October 2

Read: Isaiah 6:1-5

Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips (Isaiah 6:5).

Conviction For Cleansing

“He who had uttered this cry was one who had kept himself from his iniquity, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience; and yet in that terrible light he saw and avowed himself as a man undone, saw stains in himself which he had not imagined before, discovered impurities which he had not dreamt of before, saw his own sin and his people’s sin, till that mighty cry of anguish was wrung from him. Yet that moment, with all its dreadfulness, was a passage into a true life” (R. C. Trench).

Was it the song of the seraphim that convicted Isaiah of his deep need? Was it not the message of the holiness of God that rang from the lips of this heavenly choir? In a flash of convicting personal insight the young prophet knew that he could not join in that song. The need for forgiveness is here, but there is more. Isaiah was conscious that his deeper need was cleansing from unholiness. Until that happened, his lips were unworthy to join the seraphim as they sang, “Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty!” Until he was cleansed and joined that choir, he could not truthfully sing:

“All Thy works shall praise Thy name In earth, and sky, and sea.”

To understand God’s will for a holy life is to see our duty to be clean. In the hour of conviction we know our own need and we know that we must have all the help that God can give us.

I hate the sin which grieves Thy loving heart; Speak, precious Lord, and bid it all depart. Thy temple cleanse, and make my heart Thy home; Come, King of Kings, and reign thyself alone.*

— George Bennard

*Copyright 1940, renewal, The Rodeheaver Co. Used by permission.