Reading:
Isaiah 6:1-7.
“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. 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. And one cried unto another, and said, “Holy,
holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full
of His glory.” And the posts of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled
with smoke. 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.” 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: 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.’”
God
has intended great things for His people. He watches
over the realization of His plan. We do well to have
recognized the basis on which God completes His thoughts
for us. If we long to see God’s full thought
for us accomplished, if we yearn for the fulness of Jesus
Christ, then we have to know where God starts, we have to
discern the secret that governs God’s
fulness. In Isaiah 6, we find the key for this.
Great things are put before us. It is hardly
necessary to say much about the place the Lord Jesus
Christ has in Isaiah. His prophecies are well-known
enough for us to understand that they are all fulfilled
in Christ.
In
chapter 9, we find the familiar words:
“For unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is
given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and
His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The
mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
In
chapter 11:1,2:
“And there shall come forth a shoot out of the stock
of Jesse, and a Branch out of his roots shall bear
fruit. And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon
Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit
of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the
fear of the Lord.”
Then
Isaiah 61:1-3, takes us further to the public ministry of
the Lord, and we immediately hear Him say the words:
“The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me; because the Lord
hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; He
hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim
liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to
them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of
the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort
all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion,
to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for
mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of
heaviness; that they might be called trees of
righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be
glorified.”
In
Isaiah 42:1-4, we see Jesus Christ as the suffering
Servant of God:
“Behold, My Servant, Whom I uphold; My Chosen, in
Whom My soul delighteth; I have put My Spirit upon Him:
He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He
shall not cry, nor lift up His voice, nor cause it to be
heard in the street. A bruised reed will He not
break, and a dimly burning wick will He not quench: He
will bring forth justice in truth. He will not fail
nor be discouraged, till He have set justice in the
earth: and the isles shall wait for His law.”
Isaiah
52:13-15, we see the Lord Jesus exalted and extolled:
“Behold, My Servant shall deal wisely, He shall be
exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high. Like
as many were astonied at Thee, (His visage was so marred
more than any man, and His form more than the sons of
men): So shall He sprinkle many nations; the kings shall
shut their mouths at Him: for that which had not been
told them shall they see; and that which they had not
heard shall they understand.
And
then we are taken further to the Cross, the great
fifty-third chapter, and beyond the Cross to His reign.
“Who
hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? For He shall grow up before Him as a
tender plant, and as a root out of a dry ground: He hath
no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see Him, there
is no beauty that we should desire Him. He is
despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and
acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces
from Him; He was despised, and we esteemed Him not....
Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to
grief: when Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin,
He shall see His seed, He shall prolong His days, and the
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He
shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be
satisfied: by His knowledge shall My righteous servant
justify many; for He shall bear their
iniquities. Therefore will I divide Him a portion
with the great, and He shall divide the spoil with the
strong; because He hath poured out His soul unto death:
and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare
the sin of many, and made intercession for the
transgressors” (Isa. 53:1-3, 10-12)
Thus
we have in Isaiah a comprehensive presentation of the
Person of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The
people of Israel did not fulfil the thought of God.
Captivity was the only way left for them. Because
God wanted to demonstrate His plan for His people, it was
necessary to cut them off from the place of His glory,
Jerusalem. A large section of Isaiah points to the
captivity which awaited them.
But
our attention is now drawn to the context in which Isaiah
sees all of these events. Even the captivity stands
in connection to the Lord on His throne. What else
does this mean, except the irrefutable assurance that God’s
will will be done, that God’s plan will be fully
realized. But if God wants to reach His goal, then
He Himself has to create the prerequisite for fulfilment
in His people. Therefore He must educate His people
in the school of suffering, by way of purging, so that
they will be willing to walk in the way of His thoughts,
to act with the deepest interest from the heart for His
will to be done.
We
find in Isaiah 60 a remnant, those who have become ready
for the full realization of the will of God. In
reference to them the Word says: “Arise, shine;
for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen
upon thee.”
What
does the glory of the Lord consist of? Nothing else
but Jesus Christ Himself. He is the glory of
God. In Him all God’s thoughts and desires in
relation to His people are fulfilled.
Isaiah
writes: “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw
the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and
His train filled the temple” (ASV).
This
sentence, “In the year that king Uzziah died”
is immensely important. Let us recall the history of
this king. He was the king that dared to appropriate the
things of God. The priests had warned him: “It
pertaineth not unto thee, Uzziah, to burn incense unto
the Lord.” But he became enraged. He
forced his will through. The Lord struck
him. Leprosy broke out on his forehead. He fled
from the presence of the Lord. He died as a leper
and—“In the year that king Uzziah died I saw
the Lord.” Isaiah sees Him, high and lifted
up, with the train of His robe filling the
temple. Did Uzziah believe he could put himself in
God’s place? Did he believe he could become
proficient in the things pertaining to God? He had
dared to want to be king in God’s house. He had
dared to act with natural power, instead of in the Spirit
alone. Then God opposed him and struck him. “You
have tried to take My place. This cannot
be. This is My house. You must make room for
Me.” Then Uzziah fled. He died, overcome
by the judgment of God (2 Chron. 26:16-23;
RSV).
The
next thing that Isaiah tells us is this: “The
glory of the Lord filled the temple.” He
saw the Lord on the throne, the throne belonging to Him
alone. This is the beginning in Isaiah. This is
the beginning of all things that are God’s.
If
we want to reach the fulness of Jesus Christ in our life,
then God must receive the place in our life that is due
to Him. Then He must be the Lord in us, to Whom
everything in us bows and Whose will we do entirely.
If
we take Isaiah’s vision over into the New Testament,
we see it confirmed there in the fullest measure. In
Acts 1 we have a new beginning and we see two things
there:
Christ in heaven, lofty and exalted, sitting on a throne,
and: “Men of Galilee.”
Nazareth
was in Galilee. In a certain sense it was a ‘forecourt’. One
of the messages of the angels had said: “He goeth
before you into Galilee.” That had a
special meaning. Galilee lay outside of the official
religious centre. Had not Jerusalem refused the Lord
Jesus Christ the rights due to Him? Jerusalem had given
the Lord of glory no room. They had rejected
Him. They had taken what belonged to God into their
own hands. That is why the Lord leaves
Jerusalem. He goes to Galilee. He goes to
where He is recognized. “Men of Galilee”.
It does not say: “Men of Jerusalem”.
In
Acts 1:13 we read: “They went up into the upper
chamber.” They did not go to the
temple. The temple was the officially recognized
centre of religiosity in Jerusalem. But they did not
go there. They went to the upper room. They
went to that place which in a vivid way speaks of
separation: separation from everything that is only
tradition and form. It speaks in a pictorial way of
elevation, of that which is higher, separated from the
earthly, because it is purposed to be heavenly.
We
find Peter and John amongst those who are mentioned
first. It is not insignificant that the new name of Peter
is found at the beginning. Peter had gone through a
deep experience. Peter had learned. He had
learned a great deal. There had been a time in which he
had raised objections at every opportunity. When the
Lord wanted to go to the Cross, he had said: “This
shall never be unto Thee.” When Jesus
wanted to wash his feet, Peter had said: “Thou
shalt never wash my feet.” Despite all his
love for the Lord, Peter was clearly self-conscious as
well as strongly assertive of his own opinions. But
he had learned. When we read his Letters we see that
he has much to say regarding submission. The Lord
now has the place and room in Peter that He deserved!
This
is the reason why his name is mentioned first in the
church, because the church must be distinguished by the
fact that in her the Lord has the first
place. Everything depends on her being totally
subjected to Him. Only thus can He fill His house.
But
we also read of John. Peter and John are often
mentioned together. They belong together. Where
there is subjection to the Lord, there is also love.
Where self-interest reigns, there is no love. But
where there is true submission, we meet love, so that
both submission and love form the basis on which the
fulness of Jesus Christ is attained.
Could
the rushing wind from heaven have been ignored?
Hardly. It was too mighty. But in reference to the
direction of this wind we need to take note that it came
from heaven. It was not a matter of a north, south,
east or west wind. It concerned a wind from a unique
direction, as a sign that the Lord had taken up His
throne to send from heaven the Spirit of power, Who works
resurrection in His own people and gives power to
testify. Nothing can happen before Christ has taken
up His place in heaven. And similarly in us there
can be no fulness of Christ as long as we deny Him the
throne of our heart.
In
his description of the events, Luke is persistently
accurate. It was said to be a mighty rushing
wind. That is nothing else but a storm. What
can we do in a storm? Whoever has been in a real
storm knows how helpless one is. There is no point in
standing up to the storm. It takes us and carries us
away. Through this storm from heaven the Lordship of
the Spirit is expressed. The Spirit wants to reign.
He does not need our help. Our plans and programs
are only in His way. The Spirit alone knows what God
wants. Only He knows the hour of God. Only He
disposes of the means; only His is the power. The
things of God that aim at the fulness of Christ are too
big for us to achieve. In theory we admit
this. We agree with this from time to time, not
without sighing, when once again our plans have come to
nothing, when that which we have undertaken for the Lord
with the best of intentions has failed. But in
practice we continue our own activities. Things are
set up and organized. We work and suffer for God—so
often in vain....
The
whole house in which they sat was filled. Everything
is pushed out. There is room for nothing
else. It reminds us of the dedication of the temple
of Solomon. When the temple was completed and filled
with the glory of the Lord, the priests had to leave the
temple of God. They could not stay there because of
His glory. That means when the Lord fills His house,
there is no room left for anything human. Everything that
does not submit itself to Him, that does not open itself
to Him in love, that is not completely available to Him
must go out.
And
then tongues of fire appeared. Tongues are
figurative of a testimony. The testimony that Christ
was crucified, resurrected, ascended to heaven and highly
exalted, was there. It was there in a living way in
those that had become witnesses of the great deeds of
God, and in whom Christ lived in the power of His
resurrected life.
Fire
on the other hand speaks of judgment. Fire pierces
through. Fire tests. It did not take long
before the people on the day of Pentecost cried out:
“Brethren, what shall we do?” (Acts 2:37).
The fire had tested their hearts. Everything was
connected to the issue of the full Lordship of Jesus
Christ.
What
is the secret of the fulness of the Lord? It is
complete submission to Him, so that He receives His full
place in those that are His house. Without this
there is no fulness of the Holy Spirit. Christ must
become Lord in our hearts. He must become Lord in
all things pertaining to our life. Christ must
become Lord over our thoughts, our desires and over our
inclinations. “It is no longer I that live,
but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20).
There
we are, back to Isaiah. Isaiah, who by his prophecy
is called to lead us to the fulness of the riches of
Christ, sees God and cries out: “Woe is me! for I
am undone.” It is like that everywhere
where the Lord has come to be Lord. Whether it
concerns the upper chamber where the disciples are united
together, the individual, or any local representation of
the church in our day: if God is to achieve His full goal
in His temple, then we must recognize His Lordship and
bow before Him, so that God can really be ALL, AND IN
ALL.