Seraphim were standing above him each had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he flew.
Isaiah sees the Lord on His throne. Around it stand creatures named nowhere else in Scripture. Each has six wings, and that raises the question this verse turns on. Why would beings who live in God's presence use four wings to hide themselves, and only two to move?
The name itself carries meaning. Commentators trace it to a Hebrew root:
"Seraph" means a burner. It is the word for burn, and the only other thing called a seraph is the fiery serpent. The point is that they cry, "Holy, holy, holy."
That name also sets them apart from the cherubim. Writers draw the distinction like this:
The cherubim speak of God's power in government. We may call them the executors of divine righteousness. The seraphim, by contrast, stand in relation to God's nature. We may call them the guardians of His holiness. The word seraphim occurs only here in Scripture, but it is related to another word. Seraph occurs often, and it means "to burn." Our God is a consuming fire. We find seraph, for example, with the sin and trespass offerings, which were "wholly consumed" on the altar. The burnt offerings and peace offerings, by contrast, "went up to God as a pleasing aroma."
The arithmetic is the lesson. Four wings conceal; only one pair carries them anywhere.
No vision more glorious had ever burst on human eyes. These attending burning spirits took in the whole earth as the scene of His glory. Even so, His holiness was their first care and chief cry. Activity, even in the winged seraphim, is not everything, nor the main thing. Each one did not need all six wings for flight, but only two. "With two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet." One shows awe toward God, the other shame about himself. Both show the reverence that suits them in His presence.
Another writer puts the same point as a question every servant of God must answer:
In the presence of His glory, the creature must take its place of nothingness before Him. Without that, can there be any true work for God, or any wisdom for it?
Why cover the feet at all? One writer points to what filled their attention instead:
Each one had six wings. With one pair he covered his face — their reverence was profound. With another he covered his feet: their ways were perfect, yet they refused to look at them. One Object only absorbed their attention.
One writer sets the three pairs in order and draws a lesson from it:
They used only two of their six wings for flight. First came the covering of the face in the presence of glory that cannot be searched out. Then came the covering of their own way from their eyes. Last came their activity in the service of their God — a suitable lesson for ourselves. A spirit of worship and self-forgetfulness comes before service.
Applied to praise, the picture becomes a rebuke of self-promotion. One writer urges believers to copy what happens above the throne:
May we then do now what the seraphim do above. With two wings they cover their face, as a token of their confusion before the holy presence of the Lord. With two they cover their feet, as if to hide their steps from themselves and from others. And with the remaining two they fly to carry out their Lord's will.
Holiness does not stay at the throne. One writer traces where the flying pair takes a seraph:
What a scene! One of those very seraphim stood above the Lord's throne with veiled face, crying "Holy, holy, holy." He passes from that throne to the altar, and from the altar down to the deep depths of a convicted sinner's heart. There he applies the healing power of a divine sacrifice. No sooner had the arrow from the throne wounded the heart than the seraph from the altar "flew" to heal the wound.
- Burners. The name means "to burn." These creatures guard God's holiness; the cherubim carry out His righteous government.
- Four to hide. Four of the six wings hide face and feet. That is awe toward God, and shame or self-forgetfulness about themselves.
- Two to fly. Only one pair moves them. Service is the smallest share of what these creatures do, not the largest.
- The order. Worship first. Self out of sight second. Activity last. Writers offer that order as the pattern for our own service.
- The flight. Those two wings carry a seraph from the throne to the altar, and from the altar to a convicted sinner's heart — holiness moving toward a sinner in grace.
And one called to the other and said, Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!
In the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah sees the Lord on a throne, and burning creatures above Him cry out three times that He is holy. Two questions follow: why does holiness come first in heaven's worship, and how can the earth be full of God's glory in a chapter that also announces judgment?
Each seraph has six wings, but only two of them are for flying. One writer asks what the other four are doing.
No vision more glorious had ever burst on human eyes. The burning spirits standing there took in the whole earth as the scene of His glory. Even so, His holiness was their first care and chief cry. Activity even in the winged seraphim is not everything, nor the main thing. Each needed only two wings for flight, not all six. "With one pair he covered his face, and with another he covered his feet." That is awe toward God and shame about himself. Both show the reverence that suits them in His presence.
Their name carries meaning, and it appears nowhere else in Scripture.
The cherubim speak of God's power in government, and we may call them the executors of divine righteousness. The seraphim, by contrast, stand in relation to God's nature, and we may call them the guardians of His holiness. The word seraphim occurs only here in Scripture, but a related word, seraph, occurs often, and it means "to burn." Our God is a consuming fire.
The seraphim name the one quality God repeats to His people again and again — and the one people least want to hear about.
Holiness has first place in this cluster of God's glories. It is, we may say, one of the essential attributes of God; and without it, who could adore or even reverence Him? Yet it is the very trait of His nature that men are most averse to, and most likely to overlook. He has therefore reminded us over and over again in His Word that He is holy. In this attribute of His being He is incomparable.
One writer traces where the New Testament picks up this chapter, and what the number three points to.
It is instructive to note the New Testament references to this scene. In John 12:41, the blind rejection of Jesus is the theme, and we discover that Isaiah "saw His glory and spoke of Him." Then in Acts 28:26, Paul refers to our chapter and says, "The Holy Spirit was right in saying…" So here is one of those allusions to the Trinity embedded in the Old Testament. In verse 3 we have "Holy," repeated, not twice nor four times but three; and the LORD of hosts is before us. In verse 5, "the King, the LORD of hosts," whom we find to be the Lord Jesus. In verse 8, "the voice of the Lord," which is claimed as the voice of the Holy Spirit. God is One and yet Three: Three and yet One. Hence, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for US?"
Moments later God sends Isaiah to make this people's heart dull until the land is a ruin. That looks like a contradiction, and one writer meets it head-on.
He says, "I saw the Lord"; and what did he hear? He heard this: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory." Yet at that very moment God tells Isaiah to go and make the heart of this people dull and to shut their eyes. This lasts until the cities lie waste with no one in them, the houses empty, and the land completely desolate. How then could the whole earth be full of His glory? Only because God is what He is. He has a purpose concerning His beloved Son, whether in connection with an earthly people or a heavenly people.
Isaiah does not join the song. The cry breaks him, and one writer says we need the same breaking.
What effect does this vision of glory have on the prophet? It withers all the pride and beauty of human nature. In the presence of this glory the prophet sees deepest into his own sinful, wretched condition, and into the condition of the people he lives among… We need this as much as the prophet did.
That has a plain consequence for how anyone approaches God today.
The seraphim covered their faces and their feet while they cried, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory." Surely, then, those who worship the Father in spirit and in truth should be no less reverent than they.
- Burning. The name seraphim comes from a word meaning "to burn"; they stand in relation to God's nature, and we may call them the guardians of His holiness.
- Covered. Only two of six wings are for flight — service is not the main thing; awe toward God and shame about self come first.
- First. Holiness has first place among God's glories, and it is the very trait people are most averse to and most likely to overlook.
- Threefold. The cry says "holy" three times, and the New Testament ties this chapter to the LORD of hosts, to Jesus, and to the Holy Spirit — one God, so "who will go for us?"
- Filled. The earth does not yet look full of that glory; the seraphim can say it because God is what He is and has a purpose concerning His Son.