Daily Archives: October 26, 2013

38. Seeing Things as God Sees Them. (Isaiah 6:5)

 “Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts..” (Isaiah 6:5)
As human beings we have the intelligent capacity to think and observe life, circumstances and people. We are born knowing next to nothing, apart from what it was like in our mother’s womb. We “blinking, step into the sun”, into a world where there is lots to learn. We gather our precepts learned, we form opinions, and we each see things  that we have often to make firm decisions on. How do we know what is right? When do we know this that has happened to us is “good and right?” When do we know that which is happening is “bad and wrong?” Some things are easy to discern, and some not. How to handle what we consider bad, is sometimes not as difficult as coping with what is good that has occurred to us. I am talking here of the human point of view.
Human opinion is varied, and utterly inconsistent. Because of our limitations, our multi variant philosophies and points of view on issues, a million people can see the same thing in a single event, and leave that spot with a million different takes on whatever it is that we have seen and experienced.


Imagine the scene in the world of Isaiah. He has seen some things in his life, and then he has heard God speak concerning the world he lives in and the society of which he is a part. He sees wickedness and evil everywhere. He sees political and local governmental leaders robbing the poor and indulging themselves. He sees some women “dressed to kill,” with expensive clothes, make up, and high fashion, all paid for by the income made by the immoral theft from those that were already poor. He sees poverty, starvation of some, and corruption overrunning the state of Judah. He sees God being ignored, and idols being bought and sold as a major wealth creating industry throughout the land. He sees the Jewish roots in Jerusalem fading away whilst foreign cultures, dress styles, occultic religions and cultures are developing and permeating a sin sodden city. He sees the king of the state of Judah dying of leprosy, with his healthy son sharing the throne, yet not making a good job of it.  He has “seen it all.”

Then, Isaiah sees the Lord, high and lifted up, seated on a throne, and above him were the four seraphim that were crying out to each other. The holiness of the God that they adored is something we have already homed in on. But after their exaltation of Him who was seated on the throne, they extended their worship by stating that not only was the Lord God Almighty “thrice Holy,” but that, “The whole earth is full of His glory.”  Surely something is incorrect here! How could the wicked, evil, society of Jerusalem and Judah be “full of His glory” with all this going on around him.
As often as it is made clear in the Bible, it would be true to say that God’s opinion of what He sees of man’s situation, is utterly different from how man sees his own state. Creator sees things as they actually are. Created beings have their opinions. There is man’s point of view, and there is God’s point of view. We see our 18 ounce brain point of view. God sees the big picture. And believe me, when I say that God sees the big picture, I mean B I G!  Do we really have to guess which opinion is the more accurate?
Human beings are spirit, soul and body. We can hear God and relate to God via our spirit.  Christianity is an issue of relationship with God. It is all about getting to know Him, and listening to him. This is exactly what Isaiah was doing. We do not need an Isaiah 6 experience to see God with the eyes of our understanding, and to hear God with the ears of our understanding. As we know Christ, and develope our relationship with Him, we are able to see things as He sees them.
The battle of life, of course, is to discover God’s perspective on all things. Logic would suggest that when we see things as God sees them, we will be well on the way to calmness and serenity, peace and contentment, as well as faith and understanding. When we see things from God’s point of view, we will know what is important and what is not, what to fight about and what to be passive about. In fact we may see the entire cosmos in a different light the moment we can see God’s opinion of it. The Psalmist said, “In Your light, we see light.” Meaning that the clearer we see Him, just as Isaiah did, the clearer we see where we are, what we are and what is important.


The seraph’s in heaven see things as God sees them. And they say that the whole earth is filled with God’s glory. What do they see that we do not see? What understanding do they have that we do not?

Whatever perspective angels or seraphim have on things that happen on planet earth, man has the same access to the same wisdom and understanding that rules their outlook on creation. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. We have the mind of Christ. Christ said, “Lo! I come to do your will Oh God!” Christ said, “No greater love has any man than this, than to lay down his life for his friends.” When the Spirit of God fell upon the apostles in the book of Acts something happened to their view of the world, and of people. When they were beaten and flogged within an inch of their lives, the scripture states that they came out rejoicing in that they had been counted worthy to suffer for Christ’s name. Paul wrote Philippians full of joy, and dare I use the word, “contentment.” Yet, it is believed that he was about to die when he wrote the letter and was in a stinking Roman gaol.
There are several stories in scripture that present to us a person, or group of people, or even a whole nation, in a circumstance, or situation that made them externally – that is, from human point of view, seemingly in a negative, bad or even catastrophic situation. As the stories are unwound however one sees some incredible positive that could not have happened if it was not for the negative.  There is Abraham and Sarah getting older and older as a post menopausal couple without children, yet being resurrected to life and virility to bare Isaac. We have Isaac being placed on an altar for Abraham to kill for sacrificial purposes, yet the two of them moving on to greater things as God stopped that transaction and made greater promises. We have Jacob running in fear of his brother Esau who had promised to murder him. He was away from home missing mother and father, yet after the experience heard God change his name to Israel. We have also the classic story of Joseph, betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, wrongly accused and imprisoned for rape, and forgotten by people whom he had greatly helped and left in an utterly hopeless situation, before he was, in a single day, raised to be almost as high as the Pharaoh. We read of Moses running after murder and living as a shepherd in the desert, before God met him at the burning bush. We have a huge classic situation when, because of idolatry and godlessness, Israel was exiled from their land, and it was believed by the majority that it was, for Judah, the end of the world. It was of course, the circumstance that utterly ripped idolatry out of the heart of Israel, and took them to the scriptures.
We can read all these accounts in scripture and see clearly how God takes the catastrophe’s of life, and is able to turn them into glorious moments. The greatest of all examples was, of course, Christ betrayed, flogged, crucified and dying. It looked like the end, until the resurrection of the Lord Jesus turned it into the most glorious thing that mankind has ever encountered.
Negatives, turned positive. Death, turned to life. Lost, turned to found. But, in all those stories, pain is spared, when those players in these dramas know beforehand that the way things are is not how they will end out to be.


The principle of all this is seen when Isaiah hears the seraphim cry. “The whole world is full of his glory,” means that something wonderful is going on in the midst of the rubbish situation that is all Isaiah can see with his physical eyes. It means the purpose of God is moving on. God has a goal and is working towards it. The downright chaotic mess that Isaiah sees every day of his natural life has to be seen as God sees it to declare what the Seraphim say. “The whole world is full of His glory.”

And it is not just about the state of the world. It was about the holy prophet, Isaiah.  He sees and hears heavenly things and cries, “woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people with unclean lips.” The consideration of his own holiness is dealt a death blow when he glimpses the holiness that is intrinsically God’s. Now he saw himself as God sees him.
It is an essential of the Christian life, that whilst pressing on into Christ, we realise that seeing things as God sees them will help us in our grasp of life, and any achievements we make. Scripture will facilitate the dynamics of understanding how negatives can be truly positive, as well as vica verca. The clear sight of the positive that can be seen whilst in the midst of the negative is a glorious aspect of faith.
May we all seek God to see things purely as He sees them.

 

Related articles