Isa 6:8-10 “I Heard The Voice of The Lord, Saying, Whom Shall I Send, and Who Will Go For Us?”

Isa 6:1  In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Isa 6:2  Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
Isa 6:3  And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
Isa 6:4  And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Isa 6:5  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because 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, the LORD of hosts.
Isa 6:6  Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Isa 6:7  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 
Isa 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isa 6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 

As the verses we are discussing today will demonstrate, Isaiah himself is a type of those who are sent as “His messengers spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire”.

Heb 1:7  and unto the messengers, indeed, He saith, `Who is making His messengers spirits, and His ministers a flame of fire;’ (YLT)

Before I learned what were the ‘spirits’ we were to try and how a spirit is placed on trial, I was at that time mystified by this admonition to all who claim to know Jesus Christ:

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

What is it that necessitates that we “try the spirits whether they are of God”? Why should we concern ourselves with whether a spirit is of God? The reason we should concern ourselves with whether a spirit is of God is “because many false prophets [proclaiming many false doctrines] are gone out into the world”. That is the very thing against which Christ so solemnly and so often warned His disciples:

Mat 16:11  How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees?
Mat 16:12  Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.

Mar 8:15  And he charged them, saying, Take heed, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, and of the leaven of Herod.

Luk 12:1  In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.

This was the first thing Christ mentioned when He was asked about the signs of the end of the age:

Mat 24:3  And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?
Mat 24:4  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. 
Mat 24:5  For many [“false prophets”, 1Jo 4:10] shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

The Greek word translated as ‘many’ in Mat 24:5 is the same word translated as ‘many’ in:

1Jn 4:1  Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

It is also the same Greek word ‘polos‘, translated ‘many’ in this verse:

Rev 17:1  And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:

This harlot “sits upon many waters [because] the great dragon… the devil and satan [has, through this great harlot] deceived the whole world”:

Rev 12:9  And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

The world was also deceived “in the year Uzziah died”, when Isaiah had this vision of the throne of God with the seraphims around the throne, crying to each other with words which caused the posts of the door of the temple in heaven to be moved with their words. It was only after one of the seraphims had spoken to Isaiah that we begin to see the function of, and the purpose for having these creatures around the throne of God in heaven. The fact Isaiah was there at the Lord’s throne demonstrates that Isaiah himself, just as all the Old and New Testament prophets are types of all those who are seated with Christ on His Father’s throne as we learn from a later prophet:

Eph 2:4  But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5  Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)
Eph 2:6  And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

I did not embolden the word ‘places’ simply because it is not in the Greek. We are all seated with Christ in the heavens just as Isaiah and later Ezekiel were in type privileged to be placed there in the heavens, and to tell us what takes place in the heavens and around the throne of God.

So let’s read about what Isaiah experienced and see what we can learn about the purpose and function of these seraphims around the throne of the Lord. In the first seven verses we have already covered, we learned that the seraphims have six wings each, and we saw that they have a message about the holiness of God which they confirm to each other in a way which causes the doorposts of the temple in heaven to be moved. This is what we learned they do as they are flying through the heavens:

Rev 14:6  And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people, 
Rev 14:7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.

The message of the gospel is received only by those who, like Isaiah, have been granted to be brought to the Lord’s throne in heaven through the same fiery experience Isaiah experience when He told us this about the function of the seraphims:

Isa 6:6  Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Isa 6:7  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

That is the message which caused the posts of the door of the Lord’s house to be moved. It is a great earthquake indeed which is so ‘fiery’ an experience as to affect our lives to the extent that it can be said: “Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.”

Applying the Biblical key to the Lord’s kingdom of “Line upon line and precept upon precept” we were given spiritual eyes to see that these seraphims are but another symbol of the four creatures and the four and twenty elders we see around the Lord’s throne in Ezekiel 1 and 10 and in Revelation 4 and 5, where they themselves tell us who these creatures symbolize:

Rev 5:8  And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.
Rev 5:9  And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
Rev 5:10  And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.
Rev 5:11  And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;
Rev 5:12  Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
Rev 5:13  And every creature which is in heaven, and on the earth, and under the earth, and such as are in the sea, and all that are in them, heard I saying, Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever.
Rev 5:14  And the four beasts said, Amen. And the four and twenty elders fell down and worshipped him that liveth for ever and ever.

Now that we know that these seraphims are one of the heavenly symbols of those who are ‘redeemed to God out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation”, and that these seraphims are those who will “reign on the earth”, for a symbolic thousand years, we should now understand that when that seraphim got the live coal of fire from the altar he was, in spiritual language, carefully handling the Word of God in a way which would cause God’s fiery Word to affect Isaiah’s life, as another symbol of the Lord’s elect, in such a way as to symbolically ‘take away his iniquity and purge his sins’.

It is essential that we note this cleansing is accomplished with fire and not with the blood of calves and goats or by the washing with literal water:

Luk 3:16  John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

Heb 9:11  But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building;
Heb 9:12  Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

Where does the fiery baptism take place? Where is “the holy place” into which Christ entered to obtain our redemption?

Heb 9:18  Whereupon neither the first testament was dedicated without blood.
Heb 9:19  For when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and of goats, with water, and scarlet wool, and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book, and all the people, 

Heb 9:22  And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.
Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 

What an incredible revelation! “The heavens themselves” are the hearts and minds of God’s elect into whom He comes to dwell with His seraphims, or four cherubims or four beasts and four and twenty elders, “which are [one and all] figures of the true”. They are all symbols which “signify by His angel unto his servant[s] things which must shortly come to pass” within the lives of all of Christ’s Christ, His “very elect” (Rev 1:1).

We are twice told in no uncertain terms who this “angel” of Rev 1:1 is who was sent to show all these things to John and to us. Those who have been given eyes that see and ears that hear will see and hear who this angel tells us he is:

Rev 19:9  And he saith unto me, Write, Blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These are the true sayings of God.
Rev 19:10  And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Rev 22:6  And he said unto me, These sayings are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent his angel to shew unto his servants the things which must shortly be done. 
Rev 22:7  Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this book.
Rev 22:8  And I John saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which shewed me these things.
Rev 22:9  Then saith he unto me, See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.

There it is twice: 1) “I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: 2) I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book.

How is it possible to make it any clearer than that as to who are these seraphims, cherubims and beasts and elders and angels who show us these things? They are the symbols of my fellowservants, and of my brothers the prophets who have the testimony of Jesus, and who keep the sayings of the Word of God. They are those who believe Christ when He said “Mankind shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Mat 4:4).

So what are the various functions of the messengers and ministers of Christ and His heavenly Father? Let’s read about in the context of our sinful dying state in which they are given to us:

Isa 6:1  In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
Isa 6:2  Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
Isa 6:3  And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
Isa 6:4  And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Isa 6:5  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because 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, the LORD of hosts. 
Isa 6:6  Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: 
Isa 6:7  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 

Isaiah’s Commission from the Lord

Isa 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isa 6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Isaiah is a type “of [our] fellow servants and of [our] brothers the prophets, which keep the sayings of the prophecy of this book” (Rev 22:9). It is we, His “fellowservants” who have come to “see God”. What does that tell us of what we have been through to bring us to “see God”? The answer to that question has everything to do with the purpose and function of those who are in the midst of and round about the throne of God”.

Here is what must be taking place within all those who are about the throne of God in the heavens, and in His house:

Exo 33:20  And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live.

Christ repeats Himself with another way of saying the same thing in:

Joh 12:24  Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. 
Joh 12:25  He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

That is the same as saying, “For there shall no man see me and live”, and the apostle repeats this same message in:

Rom 12:1  I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Rom 12:2  And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily.

And again:

Gal 2:20  I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

In Christ’s own mind He had already died to this world long before he was literally crucified upon the cross, and that is the same mind set we must have before we will be granted to “see [Christ] and live”. We, too, must count ourselves as already dead to this world. “Present[ing our] lives as a living sacrifice” is what is symbolized by what Isaiah experienced in vision when trembling he proclaimed:

Isa 6:5  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because 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, the LORD of hosts.
Isa 6:6  Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Isa 6:7  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. 

There is only one way this seraphim could “have a live coal in his hand [and] touch [our] lips” and take away our iniquity and purge our sins. Such a function is not at all difficult for a seraphim if he himself is “like burning coals of fire [with fire in [his] mouth”:

Jer 5:14  Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

Eze 1:13  As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the appearance of lamps: it went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and out of the fire went forth lightning.

The cherubims “appearance was like burning coals of fire, and like the apearance of lamps” because those are words describing the words of God and the work of His words upon the ways and the kingdom of our carnal-minded, rebellious old man. It is living by and speaking the Words of God which causes the posts of the door of the Lord’s house to move and to fill the house with smoke, as all the wood, hay, and stubble are burned out of our lives.

Isa 6:3  And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
Isa 6:4  And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
Isa 6:5  Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because 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, the LORD of hosts.
Isa 6:6  Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
Isa 6:7  And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

When we have our iniquity taken away and our sin is purged, we are now in a position to be of service to our Creator, and if indeed our iniquity is taken away and our sin is purged, we will be more than willing to present our lives a living sacrifice as the Lord reveals He wants us to humbly present ourselves to Him:

Isa 6:8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

As the experience and the words of the captain of our salvation demonstrate for us, the “baptism with fire” (Luk 3:16), which is His words in our mouths (Jer 5:14), is not well received by our godless, rebellious, carnal-minded, old man. As “the man of sin” he is (2Th 2:3) he thinks he is God sitting in the temple of God and he is loath to lose his kingdom or relinquish his throne, and the power he holds over us. So we, as Christ’s messengers, His angels, His ministering spirits who are flames of fire (Heb 1:7), we, too, will be hated of all men, just as we hated those who first brought the words of Christ to us. This is why that is so:

Isa 6:9  And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isa 6:10  Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

So we all first reject Christ and His Words, and it is only by the sovereign work of His chastening grace, and its miraculous work in the lives of the few who are chosen to be given that calling, that God through His seraphims, cherubims and four beasts and four and twenty elders, that we are dragged to our Lord and into His service. Until that time His words are parables which serve to keep Him and His mind hidden from us right there in plain view, just as He Himself, quoting these words of Isaiah six, told us when He was asked by His apostles why He spoke to the multitudes in parables:

Mat 13:9  Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Mat 13:10  And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? 
Mat 13:11  He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. 
Mat 13:12  For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath.
Mat 13:13  Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand.
Mat 13:14  And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:

These words describe every one of us before we are, through God’s chastening grace, humbled to the point of being able to see and hear the words of life.

In our next study we will begin to see the judgment we must all endure to be brought to have the state of mind which is able to be in heaven, in the temple of God, speaking His words and moving the posts of His house, and filling His house with smoke from the fiery coals from His altar with which we are given to minister to those who are to be the heirs of salvation:

Heb 1:14  Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?

It is a very messy and bloody experience from the perspective of our old man. He is repulsed by what those around the throne of God must endure, but any suffering we endure in this life is not even worthy to be compared with the glory which will be revealed in us:

Rom 8:18  For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. 
Rom 8:19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.