“The Hem of His Robe filled the
temple” (Isaiah 6:1b)
Have you ever been so amazed, so
astonished by something that it felt as if your breath had been taken away from
you, you stopped breathing in a moment of awe perhaps! In the reading from
Isaiah (Is 6:1-7), the prophet in a vision is brought to the temple and there
he sees, “the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lofty; and the hem of his robe
filled the temple. There are six winged Seraphs in attendance singing, “Holy,
Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. The pivots of the threshold shakes at their
voices and smoke fills the house.” It’s a magnificent passage of scripture that
speaks to the magnitude of our God, that all Isaiah can come up with to
describe what he sees is that, “the hem of his robe filled the temple.” Now the
hem of a garment is a very narrow piece of fabric, and if you let your mind grasp
that for a moment, that it was the “hem” of His robe that filled the temple,
not his whole robe, not God himself, but “the Hem”. I don’t know about you but
that says a lot about the magnitude of our God, our all powerful, all loving
God, that takes my breath away.
Isaiah’s breath too was likely
taken away for Isaiah exclaims, “Woe is Me!” I am lost, for I am a man of
unclean lips.... yet my eyes have seen the Lord of hosts.” Woe is me, who am I,
what have I done to be so privileged as to stand in the Lord’s presence. Isaiah
soon learns that it is not about who he is, but about who God is that has made
him worthy to stand before this awesome God. “A Seraph takes a live coal from
the altar and touching Isaiah’s lips, with it says, “Now that this has touched
your lips, your guilt has departed you and your sin is blotted out.’ (v.7). Now
I don’t know if that takes your breath away but it should, for that is exactly
what Jesus done when he gave up his life for each of us on the cross. “For God
so loved the world that he gave His only Son that everyone who believes in Him may
not perish but have eternal life” (John 3:16).
What is it that takes your breath
away? Recently I attended a celebration of the 100th anniversary of
the church in the community where I grew up, now that takes my breath away to
be a part of something with such a rich history, but even more so to be a part
of the Christian faith that have lasted over 2000 years now that really takes
my breath away. Wow! What is it that takes your breath away? Think about that
for a moment and you will probably find many moments when you have been
rendered speechless, or saw that breathtaking view that just made you say Wow!
Or Awesome! And you will see too, like Isaiah in His vision, the God whose “hem
of his garment filled the temple”.
Rev. Hannah+
