The concepts of God’s holiness and the subsequent divine call to service are foundational pillars within Judeo-Christian theology. They represent two sides of a profound spiritual encounter: first, the recognition of God’s absolute purity and otherness, and second, the human response to be commissioned for His purpose. The prophets Isaiah and Ezekiel provide two of the most powerful and illustrative accounts of these experiences in scripture.
The Holiness of God – An Exposition of Isaiah
The book of Isaiah presents a multi-faceted view of God’s holiness. It is not merely a remote, transcendent quality but one that has immediate and demanding implications for human behavior and worship. We see this in two distinct but complementary accounts.
(a) The Ethical Demand of Holiness (Isaiah 1:10-20)
This passage reveals that God’s holiness is intrinsically linked to justice and righteousness. It serves as a powerful rebuke against religious hypocrisy, where outward rituals are performed without the inner transformation that true holiness demands.
- The Context and the Rebuke: Isaiah addresses the leaders and people of Judah and Jerusalem, provocatively calling them “rulers of Sodom” and “people of Gomorrah.” This is a shocking accusation, directly associating the covenant people with cities synonymous with total depravity. God, through Isaiah, declares His disgust with their religious observances. He rejects their sacrifices, incense, festivals, and even their prayers (vv. 11-15). The problem is not with the rituals themselves, but with the hearts of the worshipers. God states, “your hands are full of blood.” Their society was rife with oppression and injustice, rendering their worship a hollow, offensive charade.
- The True Requirements of Worship: Having rejected their empty aacraments, God outlines what true, holy worship entails (vv. 16-17). The instructions are practical and ethical:
- “Wash and make yourselves clean.” This is a call for genuine repentance and a turning away from evil practices.
- “Learn to do right; seek justice.” Holiness is not a passive state but an active pursuit of good.
- “Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” Here, the core of God’s holy requirement is revealed. It is social. True reverence for a holy God is demonstrated by caring for the most vulnerable members of society.
- The Invitation to Redemption: After this stern judgment, God extends a remarkable offer of grace (v. 18): “Come now, let us settle the matter… Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.” This promise of complete purification is contingent on their response. If they are “willing and obedient,” they will be blessed. If they resist and rebel, they will face destruction (vv. 19-20).
Conclusion on Isaiah 1: This passage establishes that God’s holiness is not an abstract theological concept. It is an active, ethical standard. It cannot be appeased with ritual but demands a commitment to justice, mercy, and righteousness in everyday life.
(b) The Transcendent Experience of Holiness (Isaiah 6:1-7)
If Isaiah 1 describes the ethical implications of holiness, Isaiah 6 describes the overwhelming experience of it. This is Isaiah’s own call narrative, rooted in a direct and terrifying vision of God’s majesty.
- The Setting and the Vision: The account is set “in the year that King Uzziah died,” a time of national uncertainty and political instability. In this moment of human fragility, Isaiah is granted a vision of divine sovereignty. He sees the “Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne,” with the train of His robe filling the temple (v. 1). The vision is not of God’s physical form but of His majestic presence and authority.
- The Heavenly Worship: Isaiah sees seraphim, angelic beings with six wings, attending to God. Their posture is one of profound reverence: with two wings they cover their faces (unworthy to look upon God), with two they cover their feet (a sign of humility and unworthiness), and with two they fly, ready to serve (v. 2). They cry out to one another in a chorus that defines the very nature of God: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (v. 3). The threefold repetition (“Trisagion”) signifies the ultimate and absolute nature of God’s holiness. It is His core attribute, from which all others flow.
- The Human Reaction to True Holiness: Faced with this vision, Isaiah does not feel uplifted or self-righteous. He is crushed by an immediate and profound sense of his own sinfulness. He cries out, “Woe to me! 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” (v. 5). To see perfect holiness is to see one’s own impurity in its stark reality. This is the essential human response to a genuine encounter with the divine.
- The Act of Divine Atonement: Isaiah’s confession of unworthiness does not lead to his destruction but to his purification. A seraph takes a live coal from the altar of sacrifice with tongs and touches it to Isaiah’s lips (vv. 6-7). This act is symbolic: atonement comes from God’s holy place (the altar) and is applied directly by a divine agent. It is a painful, cauterizing, cleansing fire. The seraph declares, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” Only after being purified by God Himself is Isaiah prepared for his commission.
The Divine Call of Ezekiel
Ezekiel’s call narrative is one of the most vivid and complex in all of scripture. It occurs in a context of national despair—among the exiles in Babylon—and demonstrates God’s sovereignty even far from the Jerusalem Temple.
1. The Vision of God’s Mobile Sovereignty (Ezekiel 1)
Before Ezekiel receives his verbal commission, he is given a vision designed to reshape his understanding of God’s presence and power.
- The Context and the Theophany: Ezekiel is “among the exiles by the Kebar River” in Babylon (v. 1). The exiles felt abandoned by God, whose presence was believed to be localized in the Temple. Ezekiel’s vision shatters this belief. He sees a great storm cloud approaching, filled with flashing light and brilliant fire.
- The Living Creatures and the Wheels: From the fire emerge four “living creatures,” each with four faces (a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle) and four wings. These faces likely represent the whole of creation—humanity, wild animals, domestic animals, and birds—all under God’s command. Beside these creatures are intersecting “wheels within wheels,” covered in eyes and able to move in any direction without turning. This bizarre imagery conveys specific truths: God’s mobility (He is not static), His omnipresence (He can go anywhere), and His omniscience (the eyes see everything). The entire apparatus moves as one, guided by the “spirit of the living creatures” (v. 20), signifying perfect unity in God’s will and action.
- The Throne and the Glory: Above this incredible “chariot” is a vault, and above the vault is a throne. On the throne sits a figure with “the appearance of a man,” glowing like fire and surrounded by a radiant light like a rainbow (vv. 26-28). This is the “appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD.” Upon seeing it, Ezekiel falls facedown, mirroring Isaiah’s response of awe and humility.
2. The Commission and the Message (Ezekiel 2; 3:1-11)
Having been overwhelmed by the vision of God’s glory, Ezekiel is now commissioned for his prophetic task.
- The Command to Stand and Speak: A voice commands the prostrate prophet, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you” (2:1). The Spirit enters Ezekiel, empowering him to stand. He is immediately informed of his difficult mission: he is being sent to the Israelites, a “rebellious nation” who are “obstinate and stubborn” (2:3-4). The expectation of failure is set from the beginning.
- The Eating of the Scroll: In a profound symbolic act, Ezekiel is shown a scroll written on both sides with “words of lament and mourning and woe” (2:10). He is commanded to eat the scroll. This represents the complete internalization of God’s message. The prophet must not simply speak the words; he must consume them, making them part of his very being. Surprisingly, as he eats it, the scroll tastes “as sweet as honey” (3:3). For the prophet, obedience to God and the privilege of bearing His word is a sweet experience, even if the message itself is one of bitter judgment for the people.
- The Fortification of the Prophet: God reassures Ezekiel that his mission is not to a foreign-speaking people who wouldn’t understand, but to his own kin, whose hearts are harder than any language barrier (3:5-7). Because of their hardness, God makes Ezekiel correspondingly tough. He tells him, “I will make you as unyielding and hardened as they are. I will make your forehead like the hardest stone, harder than flint” (3:8-9). God equips His messenger to withstand the inevitable rejection and opposition. The prophet’s responsibility is not to generate results but to remain faithful: “You shall speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen” (3:7).
Conclusion
The narratives of Isaiah and Ezekiel provide a comprehensive framework for understanding holiness and the divine call. Isaiah teaches that holiness has two dimensions: an ethical standard of justice that purifies a community from the inside out, and a transcendent majesty that reveals human sinfulness and provides divine atonement. It is this encounter with holiness that prepares a person for service.
Ezekiel builds on this foundation, showing how the divine call unfolds. It begins with a vision of God’s sovereign power, assuring the messenger that God is in control, even in the bleakest of circumstances. The call involves internalizing God’s word, finding sweetness in obedience, and being divinely fortified for a difficult task where faithfulness, not success, is the ultimate measure. Together, these prophets show that a true call from God flows from a genuine encounter with His holiness, equipping and compelling an individual to speak and act on His behalf in the world.
