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Isaiah's experience here anticipates the fifty-third chapter of his prophecy, and a
comparison of Isa. 1: with 53: will shew what was symbolized by the live coal from off
the altar. The description of Israel, given in Isa. 1: 4-6, is that of a leper. With this in
mind read again Isa. 53::--
"He hath no form nor comeliness . . . . . no beauty . . . . . He is despised and rejected of
men . . . . . and we hid as it were our faces from Him" (Isa. 53: 2, 3).
Spurrell's version reads here: "As from one with covered lip we turned our faces from
Him", and gives as a footnote: "Here seems to be an allusion to the leper, who was
commanded to cover the upper lip." That glorious King, before Whose holiness Isaiah
felt leprous, was the Lord Jesus Christ--"These things said Isaiah, when he saw His
glory, and spake of Him" (John 12: 41)--The holy One became as a leper that we, the
leprous, might be made clean.
In Isa. 53: 4 we read that Israel esteemed Him "stricken, smitten of God, and
afflicted". The word "smitten" is translated "stricken" in Isa. 1: 5: "Why should ye be
stricken any more?" Israel could never be saved or sanctified by anything that they could
endure or suffer; it became necessary for the Lord to lay upon Him, His holy One, the
iniquity of us all.
Israel were full of wounds and bruises. The word "bruises" in Isa. 1: 6 is the word
"stripes" in Isa. 53: 5: "And with His stripes we are healed." Nothing short of this
could heal the disease of sin. Mollifying ointment or bandages are of no avail. Isa. 1: 5
speaks of "the whole head" being "sick". The word reappears as "grief" in Isa. 53: 3, 4:
"Acquainted with grief . . . . . surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows."
It is interesting to notice that Matthew's reference to the fulfillment of this prophecy
occurs almost immediately after the account of the miraculous healing of a leper, of the
healing of a man sick of the palsy, and of a woman sick of a fever (Matt. 8:)--all of
them types of sin, and of Israel's condition. It is not without significance that the first
miracle specifically mentioned in Matthew is the cleansing of a leper.
Isaiah is now given a dreadful message. With a chastened heart he bows before the
Lord Who sends him. He does not look up to the Lord and say, Yes, Lord, I will scorch
them with my indignation, and with my utterance of "Woe unto them", as hitherto. No,
the unspoken language of "Then said I, Lord, how long?" (6: 11) would be more like
this:--
Lord, I will go, sad as the errand may be, but the experience I have just passed
through, the revelation I have had of myself and of Thy grace, must for ever temper my
words and my attitude. Wrath must come. Judgment must fall. I will speak, and not
withhold, but, Lord, how long? For mercy rejoiceth against judgment.
Can we not dare to say, that if ever Isaiah drew near to the heart of the Lord and
pleased Him, it was at this time?