There was a deep sense in Isaiah's experience that God is a holy God, 'other' than ourselves. And in many ways we must be willing to surrender our preconceptions of a goody, goody God, if we want to experience the Good and Holy God.
God is powerful, holy, just, righteous, majestic. Heavenly beings sing of him, "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord Almighty."
Isaiah's response to his presence was "I'm wrecked... I have unclean lips, and by nation is unclean too." (my paraphrase)
So how do we view a God like this?
How do we relate to him?
Is he good even though he's Almighty?
I quoted C.S. Lewis' words in the Narnia tales, and recently found Tim Keller referring to them... so I'll let you read it for yourself.
C.S. Lewis was always at pains to maintain the Biblical tension between the divine love and his overwhelming holiness and splendor. In the introduction to his book The Problem of Pain, Lewis cited the example from the children’s text The Wind in the Willows where two characters, Rat and Mole, approach divinity.
“Afraid?” murmured the Rat, his eyes shining with unutterable love. “Afraid? of Him? O, never, never. And yet — and yet — O Mole, I am afraid.”
Lewis sought to get this across at many places through his Narnia tales. One of the most memorable is the description of Aslan.
“Safe?…Who said anything about safe? ‘Course he isn’t safe. But he’s good. He’s the King, I tell you.”
Wow. What an amazing God we serve. He's so very Good. But he's not so safe that he can be tamed by our boundaries.
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