Nothing to Say
In Isaiah’s vision, the doorposts were shaken, and the house (heavenly temple) was filled with smoke. This points to Isaiah’s exclusion. He, an unclean sinner, wasn’t allowed entry into the divine presence. The focus on his lips might seem strange to us, but Isaiah is feeling the full weight of his uncleanness in the presence of Christ’s perfect purity. He is “undone,” or ruined by it. The word used is related to a word that means “silenced.”
In what way was Isaiah silenced? He was silenced in that his unclean lips could not join in with the heavenly choir. He was forbidden. James later wrote that we shouldn’t expect bitter and sweet water to flow from the same fountain. This was the kind of silence that comes over a person after something so tragic, so overwhelmingly horrible happens that they might say something like “I have no words.”
Isaiah had no words. No excuses. No explanations. No justifications. No promises to do better. He was done for. This is something like what every lost person will feel on the Day of Judgment. Undone. Silenced. As Paul wrote to the Church of Rome, “every mouth will be stopped and all the world will become guilty before God,” (Romans 3:20).
Isaiah’s vision of the Lord is glorious. It was life-altering for him. It was also terrifying. Let us never forget, “Our God is a consuming fire.”