The whole earth is full of His glory

Isaiah 6 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. ² Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³ And one called out to another and said,

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”

⁴ And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke. ⁵ Then I said,

“Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. ⁷ He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”

⁸ Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” ⁹ He said, “Go, and tell this people:

‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’
¹⁰ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim,
Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears,
Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”

¹¹ Then I said, “Lord, how long?” And He answered,

“Until cities are devastated and without inhabitant, Houses are without people
And the land is utterly desolate,
¹² “The Lord has removed men far away, And the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land.
¹³ “Yet there will be a tenth portion in it, And it will again be subject to burning,
Like a terebinth or an oak
Whose stump remains when it is felled. The holy seed is its stump.”

“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, The whole earth is full of His glory.”   When most people look around at the state and condition of much of the world, they would probably not agree that the whole earth is full of the glory of the Lord. Certainly when we view majestic mountains, crystal clear lakes and streams, expanses of wooded land, the ocean and magnificent skies, it is easy to feel the presence and the glory of God. What though when we see, hear and smell all that is in a city? What about when we see homeless people on the streets? What about places where violence is abundant? Do we see the glory of God there? Would we still agree with the seraphim, who say, the whole earth is filled with His glory?

It really is a matter of perspective. When we look at the world around us we look at it through the lens of this world. We see things strictly as they are in this natural physical realm. The seraphim viewed the earth from a heavenly perspective. They saw earth through the lens of heaven. For us then to see the whole earth, even the dark and difficult places, as being full of the glory of God, we need to change our perspective. We need to see things through the lens of heaven. 2 Corinthians 5:7 gives us a part of how we begin to see from the heavenly perspective.   We walk by faith, not by sight.        We believe more in what God says, what Jesus said and did, than we believe in the evidence of the physical circumstances around us. Some would say that is delusional, not dealing in the reality of the way things are. The truth though is that on the cross, Jesus, who came to redeem people from sin, reconcile them to God and to restore all creation from the curse of sin, said:  “It is finished.” (John 19:30) Everything that Jesus came to do was completed in the cross.

What evidence is there that the work is finished? Matthew 27:50-53 says:   Jesus cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit.  And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.  The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised;  and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many.      The veil of the temple was torn, there was no longer a barrier between man and God. Jesus finished the work of redemption, reconciliation and restoration. From the time of Adam and Eve until the cross, man could not be in the Holy presence of God. In Exodus 33there is an account of a time when Moses, God’s chosen servant to deliver His people, a man with whom God spoke, asked to see God’s glory.        Exodus 33:18-23 says:   “I pray You, show me Your glory!”  And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”  But He said, “You cannot see My face, for no man can see Me and live!” ²¹ Then the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by Me, and you shall stand there on the rock; ²² and it will come about, while My glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with My hand until I have passed by.  Then I will take My hand away and you shall see My back, but My face shall not be seen.”     That is the same reason that Isaiah, says in today’s text:   “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”

Yet for us, because of the finished work of the cross, Hebrews 14:6 says:   Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.  We can come boldly into the presence of God. We have been redeemed and reconciled. There is a key though in that verse in Hebrews, a key both to our entry into the presence of God and our ability to see things here on earth from a heavenly perspective. We must come to God at the throne of grace.        For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; ⁹ not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)  When we come to the presence of God, through grace, we then see the world through that same grace which save, redeemed, reconciled us.   

In today’s text after Isaiah was cleansed by the fire of sacrifice, his encounter with God continued.     Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”  He said, “Go, and tell this people:     Isaiah was called and commissioned, as one who had seen the glory of God, by grace, to go back to the people. We too are called and commissioned, as those who have seen and experienced the glory of God, by His grace, to go back to the people. Jesus taught us to pray:  Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. We are called to bring the realities and the perspective of heaven to earth. We are called to bring what we see from the throne of grace to earth. If we will see the darkness and despair of this world through the eyes of grace, then we will see the glory of God in the whole earth. We can be part of the restoration of all creation to that glory.

Here is a link to a song that I think captures how the perspective from the grace can impact the world around us. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Amen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LmUt7-OczLs