Isaiah 6

In the year King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; his train filled the temple. Wesley: in a vision; the Divine Majesty as he subsisteth in three persons; train—royal and judicial robe, for he is represented as a judge.

Isaiah sees the Lord in the year Uzziah died, in the temple. This is the Holy One of 1:4 now seen. John 12:41 will name the glory as Christ’s.

Calvin: not the first prophecy; Uzziah dead, Jotham succeeding; a new sealing when kings change. I saw the Lord: God never appeared as He is, but as men could receive. John says it was Christ; God never revealed Himself to the Fathers but in the Word; yet do not limit the title to Christ’s person—Isaiah saw the glory of Christ, the image of the invisible God. Throne: a Judge, that majesty might strike terror.

“Saw”—the same Lord, present without deceit. Uzziah, throne, temple.

Above him stood the seraphim. Six wings: two covered the face, two the feet, two flew. Wesley: ministers attending; seraphim from fire—bright nature or fervent zeal; covered out of profound reverence.

The seraphim attend the Lord in the vision. Covering is worship, not a puzzle.

Calvin: seraphim from fervor. Two wings to fly: ready obedience. Two covering the face: even angels cannot endure His brightness; how rash for men to intrude. Two lower: either not to contract earth’s defilement, or to conceal them from our view.

The vision teaches distance. Six wings, face, feet, flew.

One called to another: Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of Armies! The whole earth is full of his glory. Wesley: singing in consort; thrice to intimate the Trinity; glory of His holiness as well as power, wisdom, and goodness.

Shared confession of the Holy One. Earth full—not a glory locked in Judah’s boast (2:6). Trinity is named.

Calvin: ancients used this for three persons; I do not disagree, and have no doubt the angels describe One God in Three Persons, but would rather employ stronger proofs against heretics. The repetition also marks unwearied praise. Whole earth full: implied contrast with Jews who thought His glory was only among themselves. This agrees with the blinding that opened Gentile admission.

The same thrice-holy Lord. Holy, holy, holy, Lord of hosts, earth full of glory.

Foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice, and the house was filled with smoke. Wesley: posts and door; violent motions tokens of anger; smoke here of anger, elsewhere of presence.

“Shook”—a temple quake in the vision.

Calvin: no mortal voice shakes lintels. Smoke the ordinary sign of meeting Him; here of power in executing judgment, and a restraint on curious research into His purpose.

The voice is His. Thresholds, smoke.

Woe is me! I am lost; a man of unclean lips, among a people of unclean lips; my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of Armies. Wesley: a great sinner, particularly by the lips; unclean branch of an unclean tree; involved in their guilt; the sight gives cause to fear judgment.

“Woe”—a prophet undone. Holiness exposes lips. He still speaks the woe.

Calvin: so terrified he expected destruction. Until God reveals Himself we think we are gods; when we have seen Him we know what we are. Hence true humility. Unclean lips: he names what he regarded as most valuable, the tongue consecrated to prophecy. Human doctrines have an uncleanness; nothing pure but what came from God. Sight of God brings death accidentally, through our fault, not His nature.

The Judge’s presence kills self-confidence. Lost, unclean lips, King, Lord of hosts.

One of the seraphim flew, a burning coal taken with the tongs from off the altar. Wesley: by God’s command; coal a token and instrument of purification; altar of burnt-offering.

“Coal”—from the altar, not from Isaiah. Cleansing is given.

Calvin: purity of lips comes from God alone. Fire from the altar: no strange fire (Lev 10:1); all purity flows from God. The coal had no magic virtue; the angel administered, God authored.

The altar’s fire, His. Undisputed: seraphim, coal, tongs, altar.

He touched my mouth: this has touched your lips; your iniquity is taken away, and your sin forgiven. Wesley: only to touch, not to burn, which God could easily effect; a sign that I have pardoned and purged the uncleanness of thy lips.

Atonement spoken over these lips. Guilt taken, then sending. Not a works-gospel.

Calvin: the sign was not empty; the blessing signified was bestowed. In the sacraments the reality is given with the sign, distinguished but not separated. Doctrine is added; without the word, no sacrament. Free from pollution, he may appear as God’s representative.

God purges, then employs. No dispute here: lips, guilt taken away, sin atoned.

Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Here I am! Send me. Wesley: to deliver the following message; I and us—plurality of persons in the Godhead.

“Send”—an offer after atonement. He still says here. Shared Trinity in the us, with Calvin.

Calvin: on a revolting occasion—blinding the Jews—he is more fully assured. Whom shall I send: not that God hesitates, but a teacher of uncommon excellence is needed. Who will go for us: I am rather favorable to Three Persons, as in Let us create man. Here am I: cheerfulness from faith; he who lately lay like a dead man dreads no difficulty.

The call is His, the here is given after the coal. I, us, here I am, send me.

Go, say to this people, You hear indeed, but don’t understand. You see indeed, but don’t perceive. Wesley: imperative, yet not a command of what they ought to do, but a prediction of what they would do.

“Go”—a sending to Judah. This people—not my people in the address. Hearing continues; understanding does not. The prediction meets a will already hard (5:19, 24).

Calvin: necessary that Isaiah not fail: obstinacy for more than sixty years. Teach without good effect; do not regret it; leave consequences to God. Openly reprove their blind obstinacy. Preaching a sweet smell to God even when it brings death (2 Cor 2:15–16).

The mission is obedience, not success. This people, hear, not understand, see, not perceive.

Make the heart of this people fat. Make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see, hear, understand, turn and be healed. Wesley: fat—stupid; ascribed to the prophet as to God in John 12:40, because God inflicted it by the prophet’s ministry—prediction of the effect, and withdrawing the Spirit. Lest they be able, as before they were not willing. Convert—turn to God.

Arminian readers, following Wesley and John 12:40, see the hardening as God confirming a refusal already made. The people were unwilling first; the withdrawal of light follows. The verse’s last words—turn and be healed—still name what God desires.

Calvin: not only fruitless labor but by instruction he will blind them. Blame lies with the people; they refuse His kindness. Hardening does not arise from the nature of the word but from depravity—accidental, as a weak eye blames the sun. If you inquire into the first cause, predestination; but that purpose is hidden; consider the cause before our eyes: rebellion. John: they could not believe, because Isaiah said this; the prediction was not the cause of unbelief. He did not send the Prophet because He intended to save the whole body already condemned; yet the word always has a few who find salvation. Healing’s first step is repentance.

“Make”—judicial hardening on a rebel people; the word remains a savor of life to the remnant. Dull heart, heavy ears, blind eyes, lest they turn and be healed.

Until cities are waste without inhabitant, houses without people, the land a desolate waste. Wesley: abrupt from passion; until destroyed first by Babylonians, afterward by Romans.

The cry “How long?” voices the prophet’s grief.

Calvin: prophets sustain two characters—unshaken courage for God’s glory, and compassion for brethren. How long: if this blindness must come, let it not be permanent. The reply: no light punishment, but utter destruction.

Mercy asked; severity answered. Both affirm: how long, cities waste, houses empty.

And the LORD has removed men far away, and the forsaken places are many within the land. Wesley: carried captive into far countries; houses and lands forsaken of their owners.

Exile, the far nations of 5:26. Forsaken land is Judah’s.

Calvin: survivors of war are not exempt; they are led into captivity. The land desolate, some fled, some banished, some slain. Reward of obstinate rebellion.

The stretched-out hand of 5:25 still. Where they meet: far away, forsaken places.

Though a tenth remain, it will in turn be consumed, as a terebinth or oak whose stump remains when felled. The holy seed is its stump. Wesley: a tenth—small remnant; return from Babylon; that remnant eaten a second time (Syria, then Romans); yet another remnant, a holy seed, who shall look on him whom they have pierced and mourn; winter trees keep a vital principle in the root; for their sake the land is not finally rooted out.

The tenth that remains is itself burned again. Holy seed is remaining life, and Wesley names those who look on the Pierced—shared christology. The stump still lives.

Calvin: diminished to a tenth. Like trees that cast leaves in winter and keep hidden vigor till spring: the Church in captivity appears dead timber, yet energy remains in the word. Holy seed: the elect, preserved by free mercy; banishment a cleansing that took away the ungodly. Some refer this to Christ; too far-fetched—extend it to all the godly; the holy seed is the substance of the Church.

The remnant is an elect substance, not a matter of numbers. Both traditions hear: tenth, burned again, oak, stump, holy seed. Differ on remnant: Wesley’s sequential leftovers and a seed that looks on the Pierced; Calvin’s elect preserved by mercy as the Church’s substance.