WORSHIP HAPPENS
We have been exploring some of the deeper aspects of prayer, culminating in what is called, in the Hebrew language, “tefillah”, translated as “prayer” or even “worship”.
What is worship? Worship is difficult to define or explain. Worship is the attitude of awe and reverence that overcomes us when we contemplate God’s majesty and greatness. Worship is not something we do. Worship happens when we see God in the spirit. “Tefillah” is the essence of prayer, lifting prayer far above our focus on needs and wants to the person of God Himself. “Tefillah” happens when God overwhelms us with His goodness in times of great need.
Isaiah experienced worship in his encounter with the Lord in the temple.
Why did Isaiah go into the temple…to seek the Lord in a time of crisis and uncertainty? Uzziah, the king, was dead. What would happen in God’s land after Uzziah’s death? Was Isaiah afraid that another wicked king would ruin what Uzziah had achieved? What next, Lord?
2 Chronicles 26:3-5 NLT
[3] “Uzziah was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem fifty-two years. His mother was Jecoliah from Jerusalem. [4] He did what was pleasing in the Lord’s sight, just as his father, Amaziah, had done. [5] Uzziah sought God during the days of Zechariah, who taught him to fear God. And as long as the king sought guidance from the Lord, God gave him success.”
Uzziah was a good king. He sought the Lord and followed His ways until, as so often happened with godly kings in Judah, pride caused his downfall.
2 Chronicles 26:16-19, 21 NLT
[16]” But when he had become powerful, he also became proud, which led to his downfall. He sinned against the Lord his God by entering the sanctuary of the Lord’s Temple and personally burning incense on the incense altar. [17] Azariah the high priest went in after him with eighty other priests of the Lord, all brave men. [18] They confronted King Uzziah and said, “It is not for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to the Lord. That is the work of the priests alone, the descendants of Aaron who are set apart for this work. Get out of the sanctuary, for you have sinned. The Lord God will not honor you for this!” [19] Uzziah, who was holding an incense burner, became furious. But as he was standing there raging at the priests before the incense altar in the Lord’s Temple, leprosy suddenly broke out on his forehead…
[21] So King Uzziah had leprosy until the day he died. He lived in isolation in a separate house, for he was excluded from the Temple of the Lord. His son, Jotham, was put in charge of the royal palace, and he governed the people of the land.”
With this tragedy in his heart, Isaiah turned to the Lord. What did he want? Reassurance of God’s control? Direction for the future? Answers to his multiple questions? Perhaps he just wanted to be close to the Lord for comfort and security.
Isaiah was not permitted in the Most Holy Place where God’s presence was represented by the supernatural light over the Mercy Seat. That was reserved for the high priest alone and that only once a year, on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement.
Where did Isaiah go in the temple? It doesn’t matter because he was instantaneously transported into God’s presence in the unseen realm. What he saw shattered him.
Isaiah 6:1-13 NIV
[1″In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
[2] Attending him were mighty seraphim, each having six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. [3] They were calling out to each other, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of Heaven’s Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” [4] Their voices shook the Temple to its foundations, and the entire building was filled with smoke.”
In human words, Isaiah tried to describe his experience, a scene of glory so indescribable that he literally “fell apart”. He saw the Lord, in the temple, but exalted above all and everything else, surrounded by beings of beauty and splendour who chanted endless words of adoration and praise.
The entire scene was of ceaseless sound and movement, all around the Lord, engaged and focused on Him and His glory.
Isaiah felt himself disintegrating into a heap of dirt. He, this distinguished prophet of God, who spoke on His behalf to the nation, was nothing but a filthy sinner. He was helpless and exposed.
This is what the real insight into the Lord does. Peter experienced this revelation of himself when he , “saw” Jesus, the Son of God.
Luke 5:8 NLT
[8] “When Simon Peter realized what had happened, he fell to his knees before Jesus and said, “Oh, Lord, please leave me—I’m such a sinful man.”
Why did Isaiah concentrate his guilt on his lips? Was it because he understood that his lips were the fountainhead of what was in his heart? What came from his mouth issued from deep inside, just as Jesus had said. The entire nation he represented was guilty of having polluted hearts.
[5] Then I said, “It’s all over! I am doomed, for I am a sinful man. I have filthy lips, and I live among a people with filthy lips. Yet I have seen the King, the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.”
Despite his guilt, he had seen the Lord. How could he stand in the presence of such majesty? God had a solution…the altar! The burning coal represented a sacrifice consumed, accepted, and effective to deal with sin…a picture of the most powerful and effective sacrifice ever offered, the blood of Jesus!
[6] “Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal he had taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. [7] He touched my lips with it and said, “See, this coal has touched your lips. Now your guilt is removed, and your sins are forgiven.”
Worship, tephillah, had happened in Isaiah’s experience, perhaps for the first time. He had “seen the Lord” in a vision so glorious that it had overwhelmed and broken him…and changed the course of his life. He was ready to face his destiny with courage and faithfulness because he was convinced of the glory and power of Yahweh to fulfil His Word.
To be continued…