Doug Van Pelt

Isaiah Six

Isaiah Six

One Bad Pig, who is performing a rare gig tonight in Austin, Texas, was formed in this fine city. One of the very first songs they wrote was "Six," later named "Isaiah Six" for the dull of understanding.

"My sleep was shattered by blinding light..."

It's really a great song. There's this incredible passion, as though they were feeling what Isaiah must've felt when he saw God in the temple.

I remember many of those early gigs. While they were raw and without the pranks and fanfare of what the band later came to be known by, I think these gigs were the band's "glory years," as they were playing to an unsaved very punk audience in the Austin clubs. Later they were catering to a very Christian audience that was starving for good fun. But early on they were singing to an audience of agnostics, atheists, and drunk or getting drunk punks. It was cutting edge. It was real. Members of the bands they played with, like Kriminal Krew, showered praise and appreciation on the Pig, as if God were getting a fair share at the microphone. It was kind of that "hardcore spirit" that some talk about in the scene.

A group of us went out to the small church in Austin's hill country -- Bee Caves Baptist Church -- to see Pig lead screamer, Carey Womack, in action. It was funny to see him in a suit, with his hair combed oh-so conservatively (and missing were the 2 dozen rock pins he wore on his jacket almost daily), and even more funny was hearing him begin the service by singing some special music. He sang some old song by Dallas Holm -- probably that old "classic" song, "I Saw The Lord." It was an old crooner. If he wasn't my friend, I probably would've gagged or at least gigled. I think Carey might've even preached out of Isaiah 6 that day.

Back to our text...
It is awesome to see Isaiah's response: "'Woe is me!' I cried. '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.'

"Then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. With it he touched my mouth and said, 'See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.'

After another voice was heard. It was the Lord, saying, "'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And I said, 'Here am I. Send me!'"

I would have said something else in that context: "Ouch! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! That burns!!!"

I can't imagine the pain. But the cleansing result was amazing. To be forgiven of guilt and atoned. What a great thing. That is something to be thankful for. That would motivate the heart, perhaps, to volunteer, "Here am I. Send me!"

It's interesting how God was sort of sarcastic (I guess) after that. He said,
"'Go and tell this people:
'Be ever hearing, but never understanding;
be ever seeing, but never perceiving.'"

It's as if God is saying, "If you don't understand, if you don't perceive, it'll be bad." It's almost as if the obvious is being stated with sarcasm.

Isaiah asks him, "'For how long, O Lord?'" And God answers, "'Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, until the Lord has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste.'" It seems as if God is telling us what the result will be if we don't understand and we don't perceive. It'll be to our ruin (or at least the ruin of God's people in Isaiah's time).

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at July 12, 2005 09:12 AM