The Prophet Sees Himself

The Prophet Sees Himself

Isa. 6:5

He who stands to preach to others Should understand himself. It is still more important to see himself as God sees him. For a man of God the searchlight turned upon himself is the way to self-discovery.

The revelation came to Isaiah when he saw the holiness of God. If such blinding vision of the holy God is not given to men in general, there is a revelation of God in Jesus, "the Word made flesh." In Him we see the glory of God's holy being. Isaiah saw himself against the backdrop of God's holiness. I see my true self as I stand beside the one perfect Man, the Man Christ Jesus.

In the presence of the splendid whiteness of the holy God the prophet cried, "Woe is me! for I am... a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips." When one has seen his own woeful uncleanness, he can in humble honesty say, "I am undone... and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips."

It was not defilement by contamination from the society of which he was a member. His uncleanness was not acquired by a contagion. It came spewing out of the depth of his own inner foulness. He was confessing the sin that dwelt within him. Jeremiah bewailed, "The heart is deceitful above all things.., who can know it?" (17:9). Before the cure for the sinful nature is known, the depth of one's own depravity must be realized and confessed.