The Woe of Seeing the Revelation of Christ
5/8 Reading Portions: Numbers 16; Psalms 52-54; Isaiah 6; Hebrews 13
Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)
5/8 Reading Portions: Numbers 16; Psalms 52-54; Isaiah 6; Hebrews 13
Isaiah 6:5
And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!”
EYES
Isaiah saw the pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Messiah high and lifted up in the year King Uzziah died. It was Jesus because Isaiah referred to Him as אֲדֹנָי (a-dō-NAY), translated “Lord” in the first verse. With the revelation of Jesus, the prophet’s spiritual eyes were opened, and Isaiah saw himself for who and what he was— woeful, undone, lost, having unclean lips, and living among people wretchedly likewise. When, by the glorious revelation of Jesus Christ, we see ourselves for what and who we are, we recognize that the judgment of God’s Word is true. We are deserving of nothing but eternal death for the sins we’ve committed against a holy, upright, exalted King— Jesus. Our salvation is all of God’s grace. Every soul who has sinned against God is worthy of nothing but everlasting torment. This truth helps us to recognize the greatest truth of God’s Word— God’s glory is supreme above all else. The salvation of a man’s soul is not the priority. The sanctification of a saved soul is not the priority. We will corrupt the doctrines of saving and sanctifying grace if we elevate their work in man as equal to or greater than the glory of God. The ninth through eleventh verses of Philippians’ second chapter tells us that God is most glorified though the exaltation of His one and only Son. When our spiritual eyes are opened like Isaiah of old, and we see the majesty of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the throne of the most high God, and as the foundations of the thresholds shake at the voice of Jesus who calls, and His holy temple, you and me, fills with the smoky incense of Christ’s exaltation, our earthly priorities will shift to the heavenly priority of God’s glory. Then, there will be salvations of souls. Then, there will be the ministry of saints. Then, there will be spiritual growth in believers. Then, there will be missions sent to an unhearing, unseeing, and unperceiving people. Hallelujah! What a Savior!
Lord Christ, when I behold Thee
I fall upon my face;
In Thine light my woe I see,
Salvation’s all of grace.