Touched by Fire

Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”
Isaiah 6:5-7 (NIV)

God’s response to Isaiah’s confession is not to destroy him. God’s response is, “Prophet, let Me touch you with fire.” Not fire to consume. Fire to consecrate. God’s holiness becomes, through fire, the instrument to heal Isaiah.

Even the seraphim could not handle the fire of God. The coal was so hot that even a burning angel had to handle it with tongs. Then the coal touches the lips—a symbol of touching his life, purposeful contact. Why? To consecrate the man that God wants to use to speak through.

This is grace. The coal that should have destroyed the prophet’s lips instead purified them. The fire that represented God’s holiness, which should have consumed him, instead cleansed him. And the announcement is courtroom language. “Your guilt has been taken away, and your sins have been atoned.” It means “Your case has been dismissed. Your debt has been canceled. Your record has been expunged.”

Then the progression becomes a pattern. Conviction led to confession. Confession led to cleansing. Cleansing led to commissioning. God does not commission what He hasn’t cleaned. And when the call goes out, Isaiah responds the only way that makes sense: “Here I am, God. You can send me.”

Sometimes what is needed is not more strategy. We just need to be touched by fire.