Parallels Between Revelations 1 and Isaiah 6 and What They Mean

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The first thing I want to point out is that my original thought was that the passages in Isaiah were talking about God the Father where the passages in Revelations were talking about Jesus the son. However, as I’m writing this I’m not too sure. It’s clear that Revelations is talking about Jesus because it uses the phrase “son of man” which is unique to Him. But there’s nothing in Isaiah to clearly say that this is God the Father and not Jesus that Isaiah is seeing.

Isaiah 6:1-6
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”
At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke.
“Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the LORDAlmighty.”
Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.”

Revelations 1:13-18
and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man,[d] dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

Note in both passages the reverence and sense of dread that being in the presence of the Lord brings on both Isaiah and John. Look at the descriptions of how mighty and powerful the Lord seems. Isaiah, after seeing how awesome the Lord is, feels like he’s done for. He thinks the Lord is just going to destroy him right there because of how unworthy he realizes he is in the presence of the Lord. We see the same thing with John who falls on the floor as if dead, not even able to stand in His presence. Remember, this is John and Isaiah! Both of these men by our standards would be considered very holy men. If anyone had the right to stand in the Lord’s presence we’d think it would be them. But they could not; all they could do was beg for mercy. Compare John’s reaction to seeing Jesus in his glory verses the way John interacted with Jesus while he was on earth in the flesh. You never saw John falling down before Jesus while he walked the earth in the flesh but you see his reaction here is quite different.

Also, it is very clear from the encounter in Revelations that Jesus is God. Jesus says to John, “I am the first and the last”. Who could say that other than God? You also see in Revelations 11 that the angels and other heavenly beings are bowing down and worshiping Jesus. How could that be if He were not God? You never see angels bowing down to each other. Jesus gets the same reverence out of the angels that God does.

I also want to point out the difference in the Lord’s reaction to Isaiah verses His reaction to John. Both men’s reactions to the Lord are the same but the Lord’s reaction to them is very different. While Isaiah is trembling in fear of the Lord, notice that the Lord doesn’t tell him that everything is ok. Instead, He sends a seraphim with a coal to purify Isaiah and then tells him that at that point his sins are forgiven. With John, the Lord simply tells him not to be afraid and put His hand on John. Why is this? Is this because one is God and one is Jesus? No, I do not believe that is the case. Instead, when Isaiah was trembling in fear before the Lord I believe he really needed to be afraid because he had no suitable sacrifice for his sins to stand before a holy God. God needed to purify him with a coal before Isaiah was able to speak on His behalf. With John, even though John was terrified at the sight of the Lord, Jesus came to him and told him it was ok. Jesus told him he didn’t have to be afraid. I believe John didn’t need to be afraid because John had Jesus’s death on the cross to cleanse him of his sin. John was already purified and righteous before the Lord because of Jesus’s sacrifice.

The last thing I want to mention is in both Isaiah and John’s cases notice who did the cleansing and purifying. The men did nothing to make themselves clean enough to stand in the presence of God. It was the Lord himself who purified both men and made them suitable to be in the Lords presence. The cleansing was done completely by God. I want to leave you with some verses where the Lord has been the one responsible for cleansing us from our sins. It seems the only qualification needed for us to receive this cleansing is to realize that we need it.

Psalm 51:2
Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity And cleanse me from my sin.

1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Psalm 51:7
Purify me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

Psalm 51:10
Create in me a clean heart, O God, And renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Leviticus 16:30
for it is on this day that atonement shall be made for you to cleanse you; you will be clean from all your sins before the LORD.

Ezekiel 36:25
"Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

Jeremiah 33:8
'I will cleanse them from all their iniquity by which they have sinned against Me, and I will pardon all their iniquities by which they have sinned against Me and by which they have transgressed against Me.

Ezekiel 36:33
'Thus says the Lord GOD, "On the day that I cleanse you from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the waste places will be rebuilt.

Titus 2:14
who gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.

Zechariah 13:1
"In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.

Hebrews 9:14
how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

Titus 3:5
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

Hebrews 10:22
let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

1 Corinthians 6:11
Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.