Seeing God

It was in the year King Uzziah diedthat I saw the Lord. He was sitting on a lofty throne, and the train of his robe filled the Temple.                                                                                                    Isaiah 6:1 NLT

Many things could have gotten Isaiah’s attention. He had watched the original “evil empire,” Assyria, fix its borders six miles north of Jerusalem and carry three quarters of Israel’s people into captivity. He had watched as God brought his man to the throne of Judah, a man who brought about a revival to the people of Judah. He had watched as Assyria had stripped Judah almost to the bone and had then, in turn, been humbled by the mighty power of God. All of these, especially the revival, could have claimed a lot of space in his book. But they do not. Why?

I suggest it was because of what had really captured Isaiah’s attention. What was that? It was God. The most important thing that can happen to any one of us is to see God, an earth shaking, life changing vision of God. Isaiah’s whole life was changed when He saw God. And we have got to see God as well. We’ve got to see Him in a way that’s going to blow apart the boxes we try to keep Him in and focus our attention on him. I think it is in this light that Isaiah does not give a lot of attention to the revival that occurred in Hezekiah’s (and Isaiah’s) time. He was not so much interested in the outward manifestations of an apparent turn to God. He wanted the reality of God himself.

It is very easy for us to get distracted. We focus on what the wind has done and forget to pay attention to the wind itself. That seems to be what happened in Judah, because after Hezekiah died, his son Manasseh was able to lead the people astray very easily. Many of them had settled for the manifestations and had missed the reality. So when the manifestations disappeared, as they will, nothing remained behind. It appears that Isaiah recognized this misplaced focus and so did not give the phenomenon as much attention as we might expect.

What about you and me? Is our focus on the Person Himself or is it on his work? Are you intent on seeing God or are you only looking at the evidences of his passing. Look for God!