A personal encounter with God is a life-transforming experience. The Bible contains several accounts of such “close encounters.” Recently I was struck with the similarities between the experiences of the prophet Isaiah, on the one hand, and of the apostle Peter, on the other. Outwardly their situations were quite different, but at bottom they experienced the same God with the same effect.
In the sixth chapter of Isaiah’s prophecy, he records a vision of the LORD.
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the LORD sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. (vv. 1–4)
We do not know whether Isaiah was himself in the Temple at the time of his vision, but it would make sense if he were. That was the place where the God of Israel had chosen to make himself accessible to his people. There the sacrifices were offered for the forgiveness of sins; there the priests led the people into the holy presence of God by their representative mediation. In the Temple was where one might expect to encounter God.
But Isaiah’s experience is anything but commonplace for a worshipper. To see the unseen God in all his glory and holiness was an overwhelming experience for Isaiah. Isaiah’s reaction is one of brokenness and repentance:
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; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” (v. 5)
Having seen the glorious majesty of the Most High he now truly sees himself — and his fellow human beings — in the wretchedness of sin. No one can come away from an authentic experience of worship with an exalted view of his own accomplishments. That a Pharisee (as in the parable of our Lord Jesus, Luke 18:9–14) could actually stand before God and pray, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector,” demonstrates how far he was from actually worshipping the God of Israel. (It is ironic that so many in our day want to come away from worship “feeling better about themselves.” They certainly are not seeking authentic biblical worship.)
The good news is that the repentant sinner always encounters a gracious God, and so it was with Isaiah:
Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (vv. 6–7)
Atonement has been provided; guilt is removed; the sinner is forgiven. Conviction of sin is never an end in itself. It’s goal is pardon, as the apostle John declared, “If we confess our sins, [God] is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Isaiah was “undone” by his vision of the LORD, but the result was the deep healing of his whole life.
Out of this close encounter came the the LORD’s call to Isaiah to serve him as a prophetic spokesman to Israel:
And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” (v. 8)
Now let us shift our attention to a very different scene. This time we are far from the Temple in Jerusalem. We are standing by the lake of Gennesaret (Luke 5:1–11). Jesus is surrounded by crowds pressing in on him to hear the word of God. He commandeered a boat from some fishermen who had given up for the day and were washing their nets. From offshore Jesus taught the people. After he was finished, Jesus told Simon Peter, one of the fishermen, to put out into the deep and resume fishing.
Peter was skeptical. What did the Master know about fishing. But still…
“Master, we toiled all night and took nothing! But at your word I will let down the nets.” And when they had done this, they enclosed a large number of fish, and their nets were breaking. They signaled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both the boats, so that they began to sink. (vv. 6–7)
The skies did not open for Peter. He did not see visions of angels. There was no visible glory on display. And yet — just as surely as did Isaiah — Peter “saw the LORD.” There in the boat, surrounded by smelly fish, Peter encountered God.
And (again like Isaiah) Peter was broken and humbled by the experience — overwhelmed by the sense of his own sinfulness in the presence of the divine Majesty.
But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord.” (v. 8)
Here, in the midst of the very ordinary daily tasks of life, Peter has a life-transforming experience of the nearness of God. God is not tethered to the Temple. Indeed, Jesus was himself the “new Temple” (cf. John 2:19–21) — the One in whom the true and living God has made himself finally and supremely accessible. “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
Peter has much more to learn (painfully) about the depth of his sinfulness and the generosity of Jesus’ forgiveness (cf. Luke 22:54–62; John 21:1–19), but for now, Jesus simply calls him to his new service — “Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching men” (v. 10). Peter (like Isaiah) receives his call from the Lord as a result of his “close encounter.” From that day onward, Peter and his companions left everything and followed Jesus.
What are we to make of this for ourselves? We are not prophets or apostles; that is true. We are really nothing special at all.
But we do live in the same “new covenant” era, when God is encountered in the person of Jesus Christ — and now even more so through the Holy Spirit whom he has sent in his place (cf. John 15:26). Whether we are participating in corporate worship on the Lord’s Day, or involved in the very mundane activities of our day-by-day lives, we may (and must) enjoy fresh personal encounters with God. As we make God’s Word our daily food; as we commune with Christ personally in prayer, we will experience God’s nearness in a life-transforming way.
As with Isaiah and Peter, the transformation will be seen, first of all, in a fresh awareness of our sinfulness (and the free confession that flows from that conviction) and of the generous love of God manifest in his free forgiveness of our sins for Jesus’ sake.
Secondly, our encounters will give us a new appreciation for and vision of our calling to be his witnesses and servants in the world. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33) is much easier if you are having daily visits from the King.
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By the way, just to close the circle, John tells us in his gospel that when Isaiah had his vision of the glory of the LORD in the Temple, he was actually seeing Jesus’ glory and he spoke of him (John 12:41).
