Purifying Unclean Lips

Isaiah 6:5-7 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 mine eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. (6) Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: (7) And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged.

I love this passage because it contains the Gospel. Isaiah exclaimed, "Woe is me!," after he saw "the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up." He recognized that, although he was one of Israel's great prophets called by God, he was "a man of unclean lips" dwelling "in the midst of a people of unclean lips." Notice how he made no distinction between himself and the people to which God was sending him to prophesy.

Then one of the seraphim touched Isaiah's unclean lips with a coal from the altar. Why? The altar was a type of the cross. The sins of man were transferred to the sacrifice (typified in the Old Testament by the sinner placing his hand on the head of the sin offering), and its blood was shed and put on the altar.

Leviticus 4:27-30 And if any one of the common people sin through ignorance...or if his sin, which he hath sinned, come to his knowledge: then he shall bring his offering...for his sin which he hath sinned. And he shall lay his hand upon the head of the sin offering, and slay the sin offering in the place of the burnt offering. And the priest shall take of the blood thereof with his finger, and put it upon the horns of the altar of burnt offering, and shall pour out all the blood thereof at the bottom of the altar.

The sacrifice was placed upon the altar after its blood had been shed.

John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Matthew 26:27-28 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

The sacrifice was then completely consumed by fire on the altar signifying God's judgment of sin. One could argue that since this altar was in heaven before the throne of God, it came from the Lamb who was foreordained before the foundation of the world (1 Peter 1:18-20). Therefor when Isaiah's lips were touched with a coal from the altar, they were touched by Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2).

Isaiah 53:3-12 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth. He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken. And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.

Offering a Proper Sacrifice

Proverbs 15:8 The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the LORD: but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

Many Christians might read this verse and think, "This doesn't apply to me. We don't worry about offering sacrifices anymore." Before I talk about how this can apply to us, let me give an example of this from Scripture. Cain and Abel both presented sacrifices to the Lord. "Cain was a tiller of the ground..." and he offered "the fruit of the ground." "Abel was a keeper of sheep..." and he offered "the firstlings of his flock and of the fat thereof." (Genesis 4) For a long time, I thought that God rejected Cain's offering because of some unmentioned sin. But Abel offered a sin offering as well, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23) So it wasn't his sin that made a difference (sin was a problem for everyone); it was his sacrifice.

So what was wrong with Cain's sacrifice? We can infer from the rest of the Bible that God had ordained the sacrifice of a lamb, bull, etc. as a burnt offering because "without shedding of blood is no remission [of sin]." (Hebrews 9:22) Remember even in the garden of Eden, God took the leaves with which Adam and Eve covered themselves and gave them coats of skins which implies that innocent blood was shed to provide a covering for them. Going against God's prescribed sacrificial order, Cain offered God the fruit of his own labor. He offered that for which he had toiled and sweat. This is a picture of religious man. Religion consists of man trying his hardest and doing various works to earn favor with God. But this is not what the Bible teaches. Instead it teaches that none of our own efforts are good enough to merit any favor from the Lord. We are saved only by God's grace through faith in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ upon the cross.

Titus 3:5-7 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; (6) Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour; (7) That being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The abominable sacrifice can also be seen in the episode of Aaron's sons:

Leviticus 10:1-2 And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. (2) And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.

Concerning this matter John Gill said,

"this fire was not that which came down from heaven, and consumed the sacrifice, as related at the end of the preceding chapter, but common fire, and therefore called strange; it was not taken off of the altar of burnt offering, as it ought to have been..."

The altar of burnt offering typified Christ's atoning work on the cross. Therefor offering fire from another source was unacceptable to God just as it is unacceptable for us to place our faith in anything other than Christ and Him crucified (1 Cor. 2:2). In fact there is such a thing as believing in another Jesus.

2 Corinthians 11:3-4 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. (4) For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.

Let us therefor be careful not to place our faith in anything other than God's plan of redemption which is Christ's finished work on the cross.