Bible Study on Isaiah 6, verses 1 to 4, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne

 

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. 2  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. 3  And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. 4  And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.

 

Comparing the sixth chapter of Isaiah with the sixth book of the Bible, Joshua let’s examine, first, a willingness to go when called;

 

8  Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.

 

Joshua 1:16 ¶  And they answered Joshua, saying, All that thou commandest us we will do, and whithersoever thou sendest us, we will go.

 

Then the prophecy of utter and complete destruction;

 

11  Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate,

 

Compare that with what was to happen to the Canaanites when Joshua attacked;

 

Joshua 11:8  And the LORD delivered them into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them unto great Zidon, and unto Misrephothmaim, and unto the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining. 9  And Joshua did unto them as the LORD bade him: he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire.

 

    10 ¶  And Joshua at that time turned back, and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword: for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms. 11  And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them: there was not any left to breathe: and he burnt Hazor with fire. 12  And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses the servant of the LORD commanded. 13  But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burned none of them, save Hazor only; that did Joshua burn. 14  And all the spoil of these cities, and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe.

 

Now back to chapter 6 and what it says to us.

 

King Uzziah died in the year that Isaiah saw this vision or actual physical manifestation.

 

 

Isaiah SAW the Lord, the preincarnate Jesus Christ, the second of the powers in the Heavens the Targums speak of, who is the visible image of God, the Word, capital W, by which all things were created and are held together, and yet is the same God. Please follow my train of thought through the Scriptures.

 

Hebrews 1:2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds; 3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

 

John 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

 

Colossians 1:15  Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:

16  For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: 17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

 

Seraphim signifies burning, as per John Gill, and these creatures are like the other creatures around God’s throne as shown in Ezekiel and Revelation. They can be seen with different numbers of wings in different contexts. They are living creatures around the throne doing God’s will at all times and glorifying Him. That’s what is important about them as prototypes of all living creatures serving God day and night.

 

Exodus 26:1 ¶  Moreover thou shalt make the tabernacle with ten curtains of fine twined linen, and blue, and purple, and scarlet: with cherubims of cunning work shalt thou make them.

Something interesting here in Exodus 26 to begin with are the cherubims. There is a description of them in Ezekiel, chapter one, and another in Ezekiel, chapter ten, where a cherub is called a living creature.

Ezekiel 10:20  This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims.

Note that as cherubims are called living creatures an angel is a presence so they are not the same in that regard either. Cherubims are not angels and angels are never said to have wings. Angels are typically the appearance of God, men, children in heaven, or churches in the context they are written.

Isaiah 63:9  In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old.

It appears that, from reading Ezekiel, chapter one, and Revelation, chapter four, that they have the appearance of living creatures representing everything from man, to domestic animals, to wild animals, to birds. Does the difference in the number of wings between the four beasts around the throne in Revelation, who, like the seraphims in Isaiah, chapter six, have six wings while the beasts in Ezekiel have four, have any significance?

Whether they are represented as having two wings as in 1Kings 8:7 or four or six wings we must consider the obvious. They appear at different times slightly different. Six wings in Isaiah for seraphims, four in Ezekiel, and then six in Revelation although depicted over the mercy seat, two, means only that they can be depicted differently in different contexts. Ezekiel, Isaiah, and John were three different men of God who saw things that were given to them and recorded them for our learning. Do not make the mistake of reading the Bible like your car-owner’s manual. There is, however, significance in each description and numbers are interesting, just don’t make too much out of it or you’ll be running to occult books to try to find a difference that probably isn’t there. Whether they be called cherubims, seraphims, or just living creatures consider what they do.

 

Revelation 4:8  And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

 

For verse 4, John Gill reported that some ancient commentators view this as a vision during the earthquake mentioned in Uzziah’s time which was caused by his action at the incense altar. The vision then would be the spiritual events invisible to most of us as happening along with physical events. This happens elsewhere in the Bible, particularly in prophecies like Revelation.

 

Zechariah 14:5  And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.

 

2Chronicles 26:19  Then Uzziah was wroth, and had a censer in his hand to burn incense: and while he was wroth with the priests, the leprosy even rose up in his forehead before the priests in the house of the LORD, from beside the incense altar.