Isaiah is unique for his revelation of God through powerful and vital names. The fact that Isaiah relates his calling by the Lord side by side the death of Uzziah, the king of Judah is deeper than presented. This happened in the year 739BC; the twelfth year of Jotham’s reigning in proxy of his sick father, Uzziah; the same year that, according to tradition, Rome was founded on the banks of the Tiber River across the Mediterranean.
Uzziah had begun as a godly king and as long as he sought the Lord God gave him success (2Chron. 26:5). However, growing military success made him proud. He turned away from God and he was struck with leprosy making him to retire to a secluded house for his final years. His son, Jotham would thenceforth rule for him. Uzziah suffered continually from his leprosy and, destroyed within and without, Uzziah died-his pride and his disobedience brought judgment on him.
Uzziah’s death was symbolic. For Judah, Uzziah’s death marked the beginning of the end of peace and prosperity. Judah’s sickness, like that of Uzziah, had to end in death. Earlier in 1:4, Isaiah pointed out that Judah was also diseased, just like her king, because she too had deserted the Lord: “Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption. They have forsaken the Lord; they have spurned the Holy One of Israel and turned their backs on Him”.
This is why the year Uzziah died was a pivotal time for Judah. She had the last opportunity to choose between life and death. It was the same year that Isaiah saw the Lord. Perhaps Isaiah had come to the temple to pray or to offer sacrifices when suddenly the veils were stripped away and Isaiah “saw the Lord seated on the throne, high and exalted” (6:1). He was surrounded by angelic beings. The foundation shook, smoke filled the temple and God’s brilliance blazed as the beings cried out: ‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory’ (6:3). Isaiah was filled with awe. He was confronted with the reality which God’s people had ignored: the God of Israel is holy.
Notice that when Isaiah saw God’s holiness, he also saw his own condition; he noticed he was so unworthy and unholy. The vision of a holy God and the sound of the holy hymn of worship brought great conviction to Isaiah’s heart and he confessed that he was a sinner. This is why he cried out, “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, living among a people of unclean lips” (6:5). But then God acted: One of the angelic beings touched Isaiah’s lips with a live coal from the altar announcing, “Your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for” (6:7). The altar fires, which would one day flare up with Jesus’ blood, now brought Isaiah covering of sin and release from guilt. Pronounced holy by the Holy One, Isaiah could now stand before the Lord. Unclean lips are caused by an unclean heart (Matt. 12:34-35). As such, Isaiah cried out to be cleansed inwardly (Ps. 51:10), and God met his need. Isaiah’s cleansing came by blood and fire, and it was verified by the word of the Lord (Is. 6:7).
The esoteric and spiritual experience and the call of Isaiah today speak to us as individuals. It tells us that before we can minister to others, we must first of all permit God to minister to us. Before we pronounce “woe” upon others, we must sincerely say, “Woe is me!” Isaiah’s conviction led to confession and his confession led to his cleansing. Like Isaiah, many of the great heroes of faith saw themselves as sinners and humbled themselves before God: Abraham (Gen. 18:27), Jacob (Gen. 32:10), Job (Job 40:1-5), David (2Sam. 7:18), Paul (1Tim 1:15).
In our gospel today, Simon Peter, the fisherman, also saw himself as a sinner before the Lord and confessed his unworthiness in the presence of God. One thing that is glaring is that when Jesus got into the boat of Simon Peter his story changed thenceforth; he with his brothers who caught nothing all night long would pull out a heavy shoal of fish and would eventually be transformed from fishermen to fishers of men. Truly, Christ always comes to fill up our lack and make up for our inadequacies. Out of his mercy for us, He calls us and cleanses us, making us sharers in the life of grace, abundance and holiness.
St. Paul also saw this grace of God at work in him for he too was unfit to be called an apostle yet God forgave his past and ‘appeared to him’, commissioning him as a great apostle to the gentiles. The Lord is also calling you today despite your inadequacies; He calls each one of us like Isaiah, Peter and Paul to become his witnesses to our darkened world. Our world today like Judah in the days of Isaiah is morally sick and at the point of death and decay and we are called to redeem it. In calling us He tells us not to mind our human weakness but rather trust in His grace and mercy for us. Unworthy though we may be, may we have the courage to make ourselves available for Him and to always say: ‘Here I am Lord, send me’. Fear not for; “God does not call the qualified but He qualifies the called”.