I Saw the Lord

The phrase “I saw the Lord” is used only a handful of times in the Old Testament. Amos sees Adonai beside the altar (9:1), and in some translations Psalm 16:9 (cf. Acts 2:25) begins with “I saw Yahweh.”

Two passages are nearly identical. Micaiah says that he saw Yahweh sitting on a throne surrounded by the host of heaven (1 Kings 22:19; 2 Chronicles 18:18), and Isaiah says that he saw Adonai sitting on a throne with seraphim flashing around and through the cloud of His train that fills the temple (Isaiah 6:1). Both are prophets; both have access to the court of Yahweh; both hear Yahweh’s indictment of and sentence against Israel.

The analogies go further. Micaiah might have said, “In the year King Ahab died . . . ,” since he overhears Yahweh’s plot to lure Ahab to his death; Isaiah sees Adonai sitting on a throne in the year of Uzziah’s death (it’s not clear whether or not Uzziah is already dead). In both passages, further, Yahweh asks for assistance: Micaiah overhears Him ask the host “who will entice Ahab to go up and fall?” and Isaiah hears a similar call for help, “Whom shall I send?” (Isaiah 6:8). Isaiah volunteers, and like the spirit in 1 Kings 22/2 Chronicles 18 who volunteers to lure Ahab Isaiah’s ministry will set a trap. The spirit offers to put a lying spirit into the mouths of Ahab’s prophets. Isaiah doesn’t do that, but Isaiah’s true prophecies are going to fatten Israel’s heart, weigh down their ears, and blot out their eyes, until they stumble and fall, and are scattered as sheep upon the mountains.