There Is A Higher Throne
It happens all the time. I have just a few minutes before the demands of life greedily appropriate my attention. I sit down and open my Bible to read. This is not a moment for particulars. I’ll take anything. I just want to hear His voice before my focus is seized by the effort to make sense of the cacophony that surrounds me.
I find the spot where I left off. This morning it is the ancient prophecy of Isaiah, the sixth chapter, the biography of the transformation and call of a prophet of God. This is glory. This is wonder. This is grace. I’ve savored this account many, many times, pleading with God that I, too, might see His glory and feel the soul-healing, life-changing touch of the coals that burn with holy fire before the throne.
But, in all the times I’ve read and loved this episode of God’s self-revelation, the means by which alone we can know with certainty anything true of God, I had never seen what I saw this morning. Isaiah writes,
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a thronr, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple.
In the year an earthly throne sits empty, the throne of heaven remains filled. And not only is God upon His throne but His glory fills the temple. He is not merely adequate, He is overhwhelmingly abundant in His Person for all we need both to be and do in the world. Earthly kings come and go. He remains upon the throne. The throne of heaven, the seat of cosmic authority, sovereignty, power, and grace is never empty even when earthly thrones sit vacant.
I had not seen the connection between the vacancy on the earthly throne and the glorious sufficiency of the heavenly throne. All these years I just dismissed the mention of the death of the king as a mere time stamp, a way of placing the narrative in the flow of history. But these introductory words establish the capacity for Isaiah’s life and ministry. It is not earthly resources that will change his heart, purify his lips, or redeem his people (those of “unclean lips” like himself, cf. 6:5). It is no earthly authority that will set his course, define his focus, command his life. This is no human monarch tasking a less capable servant. This is the Almighty calling, preparing, refining, and defining a prophet for His own glory, one who, as the seraphim in heaven call out day and night without ceasing, will call out relentlessly upon the earth:
Holy! Holy! Holy is the LORD God Almighty!
In my little corner of the world today, one national leader has given way to another. Reactions to the transition range from great approval and hope to great rejection and despair. Where some had hoped to finally find restoration and peace, others resist as oppression and betrayal.
I do not what outcome we will see. But I know this, God sits upon the throne of all creation, the work of His own hands and word for the sake of His glory and the fulfilment of His will. I cannot see nor influence the global leaders of my day but I can see and love and serve the King, the LORD of hosts Who holds those leaders and all their influence in His glorious, holy hands.
And I can live and love and serve knowing that no matter what, the whole earth is and WILL be filled with His glory. That is the statement of absolute, inevitable truth that fills the halls and hearts of heaven. His glory does and will fill the whole earth. It may appear today that the leadership upon which we depend in contemporary society is figuratively dead but the real leadership upon which we rely lives, and causes, and commands.
Go and live and love and serve the ever living, throne sitting, temple filling Glory with full confidence and all hope for He remains even when all else seems lost. Though the thrones of earth fall silent, from the throne of heaven, the voice of God speaks. Though we are people of unclean lips, sinners surrounded by sin and sinners like us, the holiness of God cleanses and transforms. Though the songs of earth rise in chaos, the song of heaven is clear.
Earthly kings die. The King, the LORD of hosts, lives.
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