Welcome to this Daily PBJ devotional. Read Leviticus 10, Isaiah 6, and Psalms 42-44. This devotional is about Isaiah chapter 6. In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood Seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling out to one another, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. At the sound of their voices the door-posts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke. Then I said, Woe is me! for I am ruined, because I am a man of unclean lips dwelling among a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then one of the seraphim flew to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal that had been taken with tongs from the altar. And with it he touched my mouth, and said, Now that this has touched your lips, your iniquity is removed, and your sin is atoned for. Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? And I said, Here am I. Send me. And he replied, Go, and tell this people, Be ever hearing, but never understanding, Be ever seeing, but never perceiving, Make the hearts of this people calloused, Deafen their ears, and close their eyes, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, And turn and be healed. Then I asked, How long, O Lord? And he replied, until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left unoccupied, and the land is desolate and ravaged, until the Lord has driven men far away, and the land is utterly forsaken, and though a tenth remains in the land, it will be burned again, as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when felled. So the holy seed will be a stump in the land. This is God's word. King Uzziah was one of the most enigmatic kings Israel ever had. He reigned over Judah, that's the southern kingdom, after Israel, the northern kingdom, was divided following Solomon's kingship. And he ruled over Judah for 50 years. In terms of the economy and the military, Uzziah was successful. But it was his spiritual leadership that made him such an enigma. At the beginning of his reign, when he was assisted by the prophet Zechariah, he was a righteous ruler, leading God's people back toward obedience to God's word. But as he became more successful and more powerful, Uzziah became arrogant, even entering the temple like a priest to burn incense before God. God punished Uzziah with leprosy and his reign, which started out with so much promise, ended disappointingly. As we saw in Isaiah 6.1, the year of Uzziah's death was when Isaiah had his first vision of God. For the good of his people, who were so lacking in spiritual leadership, God raised up one of Israel's greatest prophets by giving him a compelling vision of our God. The theme of Isaiah's vision is stated in verse 3. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of his glory. That's what verse 3 says in the NIV. The word holy means separate, set apart. And when the Bible talks about the holiness of God, it does so in two distinct but related senses. One way in which God is holy, or set apart. is in his nature. Because he is the creator, he alone is uncreated and uncaused. That means God is unique from everyone else and everything else in creation. There is only one creator. Everything else is creation. The Bible says that we were created in God's image, so we are like God. But he is not like us. his power, his glory, his eternal existence, the fact that he is everywhere present in the fullness of his being. These truths and others make God unique. They make him set apart. They make him holy in the deepest sense of his being. And that's the primary thing Isaiah saw in his vision of the Lord. Verse 1 says he was high and exalted, seated on a throne, which describes God as separate from his creation. He's exalted. He's ruling. He's distinct. Because no created thing has any business coming near him. In fact, verse 1 ends by saying, And the train of his robe filled the temple. I've always wondered about that phrase. But as I think about it today, I think I see the point. The temple was the place where God and his presence would live among the people. It was the place where people would go to worship and have their sins forgiven. It was a place where they could learn about God and talk to him in prayer. It was a special place, a sanctuary, a set-apart place in the truest sense of the word. And yet, does God really live there? According to Isaiah's vision, no, only the tails of his tuxedo abide there. The most worshipful, awesome day a Hebrew person could ever have in the temple was just a mere coattail experience of who God really is. Why? Because God is holy. We can understand who he is and what God is like, but never from the lofty perspective that he occupies. So the first aspect of holiness, then, is the difference between the Creator and the created ones. He's exalted in ways we never will be, nor could be. He's unique, set apart, different from any and all of us, by His very nature as God. The second aspect of God's holiness is the one we usually think of, and that is his complete freedom from sin in any way. Isaiah felt this deep in his spirit when he saw the first aspect of God's holiness. Isaiah's response to this vision in verse 5 was, Woe to me, 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. When Isaiah saw God depicted in his naturally separate state, Isaiah became acutely aware of his own sin. To put it another way, when Isaiah saw the holiness of God's nature, he became aware of his own lack of moral holiness, and he feared the consequences. This vision prepared Isaiah to become a man who railed against the godlessness of his culture with very few results. That's all described in verses 8 through 13. It was a difficult calling. But his understanding of God in this passage and the purifying God graciously did for him when he had the seraphim touch Isaiah's lips with that coal from the altar, that purifying effect gave Isaiah everything he needed to be faithful. Isn't this what we need when living the Christian life becomes so deeply taxing? We need to see God in the scriptures and understand how magnificent, how powerful, how otherworldly He is. Knowing that gives us the power we need to live an otherworldly life for Him. And so I hope this devotional gives you a taste of the greatness and awesomeness of God. And I hope you carry that with you today as you seek to live a holy life in this unholy world. And as you seek to tell a world in need of the grace of God about His holiness, but also His grace in saving sinners. And may God bless you. I hope you have a great day today.