Early in the book of Isaiah, the prophet encounters the Lord, “high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.” Seraphim swirl about, singing, “Holy, holy, holy,” and Isaiah falls into despair: He is not holy, and he knows it.
“Woe to me!” he cries. “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 Lord Almighty.”
But at this confession, a seraphim descends, touches Isaiah’s lips with a live coal, and declares his guilt removed. Then, in one of the best-known exchanges in the Bible, God speaks: “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?”
And Isaiah famously answers, “Here am I. Send me! I just can’t wait to bomb Iran.”