Second Wednesday of Advent

Today’s Reading: Isaiah 6:1-13

Key Verse: 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!” ~Isaiah 6:5

“Let us therefore tremble at the magnitude of the sight of the ineffable one…And let us be filled with awe and trembling, falling on our faces in fear before him.”1 In chapter six of Isaiah we hear a fantastic account that begins “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord…” (Isa 6:1). Isaiah is granted an incredible gift, for the One who was unseen made himself known to Isaiah and as a result of seeing the glory and majesty of God, Isaiah was confronted with his own condition and declared “Woe is me! For I am lost for I am a man of unclean lips” (Isa 6:5). Seeing God rightly enables us to see ourselves rightly and the appropriate response is to acknowledge our own unworthiness before the Lord. In an incredible gesture then a seraphim flew to Isaiah “having in his hands a burning coal that he had taken from with tongs from the altar. And he touched…and said: Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for” (Isa 6:6-7). Here we see God at work in the life of Isaiah, but these actions prefigure what is to come. Jesus’ entrance into the world as a man showed the unseen God to the world and his death on the cross became the perfect atonement for all sin. After Isaiah’s vision of God he was commissioned by God to go and preach to Israel and to call them to return to the Lord. After we have been set right with God we too are called to go out and preach Good News to the world.

Reflect: Take a little longer for this part today. Write down how you typically picture God. Read through one of the four gospels and write down a description of Jesus. Then read John 14:8-11. Spend some time in voicing your own prayer thanking God for revealing himself in Jesus.

1 This quote is attributed to Sahdona, a 7th century Syrian monk as found in Ancient Christian Devotional, Year B. Cindy Crosby, editor. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2011. P 142.

For Further Reading: 2 Thessalonians 1:1-12 John 7:53-8:11 Psalm 38