It's Not About Me - Max Lucado [8]
Fourteen years later, halfway around the globe, Frederick Dellenbaugh was equally impressed. He was only eighteen when he joined Major Powell on his pioneering river voyages through the Grand Canyon. Led by the one-armed Powell, the explorers floated on leaky boats and faced high waters. It’s a wonder they survived. It’s every bit as much a wonder what they saw. Dellenbaugh described the scene:
My back being towards the fall I could not see it.... Nearer and nearer came the angry tumult; the Major shouted “Back water!” there was a sudden dropping away of all support; then the mighty wavers [sic] smote us. The boat rose to them well, but we were flying at twenty-five miles an hour and at every leap the breakers rolled over us. “Bail!” shouted the Major,—“Bail for your lives!” and we dropped the oars to bail, though bailing was almost useless. ... The boat rolled and pitched like a ship in a tornado. ... canopies of foam pour[ed] over gigantic black boulders, first on one side, then on the other. . . . If you will take a watch and count by it ninety seconds, you will probably have about the time we were in this chaos, though it seemed much longer to me.Then we were through.2
Young Dellenbaugh knew rapids. Rivers and raging water were not new to him. But something about this river was. The sudden immensity, stark intensity—something stole the oars-man’s breath. He knew rapids. But none like this.
Speke, speechless. Dellenbaugh, drenched and awestruck.
And Isaiah, facefirst on the temple floor. Arms crossed above his head, muffled voice crying for mercy. Like the explorers, he’s just seen the unseen. But unlike the explorers, he’s seen more than creation—he’s seen the Creator. He’s seen God.
Seven and one-half centuries before Christ, Isaiah was ancient Israel’s version of a Senate chaplain or court priest. His family, aristocratic. His Hebrew, impeccable. Polished, professional, and successful. But the day he saw God only one response seemed appropriate: “Woe is me, for I am ruined.” What caused such a confession? What stirred such a reply? The answer is found in the thrice-repeated words of the seraphim: “Holy, holy, holy.”
Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said,
“Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts,
The whole earth is full of His glory.”
And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.Then I said,
“Woe is me, for I am ruined!
Because I am a man of unclean lips,
And I live among a people of unclean lips;
For my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” (Isaiah 6:2-5)
On the one occasion seraphim appear in Scripture, they endlessly trilogize the same word. “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty” (NIV). Repetition, in Hebrew, performs the work of our highlighter. A tool of emphasis. God, proclaims the six-winged angels, is not holy. He is not holy, holy. He is holy, holy, holy.
What other attribute receives such enforcement? No verse describes God as “wise, wise, wise” or “strong, strong, strong.” Only as “holy, holy, holy.” God’s holiness commands headline attention.The adjective qualifies his name more than all others combined.3 The first and final songs of the Bible magnify the holiness of God. Having crossed the Red Sea, Moses and the Israelites sang, “Who among the gods is like you, O LORD? Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?” (Exodus 15:11 NIV). In Revelation those who had been victorious over the beast sang, “Who will not fear you, O Lord, and bring glory to your name? For you alone are holy” (15:4 NIV).
GOD IS NOT HOLY.
HE IS NOT HOLY, HOLY.
HE IS HOLY, HOLY, HOLY.
The Hebrew word for holy is qadosh, which means cut off or separate. Holiness, then, speaks of the “otherness” of God. His total uniqueness. Everything