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…”
Isaiah acknowledges his sin before a holy God. He is a man of unclean lips. He has said things that were better left unsaid, in spite of the fact that he would become a great man of God.
But what I found interesting was the statement that comes next. He not only is a man of unclean lips, he swells in the midst of people with unclean lips.
What an acknowledgment that the people around us affect us. Their sinful behaviours rub off on us. We are influenced (especially downward) by the people around us.
So what to do? Well, what did Isaiah do? And what did God do for Isaiah?
Firstly, God took away Isaiah’s sin with the burning coal. (Well, He literally took Isaiah’s sin away with the cross, but you get my point.) The sin was dealt with – Isaiah’s own and that of other’s that affected him.
And then God transformed him. He took that mouth of unclean lips and used it to prophesy to a people of unclean lips, urging them to turn back to the Lord.
So while the sins of the culture impact us, when Jesus takes away our sin, He will empower us to go back and challenge the uncleanness of our culture, either transforming it or testifying against it, to His greater glory.
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