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we believe comprehends the essential features in their structural
relationship.
Isaiah 6
A 6:1. Uzziah.
Type of Israel.
Failure.
B 2,3. The thrice Holy Lord.
C 3,4. Eretz (earth). Fulness of it, the glory of the Lord.
D1 5 -8. a1 Then said I
Confession Unclean.
b1 And He laid
Cleansing Eyes, lips, hearing.
D2 8 -10. a2
Then said I
Consecration
Send me.
b2 And He said
Commission Hear, eyes, heart.
D3 11.
a3 Then said I
Commiseration
Lord, how long?
b3 And He answered
Commination*
Until wasted, desolate.
C 12.
Eretz (land).
Forsaking in midst of it.
A 13. Sacred Tithe.
Type of Remnant. Return.
B 13. The holy seed.
*
Commination = threatening of divine vengeance.
In The Berean Expositor Vol. 29, p. 208, we have given the whole
history of the kings of Israel and Judah as they are associated with the
House of God, and it will be seen that the central member of the outline is
occupied with the reigns of Uzziah and his son Jotham. The history of the
Kingdom reaches its lowest level at the presumption and leprosy of king
Uzziah who, in his presumption and in his doom, himself foreshadowed the
future Antichrist. This gives point to the opening words of the vision:
'In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a
throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple' (Isa.
6:1).
Here we have a solemn contrast drawn between Uzziah, the king, stricken
with leprosy because of his own sin, and the Lord, the King, Who was treated
as a leper by the very people for whom He came to die (Isa. 53:3), and Who
will accomplish all that is implied in the office of King and Priest.
John 12 leaves us in no doubt that the 'King' seen by Isaiah in this
vision was Christ, for after quoting Isaiah 6:9,10, the Evangelist adds:
'These things said Esaias, when he saw His glory, and spake of Him'
(John 12:41).
In Isaiah 6:2 the holy beings that stand above the throne are called
Seraphim, which has led many to believe that a different order of celestial
being from the Cherubim is indicated. But that is by no means a necessary
deduction as we will seek to show.
Primarily, the word seraph means 'to burn', and anything that burns may
be a seraph, even if it be a city (Isa. 1:7), or an idol (Isa 44:16).
Consequently, if it suited the purpose of Isaiah 6 to call the Cherubim by a
distinctive feature, that of itself would not prove a distinction of being.
The description given in the book of Revelation of the four 'zoa', or 'living