Isaiah 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. Isaiah 6:1. Isaiah is outside, near the altar in front of the temple. The doors are supposed to open, and the veil hiding the Holy of holies to be withdrawn, unfolding to his view a vision of God, represented as an Eastern monarch, attended by seraphim as His ministers of state (1 Kings 22:19), and with a robe and flowing train (a badge of dignity in the East) which filled the temple. This assertion that he had seen God was, according to tradition, the pretext for sawing him asunder in Manasseh's reign (Hebrews 11:37). Compare Introduction. Visions often occ...

1._In the year that king Uzziah died. _This is usually the beginning of the sixth chapter; but some think that it is the beginning of the book itself, and that in collecting the prophecies of Isaiah an error was committed. The reason which they assign is, that the Prophet here declines the office of a teacher, which he would not have refused if he had hitherto discharged it; that he appears to be a mere novice as yet unacquainted with his calling; and besides, that he declares that he has now seen the Lord, and that he has not seen him, before. But such arguments I consider, as I have already noticed, to be too feeble and unsatisfactory; and I reply that it ought not to be thought strange that he was so completely overpowered by this extraordinary vision as to forget that he was a prophet. For there was no feeling in him which was not overpowered by the presence of God, so that, like one...

1-8 In this figurative vision, the temple is thrown open to view, even to the most holy place. The prophet, standing outside the temple, sees the Divine Presence seated on the mercy-seat, raised over the ark of the covenant, between the cherubim and seraphim, and the Divine glory filled the whole temple. See God upon his throne. This vision is explained, John 12:41, that Isaiah now saw Christ's glory, and spake of Him, which is a full proof that our Saviour is God. In Christ Jesus, God is seated on a throne of grace; and through him the way into the holiest is laid open. See God's temple, his church on earth, filled with his glory. His train, the skirts of his robes, filled the temple, the whole world, for it is all God's temple. And yet he dwells in every contrite heart. See the blessed attendants by whom his government is served. Above the throne stood the holy angels, called seraphim...

CHAPTER VI _This chapter, by a particular designation of Isaiah to the_ _prophetic office_, 1-8, _introduces, with great solemnity, a declaration of the whole_ _tenor of the Diving conduct in reference to his people, who, on_ _account of their unbelief and impenitence, should for a very_ _long period be given up to a judicial blindness and hardness of_ _heart_, 9, 10; _and visited with such calamities as would issue on the total_ _desolation of their country, and their general dispersion_, 11, 12....

IN THE YEAR - This naturally denotes a period after the death of Uzziah, though in the same year. The mention of the time was evidently made when the prophecy was composed, and it is to be presumed that the death of Uzziah had occurred at the time when the prophet saw this vision. If so, it is clear that this was not the first of his prophecies, for he saw his visions ‘in the days of Uzziah;’ Isaiah 1:1. The Chaldee, however, reads this: ‘in the year when Uzziah was smitten with the leprosy;’ and most of the Jewish commentators so understand it; 2 Chronicles 26:19. The rabbis say that the meaning is, that he then became “civilly” dead, by ceasing to exercise his functions as a king, and that he was cut off as a leprous man from all connection with the people, and from

SECTION III. ISAIAH'S VISION OF GOD UPON HIS THRONE (Isaiah 6:1.). EXPOSITION ISAIAH 6:1 THE VISION OF GOD SEEN BY ISAIAH. It is thought by some that this vision, and its sequel, constitute the original call of Isaiah to the prophetical office, and in order of time precede all the other contents of the book. But the position of the "vision" in the book is strongly against this view. Prophets who relate their original call naturally place it in the forefront of their narrative ...

IN THE YEAR THAT KING UZZIAH DIED,.... Which was the fifty second year of his reign, and in the year 3246 from the creation of the world; and, according to Jerom l, was the year in which Romulus, the founder of the Roman empire, was born: some understand this not of his proper death, but of his being stricken with leprosy, upon his attempt to burn incense in the temple; upon which he was shut up in a separate house, which was a kind of a civil death: so the Targum, "in the year in which King Uzziah was smitten;'' that is, with leprosy; and so Jarchi and others interpret it, from the ancient writers; but the first sense is the best. Some, as Aben Ezra, would have this to be the beginning of the prophecy of Isaiah, because of the mission of the prophet in it; but others rightly observe, that this mission respects not the prophecy in general, but the particular reproof the prophet was sen...

Isaiah 6:1. _In the year that King Uzziah died_ You remember him, that leprous king, that king who had thrust himself into the priests' office, and was smitten of leprosy, and shut up in a separate house during the rest of his life. In the year that he died Isaiah saw a greater King, whom no defilement can ever touch, a King that reigneth and lives for ever, though Uzziah dies. Isaiah 6:1. _I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple._ Whenever you read in the Old Testament that any man saw the Lord, understand it of the Second Person of the Divine Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes himself as we have said, visible to men, and God in him....

CHAPTER 6 The Prophet's Vision and New Commission 1. _The time of the vision (Isaiah 6:1)_ 2. _Jehovah of hosts (Isaiah 6:2)_ 3. _The prophet's woe (Isaiah 6:5)_ 4. _The cleansing (Isaiah 6:6)_ 5. _“Here am I. Send me.” (Isaiah 6:8)_ 6. _The new commission (Isaiah 6:9)_ 7. _The limitation of the judgment (Isaiah 6:11)_ Note the eight steps: vision, conversion, self-ju

ISAIAH 6. THE CALL OF ISAIAH. This chapter contains Isaiah's own account of his call to the prophetic office. Presumably it was written down some time after the event, but the interval need not have been long, nor have we any real reason for assuming that the account has been coloured by his later experience of failure. The view that he had already for some time been a prophet, and that this vision opens a new stage in his ministry, would deserve consideration only if the order of the prophecies was chronological. But this is demonstrably not the case. The chapter is of the highest importance, since it gives the true point of view for understanding the prophet. The revelation recorded in it governed his teaching throughout his career. Isaiah, standing at the threshold of the Temple, falls into an ecstasy. He sees Yahweh seated on a lofty throne, while the skirts of His robe flow out from...