Isaiah Sees the Lord and His Sins Are Forgiven
Isaiah 6:1–7
1 In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.
2 Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.
3 And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.
4 And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke.
5 Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
6 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar:
7 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.
Elder Robert S. Wood said:
“I’ve been struck by the fact that when Isaiah received his charge from the Lord, he bemoaned that he was ‘a man of unclean lips’ and dwelt ‘in the midst of a people of unclean lips’ (Isaiah 6:5). This sin . . . had to be purged from Isaiah if he was to bear the word of the Lord. Is it any wonder that psalmists and prophets alike have beseeched the Lord to ‘set a watch’ before their lips and guard the ‘door’ of their lips (Psalm 141:3), to help them sin not with their tongue (see Psalm 39:1)?”
(“The Tongue of Angels,” Ensign, Nov. 1999, 84.)
