When Close Isn't Close Enough

“Or do you despise the riches of His goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?”

Romans 2:4  

 
Reading Isaiah 6 this morning I get this sense that the prophet understands me and many like me who have walked with God for any length of time. The greater the revelation we receive of God, the greater the distance between who God is and who we are is apparent. Isaiah chapter 6 opens with the prophet getting a glorious close up view of the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His rob filling the temple. Not only did Isaiah see the Lord, he saw seraphim, each one having six wings, with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. As the seraphim flew they cried out to the other, “"Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!" And as they cried out Isaiah tells us, “And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.”

When Isaiah saw the Lord in His holiness he immediately recognized that he himself was undone, inadequate, incomplete and totally incapable of approaching the Lord on his own. No one had to tell Isaiah that he was a sinner and had fallen short of the glory of God. He witnessed it with his own eyes simply by being in the presence of the Lord and confessed it so without hesitation. What I love about reading this chapter and studying the life of Isaiah is that he didn’t flee the presence of God, he realized what I pray you and I come to understand and appreciate more today. The closer we get to God the more we realize our need to get closer to God.

In Isaiah’s case he couldn’t get any closer until, “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." Isaiah was sanctified by one of the coals from the altar and now able to speak. Because of Jesus, you and I can get as close to the Father as we want to get today. How much more have our sins been purged from our lives by the precious blood of Jesus! We are clean today because of the Lord, and free to worship God, free to draw close to Him as Hebrews 10:19-22 reminds us, “Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh, and having a High Priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.” Yes, loved one, the closer we get to God, the more we realize our need to get closer to God.

 
“Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Hebrews 4:16


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