- Another group of angels
specifically identified as the Seraphim.
In the Hebrew language, Seraphim means burning ones.
The book of Isaiah tells us of the Seraphim,
the book of Isaiah is a fascinating one to study.
For starters, the records of Isaiah's prophecy
are among the most well-documented
of all the old Testament books.
The Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered in 1948
and featured a copy of the book dated from 100 BC,
which was over 1000 years older than the next oldest copy,
which dated from 900 AD.
At the time, translation work
on the revised standard version of the Bible
was being completed,
but the work was stopped while these documents were checked,
but very little needed changing.
In the latter half of Israel's kingdom period,
Isaiah lived in Jerusalem and spoke on God's behalf
to the leaders of Jerusalem and Judah.
He expressed, first of all, a message of God's judgment,
he admonished Israel's corrupt leaders
that the rebellion against their covenant with God
would come at a cost
that God was going to use the great empires of Assyria,
and after them, Babylon, to judge Jerusalem
if they continued in idolatry and tyranny of the poor,
but that declaration was incorporated
with a message of hope.
Isaiah's grand vision of God sitting on His throne
in the temple surrounded by heavenly creatures shouting,
"God is holy, holy, holy,"
and Isaiah suddenly sees how corrupt
he and his people Israel are,
and he thinks he'll be destroyed by God's holiness,
but he isn't.
Then one of the Seraphim flew and burns him,
but not to destroy, but rather to purify him from sin.
And as Isaiah mulls over this peculiar experience,
God assigns him a tough task,
he is to keep preaching the coming judgment,
but because Israel has reached a point of no return,
his warnings will paradoxically harden the people.
So the hardening impact of the word of God is a key theme,
and it is no wonder that Isaiah asked,
"How long do I have to go on preaching
and hardening them with no response?"
Isaiah had one of the toughest assignments
of all the prophets,
but of course, if he hadn't gone through with it,
we wouldn't have this amazing book,
and he didn't know that centuries ahead,
this book would be an inspiration,
but in his lifetime, he was a failure, nobody listened,
they just got harder and harder for 40 years.
"In the year that King Uzziah died,
I saw the Lord high and exalted, seated on a throne,
and the train of his robe filled the temple,
above him were Seraphim, each with six wings,
with two wings they covered their faces,
with two they covered their feet,
and with two they were flying,
and they were calling to one another,
'Holy holy, holy is the Lord Almighty,
the whole earth is full of his glory.'
At the sound of their voices
the doorposts and thresholds shook
and the temple was filled with smoke.
'Woe to me,' I cried, 'I am ruined,
for I'm a man of unclean lips,
and I live among a people of unclean lips,
and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.'
Then one of the Seraphim flew to me
with a live coal in his hand,
which he had taken with tongs from the alter,
and he laid it upon my mouth and said,
'Lo, this hath touched thy lips,
and thine iniquity is taken away,
and thy sin purged,'" Isaiah chapter six, verse seven.
The prophet perceived at once
that he had no right to be in the holy presence of God
and he confessed as much.
So one of the Seraphim took a burning coal
from the altar and touched Isaiah's lips
to cleanse his iniquity and purged his sin.
Therefore, Seraphim have wings,
they proclaim the holiness of God,
they demonstrate demand their need to be cleansed from sin.
Despite the fact that the Seraphim and Cherubim
belong to different hierarchies
and are shrouded in mystery in the Bible,
they share one trait,
they are continuously praising God.
Angels and celestial beings are lovely,
but they pale in contrast to our heavenly lamb,
the Lord of Glory, before whom all forces in heaven
and on earth bow in holy devotion and breathless adoration.
"To the Chief Musician upon Shoshannim Eduth,
a Psalm of Asaph.
Give ear, oh, shepherd of Israel,
thou that leadest Joseph like a flock,
thou that dwellest between the Cherubims shine forth,"
Psalms chapter 80, verse one,
"The Lord reigneth, let the people tremble.
He sitteth between the Cherubims, let the earth be moved,"
Psalms chapter 99, verse one.
The phrase holy holy, holy,
appears in the Bible twice, once in the Old Testament,
Isaiah chapter six, verse three,
and once in the New, Revelation chapter four, verse eight.
both times the phrase is spoken
or sung by heavenly creatures,
and both times it appears in a vision of a man
being brought to God's throne, first by the prophet Isaiah,
and subsequently by the Apostle John.
The holiness of God is the most difficult
of all God's traits to express.
Holiness is not something we inherit as part of our nature,
we only become holy in relationship to Christ,
it's a sanctity that's been ascribed to you,
it is an imputed holiness.
"Only in Christ do we become the righteousness of God,"
second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21.
God's holiness is what distinguishes Him
from all other beings,
what separates Him from everything else.
God's holiness is more than just his perfection
or sinless purity,
it is the essence of His otherness, His transcendence.
God's holiness represents the mystery of His awesomeness
and causes us to gaze in wonder at Him
as we begin to comprehend just a little of His majesty.
In His vision depicted in Isaiah chapter six,
Isaiah witnessed personally God's holiness.
Isaiah, while being a prophet of God and a blameless man,
was aware of his own sinfulness,
even the Seraphim in God's presence.
Those who were crying,
"Holy holy, holy is the Lord Almighty,"
cover their faces and feet with four of their six wings.
Covering the face and feet no doubt expresses the reverence
and awe caused by the direct presence of God.
Exodus chapter three, verses four and five,
"And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to see,
God called unto him out of the midst of the bush
and said, 'Moses, Moses.'
And he said, 'Here I am.'
And he said, 'Draw not nigh hither,
put off those shoes from thy feet
for the place where upon thou standest is holy ground.'"
In Revelation four, John had a vision of God's throne
that was identical to Isaiah's.
In reverence and amazement of the holy one,
living things surrounded the throne crying out,
"Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,"
Revelation chapter four, verse eight.
The creatures around God's throne,
according to John, are constantly paying praise,
honor and reverence to Him.
Interestingly, John's reaction to God's throne vision
differs from that of Isaiah.
Perhaps because John had previously experienced
the risen Christ at the start of his vision,
there is no mention of him collapsing in terror
and knowledge of his own sinful state.
Revelations chapter one verse 17,
"Christ had placed his hand on John's shoulder
and informed him that he should not be afraid,
similarly, if we have Christ's hand upon us
in the form of His righteousness,
which was exchanged for our sin at the cross,
We can approach the throne of grace,"
second Corinthians chapter five, verse 21.
Finally, the angels around the throne
in both visions scream out, "Holy holy, holy,"
indicating that God is the same in both testaments.
We often think of the Old Testament God
as a God of anger and the New Testament God
as a God of love.
Isaiah and John, on the other hand,
paint a united picture of our holy, magnificent,
and glorious God who does not change."
Malachi chapter three, verse six,
"Who is the same yesterday, today and forever,"
Hebrews chapter 13, verse eight,
"And with whom is no variableness nor shadow of turning,"
James chapter one, verse 17.
God's holiness is eternal, just as He is eternal.
Because Isaiah mentions "Each one"
and "One cried unto another,"
we can presume there were several Seraphim.
The Seraphim's job is to sing praises
to God's name and character in heaven.
Their ministry relates directly to God
and His heavenly throne
because they are positioned above the throne,
unlike the Cherubim or beside it.
They were indescribably beautiful.
"With two wings he covered his face,
and with two he covered his feet,
and with two he did fly,"
implying that some angelic beings fly.
The Bible does not however support the common notion
that all angels have wings.
The conventional concept of angels with wings
is drawn from their ability to move instantaneously
and with unlimited speed from place to place,
and wings were thought to permit such limitless movement.
The Seraphim or burning ones
are only mentioned in this passage in Isaiah,
"They are linked to God's throne in some way,
they don't appear as humans like other angels,
rather they appear to be a higher degree of angel.
They are a different order of celestial beings
than the Cherubim despite the fact that they have wings."
However, the kingdom of heaven fights of evil.
Click here to watch the biblical story
of archangel, Michael.