THE TRAIN OF HIS ROBE

THE TRAIN OF HIS ROBE

                In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew. And one called out 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 trembled at the voice of him who called out while the temple was filling with smoke. Isaiah 6:1-4

                Now here is a picture of heaven that doesn’t fit our usually placid visions of God’s throne.  First of all, the throne room has to be many, perhaps hundreds of miles high and wide and deep for it houses ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands and thousands of angels. It also houses the Sea of Glass upon which the redeemed of all ages will stand.

                For countless ages the Seraphim have circled the throne and yet they never cease to cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy.” In the presence of an infinite God, they never cease to gush with worship for He is infinitely set apart, infinitely other than anyone or anything else. Infinite in purity, in love, in power and purpose.

                But in this revelation Isaiah sees the whole earth as being full of His glory as well. Just as the hymn says, “Heaven and earth are full of Thee. Heaven and earth are praising Thee.”

                I once caught a small vision of this at the time when I received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. I was briefly caught up into a vision in which the whole of creation praises God. Beyond the dim and dark covering of our present realm, it could be seen that everything praises God. Everything hungers for His unveiling… to break free of the shackles that now trap us in this cycle of entropy. All of creation is eagerly waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, for when they are revealed it will mean that the ultimate purposes of God have been finished. Romans 8:19-29

                We are those sons of God for whom creation waits and indeed we need a new vision of God. We have built a religion of things, of types and shadows, of symbols and days. We need a new vision.

                When Jesus hung on the cross, the veil in the temple was ripped in two from top to bottom. The veil was removed in Christ so that we could break beyond symbolic worship to enter directly into the presence of God. Still we often choose rather to hide behind our traditional and symbolic views and rituals.

                I spent the first half of my life looking for peace and rest in doctrines and in days, in types and in shadows, but I did not find it. And so finding myself unraveled and undone, I came to the Lord Himself and asked Him for peace and for rest and He gave it to me. I had been trying to find it in everything but God… mediated by religion… made distant by fences of doctrine and human protocol.

                We need a new vision of God if we are to be the sons that break the mold. Conventional wisdom will keep us safely wrapped up in the symbols. We need our thresholds to tremble and our worship to be filled with the smoke of His presence. We need a new revelation of the train of His robe.

                In ancient times whenever a king conquered another king in battle, he would cut off the train of his robe and sew it to his own so that the more enemies he defeated the longer would be the train of his robe. What are the enemies in your life that seem to have you pinned down? Have you tried in vain to find victory through human struggle and ritual, through having the right set of doctrines, the right days and traditional values?

                The train of His robe fills the temple and that train is made up of all of your enemies great and small. The things that you struggle with… the habits… the sins… the things over which you seem to have no power. Can you not see your enemies being paraded openly in the train of His robe? Can you not see that He has already won the battle? Why are we still fighting battles that He has already won? It is because we have sought power from everything but God Himself.

                We need Isaiah’s vision of God, for he felt completely undone. He said “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” But God didn’t send him off to do 100 Hail Marys or to shore up his doctrines. Instead an angel came to him with a coal from off the altar and touched his mouth with it and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin forgiven.” Isa 6:7

                Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying” Whom shall I send and who will go for Us?” and I said “Here am I, send me.” Isa 6:8

                Paul said to the Galatians: “And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. You have been severed from Christ, you who are seeking to be justified by law; you have fallen from grace. For we through the Spirit by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love. You were running well: who hindered you from obeying the truth?” Gal. 5:3-7

                We have become like the housewife who reports to her husband saying: “I cleaned the house, washed the dishes, did the laundry, scrubbed the toilets and cooked the meals and now you want intimacy? Forget it.”

                The husband may say in response. “I didn’t marry you to be my maid. I married you to be my lover and best friend. Let’s make that relationship our first priority and then I will help you with the other stuff.

                Isn’t that what happens to marriages? All thoughts of romance are soon buried under a boat load of obligations until two people give up on their dreams and enter survival mode. They no longer make time for each other… no longer date… no longer say ”I love you.” so they end up with a perfect house and a broken marriage.

                This is exactly how we relate to God. We come to Him with our list of accomplishments. We come to Him with our well-kept law… we come to Him like Martha… with the sweat of the kitchen still on our brow and there before us, that crazy irresponsible Mary is sitting at Jesus ‘ feet… and then He has the audacity to say that Mary chose the better way? Of all the nerve.

                If we are ever to become the sons of God for whom creation waits, then we need to learn how to come to Jesus directly… not as He is mediated to us by religion, but in the intimacy of direct fellowship … in the infilling of His Holy Spirit. In many cases our relationship with Christ is suffering the same lack of intimacy that our relationship in marriage. No time left for intimacy and so we drift apart so that we end up working harder and harder even as our dreams fade away.

                Often we try to repair the damage by working even harder, when in fact what we need is to break through all of those fences and fall at His feet.

                After a lifetime of struggle and bitter disappointment when I found no light at the end of the tunnel, I finally gave in to Jesus and He accomplished in seconds the things that I had struggled with for so long and it is that same intimacy that keeps me going to this day. I don’t get up at 3 AM to do something for God. He wakes me up because He enjoys fellowship with me in the quiet of morning and I just happen to like it as well.

                Everything that keeps you away from God is already taken captive in the train of His robe. Everything has been fulfilled in Christ so that instead of offering Him our house cleaning exhaustion, we can offer Him our hearts.