Narrative Lectionary Program Year – God Calls Isaiah
Isaiah 6:1-8
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Furthering the Power of God’s Story – Narrative Lectionary Commentary
by Rev. Dr. Clint Schnekloth
Isaiah isn’t a book, it’s a mansion. It is an extreme case of mingling various prophetic voices from many prophets and various periods. Walk around in the early section (chapters 1-39) and you hang out with Isaiah mixed with a range of other voices. Hang out in chapters 40-55, and you’re with a prophet of the Babylonian exile… not Isaiah. The book contains three principal poets, exhibiting a level of poetic virtuosity rare even among the wonderful poetic texts of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Our chapter under consideration begins not with poetry, however, but with prose. It’s a narrative report that precedes the prophecy proper. We only begin the poetry when the dialogue begins (see Robert Alter, 641). The prose description is remarkable. God is huge, so huge their robe fills the entirety of the inside of the Temple. Seraphim hover around covering up various parts of God, including possibly God’s genitals (feet being a euphemism for genitals).
As we read this description, we are left dealing with a discussion of God as having a body. Not only that, but the presence of the body impacts physicality itself. Pillars sway. The air is filled with smoke.
In the midst of this, we get two voices. The first is the Seraphim, crying out each to each words of praise. Then Isaiah calls out, proclaiming his unworthiness in the presence of such a doxological wonder. The seraphim quickly rectify the situation, touching coals to Isaiah’s lips, and purifies Isaiah for his mission. This has a double meaning, since it will allow Isiaiah to prophecy using the medium with which he has proficiency: poetry itself.
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“The vision in the Temple in which Isaiah is commissioned as prophet is clearly the beginning of his prophetic mission, and this chapter would be the first thing he wrote. —Robert Alter”
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Free Dramatic Reading For This Text (NRSV)
Readers: Isaiah, Seraph, Lord
Isaiah: In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe filled the temple. Seraphs were in attendance above him; each had six wings: with two they covered their faces, and with two they covered their feet, and with two they flew. And one called to another and said:
Seraph: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory.
Isaiah: The pivots on the thresholds shook at the voices of those who called, and the house filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; yet my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew to me, holding a live coal that had been taken from the altar with a pair of tongs. The seraph touched my mouth with it and said:
Seraph: Now that this has touched your lips, your guilt has departed and your sin is blotted out.
Isaiah: Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying,
Lord: Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?
Isaiah: And I said, “Here am I; send me!”