Isaiah 6:1
I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. (NIV)
Today’s Reading: Isaiah 6 and Psalm 148
Isaiah was privileged to see many things that humans don’t get to see and our text today is probably one of the most studied visions of Isaiah. Isaiah gives us the exact year that he saw this vision as it was the year that King Uzziah died. Recall that King Uzziah stormed the temple and tried to burn incense and God struck him with leprosy for his actions. Regardless, God is going to show Isaiah the true King.
Isaiah tells us what he saw that day:
“I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and 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 and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke” (Isa 6:1-4).
Isaiah saw Jesus seated on his throne. Isaiah tells us in verse 5 that he cried, “Woe to me!” I cried. “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.” Isaiah saw the King, the Lord Almighty. Jesus is the King and Isaiah saw him seated on his throne in heaven. What a privilege!
We also know that Isaiah saw Jesus because the apostle John tells us that Isaiah saw Jesus. John wrote in reference to this passage, “For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
“He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”
Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ glory and spoke about him” (John 12:39-41).
John also tells us in his opening chapter, “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known” (John 1:18). So from this, we can clearly say that Isaiah saw Jesus.
We also can see from Isaiah’s vision and John’s writings that Jesus is God and he is being worshipped by the heavenly beings as they cry out, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty.” Jesus is God Almighty and is being rightfully worshipped as Yahweh. And since Jesus “was with God in the beginning” (John 1:2), even in the eighth century BC, Jesus was being worshipped, seated on his throne, as King over heaven and earth.
It’s also worth noting that the apostle John saw the same vision that Isaiah saw about 800 years later. John records his vision in Revelation:
“In the center, around the throne, were four living creatures, and they were covered with eyes, in front and in back. The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come”” (Rev 4:6-8).
In Jewish writings, a double repetition of a word emphasizes the point whereas a threefold repetition of a word completes and confirms the matter. When the Seraph’s cry out “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,” they are confirming that indeed Jesus is complete holiness. He is set apart and there is none like him!
Lastly, the seraph declare “the whole earth is full of his glory.” Let’s not sleep on that point. The heavenly beings declare Jesus’s holiness and position as Lord Almighty, but they also declare that the whole earth is full of his glory. John tells us, “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3).
Everything that has been made on the earth was made to express the glory of Jesus. The prophet Habakkuk proclaims, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea” (Hab 2:14). His wisdom and goodness fill the earth. His power and holiness are seen everywhere.
As Jesus was being surrounded by the praise of the people while riding into Jerusalem on the colt, he told the Pharisees, “If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out” (Luke 19:40). It is the response of all creation in the presence of Jesus to praise him. And since the whole earth is full of his glory, we are right to praise him along with all of creation.
“Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted;
his splendor is above the earth and the heavens” (Psalm 148:13).
Christ in the Old Testament 
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