"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."
Have you ever been devastated by a glimpse of the majesty of God?... Maybe you saw it in a sunset…or the smile of a newborn child. Perhaps the Holy Spirit revealed an inkling of the Love the Father has for you and it overpowered you.
However it happened, it pushed you into the harsh comparison of who you are - and who God is…and forced you to reckon with the magnitude of grace that has been granted to you.
That is a good thing – occasionally you need to get “down wind” of yourself and get a whiff of your own sin.
When hunting or camping, after a few days you can develop what is called Anosmia…also referred to as “smell blindness”. You lose the ability to smell yourself…you only notice the problem when you get back to civilization and sit next to someone with reasonable hygiene.
In this world we develop “spiritual anosmia”. We accept and normalize sin until it produces “sin blindness”. Which makes us believe we are not so bad - until we are jolted by a glimpse of what true holiness looks like.
In this chapter Isaiah tells the people five separate times… “Woe to you, there is no hope for you….” Then suddenly he catches sight of the glory of God and says “Woe to me!... There is no hope for me”.
It completely wrecks him. The Glory of God magnified the stench of his own sin …and he was undone…unable to hide from the uncleanness of his own transgressions, he can only cry out for mercy.
This encounter re-calibrated his spiritual olfactory senses and produced immediate repentance and humility… and that is exactly what you and I need.
Meditate on God’s glory this morning and allow Him to contrast your sin with His holiness. Take a hard look in the mirror and confess your sins to your Father…Fall to your knees and acknowledge your need for real and immediate repentance.
Then rest in the amazing grace of God as He washes your unclean lips with the cleansing blood of His Son.
“Therefore, when I admonish you to confession, I am admonishing you to be a Christian.” – Martin Luther
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