Isaaih 6
Isaiah's epiphany of seeing God on His throne in His temple is recorded in chapter 6. The immediate context is 'the year that King Uzziah died'. King Uzziah offered prohibited sacrifices in the temple and God smote him with leprosy. Here, Isaiah too is faced with God in His temple. But this time God exercises mercy on Isaiah.
Isaiah's mercy is because of the purifying coal that was on the altar in the temple. The altar was generating vast amounts of smoke. Something was burning on God's altar. It turns out that the sacrifice on the altar could purify Isaiah by 'taking away his guilt and atoning for his sin'. The incinerated sacrifice must have been Jesus.
The seraphim were proclaiming God's holiness so loudly in the temple that the entire building was shaking with the violence of the sound. And yet above that holy noise, Isaiah hears God asking 'Who will go for us? Whom can I send?' That is a sonorous call if there ever was. God is calling people to His service .
Who is going to answer God's call and serve His purposes through Urban Design?
The first message that Isaiah gets to preach is one of honesty to the people. God is displeased at their rebellion against Him. God wrecks havoc in the land, as an act of His justice, scolding the earth and laying it destitute. This is a picture of the Singapore landscape: People are in trouble, desperate, lonely, sad, hurt and scolded by the effects of sin. Yet in the place of destitution, God plants a 'holy seed'.
The holy seed is Jesus. The holy seed will rise to become a planting of the Lord, an oak of righteousness, for the display of His splendour. It is a marvelous image. Urban Design will plant the seed of Jesus. Indeed, Urban Design is the seed of Jesus. God, through the preaching about Jesus will make Urban Design a mighty oak of His righteousness.
I can hardly wait to preach on Isaiah chapter 7 next week.
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