this passage, he declares that seeing God seated on the throne surrounded by flying seraphs had rendered him “undone.” Sometimes it takes a holy undoing before we can be restored to what we were are meant to be…holy, cleansed, called, and redeemed.

And So It Ends

Posted on December 31, 2020 by Betsy

(This is a re-post of a devotional I wrote on Jan. 1, 2020. It is interesting to read this with the eyes of experience. It was impossible to know what 2020 would bring…did I hit the mark? Did I miss it entirely?

Notice that in offering examples of “things that distract us from God” I mentioned Netflix and too much screen time. I now find that HILARIOUS. Netflix may have just saved our sanity in this pandemic, and “too much screen time” was the only way to go to work/go to school/attend staff meetings/go to church/keep in touch with your friends and family. There are truths in this writing and the scripture is just as relevant and fresh today, but I am obviously not a prophet!! Enjoy….)

According to the American Optometric Association, 20/20 vision is defined as:

20/20 vision is a term used to express normal visual acuity (the clarity or sharpness of vision) measured at a distance of 20 feet. If you have 20/20 vision, you can see clearly at 20 feet what should normally be seen at that distance. If you have 20/100 vision, it means that you must be as close as 20 feet to see what a person with normal vision can see at 100 feet.

Today we begin a new year. A decade has closed, a year has been added, and a new beginning is offered. Looking back at the year just ended, what do you see? Joy, regret, growth, retreat, inertia, advancement…what did the last 12 months bring into your life?

Now looking at the next 12 months, what do you HOPE to see? And no matter what those hopes are, do you see God being active in your year? Does your vision for your life match HIS vision for your life?

One of my favorite scriptures on vision comes from Isaiah, Chapter 6:

Isaiah 6

6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. ²Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying.

Here is the quick take-away: King Uzziah was a great and powerful king. Isaiah served as his temple priest. If you look closely at the first sentence, you’ll notice that Isaiah says, “In the year that King Uzziah died, I SAW the Lord.” Kinda’ makes you wonder if the charismatic and powerful earthly king was a distraction. It took his death for Isaiah to see the Lord, who obviously was there all the time. Could it be?

In a smaller sense, we are all guilty of putting things on the throne that distract us from seeing the Lord. Indulgences of every kind, gossip-spinning, hours of Netflix, too much screen time, grudge-holding, over-indulging our children, vanity, laziness…fill in your own blank.

2020 is an opportunity to capture God’s 20/20 vision for your life. We get a do-over.

What earthly “king” is keeping you from God’s vision for your life?

What have you put on the throne in place of God?

What are you worshipping that has become a replacement for God?

Why are you so distracted?

When we clear out all the junk, vision becomes clarified. When we sweep away the debris of our past, we can capture God’s vision for our future. Putting God back on the throne of our hearts will enable us to enter the new year with hope, peace, joy, and love.

May 2020 bring us 20/20.

(Editor’s note: And may 2021 bring us healing, in the name of Jesus!)