Free Bible Story: The Call of Isaiah

Isaiah 6

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train¹ of his robe filled the temple. ²Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. ³And one called to another and said:

“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory!” (ESV)

Background –

King Uzziah’s death marked the end of an era. His reign had been long and prosperous. Uzziah became king when he was 16, and he reigned over Judah for 52 years.

Uzziah had listened to the prophet Zechariah; he feared God, and God made him prosper. But Uzziah’s pride got the best of him. (See 2 Chron. 26:16.) God struck Uzziah with leprosy. Then Uzziah died.

Under Uzziah’s leadership, God’s people had turned away from the promises of God and trusted in the promises of the world around them. God had promised to bless the entire world through Abraham’s family, but God’s people were rebellious. Instead of a blessing, they set themselves up to receive God’s judgment.

But God’s plans and promises were not thwarted. God sent the prophet Isaiah to preach a message of hope. Even though God was going to correct His people through judgment, His purpose was one of grace through which God would receive glory. God planned to send a Messiah who would bring salvation to the world.

(The Gospel Project)

Ideas to convey –

Isaiah 6 opens with Isaiah worshiping in the temple. What is amazing is that Isaiah is running to God when there is a time of national sadness. Isaiah was worshiping God who was still on the throne even though Uzziah had died. Isaiah trusted God.

Isaiah loved God and was a prophet of God most people would think he was super Holy that he was a goody-goody. And it’s true Isaiah was a prophet who loved God and tried to follow his commands. What we see though is when Isaiah is confronted with the God of the universe all he can say is Woe! not wow! But Woe! Woe is different from Wow. Wow is more like look how cool that is. Woe is more like I’m in deep, deep, trouble. Isaiah was made aware of his sinfulness, and he was undone. He couldn’t stand in God’s presence with his sin.

Application –

What did God do for Isaiah? He extended His grace to Isaiah. He took away Isaiah’s guilt. God passed over Isaiah’s sins because He was going to send Jesus to pay for them.

This passage tells us some amazing things about who God is.

– He is holy – no matter how good we are we can’t match God’s goodness – Because he is good we need his help to follow him more closely.

– When difficult things happen in our lives or our country. When we hear scary things on the radio and see things on the TV that frighten us, we run to God with full confidence that even when our world or even the world falls apart, God is holding everything together by His powerful word.

– God does for us what we can’t do on our own. He wipes away our sin. Just like we saw in last week’s story God washed away the sickness and the sin of Naaman, a person who was far from God. Today we see God taking Isaiah’s sin; Isaiah was different from Naaman because he loved God and he was part of God’s family, and Isaiah didn’t look sick on the outside. But when Isaiah saw God he realized how much he needed God’s help. Naaman was far from God Isaiah was close to God, but both needed forgiveness. No matter how close your feel to God or how far away the Bible tells us over and over God can’t stop loving you. He sent Jesus to pay the debt you owed because of your sins.