Isaiah 6: Unclean lips before the living King

Isaiah 6 places the prophet himself inside the judgment he has been announcing. The year is marked by Uzziah's death, but the throne in the vision is occupied, the temple shakes, and the seraphim answer one another with "holy, holy, holy." Isaiah's first response is not a message for somebody else. He says "Woe is me," naming his own unclean lips among a people of unclean lips. A coal from the altar touches the place he confessed, and cleansing comes before commission. Only then does Isaiah answer, "Here am I; send me." The assignment, however, is no victory tour. He is sent to people who will hear without understanding, and when he asks how long, the answer is measured in empty cities and removed inhabitants. Yet the last image refuses absolute erasure. A felled tree still has substance, and Isaiah calls that remaining substance the holy seed.