Isaiah 6:5-7
5) So I said: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, And I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” 6) Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken with the tongs from the altar. 7) And he touched my mouth with it, and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; Your iniquity is taken away, And your sin purged.”
Before we examine this scripture, let us summarise our two previous articles as they will tie into this.
The words we speak are powerful, especially as believers in Christ. They can bring life when we speak positively or death when speak negatively. When we speak, things are activated in the spirit realm, which then manifest on earth either in our own lives, the lives of others, or our environments, depending on who or where we direct our words. These can be good or bad things depending on what we say. (Please refer to my first article for more information on this topic).
The words we speak can also defile us. That is why Ephesians 4:29 says, “Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth…”. (Please refer to my second article for more information on this topic).
Now back to Isaiah. If Isaiah was going to speak for, or represent God, he had to be clean. He could not be defiled by the sin of a bad mouth so this had to be dealt with through conviction and repentance before he could become a prophet.
Let’s look at verse 5: “Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips”. That sounds like conviction to me. I don’t believe that Isaiah was talking about physical dirt on his lips but rather the words that had come from his mouth. I believe that Isaiah experienced a conviction about negative or bad words he’d previously spoken. I see recognition, regret, and admission of his wrongdoing because of his encounter with God – “For my eyes have seen the King, The Lord of hosts.” God reveals his sin through the encounter. We cannot have an encounter with God and not be changed.
In verses 6 and 7, Isaiah is purged of his iniquity and sin i.e., he is forgiven. God saw the true regret and repentant state of Isaiah’s heart and forgave him (because God sees the heart – 1 Samuel 16:7). So how is this relevant to us?
Like Isaiah, if we are going to represent God as disciples, we must be clean. We cannot allow our words to defile us (Matthew 15:11). We also need to ensure that our hearts are clean because out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak (Luke 6:45); be it in the form of racial comments or complaints, gossip, or slander. If it’s there it will eventually slip out and defile us as well as those we are speaking about.
We must therefore constantly examine ourselves and allow God to convict our hearts. That which He reveals we must repent of. Grudges, offenses taken, hurts, disappointments in people, anger, resentment, and bitterness must be surrendered to the Lord. If there are offenders, we must forgive them (Matthew 6:14-15). This is part of the refining process. As the live coal touched Isaiah’s mouth and purged his sin, we need to allow the refining fire of God to purge our hearts (Zachariah 13:9).