Have you ever been in a situation that was so different from past experience, that at first you weren’t even sure what you were seeing?
The first thing I think of is a change of cultures. You fly to another country, and everything is different – overwhelming – you don’t know what to focus on and often don’t understand what you’re seeing.
That must be the way it is when a human sees heavenly things. Imagine Isaiah, looking into God’s throne room, apparently in the temple, and yet unlike anything he had ever seen:
In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!”
Isaiah 6:1-3
There’s no doubt what the focus of this scene is – it’s the Lord of hosts. But what are these strange beings? Seraph – plural, seraphim, some kind of angel with six wings, worshipping God in His presence.
Responding to Isaiah’s confession of sin, a seraph flies over with a burning coal from the altar. “And he touched my mouth and said: ‘Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.'” (Isaiah 6:7)
Another type of heavenly being that we hear about are the cherubim (you guessed it – singular, cherub). The first one we see is a guard – guarding the tree of life, blocking the path to the tree in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:24). Ornaments designed to look like cherubim guarded the mercy seat on the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 37:9) – you could say that they guarded the presence of God. Or that they actually formed the throne of God (2 Samuel 6:2). The throne moves – God rides on the cherubim (Psalm 18:10).
The last verse of Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence comes directly out of the Cherubic Hymn in the Liturgy of St. James. It tries in a short verse to capture a heavenly scene, taken from the many passages of Scripture describing cherubim (seraphim are only mentioned in Isaiah 6).
At His feet the six wingèd seraph,
Cherubim with sleepless eye,
Veil their faces to the presence,
As with ceaseless voice they cry:
Alleluia, Alleluia Alleluia, Lord Most High!
Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence
Throughout this Christmas carol, we’ve seen the heavenly army, we’ve seen heavenly creatures, we’ve seen the Lord of Lords. And here are the angels worshipping the King of Heaven, the King of all, the Most High.
As we read all the verses together, we see this is only part of the scene. It is as if the angels are descending to earth with Him – not to become human themselves, but to continue their worship and praise. This is still apparently intended to be a Christmas scene. Although, as we have noted, we know very little of what really happened “behind the scenes”.
This is one Christmas carol that truly gets to the heart of what Christmas is all about. The Great King of Creation, becoming a man, to vanquish the darkness that was introduced into the Garden of Eden in the first place. Although He becomes human, he never ceases to be God, worthy of the worship of every being.
This is why all mortal flesh ought to be silent.
But who is taking time to be silent? A brief trip through the Psalms gives us a picture of the speech that we hear so often today – in speeches, on social media, on news sites – sadly, even in “Christmas songs” – does any of this kind of speech sound familiar?
- Unclean (Psalm 5:9)
- Cursing (Psalm 10:7)
- Lying (Psalm 12:2)
- Boastful (Psalm 12:3)
- Rebellious (Psalm 12:4)
- Slanderous (Psalm 15:3)
- Arrogant (Psalm 17:10)
- Roaring (Psalm 22:13)
- Violent (Psalm 27:12)
- Evil (Psalm 50:19)
- Plotting (Psalm 52:2)
- Deceitful (Psalm 52:4)
- Sharp (Psalm 57:4)
- Howling (Psalm 59:6)
- Bellowing (Psalm 59:7)
- Hypocritical (Psalm 62:4)
- Flattering (Psalm 78:36)
- Rash (Psalm 106:33)
- Malicious (Psalm 139:20)
- Poisonous (Psalm 140:3)
- Mischeivous (Psalm 140:9)
And how about this marvellous description from Psalm 73:9 – “They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth”!
No wonder God commands all peoples to be silent.
For the believer, we are silent also – in hope.
In Psalm 62, David laments the noisy evil speech all around him.
How long will all of you attack a man to batter him,
like a leaning wall, a tottering fence?
They only plan to thrust him down from his high position.
They take pleasure in falsehood.
They bless with their mouths, but inwardly they curse.
Psalm 62:3-4
Oh, how familiar that sounds. But what is David’s response to the hypocritical lies all around, that threaten to destroy him? Silence.
For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence,
for my hope is from him.
He only is my rock and my salvation,
my fortress; I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
my mighty rock, my refuge is God.
Psalm 62:5-7
And so, we call on all on the earth to be silent. And we too are silent.
I hope you can be silent, just for a little while, this season. In hope. Because Salvation descended from Heaven. And He is Lord of all.
