Removing the Veil
J. H. Jowett, M. A. Isaiah 6:1-13 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the LORD sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.… 1. A king must die! There almost seems to be something incongruous in the very phrase. The very word "king" means power. The king is the man who can — the man who is possessed of ability, dominions, sovereignty; and the shock is almost violent when we are told that the range of kingship is shaped and determined by death. How the one word suffices for all sorts and conditions of men! The registrar deals with us very summarily! We look through his books. His vocabulary is very limited. He has two words, "born" and "died," and between the two he Can fit in all mankind; there is no exception to disturb his little printed form; we all take our place in it, prince and peasant, emperor and slave. And all this irrespective of character. 2. As kings went in those days, Uzziah had proved himself an admirable king, a wise ruler, a good man. He was distinctly a progressive man, a man of action and enterprise. His energies were not absorbed in merely foreign affairs, nor shaped by the lust of mere dominion. He proceeded upon the principle that a successful foreign policy must be based upon a wise domestic policy; that an efficient and stable rulership must begin at home. I like the way in which the chronicler sums up the king's motives and gives us the very spirit of his home policy, "he loved husbandry?" "He loved husbandry," and therefore you find him hedging his people about with security as they go about their daily life. He "digged many wells," he attended to the requirements of irrigation, he laid the hand of protection and favour upon husbandmen and vine dressers, and in every way he showed that he regarded agriculture as the fundamental and primary pursuit of national life. Upon that home policy he built his foreign policy. If you have peace, security, and contentment at the centre it is easier to extend and widen the bounds of your circumference; and with order and prosperity at home, Uzziah was able to enlarge the borders of his empire. He could raise from his devoted people an army of mighty power. The limits of his kingdom were being continually expanded. "His name spread far abroad. He was marvellously helped, till he was strong." Such was the nation's king; loved by all his people, feared by all his foes. Is it, then, any wonder that King Uzziah — skilled organiser in home affairs, subtle strategist in foreign affairs — became the pillar of the nation's hopes, the repository of her trust, the ultimate security of her prosperity and permanence? 3. Now, there is a strange tendency in human nature to deify any person who gives evidence of possessing any kind of extraordinary power. We place them on the heart's throne — the throne on which are centred the soul's hopes and which carries with it the ultimate sovereignty and apportionment of life. Extraordinary power of any kind appeals to the godlike within us, and upon the object evincing the extraordinary power we too often fix our trust. Watch the principle in the narrative before us. Here is Isaiah. Before his call and consecration he had lived on the political plane of life. His thought was ever moving among the forces of diplomacy and statecraft. How intensely absorbed he was in the game of national politics! The national problem was to Isaiah a political problem. The ultimate foundation of national prosperity was stable government. The wise handling of political forces was the one essential for the continuity and grandeur of the nation's life. That was the plane of thought and life on which Isaiah moved, and on that plane he must find his heroes. He found the hero in Uzziah. What then? He had won Isaiah's admiration. Next, he won his confidence, next his love, next his devotion; then Uzziah became Isaiah's god! Uzziah filled the whole of Isaiah's vision. How now did Isaiah's reasoning run? Thus — "What will become of the world when Uzziah dies? When the master of statecraft is gone, in whose hands will the rulership rest? When the political nave is removed, will not all the spokes of the national wheel be thrown into the direst confusion?" That was Isaiah's fear, begotten by his hero worship. Well, Uzziah died. What then! Says Isaiah, "In the year that King Uzziah died" — what? — "All my worst fears were abundantly realised"? No, no! "In the year that King Uzziah died I had my eyes opened; I saw there was a greater, kingdom with a greater King — I saw the Lord." The hero died to reveal the hero's God. What, then, did the revelation do for Isaiah? It gave him an enlarged conception of all things. It gave him a new centre for his thoughts and life. It taught him this, that the ultimate security for all national greatness is not kings and crowns but God. It taught him this, that big armies, and walled cities, and quiet husbandry, and subtle diplomacy, and complex civilisations am not the fundamental forces on which mankind rests. The eternal centre of all true life, the centre which time cannot weaken and which death cannot corrupt, is not diplomacy, but holiness — not Uzziah, but the Lord. The earthly king had come between Isaiah and his God, and it was only when the earthly king was taken away that Isaiah saw the King of kings. "I saw the Lord high and lifted up" — a limited interest replaced by a larger one, a low standard supplanted by a loftier one, a loom monarch stepping aside to reveal the universal King. 4. This teaching has a most pertinent application to the life of today. Which is the most prominent in English national life today — King Uzziah or King Jesus, the representative of diplomacy or the representative of holiness? Which are we most concerned about — the science of politics or the science of holy living? What are the forces on which we are chiefly depending for the continuity of our national supremacy? The eternal forces are not material, but spiritual, proceeding not from the earth, but coming down from heaven. Material forces must be kept secondary, because they are transient; spiritual forces must be primary, because they are eternal. What is the conclusion of the whole matter? Don't let us lay the stress and emphasis of life upon secondary things — not upon Uzziah, but upon the Lord. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. WEB: In the year that king Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple.