Isaiah 6

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory!”

And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 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 6:3b-5

Holy, holy, holy. There is a reason for the repetition in this chant of praise. Our God is not one to be flippantly referred to as “holy.” He is to be feared and praised for He is not just holy but perfectly holy. All glory and honor rightfully belong to Him. So often as we go through life, we simply walk through the motions of worship. We go to church on Sundays because that is what we do. We worship through song, because there is a certain time for this. We read God’s Word because it’s just part of our routine. What would our life be like if we regularly sought God out of an outpouring of adoration and worship? If we regularly realized God’s greatness and our need of His saving grace and mercy?

Isaiah is encountering God and being commissioned to a task that will be excruciating and exhausting. As he begins his encounter, I am shaken by his reverent fear of the Lord and his awareness of his sinful state. We may not have the same call as Isaiah, and we may not have had the same intense interaction with the Lord, but we too have been commissioned for a task that is of great importance. We are called to go and share the gospel to all the nations and bring glory to our Father in heaven. We may feel as though we do a fairly decent job of living for Christ and glorifying His name . . . but this passage spurs some questions in my heart: what if I lived every day with a true posture of reverence toward our God? What if the mantra of my spirit was “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is filled with His glory!”? What if I had a keen awareness every day of my ultimate lacking and His ultimate provision? I challenge you, my friends, to ponder these questions with me as we embrace our commission as believers to live on mission.