Taken Away

Read

Isaiah 6:5-7 "'Woe to me!' I cried. 'I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty.' Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'"

Think

You know the walk.

Somebody says your name in a certain tone and you already know. Maybe it is a parent standing in the kitchen with a particular look. Maybe it is your full name over the intercom. The whole way there you are building your case, deciding what you will admit to, bracing for it.

Then you get there, and they are kind to you. Not the tight kind of kind where you can hear the disappointment underneath it. Actually kind. They knew the thing before you walked in, and they are not going to use it to take you apart.

You know that feeling in your stomach. The drop, and then the strange warm thing that comes after it.

That feeling is verse 6.

Yesterday left Isaiah on the floor, ruined, a man with unclean lips standing in a room full of holy. Now read what happens next. One of the seraphim flies to him carrying a live coal from the altar, touches his mouth with it, and tells him his guilt is taken away and his sin atoned for.

Notice which direction things move. Isaiah does not crawl toward God. Somebody flies to Isaiah.

Notice what never happens. No lecture. No list. No “We need to talk about the last five chapters.” God did not expose him in order to destroy him. God exposed him in order to clean him.

And notice where the coal comes from. The altar. That was the place where sacrifice happened, where something died so that somebody else could stand there. Whatever made Isaiah clean cost something real. It just did not cost Isaiah.

There is an order to this chapter, and once you see it you cannot unsee it in your own life. Conviction, then cleansing, then calling. God never stops at step one.

Plenty of us have been stuck at step one for years.

You can already list what is wrong with you. You do not need help with that part. You have replayed the conversation, the message you sent, the thing you did in June that nobody knows about. You have said “Woe to me” a thousand times in your head. What you have never done is let anybody get you to verse 7.

Some of you are still carrying something God dealt with a long time ago. You have apologized for it more than once. You promised him you would never do it again, and then you did, and then you promised again. And the whole time, the weight you have been hauling around is something he already took.

So sit in the sentence itself. Your guilt is taken away.

Not manageable. Not understandable. Taken away. Somebody removed it. It is not where you left it.

Then look at what Isaiah did to earn that. Nothing. He did not fix his own mouth. He did not clean himself up and then approach the throne. He did not promise God a better school year. He told the truth, and grace crossed the room to him.

That is worth getting settled before September. You do not get clean and then come to God. You come to God and he cleans you.

Because at some point this month you are going to do the thing again. That is not pessimism, that is just how a year works. The question that will shape everything is not whether you fall. It is whether you know the way back to verse 7.

Most of you know the road to verse 5 by heart. Learn the rest of it.

Apply

Stop paying twice – Say the specific thing you named yesterday out loud to God, plainly, one time. Then read Isaiah 6:7 out loud with your own name in it instead of Isaiah's. Every time that thing circles back this week, answer it with "taken away" and keep walking.

Pray

God, I have been carrying stuff you already took off me. I told you the truth about myself and you did not walk away, you came closer, and I still do not totally know what to do with that. Thank you for not exposing me just to destroy me. Help me stop paying for something you already paid for. In Jesus' name. Amen.