Isaiah's Throne Vision and Commission

In the year King Uzziah died, Isaiah saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, with the train of his robe filling the temple. Seraphim—six-winged angelic beings—flew above, calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” The doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple filled with smoke.

Isaiah cried out: “Woe to me! 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.”

One of the seraphim flew to him with a live coal taken from the altar, touched Isaiah’s mouth, and said: “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Then Isaiah heard the voice of the Lord: “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”

Isaiah responded: “Here am I. Send me!”

God commissioned him with a difficult message—preaching to a people who would hear but not understand, see but not perceive, whose hearts would be calloused until judgment came. When Isaiah asked how long, God answered: “Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged.”

This vision became the foundation of Isaiah’s 40+ year prophetic ministry, marked by visions of God’s holiness, calls to repentance, and promises of a coming Messiah. The seraphim’s “Holy, holy, holy” became central to Jewish and Christian liturgy.