But the Lord told him to stop saying, “I don’t know how to speak.” Then he reached out and touched his lips, filling his mouth with word of the Lord. Jeremiah was thus empowered.
When another prophet saw the Lord, he recoiled in fear. “Woe to me! I am ruined! I’m a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”
He experienced his guilt. A seraphim flew to the altar, grabbed a coal with tongs and touched it to the lip of Isaiah, atoning his guilt. Isaiah was now able to receive.
One had fear to speak and the Lord filled him.
One had fear from sin and the Lord cleansed him.
Both by touching their lips.
Why lips?
Perhaps because “out of the mouth the heart speaks.”
Perhaps because what comes out of our mouth “has the power of life and death.”
I’m not sure for sure. But I can say, “Lord, touch MY lips for your purposes as well. My what comes from my lips be the things on your heart.”
