A Nation On The Brink

By John Stallings


When king Uzziah died I saw the lord. -- Isaiah 6:1


Do you remember when President Kennedy was shot in Dallas Texas in 1963?

I was conducting revival services in Newark New Jersey at the time.

Some of us can remember how terrible that week felt- from the time the president was murdered all the way through to his funeral & burial in Arlington National Cemetery. No matter what your politics were in those days, you had a hollow feeling in the pit of your stomach that wouldn’t go away.

Others of us might not remember Kennedy’s assassination but they well remember the infamous date, 9/11/01 when the World Trade Center was destroyed. Churches all over America were filled to overflowing as dismayed citizens flocked back to church, searching for comfort & assurance.

Events like these have a way of driving a whole nation to their knees. Sadly that move back to God was short-lived & many churches are at present half-filled again.

This kind of collective, national grief must have been what Isaiah & all of Judah felt when their beloved King Uzziah died after a 52 year reign, all those thousands of years ago.

When no less an authority than Isaiah the prophet is deeply moved by your death, there has to be some substance to your life. In Isaiah 6:1, he says;--In the year King Uzziah died I also saw the Lord.

In the panoply of Old Testament heroes, Isaiah stands out as a superstar. He’s a major prophet, along with Jeremiah & Ezekiel because of the sheer enormity of written material that bears his name.

I’ve enjoyed reading & studying the book of Isaiah for over 50 years, partly because of the prophet’s superb command of language; its rolling cadences & great literary passages. But what intrigues me most is, -- Isaiah has the best revelation of Christ to be found in the Old Testament, so much so that the book has been called, “the Gospel according to Isaiah.” The book has also been called a miniature Bible. The Bible has 66 books & Isaiah has 66 chapters. Both books are divided into two sections. There are 39 books in the Old Testament & there are 39 chapters in the last half of Isaiah. Since chapter 40 is Isaiah’s introduction of John the Baptist, we could rightly say that’s where his “new testament” starts.

Isaiah keeps building toward “the redeemer who is to come,” until in chapter 53 Jesus steps right off the page. I especially love 53:6 because it starts with All & ends with All. We’ve All gone astray, & through Christ we’re All potentially redeemed.

The New Testament ends with the book of Revelation with its vision of the new heaven & the new earth. The book of Isaiah closes with the remarkable chapter 66 that speaks also of the new heaven & new earth God is now creating.

Old Testament prophets couldn’t apply for the job, but rather were chosen by God. They predicted the future with 100% accuracy. If they were wrong once, they weren’t to be given any credibility. Most prophets were of humble origins but Isaiah was a recognized statesman, having access to the royal court. God used him to speak to several kings including Hezekiah, Jotham, Ahaz & Uzziah.

Uzziah had been one of Israel’s better Kings. He did what was right in the sight of the Lord-consequently God blessed him. He ascended to the throne at the age of 16, & ruled for 52 years. In 52 years the United States witnessed to administrations of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H. Bush, Bill Clinton & George W. Bush.

Uzziah didn’t sit on his throne eating powdered donuts; he fought for Israel. He fought all the right people for the right reasons. Uzziah protected his people from attack by building towers into the walls of Jerusalem. He developed new weaponry & also had a standing army of 307,500 men led by 2,600 officers. In doing all of this the man became prosperous & internationally famous.

Uzziah came from good stock. He was a “chip off the old block,” following after God in the same way his father King Amaziah had done who reigned before him. He built on the solid foundation his father had laid.

The main enemy of Israel in those days was the Assyrians. They were a blood-thirsty lot, bred to destroy. They reduced towns to rubble, temples to char & kings to beggars. But during his reign Uzziah made sure this didn’t happen in Judah. He was canny & tough & possessed a tactical & political shrewdness that kept the Assyrians out & his people safe. A sense of security covered the land while Uzziah was on the throne.

The story tells us that –As long as Uzziah sought the Lord, God made him prosper. But that verse reads somewhat ominously, don’t you think? Like hearing the sound of a distant storm approaching.--AS LONG AS HE SOUGHT THE LORD…..This is the entrée verse, telling us that the time came when Uzziah no longer sought the Lord.

You see, the great king’s life didn’t end so well. Obviously lifted up with pride & a sense of importance born of the longevity of his career, one day Uzziah’s “bad side” appeared & he “blew his stack” & entered the temple, claiming the rights reserved for the priests. Azariah & 80 other temple priests tried to stop him but he became belligerent & started screaming at the priests. This was a fatal act for the old king. He was immediately stricken with leprosy, carted out & placed in, presumably a Hospice situation, where he eventually died.

With the great king dead, the balance of power in the realm seemed to tip away from hope & stability to despair & a sense of vulnerability. Everyone in the kingdom wondered what would happen now. I’d like to think they all were praying but I know one young man who did pray.

Isaiah was a young fellow with a wife & two sons just beginning his career as a prophet. He must have been confused & afraid. As a matter of fact, he’s so distraught he feels he must meet God to try to find some answers.

I can see young Isaiah early one morning as he hits the street with his collar turned up against the cold wind, heading down to the temple. He’s going to get a whole lot more than he bargained for today. As he walks into the temple he feels the whole place slightly trembling. He wonders what that’s about. Then he looks around & sees the doors are actually shaking. He probably rubbed his eyes, looked again & wondered, “Do we have a building problem to contend with?”

Then Isaiah sees that everything is different than it’s ever been before. He sees big wings everywhere, flapping about the room attached to fiery creatures. He smells smoke but it’s not the kind that sets off fire detectors. It’s a different smoke; ancient & spicy with a mysterious fragrance. He hears voices chanting the word “Holy, Holy, Holy”& it’s echoing all around him. He looks up & sees the shape of a throne & a long ephemeral cloth begins to unwind & fill the place.

The cloth is stitched like the hem of a garment but isn’t heavy. [Think Diana’s wedding gown in England; the train being so long it had to be carried behind her.] Isaiah feels more alive than he’s ever felt before. His head is spinning & he feels puny & overwhelmed with his own inadequacy. He shouted out, “Woe is me! I’m a man of unclean lips & so is everybody else around me. I’m lost & not worthy to be in God’s presence.”

Notice Isaiah didn’t say, “Woe is my spouse” or “woe is my neighbor,” he cried out, “woe is me.” It’s of interest that the angels declare God’s holiness three times. Nowhere in the bible is God called “love, love, love, or “mercy, mercy, mercy.” In Revelation 4, God’s holiness is also mentioned three times, telling us if we want to know God we must come to grips with His holiness.

By now the room is pulsating with electricity as the hem of God’s garment sweeps back & forth across the open space. Isaiah sees that the angel’s wings are getting closer, so close in fact one comes right toward him & presses a red-hot coal against his lips. He could feel the pain but pain that didn’t hurt. Rather it was a thrilling sensation.

Then Isaiah hears God’s voice just off to the side. The voice is saying, “Whom shall I send, & who will go for us?” Many bible scholars believe this voice addressing another shows us the triune nature of God. Here is God the Father addressing the Son & The Holy Spirit. The fact that holy is repeated three times by the angels would militate to that fact.

Isaiah opens his burning, stinging lips & blurts out, “Here am I, send me.” It’s strange that God would be asking the question, “whom shall I send & who will go for us,” don’t you think? Here is the God of the universe asking for volunteers. He wants willing, surrendered servants. It isn’t that God doesn’t know who the ready & available ones are but He is waiting for ready hearts to reveal themselves.

Notice also that Isaiah didn’t say, “Here I am, I will go,” but rather “here am I send me.” Isaiah wasn’t going at all unless he knew he was sent by the lord. Many will say, “here I am I’ll go” but never wait for God to send them.

So God begins to teach a man who will now become His prophet in a Nation on the brink. Perhaps the greatest lesson God taught Isaiah through this audiovisual was that no matter what happens on this earth, God is still on His throne, high & lifted up & He’ll have the last word in the affairs of man. King Uzziah is dead & his throne is vacant but God’s throne is never vacant.

Young Isaiah left the temple that day on a new mission. From that day forward he’d warn the people of the dangers of living self-absorbed lives & keep reminding them that God requires unconditional loyalty. He tells them their downfall wouldn’t come from without but within.

Ladies & gentlemen I know you can see the parallel between Isaiah’s day & ours. We are also A NATION ON THE BRINK. We face an election in a few short months that will set a new course for this nation for good or ill. Sadly many of our fellow countrymen don’t comprehend the dangers. So the question is; what do you do in times like these?

What should our response be when we have only one vote per person & after that vote is cast; it’s in God’s hands? I’m not going into a political rant in this blog because you’re as aware as I am about what’s at stake. You & I can & will vote the way we see fit in the next election. What I want to stress is what needs to happen in the spirit realm, because God is sovereign & puts leaders up & down as He wills. However that obviously doesn’t negate the awesome responsibility facing us as individuals.

I’d like to give three suggestions regarding what we should do, following the pattern Isaiah set for us in this story.

1. LOOK UP!

In the year king Uzziah died I saw the Lord seated on a throne high & exalted & the train of His robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphs each with six wings. With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet & with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:

Holy, holy, holy is the LORD almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.

At the sound of their voices the doorposts shook & the temple was filled with smoke.

When we’re going through times of stress & trial, we need to Look Up! I’ve always believed that America was placed by God safely between two oceans without enemies on our borders so we would be secure. However because of that we’ve placed too much confidence in our military & economic prowess. Now things have changed & in a real sense the world has become a “global village.” Missiles know no international boundaries & mankind now has in his hands the means to set whole cities to the torch in a matter of minutes.

However instead of looking around us or even within ourselves, we need to first Look Up to the one who sits upon that throne.

2. FESS- UP—Vr.5-7

Isaiah said, Woe to me, for I’m a man of unclean lips.

It’s refreshing to see Isaiah mention his own sins before he mentioned the sins of his neighbors. When we’re in time of danger & upheaval, we need to not only get an accurate view of God, we need to see ourselves as we really are.

Every one of us is flawed, sinful & blemished. When we get close enough to God to see how great & holy He is, we’ll also see how unworthy we are before Him. Isaiah probably had thought he was O.K but when he saw God he knew better.

I heard about a man who went to a psychiatrist’s office with a fried egg on top of his head & a strip of bacon draped over each ear & a sausage link in each nostril. “I need to talk to the doc,” he said. “It’s about my brother.” Obviously he didn’t see how messed-up he was.

Isaiah did the right thing. He became reflective in the time of tragedy. He didn’t say, “That stupid old king Uzziah. If he hadn’t tried to take over the priest’s job we wouldn’t be in this mess.” He didn’t say, “What can I expect? I live among rebellious people. I can’t blame God for bringing judgment against us.” Isaiah felt personally undone before the Almighty.

Let’s think about our present problems in America in the light of 2 Chronicles 7:14;

If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves & pray & seek my face & turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven & will forgive their sin & will heal their land.

Who does God restore? The repentant. Who does God bless? The humble. Who does God oppose? The proud.

The next thing we need to do in times of trouble is;

3. STEP UP!-vr.8

Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send. And who will go for us? And I said, here am I send me.

One of the most important things we can do especially in times of great need is have a mission in this world. Do you have a mission? We must get the focus off ourselves, once we’ve repented, & focus on what God can & is doing in the world. One of our greatest needs is to get the big picture & get on board with God’s eternal purposes.

I think you’ll agree with me that America is on the BRINK. Our economy as well as our standing in the world is at stake. Just this week Juda & I have written letters & sent emails to our Congressmen asking them to lend their efforts to allowing our people to drill for oil in Alaska, The Great Lakes & off our shores. There are some things that only the citizenry can do because in a country like ours at least for the present we wield awesome power.

We can all do something. Are you ready to STEP UP? It takes several hours a week to write these messages & I’ve wanted to stop many times but even if I encourage just a few, I feel I can do no less. I have the tools at my disposal so I do what I can.

We must step up! We must say with Isaiah, here am I send me.
Isaiah didn’t say, -“There he is send him.” God asks us to Look-up, Fess-up & Step-up.

Isaiah knew his nation was On The Brink of destruction. In response to God, he submitted himself entirely to God’s service for life.

No matter how difficult his task would be, he said, Lord, I’ll go!-- Will you?

Blessings,

John