An excerpt from
When People are Big and God is Small. It is a hard book to go through because it is so piercing, no sugar coating. Chapter 7 is my favorite (also because I just finished it) but it highlights God's holiness and why and how we should fear the Lord. If I could, I'd type up the whole book, but here's just a bit of it.
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When Isaiah was called by God, he was given a message that guaranteed he would be rejected and physically threatened by others (Isa. 6:9-14). There were going to be daily opportunities for him to fear man rather than God. As a result, it was essential for him to have the fear of the Lord absolutely branded into his heart, because the person who fears God fears nothing else.
Think of it. God tells you to speak out publicly against national policy in such a way that you will be declared a traitor. You are invited to a banquet and have to preach doom and gloom to the revelers. You will be the
the most unpopular person in all of Israel and Judah, and kings will want your head. In such situations God gives his people special grace. For Isaiah, this grace came as a kind of ordination sermon. The impact of this ordination gave shape to the entire book, and it is the reason Isaiah prefers to call his God the Holy One of Israel.
"In the year that King Uzziah died" (Isa 6:1), begins Isaiah. With this introduction, Isaiah is not trying to give us a historical marker for the events that follow; he is introducing the fear of the Lord.
King Uzziah was a marvelous king. Schooled by Zechariah in the fear of God (2 Chron. 2:5), the Lord gave him success after success. However, he did not heed the law's instruction to be especially alert during the days of prosperity. When he became powerful, in his pride he usurped a task specifically delegated to the priests alone. The result was that the Lord afflicted him immediately with leprosy.
It brings back memories of Moses. Here was a truly fine leader who tripped at just one point and was severely disciplined. Moses was not allowed to enter the promised land, and Uzziah was struck with leprosy until the day he died. Therefore when Uzziah died, it was a time of national mourning, and its as also a time to grow in the fear of the Lord. The Lord was a holy God who would not tolerate sin in his people. So Isaiah was trembling even before the vision.....
Isaiah did what anybody would do. He cried out, "Woe to me!" He was certain that he would die. He was unclean, and he was in the presence of the Holy One of Israel who had punished Uzziah with leprosy. Yet the Lord was not done with Isaiah. This was a school in the fear of the Lord, and the pinnacle of the teaching consists of the mingling of power and judgment with gentleness and loving forgiveness. Therefore, in an act that points to Jesus as clearly as anything in the Bible, the seraph took the initiative toward a man who was as good as dead. The seraph purified Isaiah by taking hot coals from the alter where sacrifices were offered to God, and touching him (1 John 1:9).
Then Isaiah did what anybody would do in such a situation. He forgot about himself and offered himself as a servant to the living God. His fear of the Lord was expressed by reverential obedience. This is one of the great blessings of the fear of the Lord. We think less often about ourselves. When a heart is being filled with the greatness of God, there is less room for the question, "What are people going to think of me?"
If you have ever walked among giant redwoods, you will never be overwhelmed by the size of a dogwood tree. Or if you have been through a hurricane, a spring rain is nothing to fear. If you have been in the presence of the almighty God, everything that once controlled you suddenly has less power. (116)
