vi. 1-7. _In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the
Lord, &c._[1]
Behold, in these temple scenes, both what the Lord your God is, and
what He requires from you.
+I.+ The first of these temple scenes presents to our view +the
majesty of God:+ "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high, and
lifted up." One of the first and most important truths for us to
learn is the absolute rule of God--over nature, man, the
principalities of heaven. He sitteth upon His throne: this is the
attitude, 1. Of _supremacy and dignity;_ He sitteth while all other
beings stand before Him to receive His commands, bow in adoration, or
are prostrate in abasement. 2. It is the attitude of _ease and
perfect security._[2] But, above all, mark the place of His throne as
displayed in this wonderful vision. It stands in the temple; it has
been sprinkled with the blood of propitiation; it is _now_ the
mercy-seat. To the truly penitent all its terror appears softened
with grace.
+II.+ The second of these temple scenes displays to us +the ineffable
and incomprehensible nature of God.+ Let not man suppose that he can
by searching find out God, or know the Almighty unto perfection. This
is scenically, but most impressively, represented to us in the vision
before us: "His train"--the skirts of the shekinah--"filled the
temple," its fainter rays beaming from the central blaze in the
holiest of all, and irradiating the more distant objects. But even
that was too much for man, and it is therefore added, "And the house
was filled with smoke;" a veil was thus drawn over what was too
bright and dazzling for mortal vision; and though God dwelt in the
light, yet it was light involving itself in thick darkness (Ps.
xcvii. 2; Ex. xvi. 10). Revelation has not superseded mystery (Job
xxvi. 14). As to His dispensations, we are all still to walk by faith
rather than by sight; and as to the depths of His nature, rather to
adore than reason. An infinite being is necessarily incomprehensible
by finite beings;[3] He must be mysterious. If we could fully know
God, we must either be equal to Him, or He must lose the glory of His
nature and come down to ourselves (1 Cor. xiii. 9; Rom. xi. 33).
+III.+ The third view presented by this vision is that of +the
adorable and awful holiness of God+ (ver. 3). This is seen in His
titles (Ps. lxxi. 22; Deut. xxxii. 4); in His acts; in His law; in
His visible image on earth, His Son incarnate; in His Gospel; in His
judgments; in the reward of the righteous.
+IV.+ In the next scene which the vision presents we behold +a sinful
man convicted and laid prostrate before this holy God+ (ver. 5).
+V.+ In the final scene we behold +a convicted, self-abased, and
penitent man pardoned and consecrated to the service of God+ (ver. 6,
7). What are we taught by this wondrous representation? That for
guilty men there is pardon, that for unholy men there is
purification, and that lips once unclean, but not sanctified, may
join in the hymns of seraphim, and, without dread, approach to God,
and celebrate the glories even of His holiness. This we are taught,
but not this only; not merely is the fact, but the manner of it,
brought before us. See, then, the means. The instrument of
purification is fire; but not any kind of fire, fire from any place;
it is fire from the altar, the altar where atonement is made for sin;
fire, therefore, both of Divine origin, and coming to us through the
great Propitiation. We can be at no loss for an interpretation of the
symbols thus employed. Our altar is the cross; the propitiatory
sacrifice, the spotless Lamb of God; by the merit of His death, and
the baptizing fire of His Spirit, and the guilty and polluted
pardoned and sanctified to God.--_Richard Watson: Works,_ vol. iv.
pp. 143-153.