The Angel Touches the Coal

The year King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord.

Sitting on a throne, high and lifted up.

The train of his robe filled the temple.

Above him stood the seraphim.

Six wings each. With two they covered their faces. With two they covered their feet. With two they flew.

They called to one another: Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory.

The foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice.

The house was filled with smoke.

Isaiah said: Woe is me.

Not praise. Not wonder. Woe.

For I am lost. 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.

He was undone by the contrast. Between what he saw and what he was.

Then one of the seraphim flew to him.

Having a live coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar.

He touched it to Isaiah's mouth.

He said: Behold, this has touched your lips.

Your guilt is taken away.

Your sin is atoned for.

A coal from the altar.

On his lips.

And guilt — not managed, not covered, not reduced — gone.

Then the voice of the Lord said: Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?

Isaiah, whose lips had just been touched by fire from the altar, said:

Here I am. Send me.

He had entered that room undone.

He left it commissioned.

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