Day Four: Isaiah Sees Angels

I always find it interesting to ponder the seraphim. In the Sproul sermon that I recomended the other day, he noted how God made them with such wisdom. These creatures were made to be in the presence of God. Given the wings to cover their faces, "for even amoung the angels it is forbidden to gaze directly at the glory of God." I loved the Motyer quote he used, "They covered their eyes, not their ears, for their task was to receive what the Lord would say, not to pry into what he is like." So often I close my ears and do not listen to hear what the Lord may want to say to me. Anyway, back to the wisdom of God in creating the seraphim. First, they were created to be in the presence of God and were given proper tools to cover their eyes and feet so that they could bear to be in His presence. Secondly, I find them similar to us (humans) in this way: they were created to praise.

And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" (Isaiah 6:3)

I love to learn different translations that help me understand the Bible more effectively, and Storms highlighted another one in this section. The trisagion (holy, holy, holy) I found to be very interesting. A simple Hebrew literary device used to emphasize the word. This seems to make more sense than simply stating holy three times for each member of the trinity. The trisagion was used the same way we use bold print and underlining today. It was used to make sure that you recognized what was written.

Another thing about the trisagion. Nowhere in Scripture do you read that God is good, good, good, or that the Lord is merciful, merciful, merciful. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord. This was the attribute that deserved emphasis above all others. In light of this, I ask a question I asked as we began this article. In light of the emphasis of the holiness of God throughout Scripture, how often do you meditate on it? Does your time spent in meditation and study line up with the emphasis God's holiness is given in Scripture? I'm mainly asking this to myself, for I see that my thoughts are spent more on God's mercy than other attributes. In a way, I believe this is a result of the emphasis that Metro has on God's mercy (not that this is wrong in any way. Don't hear what I'm not saying). I need to have my thoughts and meditations paralelling Scripture's main topics of interest.