“In the year that Uzziah died I saw the Lord”

When we consider the death of a monarch, we consider the upheaval of it in our lives,the uncertainty surrounding the installation of his successor, the remembrance of a king who followed Dsvid’s example of walking with God.

There was a defining moment when he was made a leper in the temple for his anger.

However the death of the king, who Isaiah was related and he was high priest, was a deep blow, deep loss.

There is coming to many a sense of deep loss because there is going to be for many situations in their lives of great loss. Whether it be people, relationships, jobs, even churches. However the loss is a doorway.

This doorway is the opening of the spiritual eyes. For in the loss we are prepared to see the Lord. We can parallel Isaiah 6 with Luke 24. Whereas Isaiah saw the Lord in the temple, the two disciples on their way to Emmaus saw the Lord at the table.

The opening to this narrative is the mournful and puzzling journey to Emmaus. Jesus approaches them to enter the conversation and they relate their personal loss. Jesus, to them a prophet was now dead, subject to betrayal and a cruel death. ‘They had hoped ” that it would have been Him who would have shaped their nation and their faith.

It is at these moments of loss that our own sense of loss and direction that the Lord comes to us to show us a new dimension. For Isaiah the vision was to open the higher throne of heaven that is not affected by death. Is never empty for the Ancient of Days never dies.

So in the seed of our loss is an indication of a greater vision. Jesus once said that a seed must fall into the ground and die. That same seed would birth the new tree and new fruit. Isaiah was affected by Uzziah, leaving the throne, in death, and Isaiah’s open vision of an Eternal Throne , and what came with it was his calling to ministry in the prophetic visionary ministry. What we see in the passages from there is a clear vision of the Messiah that thrills us today.

The parallel with Luke 24 is apparent too.

As the Lord revealed Himself at the Table, he revealed covenant but also in revealing Himself as Lord and Christ their calling came also with it. We see the two disciples immediately recognise Him through their pain and as they hurried back to Jerusalem Jesus also appeared to all. He prepared them for the next stage of their lives in Him.

So many in pain today. Disasters happen every day, where landslides of mud destroyed homes and killed families in an instant in Brumadinho in Brazil. We will never forget the tsunami of 2004, where over 185,000 people died, tremendous loss and the face of the landscape changed.

But in the midst of the pain comes our receptivity to see the Lord. He is high above us and beyond us. He is lifted up as we perceive His power to change us. His robe fills the Temple, and will fill the panorama of our lives.

The Lord is coming to us in this season of movement, crisis, loss, emergency, to bring us not only a vision of Him but the high calling. It will be a turning point. It will be a invitation ” who will go for us, who shall we send?”

Then we shall understand that that invitation is directed at us. No ministry truly birthed of God can spring forth without a vision of God and the invitation to be sent forth.

So in this season of pain, of death, know that He is coming to you. Understand that in your moment of vulnerability is your greatest moment of vision and ultimately your call.

In Acts 2 we see this same Lord send to the Church the Holy Spirit. They saw their lives redirected. They saw Jesus, embodied in Peter’s sermon, in a new light, and miracles came from this new place.

So this season is a turning point as your vision shall spring forth with miracles!

The words of Isaiah 43 sum up this season;

“See I do a new thing. Do you not perceive it?”

Shalom.