Isaiah 6 is a glimpse into the Throne Room, the Beauty Realm of God. Isaiah declares that he sees The Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted with His train and His glory filling the Temple. He then confesses that he is RUINED, for he is a man of unclean lips, in light of the experience of seeing the King, The Lord of hosts.
I don’t believe it was just his sin that caused him to say that he was ruined, instead, I believe his encountering the glory and beauty of the Lord’s presence, in light of his own fallenness, that ruined him. To be ruined is to be “no longer any good or useful, Destroyed, wasted.” I believe that Isaiah was saying, in light of his brokenness, standing before the radiance of God, that he was now RUINED for anything the world had to offered. He was saying that the only thing that mattered to him now was loving and worshiping God.
Notice that when he confessed his uncleanness he didn’t encounter rejection, instead he encountered forgiveness, healing, affirmation, and commissioning from this One Who was so high and lifted up. I’m convinced Isaiah encountered that atmosphere of unconditional love and affirmation the moment he was in His presence. The beauty and love of the One sitting on the throne caused him to be undone and RUINED for God alone.
This is what happens when we get alone with Him in the secret place and behold His face. His beauty, His Otherness, often exposes our sin, and the fact that the One so glorious and so Beautiful loves us still, RUINS us at a deeper and deeper level.
I can’t tell you how many times, fallen and full of shame, I’m invited UP into His presence, and at the first glimpse of His beauty, I fall down in shattered adoration and surrender, crying out “Woe is me for I am Ruined.” The chorus says “He has ruined me with His life, and I shall never be the same again.”