And I said, Woe unto me! for I am undone; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.
Isaiah has just pronounced woe after woe on the sins of his nation; then his own eyes see the King, and his first words are a woe on himself. Why should a sight of glory crush a good man, and what does God do with him next? (The writers below quote an older translation: where they say "undone," the ESV reads "I am lost," and where they say "Jehovah," it reads "the LORD.")
The woes of the previous chapter pointed outward at others. This one lands on the man who spoke them.
In chapter 5 he cries "Woe" on many people, and he is right in doing so. It takes no special grace to do that. But it does take a great deal of grace to condemn oneself. Here we see how Isaiah came to cry that seventh "Woe" — and it was the making of him. When he cried "Woe is me," he put his finger on the right spot.
One writer gives a second possible wording for "undone," then asks what caused the confession.
The effect of the vision upon Isaiah is that he says, "Woe is me! for I am undone," or it might read "I am put to silence." He says, "I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." But what has brought about this confession? "For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
"Unclean" is not a mild word either. Isaiah was not the first man in his day who had to say it.
When the king had to take the place of a leper and say, "Unclean," what wonder that Isaiah, as the most prominent of the godly few, should give sad expression to the tears and feelings of the righteous! There is no word in scripture to express a worse condition than "unclean." It is used of the leper who is thrust out of the camp. Yet this is the word the prophet uses of himself.
after Why should he be so vile in his own eyes? Because he had seen the King, Jehovah of hosts.
Isaiah says his eyes have seen the King. The New Testament tells us who that King was.
Isaiah, after describing what He had seen, says, "My eyes have seen THE KING" (v. 5). And the day will come when "the whole earth is full of His glory" (v. 3). And so that no doubt should remain as to whose glory is spoken of here, the Holy Spirit of God has told us in John 12:37-41 that Isaiah spoke of Jesus, concluding, "These things said Isaiah, when he saw HIS GLORY, and spoke of HIM."
The confession is not the end of the story. The same presence that draws it out also brings the answer.
In a fallen world, the holiness of God had to mean wrath. In such a presence, what is man, whoever he may be? "Then said I, 'Woe is me! for I am undone…'" But if this is the confession that must come, how blessed is the grace that must, just as surely, be God's answer! "Then flew one of the seraphim to me, having a live coal in his hand… He laid it on my mouth and said, 'Look, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away, and your sin is cleansed.'"
Verse 5 is the first step of a sequence, and the order matters.
As soon as he hears that Jehovah wants a messenger, the ready response comes out of his heart. It expresses itself in those eager words, "Here am I; send me." He was ready now to go out in service to the One who had made him see his own ruin and had shown him the divine remedy as well. The order is beautiful. We have, first, "Woe is me"; secondly, "This has touched your lips"; and thirdly, "Here am I."
The same reaction appears everywhere in Scripture, and in the very people we admire most.
God works this spirit of self-judgment in all who really have to do with Him. Examples of it abound in Scripture… Isaiah said, "I am undone" (Isa. 6:5); and Daniel, "my splendour was turned in me into corruption" (Dan. 10:8). So Peter, "I am a sinful man, O Lord" (Luke 5:8), and Paul, "sinners, of whom I am chief" (1 Tim. 1:15). And all these were saints who stood out in their day. They would not have stood out if they had not had such an experience. Have we had it?
- Sight. The confession begins with what his eyes saw; John 12 tells us the King he saw was Jesus.
- Silence. "Undone" stops the man who had been handing out woes to others; the seventh woe is the one he pronounces on himself.
- Uncleanness. He takes the leper's word for himself — the worst word Scripture has — because he has seen the King.
- Cleansing. Grace answers the confession at once — the coal from the altar, and iniquity taken away.
- Sending. Only then, "Here am I; send me" — woe, then cleansing, then commission, always in that order.
And one of the seraphim flew unto me, and he had in his hand a glowing coal, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar;
Isaiah has just cried out that he is undone. The next move belongs to God, and it comes from an altar. What is this burning coal, and why does it cleanse instead of destroying?
(The writers quote "a live coal"; the ESV reads "burning coal.")
Everything turns on one word: the seraph flew. Writers read that speed as a window into God's eagerness.
God did not only apply the remedy to Isaiah's felt ruin. He applied it so that Isaiah knew for certain that the whole heart of God was in it. "Then flew one of the seraphim to me." The rapidity of the movement speaks volumes. It tells us plainly of Heaven's intense desire to calm the convicted conscience, bind up the broken heart and heal the wounded spirit. The energy of divine love gave the messenger his speed. He flew down from the Lord's throne to where a convicted sinner stood confessing that he was "undone."
The messenger's name is not decoration. It describes what he is made of.
"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." He takes a coal, because as soon as a person is honest, grace purifies.
A red-hot coal pressed to human lips should ruin them. That is the difficulty the verse forces on us.
But what a strange way to cleanse unclean lips! "A live coal" from the altar. A coal red-hot with the fire that has just been consuming the victim. Yes, "our God is a consuming fire." What a picture of that indignation and wrath against sin which is a necessity in the nature of a holy God! And though He pities, yes, loves the sinner, that cannot change His holiness. Set me then in the presence of this righteous and holy God — how can He show me favour? It seems as impossible as that a "live coal" should cleanse instead of blasting human lips.
The coal's heat has not changed. What has changed is where it has been.
But look again. It is a coal from the altar. It is still a live coal, for God's wrath against sin can never die out. His righteousness can never be anything but what it has always been. Yet this live coal from the altar of sacrifice is changed in one way: it does not blast, but cleanses. Look at the reality behind the picture, and you see that the righteousness of God in the cross of Jesus Christ does not condemn the sinner but justifies him. … So if I confess the sins that prove I am one of those for whom He died, and take my place before Him, I find Him faithful and just to forgive my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.
Everything the coal does, it does because of where it came from.
The altar means the place where the sacrifice was burnt and presented to God. The cross of Christ is the only altar of New Testament days. The various altars of the Old Testament were only types of it. The coals of fire consumed the sacrifices and sent their fragrance up to God. They were pictures of the condemnation of sin that fell on Jesus, when He was made sin and a curse for us on the cross of Calvary.
Fire taken from anywhere else has a history in Scripture, and it is not a happy one.
Nadab and Abihu were careless about this. They dared to come into His presence and burn incense before Him — which pictured the fragrance of Christ before God — with "strange fire" (not taken from off the altar, see Isaiah 6:6), which He had not commanded them.
Isaiah's ruin and Isaiah's remedy are exposed by the same light, in the same vision.
The guilt which the throne detects, the altar removes. In the light of the throne you see one object: ruined, guilty, undone self. In the light of the altar you see one object: a full, precious, all-sufficient Christ. The remedy reaches to the full extent of the ruin, and the same light that reveals the one reveals the other also. This gives settled rest to the conscience.
Only after the coal does Isaiah volunteer. The order matters.
But this cry is spoken in the presence of the One whose grace is no less than His glory and His holiness. He applies the remedy at once… And not only this: set free in His presence, Isaiah becomes the ready servant of His will. Before this there was no haste to act, but deep self-judgement, and a true sense of the defiled state of His people, in the light of His glory.
- Cry — Confession comes first. The seraph moves only after Isaiah calls himself undone, and he moves fast, because God's whole heart is in the answer.
- Coal — It still burns with God's unchanged wrath against sin. But it comes from the altar, so it cleanses instead of destroying.
- Cross — The altar is the only reason the fire is safe. It has already consumed the sacrifice, and every Old Testament altar pointed to Calvary.
- Certainty — The same light that showed Isaiah his guilt shows him a full, all-sufficient Christ. The remedy reaches as far as the ruin, so the conscience rests.
- Commission — Cleansed lips make a usable messenger. Set free in God's presence, Isaiah becomes the ready servant of His will — fruit of the coal, never its price.
and he made it touch my mouth, and said, Behold, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin expiated.
Isaiah has just cried out that he is ruined, a man of unclean lips. This verse is God's answer: a burning coal, carried from the altar and pressed to those same lips. Why fire? Why the lips? And how can God clear a man's guilt in one sentence?
The same scene that exposed Isaiah also supplied his cure.
Here, then, we have the rich provisions of the Lord's altar. Remember, that altar stands in direct connection with His throne. The two go closely together in the history and experience of every convicted and converted soul. The guilt which the throne detects, the altar removes. In the light of the throne you see one object: ruined, guilty, undone self. In the light of the altar you see one object: a full, precious, all-sufficient Christ. The remedy reaches to the full extent of the ruin, and the same light that reveals the one reveals the other as well. This gives settled rest to the conscience.
God asks nothing of Isaiah between his confession and his cleansing.
How blessed, how worthy of God! There is no long, laborious process of cure here. God imposes no conditions and asks no work of self-help. The provision of grace is simple, immediate, and effective at once, then and there. On the sinner's part there is only the confession of the ruin that sin has caused. The declaration that iniquity is taken away and sin purged meets it at once on God's part.
A live coal looks like an instrument of wrath, not of mercy. The answer lies in where the coal came from.
How blessed, then, to see in this live coal the very picture of that unbending righteousness in God! Here that righteousness touches a man's sin-stained lips, and it cleanses them instead of consuming them. But why, and how? The answer is very easy and very precious. It is a coal from off the altar that the seraph applies. It is a coal that has been consuming the sacrifice for sin. It pictures a holiness that must stay forever the same. Yet that holiness has found its complete satisfaction in what has put away sin for every sinner who is convicted and confesses.
The coal carries the worth of the sacrifice it had already consumed. So God's estimate sets the measure of the cleansing, not Isaiah's feelings.
The coal of divine holiness had already consumed the sacrifice, and was also consuming the sweet incense. So, in symbol, the cleansing of the prophet's lips matched God's estimate of the value of the sacrifice and of the person of our Lord.
People often quote this verse as though the coal gave a preacher his power.
How often people refer to this touching of the "lips with sacred fire" and miss the whole point of what is here! True, it is a prophet whose lips are touched, and his call follows right afterwards. But the touch is still not the touch of inspiration. The fire does not give power here; it cleanses.
Notice who brings the cleansing, and how fast it comes.
One of those very seraphim stood above the 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 soothing power of a divine sacrifice. The throne had poured out its flood of living light to show the prophet the blackness of his guilt. At once a tide of love rolled down on him from the altar and carried away every trace of that guilt.
God speaks a verdict over Isaiah's own case, and that word is the ground of his certainty.
The prophet knew that the live coal from the altar had purged his uncleanness. The sinner who believes in Christ Jesus for salvation also knows that he has peace through the blood of the cross. But the prophet also had the word of the Lord to assure him of his pardon and acceptance; and, blessed be God, so have we. Some will try to persuade us that no one can know his sins are forgiven until after death. But I reply: who says I am forgiven? God says so. And if God says, "Your sins are forgiven you," why need I fear, even if the whole world says it is not so?
Only after this verse does Isaiah volunteer for service.
Then came the challenge about service, and Isaiah's response; and as a result God sent him as His special messenger to Israel. As many have pointed out, the unchanging order is: first, conviction; second, cleansing; third, commission in the service of God.
- Throne, then altar. The same light shows the ruin and shows the remedy. God never convicts without providing.
- Coal, not condemnation. The fire cleanses rather than consumes because it has already consumed the sacrifice.
- Cleansing, not power. The touch on the lips is purification, not the granting of prophetic energy.
- Word, not feeling. Isaiah rests on a word God spoke, and that same word stands for believers today.
- Purged, then sent. "Woe is me," then "this has touched your lips," then "Here am I" — the order never reverses.