Perhaps you have heard the Yiddish expression “Oi Vey”. It is an expression of frustration that literally means, “Woe to us”. In Isaiah 6, Isaiah has an experience of Heaven. What kind of experience isn’t clear, even to Isaiah. It seems like an actual field trip. What could be cooler than a field trip to Heaven! Isaiah probably thought that way at first until his unworthiness to be there set in. At that point he exclaims, “Oi li!”, “Woe to me”, “for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips.” Isaiah didn’t need a napkin at that moment. He realized that a sinner didn’t belong with the holy, and he was a sinner because of what he had said and more.
Isaiah’s experience was both terrifying and exhilerating. A Seraphim flys to him and touches Isaiah’s lips with a burning ember from the altar. “See this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” From that point Isaiah felt like he belonged. There was no more “Oi!”
As it turns out, Isaiah saw and felt all these things without actually being in Heaven. It was a vision of some sort. Jesus said in John 3:13, “No one has ever gone into Heaven except the one who came from Heaven–the Son of Man.” We can add “up to this point.” Isaiah had not gone. Daniel had not gone. Elijah and Enoch had not gone. To this point no Old Testament person had gone because the true atonement for sins, which is represented by the coals in the altar, is Jesus’ death and resurrection. They all would really go when Jesus accomplished what He came for.
When we are connected to Jesus through faith and baptism, then the “coal” has already touched our lips. We are made holy by Jesus and belong in a holy place like Heaven.
Some people have out of body experiences of Heaven. It is hard to say for sure what they are. Are they a vision, a field trip or something else? It is possible that they don’t have an “Oi” experience because of Christ. This is certainly the experience we all should wish to have upon our death. We certainly don’t want to experience an “Oi” because we have landed in Sheol without forgiveness and without a Savior. That need never happen because Christ came to save “the world”. While many are called but few are chosen, it is not because God doesn’t want us. Those who reject Jesus will have the full “Oi” experience.
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