It is not true to say that God wants to teach us something in our trials. In every cloud he brings, God wants us to unlearn something. God’s purpose in the cloud is to simplify our belief until our relationship to him is exactly that of a child. God uses every cloud which comes in our physical life, in our moral or spiritual life, or in our circumstances, to bring us nearer to him, until we come to the place where our Lord Jesus Christ lived, and we do not allow our hearts to be troubled.
~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of His robe filled the temple. Above Him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of His glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.”
~ from Isaiah 6
Oh beloved, it is true.
If we live for a while, truly live – we are going to face a number of trials in our lives. And for these, we generally begin to be thankful. Usually too, we come through a trial even stronger. We are thankful for all the work that G_d has done in our lives, and we move on into even more solid work in The Kingdom.
After a while even, we begin to be familiar with the solid work He has given us to do. We begin to have people in our lives who form support structures for us. We begin to become comfortable in the setting He has put us in. And, there is nothing wrong with this.
But then come the days when the Uziahs in our lives pass away. The people who supported us, and the situations that gave us stability, give way to chaos and uncertainty. Isaiah was in this space.
And, it was the best time of his life.
What?
Yeah.
Isaiah had a very good thing going. If you don’t know who Uzziah was, he was a good king. He reigned over Judah in different roles for something like 52 years. And, it was in this environment, that the prophet Isaiah came to his somewhat comfortable state in life. Isaiah was a government official. He was a normal and somewhat powerful man.
And then the wheels came off.
In those times, the turnover of a monarchy was often drenched in blood, and the purging of staff. So, in the year that Uzziah died, Isaiah’s career was falling apart. All of the progress he had made in helping his country was going to come to naught. All of the growth he had accomplished in his own career was possibly going to be splattered against the wall of his house, as a the new king’s soldiers weeded out potential problems.
Isaiah was in the perfect place for what was next.
Can we see it?
In nearly any other state of being, Isaiah might have actually had this vision and thought that he was being called to a higher place – that being among the angels. But, in his current condition, his heart was actually in the right place. He was already kind of coming apart.
So, when he saw what had to be this incredible experience of the throne room of G_d, he actually entered into this experience with the right mindset. That being: Isaiah had no way to cope with the overwhelming presence of The L_RD of Hosts before Him.
However, this stance that Isaiah was in, was exactly where he needed to be for G_d to take him beyond even the high estate he had reached. Said more simply: Isaiah needed to go lower, to be raised up into the place of a prophet who would usher in The Messiah. Yeah, Isaiah came apart at the seams when he saw the reality of his situation before his Maker. However, it was only in the place of this terrible tearing apart, that G_d could lift him up and make him more whole – and useful – than ever before.
So, are you facing a trial? We all do. However, the trials make us stronger. Then comes the tearing down, and tearing apart. And these are the very best days if we allow them. Tonight is your night beloved. Time to let yourself truly see Him, so that you can lose the last bit of whatever has to go.
When compassed about on every side with tribulations, remember that it is the way of the saints, through which they passed to the kingdom of heaven. Learn to comfort thyself also, because that in this thou art made like unto Christ Jesus, thy Lord; and return thanks, if thou art in any small degree able to repay this to him. For I say unto thee that it is a greater merit in thee to suffer affliction patiently than to perform good works.
~Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471)
