Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire (Hebrews 12:28-29).

With the Lord’s help, I want to address the subject of encountering the Holy. I am soberly serious about my utter dependence on God’s Spirit, even to approach the topic. I hear the echo of Paul’s words in Romans 11: Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!

After all, who am I to attempt the daunting task of teaching on God’s holiness? But that is exactly what I feel compelled to do, for such a time as this. So I proceed, with trembling.

What is appropriate and acceptable worship to God? What should our response be when we encounter the Holy One of Israel?

Here is the heart of the matter. We cannot possibly worship him with due awe and respect if we do not know him for who he really is, if we do not know him as he truly is.

In the church today, by and large, there is a superficiality. I see this as I travel, in the things I read, and what I see on television. I am sad to say it, but it is true, there is a great superficiality. One core cause, I believe, is that the church is disconnected from her covenant roots, which are uniquely Hebraic; Jewish in character—arising from the fertile soil of the Old Testament, the Bible of Jesus and his early followers.

The church has strayed far from its awareness that God is holy, holy, holy. What exactly does that mean in regard to his essence and to our discipleship? What did the author of Hebrews mean, let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire?

In Jesus, God is our Father, and our spirit cries out to him by his Spirit, “Abba, Daddy.” Yet it is possible to take such a precious biblical truth and push it so far that it becomes unbalanced. It takes two hands to think biblically. On the one hand, YHWH is our Father. On the other hand, YHWH is the Holy One of Israel. The revelation of God as Father to his people is intimate, and abba is a term of endearment. But that does not give us the right to take that relationship for granted, to treat it casually.

By reconnecting with our roots, we come to a much-needed understanding of and distinction between the holy and the profane, the sacred and the secular.

That is the point of this study. We want to know the mind of Messiah Yeshua when he taught us to pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. To do so, we must return to the prophets of Israel and hear them with new ears.

Turn with me to Isaiah, chapter six. Isaiah is a wonderful personality in the Hebrew Bible. He was truly a man of genius as well as deep spirituality. His prose and poetry are brilliant, especially in Hebrew, his native tongue. Not only are his writings profound, but his life as a prophet of God and a statesman in Israel is equally brilliant. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than in his friendship with the godly king, Uzziah.

Uzziah and Isaiah lived in the 8th century, when corruption and chaos had reached a critical point in the ancient Kingdom of Judah. Because of his corrective preaching and proclamations, the tide of public opinion had turned against him. Isaiah became known as a prophet of gloom and doom. Truth be told, none of us really wants to hear messages about the responsibilities of our calling or the wages of our sins.

Even though he had played a prominent and helpful part in the country’s affairs, the populace had grown tired of his “negativity.”

Furthermore, his dear friend (and, most likely, protector) Uzziah died. At this critical juncture in his life, God gives Isaiah what he needs most—a renewed revelation of who he really is. It is a revelation for all of us worn down by the chaos of culture, the corruption of religion, and the loss of vision. It came as he was faithfully about his daily work. The encounter transformed him.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew.

And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke.

And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for 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!”

Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me!” (Isaiah 6:1-8).

We need to approach this text thoughtfully and carefully, with intention and attention.

I hope to convey to you just a portion of the depth and significance of Isaiah’s experience. I believe it is a paradigm of what it means to enter the presence of the living God; a pattern when one encounters his holiness.

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord, records the prophet. In verse 1, notice that the word Lord (Adonai) is translated from Hebrew in lowercase because it is a title meaning “sovereign, master.” In verse 3, the personal, revealed name of God, YHWH, is indicated to us by LORD in small caps. That is important. Yahweh is Adonai, all-powerful, all-knowing, and ruler of all his hands have made.

Just look at the setting. He is seated on a throne of rulership, high and lifted up. He is exalted. This brings to mind chapter 57, one of my favorite passages in Isaiah: For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: “I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite” (vs 15).

Isaiah is speaking here out of his chapter 6 experience.

• Though his encounter with the holy God completely abases him: Woe is me! For I am lost; for 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!
• From it, he learns a formative lesson that shapes him going forward: I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit.
• While bringing him more fully into Heaven’s redemptive call on his life: To revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Here I am! Send me!