In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim; each one had six wings: with two he covered his face, with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one cried to 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 were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke. So I said: "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 my eyes have seen the King, The LORD of hosts." Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth with it, and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged." Also 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."
Isaiah Chapter 6 follows closely behind Chapter 5. In Chapter 5 the sad condition of things described existed in King Uzziah’s reign. In that Chapter, Jehovah God has given to Isaiah the Song of the Beloved. What happened to the beloved Vineyard is true both in the life of an individual and a Nation. God had given the beloved vineyard all the protection and advantages and chances it deserved and required for effective service but it had yielded unworthy and worthless fruit. When God looked for grapes it yielded wild fruits and when God looked for justice, it gave oppression and deprivation. So God had to give the desired and most appropriate reward: death.
That was the situation of Israel during the reign of King Uzziah. Now King Uzziah is dead and Israel is celebrating the fourteenth Jubilee since Israel occupied the land of Canaan. Isaiah, the prophet, a man who has maintained an unhindered relationship with God, was given a vision of the Lord’s glory in contrast to the nation’s shame.
