Isaiah 6:1-13

In the year that King Uzziah died, I clearly saw the Lord. He was seated on his exalted throne, towering high above me. His long, flowing robe of splendor spread throughout the temple. Standing above him were the angels of flaming fire, each with six wings: with two wings they covered their faces in reverence, with two wings they covered their feet, and with two wings they flew. And one called out to another, saying: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, Commander of Angel Armies! The whole earth is filled with his glory!” The thunderous voice of the fiery angels caused the foundations of the thresholds to tremble as the cloud of glory filled the temple! Then I stammered and said, “Woe is me! I’m destroyed —doomed as a sinful man! For my words are tainted and I live among people who talk the same way. King YAHWEH, Commander of Angel Armies—my eyes have gazed upon him!” Then out of the smoke, one of the angels of fire flew to me. He had in his hands a burning coal he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my lips with it and said, “See? The burning coal from the altar has touched your lips. Your guilt is taken away; your sin is blotted out.” Then I heard the Lord saying, “Whom should I send to my people? Who will go to represent us?” I spoke up and said, “I will be the one. Send me.” Then he said, “Go and tell the people: ‘You keep listening but understand nothing. You keep watching but learn nothing.’ Go and preach a message that will make their hearts dull, their ears plugged, and their eyes blind. Otherwise, their eyes will begin to see, their ears will begin to hear, their hearts will begin to understand, and they will return to me for healing and be healed.” Then I asked, “O Lord, for how long?” He answered, “Until their houses and cities are destroyed and uninhabited and their land a desolate wasteland. Until the Lord has exiled them all to a distant country and the entire land lies deserted. Yet if even a tenth remains there, it will be burned again. It will be like a fallen oak or terebinth tree when it is felled; the stump still lives to grow again.” Now, the “stump” is the holy seed.