Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20030727.htm

ISAIAH: GOD'S DIRECTIVE TO THOSE TROUBLED AT GOVERNMENTAL APOSTASY
Part V: God's Salvation From Self-Assured Government Officials
(Isaiah 6:1-13)
  1. Introduction
    1. Historians use the phrase, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely" in speaking of government leaders to refer to the evil in man that makes it hard to obtain selfless and hence good overseers in governments.
    2. This problem is reflected in the Old Testament: in the year king Uzziah died, Isaiah received a vision from God on God's salvation from self-assured officials:
  2. God's Salvation From Self-Assured Government Officials, Isaiah 6:1-13.
    1. Uzziah (Azariah) began to rule on Judah's throne at the age of 16, a young man for a king, 2 Kings 15:2.
    2. As long as he heeded the visions of God to the elderly and godly high priest, Zechariah, Uzziah had a peaceful and productive reign, for God blessed him with national wealth and progress, 2 Chron. 26:5-15.
    3. Yet, when Uzziah achieved success, he became self-assured and proud, and usurped God's Scripturally assigned duties for the priests by trying to offer a sacrifice in the temple, 2 Chron. 26:16; Num . 3:5-10.
    4. Eighty priests with the high priest, Azariah entered the temple to counter Uzziah, claiming he was out of God's will, and should leave; however, Uzziah only became very angry with them, 2 Chron. 26:17-19a.
    5. As Uzziah vented his rage, the Lord judged him, striking Uzziah with leprosy so that he was removed from the temple to die in time as a dishonored outcast, 2 Chronicles 26:18c, 19b-23.
    6. With the nation reeling in shock by its great king's sin and consequent death in divine judgment, Isaiah received a vision from God with a message on God's salvation from self-assured government officials:
      1. The vision Isaiah received from God in Isaiah 6 came the very year Judah was trying to adjust to the shocking sin and consequent death in divine judgment of the great king, Uzziah, cf. Isaiah 6:1a.
      2. This vision revealed God's great sovereignty and holiness in contrast to Uzziah's sinful state, 6:1b-4.
      3. Isaiah reacted to this revelation of God, confessing his own sinfulness and that of the people of the nation of Judah in which he lived, Isaiah 6:5.
      4. In response, God did just the OPPOSITE to ISAIAH that He had done to UZZIAH: instead of striking Isaiah with lethal leprosy, God used the sacrificial offering [prefiguring the cleansing of the believer by Christ's atonement] to cleanse the humble, repentant Isaiah with coals of the heavenly altar, Isaiah 6:6-7! This symbolic event revealed GOD would have PREFERRED to CLEANSE and BLESS His HUMBLE people versus PUNISHING them for SINS of PRIDE!
      5. Thus cleansed humbly dependent upon God, Isaiah was commissioned to deliver God's message of future cycles of divine blessing, judgment, restoration and repeated judgment on Judah due to her continued sinfulness with a final installation of permanent blessing under Messiah's reign, Isa. 6:8-13:
        1. God called the cleansed, humble and willing Isaiah to declare prophetic judgment on a sinful, idolatrous, self-assured people in Judah, Isaiah 6:8-12.
        2. Following the coming Babylonian Captivity for Judah, the nation would then return to the land and be temporarily blessed of the Lord, Isaiah 6:13a.
        3. However, due to the continued sin in them, the nation would be judged ("be eaten") all over again in divine discipline, Isaiah 6:13b.
        4. Finally, only with the rule of God's coming Messiah would Judah enjoy solid, holy leadership and its resulting national divine blessing, Isaiah 6:13c.
Lesson: (1) The sin nature IN human leaders is a CONSTANT blockage to blessing as it leads them to be SELF-ASSURED and PROUD, leading to judgment! (2) Only with the SINLESS Messiah will man's government be blessed long-term. (3) Like Isaiah, we must view God as GREAT and HUMBLE ourselves in ACCOUNTABILITY to HIM, confessing our sins to Him to be useful in oversight roles.

Application: (1) May we like ISAIAH and NOT like UZZIAH (a) humble ourselves before Almighty God, (b) noting our ACCOUNTABILITY TO Him (c) and CONFESS what sins we do (d) so that God may BLESS us. (2) Then, may our HOPE for ULTIMATE government blessing NOT rest in MORTAL humans who rule with SIN NATURES, but may we look for our SINLESS Lord's coming Kingdom!